My Friend Was Struck by ALS. To Fight Back, He Built a Movement
At 37, Brian Wallach was diagnosed with the fatal disease. So he tapped a lifetime of connections to give help and hope to fellow sufferers—while grappling with his own mortality.
Science
From The Anthropocene To The Microbiocene
To speak of the human as such, as the modernists did, is like taking a piece of the wild, putting it into a petri dish, adding bleach and antibiotics until more than half of what’s in there is dead and then celebrating the barely-living remains as “the human.” Provocatively put, the human is a sterile abstraction, a harmony of illusions.
52 Blue
The story of the loneliest whale in the world.
A Deadly Mosquito-Borne Illness Is Brewing in the Northeast
EEE kills almost half of its victims, and cases are on the rise.
1,112 and Counting
A cri de cœur on AIDS: “If we don’t act immediately, then we face our approaching doom.”
The World in Its Extreme
A 17,000-word exploration of the Sahara Desert, the hottest place on Earth.
Superspreader
A profile of the contrarian French scientist Didier Raoult, who proposed an anti-malarial drug as a COVID cure.
I Tried Hypnosis to Deal with My Pandemic Anxiety, and Got Something Much Weirder
Exploring your subconscious during quarantine.
Thirty-six Thousand Feet Under the Sea
The explorers who set one of the last meaningful records on earth.
Second Nature
Can genetic engineering bring back the American Chestnut?
The Wonderful, Transcendent Life of an Odd-Nosed Monkey
The island of Borneo is the only home of the proboscis monkey, an endangered primate that is surprisingly resilient.
Why the Coronavirus Is So Confusing
A guide to making sense of a problem that is now too big for any one person to fully comprehend.
How China’s 'Bat Woman' Hunted Down Viruses
Wuhan-based virologist Shi Zhengli has identified dozens of deadly SARS-like viruses in bat caves, and she warns there are more out there
Seattle’s Leaders Let Scientists Take the Lead. New York’s Did Not
The initial coronavirus outbreaks on the East and West Coasts emerged at roughly the same time. But the danger was communicated very differently.
Why Old-Growth Trees Are Crucial to Fighting Climate Change
Nature is already socking away a lot of carbon for us. It could soak up a lot more—if we help.
The Impossible Profession
The life and work of a Manhattan psychoanalyst.
Stickeen: The Story of a Dog
An adventure on an Alaskan glacier with a new best friend.
The Burning Problem of America’s Sugar Cane Growers
There’s a hidden cost to the way Florida’s farmers bring in the sugar crop. Just visit the hospitals and measure the climate impact.
"It’s a Razor’s Edge We’re Walking"
Around the world, more than 40 teams are working on a vaccine for Covid-19. How one doctor is approaching the most urgent quest of his life.
Greta's World
A profile of climate activist Greta Thunberg.
The Frontier Couple Who Chose Death Over Life Apart
Artist Eric Bealer was living the remote, rugged good life in coastal Alaska with his wife, Pam, an MS sufferer, when they made a dramatic decision: to exit this world together, leaving behind precise instructions for whoever entered their cabin first.
The Contrarian Coronavirus Theory That Informed the Trump Administration
An interview with Richard A. Epstein of the Hoover Institution.
Where the Water Used to Be
On water scarcity in Mexico City.
The Big Cat Fight
An early profile of Carole Baskin, proprietor of Big Cat Rescue in Tampa.
How the Pandemic Will End
The U.S. may end up with the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the industrialized world. This is how it’s going to play out.
