Science & Technology

Trump called climate change a hoax. Biden calls it an existential threat. Washington Post journalist Juliet Eilperin talks about how Biden might reverse some of his predecessor's policies.

The legendary aviator, who died Dec. 7, served as a fighter pilot in World War II. Later, as a test pilot, he was the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound. Originally broadcast in 1988.

Nunez's latest novel, What Are You Going Through, is about facing the possible death of our planet from climate change — while also dealing with our mortality as individuals.

In his new book, Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World, Zakaria looks ahead to the ways that COVID-19 might fundamentally change our relationships to work, technology and government. He says Americans in particular have some important decisions to make about the role of government in our lives.

Decades before Google or Facebook existed, a Madison Avenue advertising man started a company called Simulmatics based on a then-revolutionary method of using computers to forecast how people would behave. Historian Jill Lepore tells the story in her new book.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shuttered schools and businesses and altered life across the globe, but journalist Alexis Madrigal says comprehensive, rapid testing might be the key to a safe reopening. For his latest article for the Atlantic, Madrigal talked with public health experts, including Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina, who cite the potential benefits of widespread testing for the virus with a simple, at-home saliva test that uses a paper strip similar to a home pregnancy test.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shuttered schools and businesses and altered life across the globe, but journalist Alexis Madrigal says comprehensive, rapid testing might be the key to a safe reopening. For his latest article for the Atlantic, Madrigal talked with public health experts, including Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina, who cite the potential benefits of widespread testing for the virus with a simple, at-home saliva test that uses a paper strip similar to a home pregnancy test.

"Since the very first day of this pandemic, I don't think [we've been] in a more confused position about what's happening," epidemiologist Michael Osterholm says. "We just aren't quite sure what [the coronavirus is] going to do next."
Osterholm is the founder and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Climate change has put organisms on the move. In her new book, The Next Great Migration, Science writer Sonia Shah writes about migration — and the ways in which outmoded notions of "belonging" have been used throughout history to curb what she sees as a biological imperative.

New Yorker staff writer Andrew Marantz spent years with far-right online extremists, embedding with them and watching them spread false news by exploiting social media. His new book is Antisocial.

Sam Esmail, the creator of the TV series Mr. Robot, talks about hacking, social anxiety, and growing up an Egyptian Muslim family in America.

Journalist Gilbert Gaul says federal subsidies encourage developers to keep building on the coasts — despite accelerating and increasing risks from climate change.

Verge journalist Casey Newton investigated working conditions for the people who determine what material can be posted to Facebook. Many are traumatized by the images of hate and violence they see.

NY Times cybersecurity correspondent Nicole Perlroth says hacking tools developed by the NSA were stolen, posted online and are now being used in cyberattacks, including one on the city of Baltimore.

In 1961, when President John F. Kennedy announced a goal of "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth" before the end of the decade, the mission seemed all but impossible.

Environmental journalist Amanda Little says the sustainable food revolution will include meat cultured in a lab, 3-D printer food, aquaculture and indoor vertical farming.

Bill McKibben, who first warned of climate change 30 years ago, says its effects are now upon us: "The idea that anybody's going to be immune from this anywhere is untrue." His new book is Falter.

A talk with Nathaniel Rich, author of the new book 'Losing Earth' about climate change and the missed opportunities to halt or at least slow it down, and where we are now in the Trump era.

The new documentary The Human Element follows James Balog as he captures the places and people affected by the rising oceans, wildfires and air pollution associated with climate change.