A study suggesting a link between cell phone radiation and tumor growth in rats was rightly covered with skepticism — but reporters should keep open minds. By Paul Raeburn. (June 24, 2016)

How do we live with the fact that the world we knew is going and, in some cases, already gone? By Jon Mooallem.

Last known case of the deadly disease was in Somalia in 1977, but Russian scientists investigating an anthrax outbreak have found the virus's DNA in corpses once entombed in the frozen ground. By Ian Johnston. (Aug. 16, 2016)

A review of NASA research highlights the risk that prolonged social isolation poses to long-distance space missions, as well as other dangers like radiation. (Jan. 11, 2017)

You’ve all seen Dr. Strangelove, which means I’m pretty sure you understand the general idea behind a doomsday device: if you destroy us, we destroy you, no matter what. The concept of an automatic system that guarantees nuclear retaliation if a country is subjected to a nuclear attack has been part of the collective nuclear nightmare for decades. It’s not just a concept, though. Such a doomsday device exists, and it goes by the chilling name Dead Hand. By Jason Torchinsky.

How mommy set off amid the Hollywood Hills to hunt the monster. By Kathleen Hale. (Feb. 14, 2017)

We dwell in an atmosphere of uncertainty. From visible ambient matters like smog to odorless contaminants from radiation, toxic conditions force us to continually adapt to, resist, and make sense of the spaces we inhabit. Bodies are exposed to an array of materials, from particulates, chemicals, and pathogens that circulate in the air we breathe, to the food and water we ingest and the soil on which we walk. An anthropological inquiry into our sensorial orientation to toxic environments is ever more crucial.

As an organic chemist, I am willing to deal with the occasional bang or kapow in the lab, as long as things don’t get too out of hand… By Derek Lowe. (Sept. 27, 2016)

Even as President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping of China met for the first time to try to sort out their complex relationship, Trump’s administration is reviewing attempts by China to buy sensitive U.S. companies and in one case is actively trying to thwart a deal. By David McLaughlin.

Miners sift through hundreds of kilos of sand and clay, gathering roughly a quarter of a gram of gold dust. By Alex Wheeler.

Cheap Wages, Little Training, Crushed Limbs. The South’s manufacturing renaissance comes with a heavy price. By Peter Waldman.

Civil rights advocates are preparing for the White House to launch a new assault on Muslims and immigrants in the wake of a domestic terrorism attack. By Peter Maass.

According to a multi-year study published in the Geological Society of America this week, the area where the Nile river drains out to the sea is suffering from decreased water flow, rising sea levels, and salt water intrusion—all of which damage food production and fresh water supplies... By Lily Kuo.

“[K]ids’ toys which record their voices and send the recordings up to the web pose some serious privacy risks. It’s not that the risks are particularly any different to the ones you and I face…” By Troy Hunt.

Ocean temperatures today are about the same as they were more than 100,000 years ago — at a time when sea levels were 20 to 30 feet higher. By Amina Khan.

The crack in the Larsen C ice shelf has grown 17 miles in a little over a month. By Chris Mooney.

The British Antarctic Survey is pulling all staff out of the space-age Halley base in March because of a big crack in nearby ice. By Jonathan Amos.

In one of its final acts, the Obama Administration released a report outlining how federal agencies should prepare for an ‘Armageddon’-sized impact. By Daniel Oberhaus.

How an 89-year-old cold warrior became America’s nuclear conscience. By John F. Harris and Bryan Bender.

When her husband died at 36, Christina Frangou was a statistical outlier, a young widow. She soon discovered that there was a name for the phenomenon surrounding her devastating grief and the toll it takes on those left behind.