My father, a neurologist, once had a patient who was tormented, in the most visceral sense, by a poem. Philip was 12 years old and a student at a prestigious boarding school in Princeton,…

For Kai Brothers, 1981 marked the beginning and the end of a golden era. That was the year he turned 19, moved to San Francisco to join one of the world’s largest gay communities,…

What do Jamie Lee Curtis, gut bacteria, and a long forgotten Russian scientist have in common? Why, yogurt, of course. But wait, the answer is not that easy. Behind it stretches a…

One day in March 2010, Isak McCune started clearing his throat with a forceful, violent sound. The New Hampshire toddler was 3, with a Beatles mop of blonde hair and a cuddly, loving…

I had little idea of what I would discover when I set out to find and photograph the oldest living things in the world. I expected that researching, traveling, and photographing would…

Jack Gernsheimer met my car at the bottom of the lane. He looked good this summery Sunday, rested and tan. The logo on his T-shirt was one he and his brother designed years ago, featuring…

For Ryan Sherman*, a 34-year-old lawyer, something changed eight years ago when he moved from Texas to Europe and then to Boston and New York City: The shorter winter days of the more…

The squeak in my mom’s voice seemed strange, but not worrisome. When we spoke on the phone, she sounded like she had inhaled helium. An initial doctor’s evaluation revealed nothing.…

Next month, during the Islamic pilgrimage known as the Hajj, 3 million people will pour into the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. They will worship, pray, and be within 50 miles…

In 2007, Patrick Savage, then a 52-year-old deputy chief of the New York City Fire Department, suffered cardiac arrest after a morning run on the treadmill. He had run triathlons every…