Past Stories by Subject

Profile: Maydianne Andrade - July 2009
By peering into the sex lives of black widow spiders, this evolutionary biologist has shown the upside of cannibalism.

Profile: Bonnie Bassler - Jan. 2007
Her insight into how bacteria "talk" has launched a revolution in biological and medical research.

Profile: Sangeeta Bhatia - July 2009
Intrigued by the idea of artificial organs, a biomedical engineer uses computer-chip technology to craft tiny livers.

Profile: Cynthia Breazeal - Nov. 2006
A daring engineer designs robots to communicate and interact the way people do.

Profile: Brothers Chudnovsky - July 2005
The story of two brilliant mathematicians, a unicorn, and a homemade supercomputer

Profile: Tyler Curiel - Jan. 2006
In the midst of Hurricane Katrina a cancer researcher risks everything to save a medical treasure.

Profile: Franklin Chang-Díaz - July 2009
The first Latino-American astronaut is also a scientist designing a new generation of plasma-powered space vehicles.

Profile: Hany Farid - June 2008
This self-proclaimed "accidental scientist" is a digital detective inventing new ways to tell if photos have been faked.

Profile: Judah Folkman - July 2008
Once scorned for his ideas about how cancer grows, the late Judah Folkman is now hailed as a visionary.

Profile: Naomi Halas - Apr. 2005
Naomi Halas is a pioneering nanotechnologist bent on seeing practical applications for her work—and soon.

Profile: Karl Iagnemma - Oct. 2006
An innovative MIT roboticist is also an acclaimed fiction writer.

Profile: Erich Jarvis - Oct. 2005
The work of neuroscientist Erich Jarvis demonstrates the power of open-mindedness in the lab.

Profile: Yoky Matsuoka - July 2008
A former tennis prodigy aims to create advanced prosthetic limbs controlled by human thought.

Profile: James McLurkin - Jan. 2005
James McLurkin of MIT is one of the world's leading designers of robot "swarms"—groups of robots that work together for a greater purpose.

Profile: Arlie Petters - July 2007
A boy from a rural village in Belize grows up to become a world-class mathematician and cosmologist.

Profile: Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa - July 2008
He jumped the fence from Mexico to work as a farmhand and ended up a leading brain surgeon.

Profile: Pardis Sabeti - July 2008
By night she's a rocker. By day, she's a Harvard geneticist tracking the evolution of the human genome.

Profile: Julie Schablitsky - July 2007
Meet an archeologist who is helping to rewrite the history of the Old West.

Profile: Lonnie Thompson - July 2009
A climatologist struggles to save ancient history preserved in ice that is now melting.

Profile: Luis von Ahn - June 2009
A computer scientist finds novel ways to stop spammers and harness the brainpower of millions of people.

Profile: Edith Widder - July 2008
Meet a marine biologist and explorer who has engineered new ways to spy on deep-sea creatures.