Stories by Ferris Jabr

Kylie ran towards her fallen dragonfly and knelt beside it. One of its four wings had snapped nearly in half. She rummaged through a toolbox until she found a small tube of accelerseal, bit off the cap and squeezed a generous amount onto the wing’s fracture, holding the two pieces together.

Nature is full of thieves. Instead of laboriously collecting pollen and nectar from flowers, robber bees raid the hives of other pollinators and steal the honey within.

I have been fascinated with living things since childhood. Growing up in northern California, I spent a lot of time playing outdoors among plants and animals.

Croplands and climate change displace native bees

From 1934 to 1970, Louie Mayer worked as a cook and housekeeper for writers Virginia and Leonard Woolf at their home in Rodmell, England. Her very first day on the job, she noticed something strange.

Tell us how paper and digital devices shape your reading habits

Children in rural Ethiopia are teaching themselves to read with Android tablets

E-readers and tablets are becoming more popular as such technologies improve, but reading on paper still has its advantages

Sometime in the not-too-distant future, Marie and Antonio Freeman step into a doctor’s office to design their next child. “Your extracted eggs, Marie, have been fertilized with Antonio’s sperm,” the doctor says.

Research on naps, meditation, nature walks and the habits of exceptional artists and athletes reveals how mental breaks increase productivity, replenish attention, solidify memories and encourage creativity

Jeremy Seifert’s new documentary “GMO OMG” opens with a series of maudlin pastoral scenes—sun-dappled forests, kids playing outdoors, a close-up of ants crawling in a line—as a man’s somber voice reads Wendell Berry’s poem “The Peace of Wild Things.” With this subtle Malickian prelude out of the way, the film begins more earnestly.

Genetically modified crops that produce the pest-killing toxin Bt increase yields and reduce the use of noxious chemical insecticides. But like any powerful tool, they must be used responsibly

31 billion honeybees plus 810,000 acres of almond trees equals 700 billion almonds—and one looming agricultural crisis

Every year thousands of tourists descend on congregations of the world’s largest fish. What is the cost of all that attention?

In 1919 a wave of syrup swept through the streets of Boston. Fluid dynamics explains why it was even more devastating than a typical tsunami

Short-term stress can boost the immune system

For some of the world's tiniest and most abundant creatures, moving through water is a fantastically difficult feat

A few weeks ago, I moved into a new apartment in Brooklyn. What I like best about my new home is its garden. For the first time in 10 years I have a private outdoor space in which to read and relax; the option to grill in my own backyard; and the freedom to sculpt [...]

As laureates and newcomers in chemistry form new bonds, we celebrate their achievements, past and future

A researcher documents people's internal monologues

We are not biologically identical to our Paleolithic predecessors, nor do we have access to the foods they ate. And deducing dietary guidelines from modern foraging societies is difficult because they vary so much by geography, season and opportunity

The fear of confirming derogatory stereotypes can hinder academic performance. Researchers are scaling up relevant interventions to statewide programs