Bringing bacteria to the market

Apr 29, 2019
A slew of new companies are selling bacteria they say can improve our health.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

How to be a cosmetic scientist

Feb 15, 2019
Beauty and science aren't mutually exclusive.
Balanda Atis serves as the director of face innovation and multicultural beauty at L'Oréal USA.
Courtesy of L'Oréal USA

A record number of scientists are running for office, and 314 Action is helping them

Jul 9, 2018
The political action committee is conducting a series of trainings for STEM professionals.
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images/Cancer Research UK

China's quiet hunt to hire top U.S. researchers

Jun 5, 2018
Academics at U.S. schools are being recruited to help build the Chinese economy.
In a picture taken in 2010 Professor Shi Yigong, who walked away from a top research position in the United States to become the dean of the School of Life Sciences at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University in 2008, places a note among bottles of bacterial culture in a university lab in Beijing.
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

Critics fear EPA changes will give big industry more sway over science

Mar 29, 2018
Under the new policy, academic study authors will have to share their raw data, leaving it vulnerable to distortion, some worry.
“Data needs to be transparent and objective for the American people to consume,” says Scott Pruitt, Environmental Protection Agency administrator. Above, Pruitt answers questions at a White House briefing in June.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

How a friend’s assault led one researcher to study sexual harassment in science

Anthropologist Kathryn Clancy studies harassment that occurs among science researchers, and finds it's prevalent and not often reported.
Darren Hauck/Getty Images

EPA head shifts makeup of panel science advisers

Nov 1, 2017
Pruitt is installing new science advisors who have a history of being more industry friendly.

For public good, not for profit.

Spider silk, the newest fabric for military uniforms

Oct 31, 2017
The silky strands made by spiders are strong and supple. Now, scientists in Michigan are using genetic engineering to reproduce spider silk for a wide range of uses, including military uniforms.
These silk threads are mass produced by silkworms but based on the protein a spider uses to spin its web.
Photo Courtesy of Kraig Biocraft Laboratories

What happens when a body is donated to science?

Oct 27, 2017
The growing industry of body part sales.

Asteroid mining and the new economics of outer space

Sep 18, 2017
It sounds like science fiction, but companies are putting real work into finding metals floating around on frozen rocks.
Space nerds Molly Wood and Kimberly Adams geek out about asteroid mining on the show. Above, an image mosaic of the asteroid Eros, with sunlight coming from the northeast, taken by the robotic NEAR Shoemaker space probe in 2000. 
Photo Courtesy of NASA/Newsmakers