When record executives tried to mold Franklin's sound to their liking, her career sputtered. Then legendary producer Jerry Wexler came along. His approach? Stay out of her way.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Queen of Soul
Analysis and Comment
Helium lifts balloons and makes our voices squeak. But its supply on Earth is finite and is critical for modern industrial processes and medical imaging in hospitals. How worried should we be?
Pollination by commercially raised bees is important to a variety of crops but none more than California almonds. In turn, beekeepers depend on them.
More than 16 million people in the U.S. take care of people with dementia. Could we learn something from how other cultures view dementia as more of a social disease rather than a lonely one?
The strengths of social media are also its weaknesses. Facebook must acknowledge that it has transformed from a startup company into a powerful social force.
And without white privilege, they wouldn't feel compelled to follow a white script.
Trump despises the media and says it's a threat to the American people. Yet the White House's daily newsletter scours the US to find good press, touting even tiny bits of praise from local newspapers.
On top of boosting South Sudan's development, these groups are showcasing what refugees can accomplish in the US.
Since China stopped importing 'foreign garbage' in March 2018, scrap – especially plastic – has built up in the US. Will this shock trigger long-overdue investments in plastic recycling here?
Stanley Andrisse was once branded a career criminal and served time in prison. Today, he is a professor at two medical schools and an advocate for higher education for those who've served time.
Christine Hallquist this week became the first trans person to win a major party's gubernatorial nomination. The percentage of trans adults has doubled since 2008. What's responsible for that change?
Violence and uncertainty has followed Zimbabwe's first modern election without Robert Mugabe. That's not surprising: After 38 years of dictatorship, it takes more than a vote to build democracy.
Programs that allow individuals to be supervised in the community instead of in prison are growing in a way that is not sustainable and is contributing to mass incarceration rather than relieving it.
A geologist explains the basics about these elements, which are crucial for modern electronics.
Bridge engineering does not end when construction finishes and traffic starts to flow.
Nutrition is a key part of learning, but it's often hard to get students to eat a healthful lunch. It can be even harder to pack one. Here are some nutritional and organizational tips.
Each year, Muslims from all over the world go on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, known as Hajj. A scholar explains its spiritual significance.
In 1979, David Duke told the media he had launched a wildly successful recruiting drive in Connecticut. A local reporter wanted to test Duke's claims – so he filled out an application to join the KKK.
As retro video games become more popular, research suggests players could be looking for nostalgia – and the psychological benefits it brings.
Research is yielding strategies for making plastics greener and more sustainable. But without support as they scale up, new versions will struggle to compete with well-established synthetic plastics.
Nobel prize winning author Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was as hard on himself as on others.
New legislation may boost growth rate of employee-owned companies in the US, easing the impact of one of the largest transfers of wealth in American history.
As the anniversary of Indonesian independence from the Netherlands approaches, a close look reveals how Dutch policy divides people along racial lines and ignores the Indonesian dead in that war.
Pregnant women often get medical information from social media and websites, many of which contain misleading and false information about vaccination. Could OB-GYNs help educate them better?
Hundreds of US cities have red light cameras to try to catch traffic violations and prevent accidents. But research shows that the cameras may encourage other types of accidents.
Research and News
Nineteen months in, Trump has nominated a candidate to fill the empty science adviser position. History demonstrates that the role is at least as political as it is scientific.
The FDA just a approved a new type of drug called siRNA. Here's how it works and why everyone is so excited about it.
Bio-based plastics made from natural sources break down more easily than conventional plastic, without producing toxic byproducts. But for this to happen they have to be composted, not buried in landfills.
An evolutionary biologist visits the remote jungle mountaintop where a little-known naturalist wrote his insightful paper about the mechanisms of evolution that spurred on a rivalrous Charles Darwin.
A jury concluded on Aug. 10 that exposure to the herbicide Roundup caused Dewayne Johnson's cancer and ordered the company to pay $289 million in damages. Thousands more claims are pending.
During epileptic seizures, neurons in the brain fire without rhyme or reason. New research identifies a possible way to wrest back control by stopping these signals before they can get started.
Technological professionals are the first, and last, lines of defense against the misuse of technology.
Rivers are natural boundaries for evolving populations. But scientists don't agree whether they create new species or just help maintain them. Research using birds' molecular clocks provides some answers.
Wildfires in California
With California suffering another devastating wildfire year, more people are wondering about whether and how global warming is contributing. A climate scientist explains.
Russia
Donald Trump admires Russian President Vladimir Putin. But Putin's track record over his career reveals a serial liar, and presents damning evidence of complicity in multiple critics' violent deaths.
Immigration
Nicaragua has exploded in violence since mass protests began against President Daniel Ortega in April, with hundreds dead and thousands wounded. Amid such chaos, criminal violence is likely to follow.
Plastic – taking stock of its impact
Research and Expert Database
Analysis from academics around the world
Editors’ Picks
One year after Charlottesville's white supremacist march, US racism is seen primarily as a Southern-grown problem. But Jim Crow laws started in the North, which has a long history of systemic racism.
Two business professors spent five years studying Walmart's ambition project to bring sustainability to its millions of budget-conscious customers – a plan that began with the birth of a granddaughter.
Critics say hologram tours exploit the dead for a quick buck. But there's something about Roy Orbison's ethereal mystique that makes this one a particularly fitting tribute.
Since US universities once stood at the forefront of the eugenics movement and its racist ideas, they should right the wrongs of the past by pursuing diversity on campus, two scholars argue.
Confrontational characters spouting conspiracy theories and fringe ideas have been around since American broadcasting began. With Alex Jones banished from the web, someone else will take his place.
American Sikhs have been the target of many racist attacks. An expert explains the Sikh faith and its history in the United States.
Cells that transmit nerve impulses in the part of elephants' brains responsible for functions such as learning and memory are structured differently from those of any other mammal.
Our social institutions and politics suffer from a collective arrested development – and our relationship to technology has only exacerbated this trend.
More than 6 million US citizens can't vote because they've been convicted of a felony. But states are beginning to change their laws. Will it make a difference?
One in 4 US women receives an abortion sometime in her life. Who are the women who choose to end their pregnancies?
With superpowers other animals can only dream of, these crustaceans challenge sharks for the title of most amazing predator in the sea.
The Ogalalla Aquifer is a vast underground lake that irrigates farms across the US Great Plains. It took thousands of years to fill, but human use could drain it in roughly a century.
In Texas' Lower Rio Grande Valley, Border Patrol agents must ignore blistering heat and 25 mile-an-hour winds. Their job is simple: Catch terrorists, people without papers or those carrying drugs.
Aristotle coined the term "enthymeme" to refer to arguments, words and ideas that are broadly accepted among the people of a nation. So what happens when enthymemes start to disappear?
Alzheimer's is not only the third leading cause of death in the U.S. but also the most dreaded diagnosis. Genetic testing can help determine susceptibility, but knowing whether to test isn't easy.
Most Read past week
- What elephants’ unique brain structures suggest about their mental abilities
- Why vaccine opponents think they know more than medical experts
- Jury finds Monsanto liable in the first Roundup cancer trial – here’s what could happen next
- Farmers are drawing groundwater from the giant Ogallala Aquifer faster than nature replaces it
- Walmart tried to make sustainability affordable. Here’s what happened
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