I first saw Frank when I was twelve, a jittery small-town California girl during my first week in a public school at the weedy edge of town after six years at tiny St. Thomas Elementary School.

Science is showing how healthy soil can help save the planet—and how we can all help improve what lies beneath our feet.

It’s generally thought that religion contributed to political and social unification in ancient times, but research in southern Mexico indicates that wasn’t always the case.

Invisible worlds, ultimate partners. A crescendo of evidence points to the central role of microorganisms — bacteria, viruses, fungi and algae — in the health of oceans, forests, soils, plants, humans and other animals. 

Research in Belizean caves has revealed paleoclimate data indicating the Maya suffered a series of droughts from the seventh through tenth centuries. The research also shows how the Maya beseeched their gods to end the droughts, the latest of which coincided with their collapse.

A century ago, Congress created the national park system — and ended up preserving some of the best research sites in the world.

Research by geologist Gerald Matisoff and colleagues assists efforts to improve water quality in Lake Erie.

Scientists, farmers, and chefs are developing new varieties of produce from heirloom seeds. It will make life better for organic farmers—and yummier for everyone else.

Herbs were our first wonder drugs, and they remain powerful medicine to this day. Here are health-promoting plants to know now.

There are thousands and thousands of bees that are not honeybees out there, pollinating our flowers and helping plants produce food. Who knew?

Mental health is not all in our heads. Nutrition is an oft-ignored — yet incredibly effective — way to manage mental illness, including schizophrenia.

We took our elderly father to the small California towns where our family lived – Oroville, Quincy, and Meadow Valley. What I found over and over was a rupture between memory and place, as well as a vast gulf between my older siblings’ past and mine.

Dee Ann Story became an archaeologist when men dominated the profession. Nonetheless, she made an indelible mark as an excavator, preservationist, and teacher.

Would you kill a crying baby to save yourself and others from hostile soldiers outside? Neuroscience offers new ways to approach such moral questions, allowing logic to triumph over deep-rooted instinct.

One of the simplest keys to fighting global warming may be right under our feet.

As the winter snows thaw, visitors flock to the popular national park to see frazil ice, moonbows and other seasonal sights.

On their way to a park built in the shadow of Bamiyan’s Buddhas, two Americans encounter remnants of war and signs of promise.

A man with a mission, with the help of a few friends, turns a 2,000–acre patchwork of forest into a home for herbs—herbs different than the smoking kind raised by neighbors.

In tasteful black-and-white photos, the nonprofit Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep captures the bittersweet farewell of parents and their lost babies.

An odd and affecting monument stands off a Nevada highway as a testament to one man’s passions.

Behind the locked–down walls of Afghanistan's capital Kabul, a designer addresses women joined in the name of fashion, combining traditional Afghan motifs with modern flair in the land of the burka.

In Franceís Loire Valley, domesticated cave dwellings, known as troglodyte homes, offer a history as rich as the regionís chateaus.

Not only does fast food tend to be unhealthy, but some of its ingredients are downright addictive. Here's how to kick the habit.

A gracious and venerably lined great-grandmother in a sequined gown pushed the plate of snacks at me. It was a small white dish, the only evidence of the wedding feast to come. A crowd of children eyed its passage across the table disconsolately.

Low-calorie food replacements have promised to make our weight-loss dreams come true, but research indicates that these pseudo-foods rarely deliver. In fact, they may set our weight-loss efforts back.

From his tasting room on the hilly outskirts of Oroville, Calif., Jamie Johannson can hear the workers picking his olives. Even when they are too far away for him to hear their voices, he can still detect the wind-chime-like clamor of them at work.

Entrepreneurs create jobs and opportunities while making money in Afghanistan.

Making ethanol from skunk beer? Forward-thinking entrepreneurs and their innovations  in the field of renewable clean energy. 

No one was making predictions about this child's capabilities. Twenty-seven years later, his mother still gets caught off guard.

Nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Included among the notable essays in Best American Essays 2005.

Imagine my shock. I was sitting in my office looking out the window, when a friend called and said—very slowly so I couldn't miss the urgency—“Go to your radio and switch it over to AM and turn it to 1100. Rush Limbaugh is talking about you and your book right now.”

Studying twins is still a vital tool for 21st century geneticists, even with the human genome map at their fingertips. Kristin Ohlson gets stuck into the nature-nurture debate.

James Beck '52 leads an ardent campaign against potentially damaging restorations. Professional conservators disagree.

Census 2000 data imply that marriage is waning. But the figures don’t tell us the full story. Exchanging vows is still the path of choice for many couples—those with and without the legal right to do so.

Art Conservator Ellen Baxter was baffled. The morning after a gala exhibition opening at Pittsburgh's Andy Warhol Museum, she discovered someone had planted a kiss on a vintage Warhol painting— "Bathtub"— and left behind a full-lipped imprint of bright red lipstick.

PAINESVILLE, OH—His hands held high over his head, Michael Warren jabbed at his thumb with a knife as bright and shiny as the phalanx of motorcycles that surrounded him. Some people in the crowd winced and turned away, but when they looked back again, Mr. Warren still had not managed to tease out the drop of ritual blood.

When Martha Drury’s father told her she’d find a few more dollars in her bank account —it would be $3 million, to be precise— she was overwhelmed by more than gratitude. She was also struck by a staggering sense of obligation to others and even fear of the implications of this sudden fortune.