Sarah Zhang
In 2021, she was a Livingston Award finalist for her reporting on Down syndrome. Before joining The Atlantic, she was a staff writer at Wired. She covers science and health.
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Courtesy of Kidipadeli75 A Dentist Found a Jawbone in a Floor Tile
Fossils are quite common in this type of stone, but human-looking ones are not.
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Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. The Bone-Marrow-Transplant Revolution
Finding a matched donor has always been the major challenge. A drug has solved that problem.
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MANICO / Getty Why a Cognitive Scientist Put a Head Cam on His Baby
The perspective of a child could help AI learn language—and tell us more about how humans manage the same feat.
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Millennium Images / Gallery Stock The Mothers Who Aren’t Waiting to Give Their Children Cystic-Fibrosis Drugs
A new treatment can change a person’s life, but is not officially approved for anyone under 2.
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Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: The Herald Sun; … DNA Tests Are Uncovering the True Prevalence of Incest
People are discovering the truth about their biological parents with DNA—and learning that incest is far more common than many think.
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Fumi Nagasaka for The Atlantic The Cystic-Fibrosis Breakthrough That Changed Everything
The disease once guaranteed an early death—but a new treatment has given many patients a chance to live decades longer than expected. What do they do now?
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Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. The Science Behind Ozempic Was Wrong
The weight-loss effects of GLP-1 drugs have little to do with the gut.
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Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Artem Hvozdkov; MirageC … Ozempic Makes You Lose More Than Fat
Existing weight-loss drugs can cause muscle loss, but the next generation could allow patients to gain muscle instead.
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Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. The Ozempic Plateau
Everyone hits a weight-loss plateau, but the race is on for next-generation drugs that can help patients lose even more weight.
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Bettmann / Getty When Did Humans First Start Wearing Clothes?
No one can know exactly, but archaeologists have found a few unexpected clues.
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Matt Huynh Trump’s Polarization of Science Is Bad for Everyone
A reelected Donald Trump would continue to attack studies that stand in the way of his agenda—and to make support for scientific inquiry a tribal belief.
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Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. The CRISPR Era Is Here
The much-hyped technology for editing genes has fulfilled one of its biggest promises.
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Photo-illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. Everything I Thought I Knew About Nasal Congestion Is Wrong
Start with this: You really have two noses.
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Illustration by Jared Bartman / The Atlantic. Source: … How a Common Stomach Bug Causes Cancer
Half the people in the world harbor this bacterium, but it sickens only a fraction. Why?
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Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. A Truly Amazing Vaccine Breakthrough Is Hiding in Plain Sight
The COVID shots—and new ones for RSV—herald a new era for designing vaccines.
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Christina Assi / AFP / Getty COVID Drugs Are a Miracle Cure for Cats
Leftover medications are going to save the animals from a deadly feline coronavirus.
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Source: Getty Why Has a Useless Cold Medication Been Allowed on Shelves for Years?
Studies prove that popular decongestants just don’t work.
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Artur Widak / NurPhoto / Getty How Bad Could BA.2.86 Get?
Until the future of the new COVID variant becomes clear, three scenarios are still possible.
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Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. Doctors Suddenly Got Way Better at Treating Eczema
New drugs target specific parts of the immune system, with startling results.
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Auke-Florian Hiemstra The Most Metal Bird Nests You’ll Ever See
Magpies are using anti-bird spikes for their own purposes.
