Cover Story
The Prophet: Meet Dave Ramsey, America's Personal Finance Guru
Meet Dave Ramsey, the most important personal finance guru in America. Millions of people follow his biblically inspired advice. It goes like this: 1. Purge yourself of debt; 2. Live on cash; 3. Pretend economic trends don't affect you; 4. Blame yourself when they do.
The Social Life of Genes: Shaping Your Molecular Composition
Your DNA is not a blueprint. Day by day, week by week, your genes are in a conversation with your surroundings. Your neighbors, your family, your feelings of loneliness: They don't just get under your skin, they get into the control rooms of your cells. Inside the new social science of genetics.
The Upside of Trauma
Worries about post-traumatic stress have become a stock part of the media narrative surrounding tragedies like Boston and Newtown. And resilience is supposedly the best we can hope for in the face of adversity. But what if there's a third option? The story of one mass shooting, and the surprising tug of post-traumatic growth.
How the Trailer Park Could Save Us All
A healthy, inexpensive, environmentally friendly solution for housing millions of retiring baby boomers is staring us in the face. We just know it by a dirty name.
The Fuzzy Face of Climate Change
Advocates and scientists have tied the Earth’s fate to that of the polar bear. But what happens if this lumbering giant proves more resilient than the rest of us?
A Giant Leap Forward
Forced to go it alone into space, China has reaped the benefits of building an aerospace industry from the ground up. Now that the future of America's program looks most uncertain, China may be poised to slingshot ahead.
The Governor's Last Stand
California's Jerry Brown—now pragmatic, but still profane—is banking on a last-gasp proposal known as Proposition 30 to save the biggest economy in the nation.
A State of Military Mind
To train future soldiers, the Department of Defense is using new technologies and centuries-old techniques, like yoga and meditation, to hone their minds, help them make better decisions on the battlefield, and prevent trauma.
Why Obama Is Looking West
The nations that ring the Pacific have half the world's consumers, half the world’s trade, and half the global GDP. No wonder the administration is quietly shifting its policies westward.
Is Radiation Actually Good For Some of Us?
By age 10, most people are exposed to enough radiation to be at risk, but the science is so complicated that exposure could even have benefits.
California's Medical Marijuana Morass
In Northern California, where the drug laws can change with the mile markers, a supplier of medical marijuana risks going one toke over the (county) line.
LAPD Cracks Cold Cases With Science, Grit
Since the LAPD's cold case unit began 10 years ago, detectives have used science to arrest serial killers and dozens of others who thought they had gotten away with murder.
Teacher Collaboration Gives Schools Better Results
The world’s best school systems depend on teacher collaboration, but the concept has not caught on in the U.S. We found schools where teamwork is making a difference.
CSI: Wildlife — Solving Mysterious Animal Deaths
Carol Meteyer solves cases of mysterious wildlife death using advanced forensic skills to help prosecute people who kill animals in violation of federal law.
Are New Solar Power Projects Anti-Environmental?
Big money, big energy and big environmentalism join forces to support big solar energy projects on federal land in the Southwest. But could these "green" projects actually be anti-environmental boondoggles in the making?
The Bad Daddy Factor
Drinking, smoking, taking prescription meds or failing to eat a balanced diet can influence the health of men's future children.
Ocean Sequestration of Carbon: The World's Best Bad Idea for Combatting Climate Change
Putting carbon dioxide in the ocean is a terrible way to deal with climate change. Maybe we should do it.
The Best Fiscal Stimulus: Trust
How the potent hormone of empathy, oxytocin, is shaking up the field of economics.
Is America's Science Education Gap Caused By Career Planning Fears?
It's not insufficient schooling or a shortage of scientists. It's a lack of job opportunities. Americans need the reasonable hope that spending their youth preparing to do science will provide a satisfactory career.
Make Birth Control, Not War
The human tendency toward war is based on biology, but the right family planning policies can redirect the world toward peace.
Can China Turn Cotton Green?
Producing 'natural' cotton clothing is a huge and filthy global business that, Chinese-commissioned research shows, will be extremely difficult to clean up.
The Ecstasy and the Agony
MDMA holds promise as part of a therapy that helps post-traumatic stress patients confront and extinguish their fears. But ecstasy's recreational reputation has slowed research.
Racism's Hidden Toll
Does the stress of living in a white-dominated society make African Americans get sick and die younger than their white counterparts? Apparently, yes.