On the universal drive to grow and reproduce.

A trip to the U.S. Open of ping-pong.

Fame, fashion, and a trip to the zoo.

An essay about phone dials and a response to the end of blogging.

On Teller, his magic, and his response to a stolen trick.

A trip to Hempfest with cannabis breeder DJ Short.

A move to Los Angeles and a foray into the bourgeoisie.

After being extinct for 70 million years, the coelacanth came back to life.

On recommitting to the Knicks after “a decade of dysfunction and delusion.”

The bitter rivalry within the aerospace industry to produce unmanned combat aircrafts.

On digital animators’ quest to capture the endlessly complex human face.

Behind a financial fraud lay a secret plan to create a “mothership for con artists worldwide”:

Gamboa's tale involves secret ore deposits, hidden stocks of Soviet nuclear armaments, the Queen Mary ocean liner, portions of Antarctica, a new version of the Bible, allegations of fake deaths and miraculous resurrections, and a collection of some of the most colorful aliases ever to grace America's criminal and civil case dockets. (According to court documents, Korem also answers to the names Tzemach Ben David Netzer Korem and Branch Vinedresser.)

A clinical test is underway to evaluate MDMA—ecstasy—as a treatment for PTSD.

The quest to create a friction-free Disney World.

The long arm of the DEA reaches into Liberia to bust a cocaine trafficker.

From failure to Pixar, Steve Jobs’ “wilderness years.”

How we try - and usually fail - to fight the mosquito.

What fragmented reading experiences do to neural circuitry. (It’s not good.)

David Foster Wallace’s struggle to surpass “Infinite Jest.”

Western execs on what it’s like to be taken over by a Chinese firm.

A faked marriage between undercover agents leads to the arrest of a dozen drug dealers.

The Bandidos, Texas’s biggest motorcycle gang, say goodbye to one of their own.

The failures of the “broken windows” approach to policing.

Inside Twitter’s 10-year failure to stop harassment.

How sunken treasure and a sibling rivalry led Charles and John Deane to invent modern deep-sea diving.