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I Told You So!

When the Renaissance scientist Galileo defended the heliocentric model of the Universe, he was condemned by the Catholic Church. Modern scientists, however, frequently face their fiercest opposition not from religious authorities but from within their own ranks. In his new book, I Told You So!, Matt Kaplan—a...

The Feather Detective

On 4 October 1960, Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 took off from Logan International Airport on a clear fall evening and plunged almost immediately into the icy waters of Boston Harbor, killing all but ten of the seventy-two people on board. It remains the deadliest...

Elements of Marie Curie

If there is a book reading/discussion by Dava Sobel at a bookstore near you -- you should absolutely go. Dava is such a charming, intelligent and articulate person, chances are, you will immediately decide to read anything/everything she has ever written. Her beat is historical...

Just Keeping Swimming

When a senior male scientist claimed the data from sawfish she’d tagged, Jasmin Graham –an early career shark researcher in Florida– felt powerless. It was not one individual’s behavior but the failure of the larger scientific community to take appropriate action was frustrating. Dejected, Graham...

The mRNA Nobelist

In 1997, at a University of Pennsylvania photocopier, molecular biologist Katalin Karikó met immunologist Drew Weismann — a chance encounter that would change her career, and medicine, forever. At 42, Karikó had made little headway with her radical idea: that messenger RNA, the fleeting molecule...

Science at Sundance 2023

This year I had a chance to review two science-related films screened at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah — two vastly different films, but both struck a chord. Illustration by Islenia Mil for Science Poacher A gunshot pierces the skull of a tusker, an adult...