The Story Collider

Ed Yong is ecstatic to get an interview with his hero, Sir David Attenborough, but he's not prepared for a lesson in what having a science hero really means.

Annalee Newitz comes to terms with grief while exploring the remains of a mysterious ancient city.

Against the odds, animal-loving kid Steve Zimmer attempts to rescue tadpoles in jeopardy.

Marine biologist Shayle Matsuda adapts to his new identity as a transgender man while on assignment in the Philippines.

Alone in the African rainforest and on the brink of death, entomologist Brian Fisher finds help from an unexpected source.

Married young and used to giving up her own dreams, Iranian student Matineh Eybpoosh moves to the U.S. to study civil engineering—and a whole new world opens up.

Oceanographer Jeffrey Schell finds himself in a race against time when he encounters swimmers stuck in a dangerous rip current.

While teaching a math class, Nisse Greenberg is troubled by his student's name, and his own.

A panicked day leads Karen Hopkin to wonder if her sperm donor really is the father of her child.

When Edward Frenkel is told he won't be accepted to a Russian university because his father is Jewish, he decides to take the admissions exam anyway.

Marine scientist Meredith has to navigate a whole new world when she's called upon to testify in front of the Maine legislature in support of a crucial bill.

Nelson Lugo has a brilliant idea for his grade school talent show -- use chemistry to do a simple magic trick. It did not go over well.

Musician Emily Caudill's life-saving chemotherapy treatment causes her to lose her hearing.

Erika Engelhaupt is on a road trip out to DC when suddenly they're pulled over and her boyfriend is arrested. She'll need science to vindicate her man.

At four years old, Daniel Miller became one of the youngest people in the state of Texas ever to testify in court -- against his own mother, for sexual assault. As an adult, he struggles for stability, but finds hope in physics. (Warning: this story contains disturbing and potentially triggering events.)

Daniel Engber risks derailing his PhD by constant daydreaming, until his neuroscience research gives him a idea that will revolutionize the NBA.

Cosmologist Eugene Lim is pulled into another world when he goes to help teach after the earthquake in Haiti.

Materials scientist Ainissa Ramirez never connected with her brothers' love of football until she unexpectedly ends up writing a book about it.

A cancer diagnosis is only the start of the collapse for Annalise Kaylor, but she finds support in an unexpected community.

A relationship bridging the divide between scientists and artists is reflected in a fight over where to store tomatoes.

Immunologist Sarah Schlesinger must try to save her mentor's life with his own work in cellular immunity.

Jodi Beggs's mother greatly underestimates how well her kindergartener understands economics.

Science writer Kathleen Raven's unexpected loss of hearing takes her on a journey with modern technology.

When he misses the opportunity to work with one of the most famous patients in neuroscience, Moran Cerf takes an unorthodox approach.

As a science teacher, Marjorie Winther has both entertaining and troubling times with her students, but when she brings them to the South she discovers a whole new side of them.

As a grad student, Margaret Geller is invited to a private island off the coast of Maine by legendary physicist John Wheeler and his wife, for a trip she'll never forget.

Science writer Carl Zimmer grew up loving monster movies, but he never guessed a real monster would show up in his own backyard.

Journalist Abby Rabinowitz embarks on a journey through India's burgeoning surrogacy industry in search of a missing baby.

In the midst of her search for life on other planets, astrophysicist Sara Seager's own world is shattered when her husband is told he has stage three cancer.

Writer Jack El-Hai worries about his own state of mind when he spends time in the files of the psychiatrist who examined Nazi leaders.

Doomed to be the waterboy after tearing his ACL, engineering student Baratunde Cola is determined to make it back to his college's football team.

For years, chemist Nick Hud struggles to share his work with his Catholic mother, until he finds help from a surprising source.

After a terrible head injury, Amy Cuddy wakes up in the hospital to find she's a different person.

Shannon Cason turns to science to save his tumultuous marriage.

When anxiety begins to overtake her, biology student Deena Walker begins to worry she'll end up just like her mentally ill sister.

Charles Van Rees desperately pursues a bird through the desert for the sake of data.

Amy Dixon is passionate about becoming a hospice nurse, but finds she can't fully understand what the families she works with are going through--until one day.

An accidental revelation causes Rabiah Mayas to question her identity.

Jesse Dunietz wasn't thrilled to be the one assigned to the music portion of his high school science team -- the one part of the team that was definitely going to lose.

Marine biologist Skylar Bayer faces her fears to go on a deep-ocean dive aboard the Alvin submersible, and ends up getting more than she expected.

Tonia Pinheiro is conflicted when her doctor's instructions seem dangerous

For a young Brad Lawrence, fears of a nuclear apocalypse are put into perspective by his mother, at first intentionally.

As a chemistry student, Rowena Fletcher-Wood has to reconstruct the structure of chemicals, and a relationship with a friend, by interpreting complex data.

When Kishore Hari is hired to run a new science festival he thinks he has the perfect plan, but the reality was much more than he expected.

After abandoning a love of flying, a former military officer gets behind the controls of a plane for the first time.