The announcement by researchers in Portland, Oregon that they’ve successfully modified the genetic material of a human embryo took some people by surprise.

With headlines referring to “groundbreaking” research and...

How does infrastructure in the U.S. compare to that of the rest of the world? It depends on who you ask.

On the last two report cards from the American Society of Civil Engineers, U.S. infrastructure scored a D+. This year’s report urged the...

July 30 marks the United Nations’ World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, a day focused on ending the criminal exploitation of children, women and men for forced labor or sex work.

Between 27 and 45.8 million...

At sundown on July 31, Jews around the world will observe Tisha B’av, the most somber of Jewish holidays. It commemorates the destruction of the two temples in Jerusalem, first by the Babylonians and then, almost seven centuries later, in A.D. 70, by...

Humanity is producing data at an unimaginable rate, to the point that storage technologies can’t keep up. Every five years, the amount of data we’re producing increases 10-fold, including photos and videos. Not all of it needs to be stored, but manufacturers of data...

A record number of tourists and business travelers visited another country in 2016, and this year is already on pace to exceed that tally.

One thing you definitely need when traveling abroad besides a passport is local currency, such as euros in Europe, yen in Japan or rubles in Russia. In the past, travelers would typically withdraw what they...

The United States has been waging a war on drugs for nearly 50 years.

Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on this long campaign to thwart the production, distribution, sale and use of illegal drugs. This sustained investment has resulted in millions...

What do a swollen sprained ankle and a new pregnancy have in common? Believe it or not, they’re both closely tied to the body’s inflammation response.

Inflammation is usually the first reaction of the immune system to the presence of injury or infection. It’s characterized...

Our soils are in trouble. Over the past century, we’ve abused them with plowing, tilling and too much fertilizer.

What many think of as “just dirt” is actually an incredibly complex mixture of rock-derived minerals, plant-derived organic matter, dissolved nutrients, gases and a rich food web of...

Americans of a certain generation will remember this mantra from the 1980s: Just say no.

This simple phrase was the cornerstone of Nancy Reagan’s drug abuse awareness initiative, rolled out in response to perceptions of sharp increases in youth drug use...