Stories by Christie Aschwanden

Some practical advice for how to sit, happily, joyfully, with uncertainty—and in doing so, grow and learn from it.

The incentives in science don’t always encourage openness—but being wrong might just be the key to getting it right.

The tale of how the "backfire effect" ultimately, itself, backfired, and what scientists can learn from being wrong

We think that what we see represents stone-cold reality. Science has found out how wrong we can be.

Inspiration, creativity, discovery—all of these things start from a place of not knowing, and these researchers know how to navigate those uncertainties.​

Does the word "uncertainty" make you nervous? Would you say it kinda describes the state of the world these days? Enter Uncertain, a new limited podcast series from Scientific American that will change the way you think about that word.

Most people naturally have good vitamin D levels. Overhyped claims that the compound helps to fight diseases from cancer to depression aren’t borne out by recent research

Workers are anxious because the coronavirus is still infecting people. Here are ways to evaluate the safety of a shared work space

The pandemic is teaching us key lessons about how people respond to crisis and misinformation, and it is spurring changes in the way scientists study public health questions

Experts suggest limiting travel and keeping Thanksgiving and other celebrations small and outdoors

The new political polarization casts rivals as alien, unlikable and morally contemptible

Why proposals to largely let the virus run its course—embraced by Donald Trump’s administration and others—are a false promise

President Trump and other conspiracy fantasists touted the fake claim that COVID death counts are exaggerated. But three kinds of evidence point to more than 350,000 deaths*

The state went after the disease with widespread testing and science-based targets. Now it is in better shape than its neighbors

Despite tracing’s success in other countries, the U.S. government has failed to adequately fund or apply the tool

As few as 10 percent of infected people may drive a whopping 80 percent of cases in specific types of situations