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Mapping Individual Microbes among the Multitudes

by Sophia Swartzfigures by Jasmin Joseph-Chazan If you put all of the living things on Earth in a box–from humans to anteaters to teeny-tiny tardigrades–and then plucked one of these organisms out at random, it is very, very likely that you just found…

Plasma for Fusion: How magnets are paving the way for clean energy

by Brianna Alicofigures by Aparna Nathan The phrase “energy crisis” likely brings to mind rising gas prices, drying up oil reserves, increasing greenhouse gases, climate change, and the like. Scientists, politicians, and civilians alike are working to…

Microglia: The protectors of the brain

by Muhammet M. Ozturkfigures by Wei Wu For decades, scientists have been intrigued by how the brain controls the body. This curiosity led them to discover neurons, the brain’s messenger cells. Neurons, which receive, transmit, and process information,…

Finding Life in Space: Why are we so special?

by Wei Lifigures by Catherine Ding The universe is massive, with an estimated 70 quintillion planets—that is 70 followed by an additional 18 zeros. In the Milky Way alone, where we reside, there are billions of planets. With these huge numbers, Earth…

Grand Evolutionary Transitions: The eruption of multicellularity

by Piyush Nandafigures by Corena Loeb Around 600 million years ago, single-celled life transitioned to multicellular life forms, begetting a paradigm shift in the definition of life on earth. This was an event so remarkable in earth’s timeline that it…

Reversing Climate Change with Geoengineering

by Sanjana Kulkarnifigures by Jovana Andrejevic The average global temperature is increasing faster now than at any time in the last 2 million years. This has fueled record-breaking droughts, heat waves, and wildfires, and has intensified weather…

Mining DNA for Disease Prediction: The polygenic risk score

by Alex Yenkinfigures by Allie Elchert Long before the completion of the Human Genome Project, scientists knew that many common diseases had a genetic component. However, there was debate about the architecture of these genetic effects: were there a…

Green Energy Needs Green Storage

by Apurva Govandefigures by MacKenzie Mauger North Africa’s vast, arid Sahara Desert region covers 3.5 million square miles, which is just about the size of the United States. Sunlight hits the Sahara an average of 3,000 hours every year. Covering…