Science & Health

News and updates from the health and science team. Topics include genetics, infectious disease, psychology, and more.

The northern lights could be a lot farther south tonight

A wave of magnetized particles from the sun will strike Earth over the next few days and light up the skies.

By Umair Irfan

The Colorado River drought is so bad you can see it from space

More water cuts are coming as the nation’s largest reservoirs continue to dry up in the worst drought in 1,200 years.

By Umair Irfan

Airlines are trying to resurrect the Concorde era

By Rebecca Heilweil August 17

Anal and oral sex spread monkeypox. Let’s talk about it.

By Keren Landman August 17

We talk about heat waves in a weird way

By Neel Dhanesha August 17

The ovarian “biological clock” and other reproductive health metaphors that have led science astray

By Byrd Pinkerton August 17

4 underrated parts of the Inflation Reduction Act

By Rebecca Leber August 16

The US finally has a law to tackle climate change

By Rebecca Leber August 16

Hidden inside the Inflation Reduction Act: $20 billion to help fix our farms

By Benji Jones August 16

The Inflation Reduction Act, explained

By Emily Stewart, Li Zhou, and 1 more August 16

How the Western drought is pushing the power grid to the brink

By Umair Irfan August 16

11 Updates

A worldwide monkeypox outbreak

By Vox Staff August 14

New York’s polio crisis, explained

By Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg August 12

Fight climate change. End fossilflation. Here’s how.

By Rebecca Leber August 12

The US monkeypox response is failing queer men

By Alex Abad-Santos August 11

Listen to the heartbeat of the largest animal to have ever lived

By Benji Jones August 11

The search for an AC that doesn’t destroy the planet

By Rebecca Heilweil August 10

Where climate change has brought too much water — and too little

By Neel Dhanesha August 9

7 of your most pressing monkeypox vaccine questions, answered

By Keren Landman August 8

Meanwhile, Congress is set to pass a huge wildlife conservation bill with bipartisan support

By Benji Jones August 8

Should you get another Covid-19 vaccine booster now or wait for the new shots?

By Umair Irfan and Keren Landman August 4

Did shark attacks eat into Woodrow Wilson’s votes in 1916?

By Dylan Matthews August 4

The US could stop one cause of heat wave deaths tomorrow

By Rebecca Leber August 3

Senate Republicans threatened to burn a bill that would have helped veterans. Here’s why.

By Tory Lysik and Li Zhou August 2

President Biden has rebound Covid. How risky is that?

By Vox Staff August 1

Down to Earth

Why scientists are desperate to find a salamander that’s been missing for 71 years

More than 2,000 species worldwide are considered lost. Could finding them avert extinctions?

By Benji Jones August 1

The smallpox vaccine stockpile isn’t the monkeypox solution we need — yet

By Keren Landman July 29

The key to universal Covid-19 vaccines lies in your bones

By Umair Irfan July 29

Why Russia is abandoning the International Space Station

By Rebecca Heilweil July 26

We’ve all got Covid-19 fatigue, but BA.5 shows it’s not over

By Ellen Ioanes July 24

What keeping secrets does to you

By Sean Illing July 24

Why the WHO finally declared monkeypox a global public health emergency

By Keren Landman July 23

Beavers are heat wave heroes

By Benji Jones July 22

Europe’s gas crisis is here

By Jen Kirby July 21

Congress failed on climate. What can Biden do now?

By Rebecca Leber July 20

Why the new James Webb Space Telescope images are such a big deal

By Brian Resnick July 20

It’s so hot in Europe that roads are literally buckling

By Neel Dhanesha and Benji Jones July 20

Europe is burning like it’s 2052

By Umair Irfan July 19

The return of the “worm wars”

By Kelsey Piper July 19

BA.5 doesn’t care that you just had Covid-19

By Umair Irfan July 17

Why BA.5 is cause for concern, but not alarm. Yet.

By Keren Landman July 15

A needed nuclear option for climate change

By Bryan Walsh July 12