Rivka Galchen
Rivka Galchen, a staff writer at The New Yorker, has contributed fiction and nonfiction to the magazine since 2008. She writes often about science and medicine; her subjects have also included P. G. Wodehouse, Karl May, and her own neighborhood. Galchen has an M.D. from the Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine. Her work has been anthologized in the Best American series and elsewhere, and she has previously been a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books, Harper’s, and the Times Magazine. She is an author of novels for adults and children, in addition to collections of essays and stories. Her 2021 novel “Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch” centers on the true history of the witch trial of the mother of the astronomer Johannes Kepler.
How the Tiger Really Got His Stripes
People have wondered forever what determines the patterns that animals wear. We’re starting to figure it out.
The Dawn of the Bionic Man
From the daily newsletter: Rivka Galchen reports on revolutionary prosthetics. Plus: the best TV of 2024; remembering Nikki Giovanni; and are you overreacting?
A Bionic Leg Controlled by the Brain
A new kind of prosthetic limb depends on carbon fibre and computer chips—and the reëngineering of muscles, tendons, and bone.
How Scientists Started to Decode Birdsong
Language is said to make us human. What if birds talk, too?
The Veterinarians Preventing the Next Pandemic
Most new diseases have their origins in animals. So why aren’t we paying more attention to their health?
Bela Borsodi’s Luminous Images of Children and Their Drawings
First, the kids drew their dreams. Then they posed next to them, in bed. The resulting black-and-white photos reveal the emotional realism that lies behind the fantastical.
Are We Doomed? Here’s How to Think About It
Climate change, artificial intelligence, nuclear annihilation, biological warfare—the field of existential risk is a way to reason through the dizzying, terrifying headlines.
The Peculiar Delights of the Enormous Cicada Emergence
As loud as leaf blowers, as miraculous as math, the insects are set to overtake the landscape.
A Guide to the Total Solar Eclipse
Eclipses dazzled the ancient world. Now that we understand them better, they may be even more miraculous.
Black Holes Are Even Weirder Than You Imagined
It’s now thought that they could illuminate fundamental questions in physics, settle questions about Einstein’s theories, and even help explain the universe.
Thinking About A.I. with Stanisław Lem
The science-fiction writer didn’t live to see ChatGPT, but he foresaw so much of its promise and peril.
Trials of the Witchy Women
Across seven centuries, women have been accused of witchcraft—but what that means often differs wildly, revealing the anxieties of each particular society.
Inside the Illegal Cactus Trade
As the craze for succulents continues, sometimes the smuggler and the conservationist are the same person.
Reinventing the Dinosaur
“Life on Our Planet,” a new Netflix nature documentary, renews our fascination with our most feared and loved precursors.
Life After “Calvin and Hobbes”
Bill Watterson’s return to print, after nearly three decades, comes in the form of a fable called “The Mysteries,” which shares with his famous comic strip a sense of enchantment.
What Insects Go Through Is Even Weirder Than We Thought
A scientist suggests that the startling science of metamorphosis has a new dimension.
The Magnificence of the Bluefin Tuna
Karen Pinchin’s “Kings of Their Own Ocean” gives us a new look at the beauty and the importance of an ancient fish.
A New Approach to M.S. Could Transform Treatment of Other Diseases
Multiple sclerosis was once seen as a “dead-end disease.” But lots of little interventions have added up to remarkable progress. Should that change how we take on other conditions?
The Astounding Birth of a Gorilla at the Smithsonian Zoo
Breeding in zoos fuses science and nature in striking ways.
How the Tiger Really Got His Stripes
People have wondered forever what determines the patterns that animals wear. We’re starting to figure it out.
The Dawn of the Bionic Man
From the daily newsletter: Rivka Galchen reports on revolutionary prosthetics. Plus: the best TV of 2024; remembering Nikki Giovanni; and are you overreacting?
A Bionic Leg Controlled by the Brain
A new kind of prosthetic limb depends on carbon fibre and computer chips—and the reëngineering of muscles, tendons, and bone.
How Scientists Started to Decode Birdsong
Language is said to make us human. What if birds talk, too?
The Veterinarians Preventing the Next Pandemic
Most new diseases have their origins in animals. So why aren’t we paying more attention to their health?
Bela Borsodi’s Luminous Images of Children and Their Drawings
First, the kids drew their dreams. Then they posed next to them, in bed. The resulting black-and-white photos reveal the emotional realism that lies behind the fantastical.
Are We Doomed? Here’s How to Think About It
Climate change, artificial intelligence, nuclear annihilation, biological warfare—the field of existential risk is a way to reason through the dizzying, terrifying headlines.
The Peculiar Delights of the Enormous Cicada Emergence
As loud as leaf blowers, as miraculous as math, the insects are set to overtake the landscape.
A Guide to the Total Solar Eclipse
Eclipses dazzled the ancient world. Now that we understand them better, they may be even more miraculous.
Black Holes Are Even Weirder Than You Imagined
It’s now thought that they could illuminate fundamental questions in physics, settle questions about Einstein’s theories, and even help explain the universe.
Thinking About A.I. with Stanisław Lem
The science-fiction writer didn’t live to see ChatGPT, but he foresaw so much of its promise and peril.
Trials of the Witchy Women
Across seven centuries, women have been accused of witchcraft—but what that means often differs wildly, revealing the anxieties of each particular society.
Inside the Illegal Cactus Trade
As the craze for succulents continues, sometimes the smuggler and the conservationist are the same person.
Reinventing the Dinosaur
“Life on Our Planet,” a new Netflix nature documentary, renews our fascination with our most feared and loved precursors.
Life After “Calvin and Hobbes”
Bill Watterson’s return to print, after nearly three decades, comes in the form of a fable called “The Mysteries,” which shares with his famous comic strip a sense of enchantment.
What Insects Go Through Is Even Weirder Than We Thought
A scientist suggests that the startling science of metamorphosis has a new dimension.
The Magnificence of the Bluefin Tuna
Karen Pinchin’s “Kings of Their Own Ocean” gives us a new look at the beauty and the importance of an ancient fish.
A New Approach to M.S. Could Transform Treatment of Other Diseases
Multiple sclerosis was once seen as a “dead-end disease.” But lots of little interventions have added up to remarkable progress. Should that change how we take on other conditions?
The Astounding Birth of a Gorilla at the Smithsonian Zoo
Breeding in zoos fuses science and nature in striking ways.