culture, books

How horned rabbits led the way to the HPV vaccine

Ferreting out the biological function of dreaming is a frontier in neuroscience.

The scenarios that run through our sleeping brains may help us explore possible solutions to concerns from our waking lives.

Join The Scientist on December 11 to discuss Yaa Gyasi’s sophomore novel, about a Stanford University neuroscience grad student navigating family issues, lab work, and her emerging identity.

In Chapter 7, “Wind and Breath,” author Jeremy England considers research findings that point to a surprising, emergent property of seemingly disordered molecules.

Is the model of early life as a freak occurrence in a disordered, primordial soup of chemicals wrong?

In the book’s prologue, author Daniel T. Blumstein explains his introduction to the study of fear.

Fear binds us to our human and nonhuman ancestors. Understanding the emotion can help us grapple with challenges we face today.

In Chapter 1, “An ABC of Early Classification,” author David Bainbridge explores the theological roots of zoology.

A new book explores the history of scientists’ efforts to classify living things.

The four factors that drive contagion

In Chapter 13, “Trusting Experts—and the Trump Administration,” Marc Zimmer laments the communication breakdown between modern US policy makers and scientists

A new book explores the ways that research findings are used and misused.

Our first event is a book club for Sinclair Lewis’s 1925 classic novel Arrowsmith, which we’ll discuss with two prominent scholars during a webinar on September 25.

In Chapter 8, author Debora MacKenzie recounts an unfortunate history of baselessly blaming disease outbreaks on groups perceived as outsiders.

Our experience with COVID-19 has already shone a light on how (and how not) to address future outbreaks.

In the prologue to the book, author Neil Shubin sets the stage for discussing the iterative repurposing that marks several transformational developments throughout evolution.

Evolution needn’t make improbable leaps to facilitate transitions into uncharted biological territory. Adapting new uses for existing structures works just fine.

In Chapter 10, “Memory," author Matthew Cobb takes readers inside a couple of seminal moments in the scientific search for memory’s mechanics.