When teenage Ron Hart accidentally walks through a glass door, he lands in the ER on the worst possible day: a tornado drill, and after a car accident leaves all of her teeth bent inward, Di Cai begins to rethink her life as a scientist.
Read MoreBreaking Barriers: Stories about succeeding despite the odds
Determined to become an academic, Rajyashree Sen must take on a broken system to secure a spot in a PhD program in Vienna, and Josh Barber dreams of studying fish, but when his father goes to jail and his mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, he’s left to care for his nine younger siblings.
Read MoreNot The One: Stories about ill-fated partners
When Mark Pitzer gets splashed with methyl cyanide, he turns to his new girlfriend in hopes of comfort, and hoping to impress his scientist date, Adam Selbst plans the perfect outing: the Central Park Squirrel Census.
Read MoreBest of Story Collider: Fight or Flight
Climate scientist Kim Cobb is exploring a cave in Borneo when rocks begin to fall, and neurobiologist Lyl Tomlinson is startled when he's accused of stealing cocaine from his former lab.
Read MoreLoss for Words: Stories about troubles communicating
After living with a stutter all her life, Sara Street thinks coding might be the solution to her communication problems, and electrical engineer Anna Fox longs to share her work with her family, but struggles with how to explain it.
Read MoreSpiritual Crossroads: Stories about conflicting beliefs
Neuroscientist Lauren Vetere is excited to see if real life will mimic science at an interfaith event, and growing up as a devout Jew, Fred Gould’s relationship with God is shaken by existential philosophy and science.
Read MoreFamily Ties: Stories about our roots
As a teenager, Mark Pagan worries that having an old dad is affecting his social development, and curious about his DNA, Christopher Rivas takes his father on a journey to the Dominican Republic to learn about his family history.
Read MoreBest of Story Collider: Representation
While serving on a diversity panel, biologist Latasha Wright is asked if representation in STEM matters, prompting her to reflect on her experiences, and LFC’s childhood experiences with nature – and with bigotry – come together to inform her career in environmentalism.
Read MoreSelf-Image: Stories about how we see ourselves
Fangfang Ruose fears that her prosthetic legs will exclude her from becoming a fashion model, and when engineering student Devan Sandiford runs into an old friend from his former college, he desperately wants her to think he’s cool
Read MoreWill You Be My Valentine?: Stories about using science to find love
After Tony Dahlman plucks up the courage to ask out a fellow statistician, he consults the Survey Administration Manual for guidance on how to construct the perfect date, and when engineering student Heather Monigan asks liberal arts major Michael Berger on a date he’s completely unaware that she's interested in him.
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