Life

Health, science, climate, and society-focused reporting.

Artemis astronauts survey lunar surface on flyby, solar eclipse up next

Strategic angle: NASA's first lunar flyby in over 50 years yields detailed observations from astronauts traveling farther from Earth than any humans before.

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

Why this NASA climate scientist wants you to stay angry

Strategic angle: Kate Marvel reflects on her fiery resignation: “I don’t think we rebuild science without getting mad.”

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

After milestone-rich lunar flyby, astronauts start trip home

Strategic angle: The Artemis II astronauts wrapped up their lunar flyby as they continue their journey back to Earth, bringing with them rich celestial observations.

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

A star scientist showed that better genetics lessons could reduce racism. It was the death knell for his career

Strategic angle: Brian Donovan had persuaded high school teachers and education researchers that prejudice might be ended by changing how genetics is taught.

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

FDA backs proposals to entice pharma companies to test, make drugs domestically

Strategic angle: From tariffs to incentives, the administration wants to push companies to manufacture drugs in the U.S.

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

How EVs could solve a problem with America’s rickety grid

Strategic angle: With "vehicle-to-grid" technology, EVs turn into a vast network of backup power. That could help stabilize the system and accelerate the adoption of renewables.

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

Opinion: How the insurance system quietly undoes recovery from addiction

Strategic angle: People who have been stable for years are suddenly re-exposed to risk — not because their disease worsened, but because their coverage did.

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

Opinion: STAT+: Former Geisinger CEO: U.S. health systems must replace huge numbers of people with AI

Strategic angle: “Health care will become autonomous because the survival of health systems depends upon it,” writes former Geisinger CEO Glenn Steele.

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

Research Revealing How the Brain Flushes Waste Named STAT Madness Editors’ Pick

Strategic angle: For researcher Maiken Nedergaard, ‘diseases of aging are basically all about dirty brains’

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

University of Michigan wins 2026 STAT Madness for new insights into abdominal aortic aneurysms

Strategic angle: The researchers identified a driving force behind the condition, opening up a potential target for new therapies.

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

Lunar crater named after Artemis commander's deceased wife

Strategic angle: Artemis astronauts honor the memory of Reid Wiseman's late wife by proposing a lunar crater name.

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

As Iran war exposes global dependence on fossil fuels, the biggest emitters are reaping the rewards

Strategic angle: Worst polluters hold world’s future in their hands as they benefit from higher fossil fuel prices, but global trends favour renewables Oil stands at about $110 a barrel and some forecasts have predicted it could reach $1

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

Origins of Earth's most powerful ocean current revealed

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current transports over 100 times more water than all of Earth's rivers combined.

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

GMO pictures may reinforce existing views, deepening the divide of attitudes towards them

Strategic angle: Images have long played a powerful role in shaping public perceptions of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), often reinforcing emotional reactions more than scientific understanding. A new experimental study published

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

Scientists found a “lost world” of animals that shouldn’t exist yet

Strategic angle: A remarkable fossil discovery in southwest China is rewriting the story of how complex animal life began, showing that many key animal groups appeared millions of years earlier than scientists once believed. Dating back

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

Scientists discover the “Goldilocks” secret behind life on Earth

Strategic angle: Earth may have won a cosmic chemistry lottery. Researchers found that during the planet’s earliest formation, oxygen had to be in an extremely narrow “Goldilocks zone” for two life-essential elements, phosphorus and nitr

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

This “forbidden” exoplanet has an atmosphere scientists can’t explain

Strategic angle: A strange “forbidden” planet spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope is turning planetary science on its head. TOI-5205 b, a Jupiter-sized world orbiting a small, cool star, has an atmosphere surprisingly poor in heavy

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

New method rapidly analyzes cell proteins and metabolites

Strategic angle: Researchers at Cedars-Sinai have developed a fast, new technique for analyzing cells, described in the journal Angewandte Chemie. The approach, called single-injection multi-omics analysis by direct infusion (SMAD), can

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

How an eye physician who translated classical Greek medicine into Arabic helped form Western medical thought

Strategic angle: A medieval ophthalmologist who translated Greek works by Galen, Hippocrates, and Plato into Arabic played a pivotal role in shaping Western medical scholarship, according to a study published in the journal Cogent Arts a

Editorial Staff Apr 7

Life

By age 7, most children quickly spot individuals' social biases toward social groups, study finds

Strategic angle: Most elementary school-aged children have a surprising cognitive ability: they can detect—nearly as well as adults—when someone treats people from one social group differently than another. The study, "Children's and adu

Editorial Staff Apr 7