A record high number of men and women in jail are committing suicide in the United States. Most incidents do not get major attention and are only known to known to the families of the prisoners involved and the jail staff.

Occasionally, suicides get national attention. Last year the death of Sandra Bland in the Waller County Jail in Texas gained...

Editor’s note: This article is part of our collaboration with Point Taken, a new program from WGBH which next airs on Tuesday, May 31 on PBS and online at pbs.org. The show features fact-based debate on major issues of the day, without the shouting.

It seems that almost everyone has an opinion about prostitution and sex work.

Prescription opioid abuse and its downstream effects have reached epidemic proportions in the United States. On May 26, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) moved a step closer to providing help to those addicted to opioids by approving a new implant containing buprenorphine, an opioid replacement that can reduce the cravings of addiction.

Still,...

For some scientists, communicating effectively with the public seems to come naturally. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson currently has more than five million Twitter followers. Astronomer Carl Sagan enraptured audiences for decades as a...

For excavators – archaeologists, but also looters like the Islamic State, or ISIS – the opportunity for discovery in modern Iraq and Syria is dazzling.

The countries lie within the Fertile Crescent, a broad swath of land stretching from the eastern Mediterranean to the Zagros Mountains and the Persian Gulf that gave rise to some of the...

CAT scans, MRI, ultrasound. We are all pretty used to having machines – and doctors – peering into our bodies for a whole range of reasons. This equipment can help diagnose diseases, pinpoint injuries, or give expectant parents...

The 2016 Atlantic hurricane season begins on June 1, and the public awareness campaign is fueling speculation. How many “named” storms will there be before the season ends on...

Many take time on Memorial Day to remember the Americans who have given their lives in service to our country.

For veterans and their families, that sentiment of remembrance is felt year-round. Many veterans suffer lifelong anguish over the loss of their brothers and sisters in arms. For them, Memorial Day is a day like every other day – a...

Breastfeeding in public is the controversy that never seems to die.

A recent YouTube video that went viral shows a woman breastfeeding in public. One passerby tells her “not to do that in public”; another that being in “a decent place”...

Smart homes, an aspect of the Internet of Things, offer the promise of improved energy efficiency and control over home security. Integrating various devices together can offer users easy programming of many devices around the home, including appliances, cameras and alarm sensors....