Stories by Ferris Jabr

Researchers recently discovered certain drugs, including one developed to treat Alzheimer’s, stimulate innate self-repair mechanisms

Every year the common virus is lethal to many. What happens inside the body that results in death?

How machine learning can translate chicken chatter and improve farming

Although certain bacteria help treat some gut disorders, they have no known benefits for healthy people

For many people with depression, serious exercise may be the best, cheapest and safest treatment

Why electronic screens keep you awake at night and what you can do about it

A wealth of psychological research shows that mental downtime is vital for productivity and health. Some progressive companies are finally starting to listen

Taking breaks—from naps to sabbaticals—can help us to refocus and recharge

Junk foods can muddle the brain's satiety-control mechanism, sending our appetites into hyperdrive

We start to pick up words, food preferences and hand–eye coordination long before being born

With them, you can see veins, hidden bruises, cancer cells and more

Making modern supermarket fruits and vegetables so big and hardy drained a lot of their flavor. Scientists now have the technology to bring it back—and it doesn't involve genetic engineering

Nobel Prize winners have published 245 articles in the pages of Scientific American. Here we present excerpts from stories in our archives that highlighted new insights into how the body functions. 

Paying attention requires more than focus

Making modern supermarket produce so big and hardy drained a lot of its flavor. Scientists now have the technology to bring it back—without genetic engineering

An RNA-based treatment may stop the Ebola virus in its tracks

The other day I went to my local bodega in Brooklyn, New York and bought a 16-ounce plastic carton full of Driscoll’s strawberries. These fruit, the packaging informed me, were grown in Mexico.

Before an exotic fungus nearly wiped them out in the late 1800s, abundant chestnut trees shaped the forest ecosystem, providing food and shelter for numerous other species. In coming decades Chestnut trees engineered to battle the fungus could restore these lost relationships

  Many years ago, while wandering through Amboseli National Park in Kenya, an elephant matriarch named Echo came upon the bones of her former companion Emily.

We now have solid evidence that elephants are some of the most intelligent, social and empathic animals around—so how can we justify keeping them in captivity?

By combining traditional plant breeding with ever-faster genetic sequencing tools, researchers are making fruits and vegetables more flavorful, colorful, shapely and nutritious
 

Microscopes transform the way we see and understand the creatures on our planet

We talk to ourselves to stay motivated, tame unruly emotions, plan for the future and even maintain a sense of self

A selection of honored images created by scientists, professional photographers and hobbyists