In Chapter 6, author Henry T. Greely describes how news of the birth of gene-edited babies rocked a 2018 summit on human genome editing.

CRISPR and other innovations are likely to open up a wealth of new options for how people have children.

Not only is the humble fluid a boon for keeping humans cool, it also contains a wealth of biological information.

Author Lauren Aguirre finds reasons for optimism in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.

Understanding how the brain coordinates electrical activity could be key to developing more-effective treatments for a variety of brain disorders.

In the book’s introduction, “Connections,” Suzanne Simard relates how her “perception of the woods has been turned upside down.”

Feeding the world’s insatiable appetite for wood products is sacrificing the future of a crucial ecosystem.

In Chapter 1, “The Indelible Stamp,” author Melanie Challenger addresses the idea of human exceptionalism.

Since Darwin published his landmark work on natural selection, we’ve understood that we’re animals. But that doesn’t mean we really believe it.

In Chapter 15, “Above the Falls,” author Jonathan Meiburg recounts an evening on a research expedition near the Rewa River in Guyana.

An unsung group of South American falcons yields clues to the prehistory of a continent, and hints at secrets of the avian brain.

In his book’s introduction, author Robert Paarlberg advocates for the use of modern science in agriculture.

Scientifically groundless regulations could undercut the potential of gene-edited crops, much as they have with GMOs.

In Chapter 3, “The Adventure,” author Tracie White meets Whitney Dafoe, a young man imprisoned by a chronic disease.

Ronald Davis of Stanford University changed his focus to research on ME/CFS, the disease formerly known as chronic fatigue syndrome, in a bid to help his son and others like him.

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.

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?