The Hunt for Wonder Drugs at the North Pole
In a race against antibiotic resistance, a Norwegian research team sails into the Arctic darkness.
Life Up Close
Traveling the world to see microbes, plants, and animals in oceans, grasslands, forests, deserts, the icy poles—and wherever else they may be.
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This work was commissioned, produced, and edited by The Atlantic's editorial staff. Support for this work was provided in part by the organizations listed here.
Life Up Close is a project of The Atlantic, supported by the HHMI Department of Science Education.
The Blesser’s Curse
How sugar daddies and vaginal microbes created the world’s largest HIV epidemic
Something Mysterious Is Killing Captive Gorillas
For a decade, zookeepers have known that something strange was stopping the giant animals’ hearts—now they’re beginning to trace the culprit to their guts.
Urban Bird Feeders Are Changing the Course of Evolution
More than 50 million Americans are conducting an unwitting experiment on a vast scale. I joined them from my Manhattan high-rise.
Why Do We Need to Sleep?
At a shiny new lab in Japan, an international team of scientists is trying to figure out what puts us under.
The Zombie Diseases of Climate Change
What lurks in the Arctic’s thawing permafrost?