SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY

In late October, a monster storm named Lola hit the Southern Hemisphere, a week before the official start of the cyclone season, producing the earliest recorded Category 5 cyclone. Violent winds battered the island nation of Vanuatu, reaching 295...

Over 10 days in early March 2022, five homeless men were shot in Manhattan and Washington, D.C. Two died. With the extraordinary tool of firearms identification analysis, law enforcement linked every shooting to the same gun.Firearms identification analysis involves...

Consider this: Astronomers think of the Hubble Space Telescope as small.That may surprise you, since after three decades of taking images with depth and detail most ground-based telescopes couldn’t achieve, popular conception holds that Hubble must be one of...

Global vaccination trends are telling us both good news and bad news stories, nearly four years after the start of a global pandemic. On the plus side, some childhood immunizations have begun recovering to pre-COVID rates. Against that, almost...

The human brain’s ability to adapt and change, known as neuroplasticity, has long captivated both the scientific community and the public imagination. It’s a concept that brings hope and fascination, especially when we hear extraordinary stories of, for example,...

November 20, 20233 min readResearch on morality shows that it can counterintuitively impede peace and progressBy Joshua RottmanI have spent my career studying moral decision-making. Through my own research and that of my colleagues, I have become acutely aware...

Imagine you started a fire in your neighborhood, down the street from your house. You didn't mean to—you’re no arsonist—but there it is, blazing before your eyes. Your neighbor’s house is about to go up in flames. What do...

Here’s a thought challenge for you: Let’s say I have chosen a particular second in time from the past nine years. Between November of 2014 and today, I am thinking of a specific (and totally random) year, month, day,...

At the height of the pandemic, unions across the U.S. demanded better COVID safety and health protection. From hospitals to fast food stands, warehouses to libraries, workers fought for personal protective equipment, cleaner workplaces, hazard pay and, where possible,...

November 15, 20234 min readMost hospitals typically test people for drugs that drove overdoses 15 to 20 years ago. We need a national system for expanded testing to help patients get the treatment they need todayBy Eric D. Wish,...