The 1918 flu killed 40 million people, then seemingly vanished. The Black Death wiped out half of Europe before fading. Smallpox terrorized humanity for millennia until we eliminated it entirely. Each epidemic followed a different pathway to its end.
Explainers Science & MedicineBy 2030, the world will generate 5 million tons of spent lithium batteries annually, yet current recycling systems recover only a fraction of critical minerals. With 80% of lithium lost and China controlling 89% of refining capacity, the energy transition faces a supply crisis.
Explainers Physics & EngineeringAI-generated X-rays now fool radiologists 75% of the time, and the tools to make them are available to anyone with a chatbot subscription. A landmark study exposes the collision between cheap synthetic imaging and decades-old hospital security gaps.
Artificial Intelligence ExplainersOver a century of Alzheimer's disease research has produced a 99.6% clinical trial failure rate, a retracted landmark paper, and two modestly effective drugs that cannot stop the disease. Here is why the most common cause of dementia remains so stubbornly unsolved.
Explainers Science & MedicineThe mRNA technology platform that produced COVID-19 vaccines in record time is now being deployed against cancer, influenza, RSV, and pancreatic tumors. With 280 candidates in development and the first cancer vaccine approvals expected by 2027, here is how the science works and where it is heading.
Explainers Science & MedicineYour adult brain can change, but not the way pop science claims. Four decades of neuroscience reveal a picture more nuanced than either the old "fixed brain" dogma or today's "rewire anything" hype.
Explainers Science & MedicineThe blood-brain barrier rejects 98% of drugs and nearly all antibodies. It is the structural reason neurology lags decades behind every other branch of medicine, and new approaches are finally starting to crack it open.
Explainers Science & MedicineYour cells accumulate damage through 12 distinct biological pathways, from telomere erosion to mitochondrial decay. The science of aging now has a precise molecular framework, but the gap between understanding these mechanisms and actually slowing them remains wider than most headlines suggest.
Explainers Science & MedicineThe old diagnostic subcategories were erased for good reasons. But the single "autism spectrum disorder" label now covers everything from round-the-clock care needs to social awkwardness at faculty dinners, and the cracks are showing.
News & Analysis Science & MedicineFrom Kanner's 1943 case studies to the CDC's latest 1-in-31 figure, the autism spectrum has been redrawn, renamed, and fiercely debated. Here is what the science says, who still gets missed, and why the fights over language and labels matter more than ever.
News & Analysis Science & MedicinePain is not a signal that travels from your body to your brain. It is something your brain constructs. Understanding that distinction is reshaping how medicine treats chronic pain, and why pills alone were never going to be enough.
Explainers Science & MedicineThe gut microbiome is real science with real clinical breakthroughs. It is also a multi-billion dollar industry where most products have never proven they do what their labels imply. Here is what the evidence actually supports.
Explainers Science & Medicine
