Featured
Learning a modern version of her childhood Indian dances puts Sumitra Mattai’s brain and body to the test, and when people doubt that dance can empower girls to pursue STEM careers, Yamilée Toussaint sets out to prove them wrong.
After feeling betrayed by the very systems meant to protect her, Karen McCaffrey chooses to become the advocate for survivors she once needed herself, and in her twenties, Mary Cyn endures a string of gynecological problems, and the lack of compassion she encounters in medical settings motivates her into changing how medical students learn patient care.
Being half Navajo and half white, Carissa Sherman turns to genetics to better understand her identity. As she questions where she belongs, her hair becomes a quiet but powerful marker of how she sees herself, and growing up, Ria Spencer believed “good hair” meant long hair but when a medical condition forces her to shave it all off, she’s challenged to rethink what that belief really means.
As a science teacher, Mamoudou N'Diaye was supposed to have all the answers, but he struggles to explain being Black in the USA, and Rhonda Key fights to be taken seriously by her white co-workers and students when she gets a job at a middle school.
Graduate student Angelique Allen doesn’t fully understand the strong connection she feels to the 2015 animated film Home, and growing up in segregated 1950s Baltimore, Ken Phillips learns early who society says he can’t be.
Getting dumped is the push psychologist Jiawen Huang needs to step outside his comfort zone, and while completing her PhD in neuroscience, Leslie Sibener is determined to fix her relationship.
After multiple relapses, Carlos Guerrero-Anderson takes a chance on an experimental treatment for his rare cancer, and Angie Weaver holds onto an unshakable belief that her daughter, who has a rare SCN2A disorder, will beat the odds.
When online dating isn't working out for him, Tristan Attwood decides to analyze the data himself, and in search of a deal, Gastor Almonte ends up with an unmanageable number of condoms.
Growing up, Modesta Abugu knows firsthand the challenges rural African farmers face. But when she discovers that misinformation is making things worse, she sets out to change the narrative, and while living in South Africa, Fiona Tudor Price witnesses how AIDS misinformation devastates an entire nation.
When Misha Gajewski’s grandfather has a stroke while the rest of her family is out of town, she suddenly becomes the emergency contact, and after learning that her mother gave up on her dream of becoming a musician, Paula Croxson vows never to give up on her dream of being a scientist.
When AI takes over comedian Kyle Gillis’s job, he takes it personally, and while researching an AI model, engineer Omiya Hassan discovers one major problem: the amount of energy it’s consuming.
As a kid, JR Denson is determined to master the art of homemade french fries—but then his kitchen experiment goes up in flames, and faced with a looming Science Olympiad deadline, Adam Ruben is sure his last-minute “clock” made from a bag of water will do the trick.
Sean Bearden has never been interested in education, but when he's incarcerated at the age of 19, he finds a passion for physics, and when Victoria Manning decides to get a cochlear implant, she fears losing her identity as a deaf person.
When Jess Nurse feels a throbbing pain in her gut, she chalks it up to heartbreak, and when Maryam Zaringhalam’s physician mother goes in for brain surgery, everyone insists there’s nothing to worry about.
After years of academic achievement, newly minted professor Stephanie Rowley is caught off guard when every paper she submits is rejected, and growing up, Kate Schmidt always thought of herself as the “smart kid,” but that identity is shaken when she gets to university and receives her first C.
Paralyzed but undeterred, Scott Imbrie is on a mission to regain movement, and after an accident leaves them with severe burns on over a third of their body, Emily Hespeler works to find their way back to themselves.
While running an errand, Andrea Azarian happens upon a lost horse that needs her help, and left in charge of the farm for the first time, Gwynne Hogan panics when a goat goes into labor.
While doing fieldwork in the Congo, Stella Mayerhoff must track down a local researcher to deliver devastating news, and during his second year of residency, Sam Blackman is tasked with caring for a dying child whose mother’s unwavering faith clashes with his scientific approach.
Fresh out of college and in what seems like her dream job, drug and alcohol coach Rhana Hashemi quickly realizes she has no idea how to connect with the high school students she’s supposed to help, and when Paul Davis and his wife struggle to get pregnant, they decide to foster a pregnant dog—and things escalate quickly.
When an epidemiologist dedicated to preventing violence against children is suddenly fired from the CDC, she is left grappling with both the shock of losing her job and the uncertainty of what comes next, and at a global climate conference, climate scientist Tom Di Liberto learns that Trump has been re-elected—and feels the weight of what that means for him and the fight against climate change.
As a newly minted PhD student in geology, Erik Klemetti starts to question his decisions when Aucanquilcha, a 20,000-foot volcano in Chile, proves difficult to tame, and explorer George Kourounis finds himself growing increasingly anxious as he prepares to enter a fiery sinkhole known as the “Doorway to Hell.”
At his friend’s bachelor party, Andrew McGill joins in on a mushroom trip that quickly spirals out of control, and in an attempt to calm his nerves about going on an Alaskan cruise, Will Clegg turns to marijuana.
For Hannah Hedelius, a classmate’s hiccups trigger an overwhelming reaction she can’t hold back, and as a graduate student, Rachel Hostetler begins to realize that her intrusive thoughts may be more than just regular stress.
Shawn Musgrave wants to donate blood, but runs headfirst into the FDA’s lifetime ban on gay men as donors, and while working with the condor recovery program, Molly Astell opens a freezer to find every researcher’s nightmare.
On a trip to Colombia for a research conference, biologist Stephanie Galla must rely on her fight-or-flight instincts when she is cornered by a mugger with a knife, and an ordinary day takes a shocking turn when Kim Weaver is struck by lightning.
Teaching sixth grade science becomes much more difficult when Xochitl Garcia's students start hypothesizing that fire is alive, and when journalist John Rennie is assigned to cover an entomological society event where insects are served as food, he sees an opportunity to face his fear of bugs.
As an undergraduate with no “real” science experience, Molly Magid is thrilled to join a research project studying how bats fly—until she discovers the bats refuse to cooperate, and as a child, Léa Souccar and her father explore the wreckage in the aftermath of a devastating bombing.
When anxiety starts taking over her life, Jude Treder-Wolff signs up for an improv class, and counselor Belinda Arriaga and emergency medicine doctor Nancy Ewen join forces to get scientific evidence of the power of culturally responsive mental health care.
While housesitting for her uncle, JiJi Lee’s peaceful stay takes a chaotic turn when a squirrel breaks in, and when a serious mold infestation takes over the university campus, Joshua Wilson is tasked with eliminating it.
When science journalist Katherine Wu interviews a scientist about a new facial recognition algorithm, the conversation turns more personal than she expected, and Hurricane Katrina gives Mary Annaise Heglar a new perspective on both her grandfather and home state.