The Leading Edge

For C.J. Hardin, an Army veteran, dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder is an everyday feat. After years of pills and therapy failed to help his disorder, Hardin knew he needed an alternative. So he turned to a surprising substitute that’s at the forefront of a revolution in neuroscience and medicine: psychedelics like MDMA and psilocybin. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien reports. Continue reading →

Limitless power with virtually no greenhouse gases or radioactive waste. If that sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is. For decades, researchers have looked for ways to control, confine and sustain fusion as an energy source. But there has been a lot of progress on a small scale, building on years of physics understanding and progress. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien reports. Continue reading →

President Obama is passionate, and vocal, about combating climate change. As his tenure draws to a close, science correspondent Miles O’Brien reviews the administration’s environmental policy — from the 2009 “cap-and-trade” climate bill, to the 2015 Paris accord, to executive orders on greenhouse gas emissions — in assessing the president’s legacy. Continue reading →

The next generation of nuclear power is coming, as concerns about climate change bring the industry out of hibernation. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien reports on how new startups and young scientists are hoping to develop solutions for safely generating vast amounts of nuclear energy. Continue reading →

What did 2016 mean for science? Science correspondent Miles O’Brien sits down with William Brangham to discuss some of the more remarkable discoveries, innovations and setbacks this year, including the confirmation of one of Einstein’s major predictions, the global outbreak of Zika, a breakthrough in gene editing, self-driving cars and more. Continue reading →

Over a thousand years ago, Polynesians followed the stars in the Mauna Kea sky on their path to Hawaii. Those stars are now of interest to astronomers, who believe the mountain’s summit is the perfect spot to build a giant, cutting-edge telescope. But native Hawaiians view that peak as a sacred space. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien reports for the second in our series about the controversy. Continue reading →

Astronomers believe that the perfect spot for the next big observatory is atop the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. But the proposed location for the $1.4 billion project is on land sacred to the native Hawaiian culture, and a legal challenge over the project has halted construction. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien reports. Continue reading →

The Breakthrough Prizes honor scientific achievements with the largest cash prizes in the field. Hari Sreenivasan speaks with science correspondent Miles O’Brien for more on this year’s winners. Continue reading →

In California’s Salinas Valley, known as the “Salad Bowl of the World,” a push is underway to expand agriculture’s adoption of technology. The mobile app HeavyConnect, for example, enables farm managers to track personnel and equipment efficiently. Special correspondent Cat Wise reports on how such innovation is providing new opportunities for the Valley’s largely Hispanic population. Continue reading →

Can aggressive counseling bring someone back from the brink of radicalization? Science correspondent Miles O’Brien explores the psychological basis for why people are drawn to extremist groups and how a bold experiment in criminal justice and clinical psychology taking place in Minnesota may offer a solution. Continue reading →