Biotech
Human history has been all but defined by death and disease, plague and pandemic. Advancements in 20th century medicine changed all of that. Now advancements in 21st century medicine promise to go even further. Could we bring about an end to disease? Reverse aging? Give hearing to the deaf and sight to the blind? The answer may be yes. And soon.
Featured
The next era of psychedelics may be precision-designed states of consciousness
A look inside Mindstate Design Labs’ effort to design drugs that reliably produce specific states of consciousness.
What is The Great Progression: 2025 to 2050?
We have a historic opportunity to harness AI and other transformative technologies in order to make a much better world in the next 25 years.
Progress happens because solutions create new problems to solve
Solutionism means fully accepting what’s in front of us and enthusiastically stepping up to meet the challenge.
Psychedelics & Mental Health
How to reclaim meaning in a changing world
What if the barrier to a fulfilled life isn’t technology, it’s culture?
The exciting research that may cure Parkinson’s
GeneCode is developing a drug it hopes won’t just alleviate Parkinson’s symptoms but also protect and restore patient’s neural health.
Biohacking
We’re able to create new creatures through gene editing. What’s stopping us?
The question isn’t whether we can sculpt new life. The question is what comes next.
Boosted Breeding and beyond: 3 tech trends that could end world hunger
A world without hunger is possible, and the development and deployment of new farming technologies could be one key to manifesting it.
New AI generates CRISPR proteins unlike any seen in nature
An AI that generates CRISPR proteins is opening the door to gene editors with capabilities beyond what we’ve found in nature.
Ray Kurzweil explains how AI makes radical life extension possible
Life expectancy gains in developed countries have slowed in recent decades, but AI may be poised to transform medicine as we know it.
Vaccines
Personalized cancer vaccines are having a moment
Personalized cancer vaccines were a recurring theme at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in 2024.
The threat of avian flu — and what we can do to stop it
Avian flu is infecting cows on US dairy farms, and now a person has caught it — but new research could help us avoid a bird flu pandemic.
One shot recreates younger immune systems, in mice
An antibody treatment designed to revitalize an aging immune system delivers “surprising” results in elderly mice.
More
Why don’t vaccines work as well in poor countries?
Our best tool for preventing disease is the least effective in the places where it’s most needed.
Genetic tests miss “invisible” mutations that cause disease and neurological disorders
There’s more to your DNA than just letters, and mutations can lurk in that genetic “dark matter.”
Series|
Superhuman
Hunting down his son’s killer
For years, there was no diagnosis, no treatment, and no cure — because his son’s disease had never been seen before. That wasn’t going to stop this dad.
Your DNA is not the same in every cell
Your body began with a single cell and a single genetic code. But it didn’t stay that way for long.
Spraying bacteria onto the skin can treat eczema
The bacteria in your microbiome ward off infections and help keep your skin healthy.
Could freezing your body offer a chance at immortality?
In a lab in Arizona, dozens of bodies sit preserved at 320 degrees below zero. They each paid $200,000 to be frozen…
Series|
Superhuman
Can genetically modified pigs be the key to treating rare diseases?
When it comes to rare diseases, doctors often don’t have enough patients to determine the effectiveness of various treatments. Now, scientists are breeding pigs with the same genetic code as people with a disease in order to create a pool of test “patients” unlike any before.
Scientists physically "transplant" a memory in snails
The experiment breaks the conventional wisdom about what memories are made of.
The cause (and possible cure) for most infertility
Fertility medicine may be on the edge of a breakthrough.
Two billion people have TB. What should we do about it?
In the fight against TB, sometimes it’s better to just get along.
CRISPR can diagnose Zika (and Ebola) with just a strip of paper
We could be on our way to a fast, reliable, portable test for almost any virus or cancerous mutation.
We found the oldest human virus: It's familiar (but weird)
The discovery cracks open a 7,000-year history of human-virus warfare. And it’s raising weird questions.
Bionic prosthetic grants amputee musician a rocking encore
How might your life change if you lost an arm? After losing his right arm in an electrical accident, Jason wasn’t…
Neuroscientists want to beam experiences directly into your brain
It’s a breakthrough for the blind and paralyzed, not the first step toward the Matrix. (Promise.)
Scientists want to rewrite the entire human genome, from scratch
What if we could rewrite our entire genetic code to make us invincible against viruses?
Glowing cancer cells could find hidden tumors (and replace mammograms)
A new pill can make cancer cells glow under infrared light, and it could eliminate for mammograms.
Unlike smoking, vaping won’t mess with your microbiome
Smoking kills off good bacteria and upsets the balance of power your gut.
Babies sometimes trigger preterm labor to escape infections
A new discovery upends what we thought we knew about premature births and could point the way to entirely new…
Scientists finally get a look at enzyme that protects DNA
We finally have a detailed picture of an enzyme that could play a key role in fighting both aging and cancer
Series|
Superhuman
These doctors are performing brain surgery … using sound
Bonnie D’Ettorre suffers from a nerve disorder causing uncontrollable shaking. Doctors at Ohio State are about to “burn it out” using a thousand beams of ultrasound.
Special Collection
Collection
The Science of Death
Explore the journey from life to death and beyond. Near-death experiences, death doulas, digital immortality, and more – join us for a thoughtful exploration of one life’s most intriguing and inevitable phenomena with stories from the frontlines of death.
Subscribe to the newsletter