Standing on a walkway at Yellowstone National Park, I admired the hues of orange, blue and yellow in the sand of the Grand Prismatic Spring. A small sign nearby read “bacterial mats.” Visitors to Yellowstone may have noticed similar...

On May 26, researchers at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centers reported that they had detected bacteria with a gene that makes it resistant to colistin, the antibiotic of last resort. The news has health officials and scientists deeply concerned because this is the first time that the gene, called MCR-1, has been identified in the United...

Colleges and universities are supposed to be places where freedom of expression flourishes. Sadly, that is not the case. At a recent debate on the Yale University campus, 66 percent of the attendees supported a proposition that “free speech is threatened.”

Places of higher learning...

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...

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...