AI-Designed Phages

A new paper shows that a generative AI model can design viable bacteriophages.

Edwin Cohn and the Harvard Blood Factory

How a chemistry “purist” built one of World War II’s greatest applied R&D laboratories.

Gregor Mendel's Vanishing Act

After his death in 1884, thousands of Gregor Mendel’s letters and notes — filled with scientific data and figures — were destroyed. What did the friar discover, and what have we forgotten?

The Dangers of Mirrored Life

Niko McCarty & Fin Moorhouse

Creating mirrored organisms using synthetic biology could seriously harm extant life, a 300-page report claims. While the risks from mirrored life are uncertain, it is best not to find out.

Inside Job: Secret Histories in the National Museum

During a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship in 2009, Rich Pell stumbled upon declassified photographs of a top-secret bioweapons test from 1965, called Operation Shady Grove.

Francis Crick Was Misunderstood

The Central Dogma is not a "dogma," and it has never been broken.

The Pursuit of Parenthood

Or, the rise and regulation of reproductive technologies.