Erin Barker struggles with a disease that only makes her give up four things; they just happen to be the four things worth living for.

In the IBM pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair, Jamy Ian Swiss encounters a computer that reveals a piece in personality, although maybe not in the way it's inventor intended.

Darlene Cavalier, a former professional cheerleader, had always felt like science wasn't for people like her. But then a chance conversation leads her to learn more about science, and even more about cheerleaders, than she ever imagined.

In a high-stakes race in high school, Jim O'Grady draws from his mother's Bronx background for inspiration.

When science writer David Dobbs is suddenly unable to remember how to drive his kids to school, he sets off on a quest to understand his own brain, and makes a shocking discovery.

While hunting for fossils of some of Earth's oldest organisms, paleontologist Phoebe Cohen and her geologist friend encounter a problem with one of Earth's more recently evolved organisms.

As a young man Tom Levenson tries to follow his deceased father's advice, and takes a wide detour that leads him to contemplate life at the base of Newton's tree.

Writer Blaise Allysen Kearsley asks the question: how do you learn about sexuality when no one tells you anything useful, and everyone else seems to know what they're doing?

In 2007, Matt Danzico engages in a massive project to show that strangers on the internet can be trusted -- and finds himself in the middle of nowhere with a broken-down bus and a stranger with a gun.

At ten years old, David Gelles finds himself abandoned and swimming in an ocean with a storm coming. Alone. Except for the pod of dolphins.

A young social worker, working with a military vet, discovers that part of his own shame is one of the most powerful tools in therapy.

As a college student majoring in Chemistry, Eric Feldman becomes obsessed with a single idea: molecules aren’t real.

Steve Zimmer goes back to grad school in a biology lab — a place where the social dynamics are more intricate than the science.

Meghan Groome encounters a young science teachers rite of passage: teaching sex-ed. But it’s not until her honors class that the full reality hits her.

As Ed Gavagan watches medical students practice sutures on the subway, he remembers his own traumatic experience.

New York Times reporter Amy Harmon is making no progress on her story about an autistic man trying to live and work independently — until she finds a way to reconnect with her subject matter.

A teacher and his study of the zebra mussel reproductive system inspire Charlie Foster to make a dramatic change in himself.

Adam Becker’s communications with Neil deGrasse Tyson about an error at the Hayden Planetarium lead to an unexpected correction.

As a teenager, Daily Show writer Hallie Haglund had a complicated relationship with her English teacher — one that became even more complicated when they ventured into the wild.