Why Science Hasn’t Solved Consciousness (Yet)

To understand life, we must stop treating organisms like machines and minds like code.

There’s Life Inside Earth’s Crust

Revelations about microbes living deep inside Earth’s crust are challenging scientists’ conceptions of life and how it evolves.

How Much Is Your Kidney Worth?

To address the deadly organ shortage, some are proposing compensating living kidney donors, creating an ethical dilemma.

The Making Of A New American Epidemic

Unchecked development is encroaching into parched desert landscapes and kicking up more than just a little dust — it’s raising the risk of a mysterious new infection.

How Modernity Made Us Allergic

Our very old immune systems can’t keep up with modern lifestyles and diets, leading to increases in all sorts of chronic health problems like allergies and obesity.

Cells, Not DNA, Are The Master Architects Of Life

Far from being a blueprint for an organism, genes are mere tools used by life’s true expert builders: cells.

Deep Time Sickness

In Mexico, people who are “tocado” — “touched” — reveal that geological traumas, like earthquakes, can destabilize our concepts of health, identity and even time.