Sam Kean is the best-selling author of The Disappearing Spoon and The Violinist’s Thumb. His new book, Caesar’s Last Breath, about the secrets of the air, came out July 18.

Recently by Sam Kean

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What Can We Learn About Farting From the World’s Most Famous Flatulence Artist?

Sam Kean

July 24, 2017 9:30 AM
Why Would I Write About Phineas Gage? A Slate Writer Explains the Story Behind His Story.

Jeff Friedrich and Sam Kean

May 08, 2014 3:09 PM
The True Story of Phineas Gage Is Much More Fascinating Than the Mythical Textbook Accounts

Sam Kean

May 06, 2014 11:32 PM
Farewell to One of the Most Important Amnesia Patients in the History of Memory Research

Sam Kean

April 06, 2014 11:47 PM
Is Junk DNA Really Junky? A Fish-Eating Plant Weighs In.

Sam Kean

Oct 03, 2013 8:31 AM
According to His DNA Sequence, James Watson Should Be Blind, Deaf, and Have a Tiny Head. Why Doesn’t He?

Sam Kean

July 27, 2012 8:30 AM
Did Lincoln Have Marfan Syndrome? Did Darwin Have Smoldering Hepatitis?

Sam Kean

July 26, 2012 6:01 AM
How Yam Farming Contributed to the Rise of Sickle-Cell Anemia

Sam Kean

July 25, 2012 6:00 AM
How a Daughter Inherited Her Mother’s Cancer

Sam Kean

July 24, 2012 6:00 AM
Why a Mother Can’t Give Cancer to Her Fetus—Usually

Sam Kean

July 23, 2012 6:00 AM
Chim-chim-cheroo: Why So Many London Chimney Sweeps Suffered Scrotal Cancer

Sam Kean

July 20, 2012 6:00 AM
The Chromosomal Evidence That Mankind Nearly Went Extinct

Sam Kean

July 19, 2012 6:00 AM
Humans Have Long Enjoyed Nonhuman Lovers—the Proof is in Our DNA

Sam Kean

July 18, 2012 6:00 AM
Did STDs Help Human Beings Evolve?

Sam Kean

July 17, 2012 6:00 AM
Possible Genetic Proof That Cannibalism Was Disturbingly Common in Our Past

Sam Kean

July 16, 2012 6:00 AM
How a Mutation on Chromosome 16 Gave Elizabeth Taylor Her Amazing Double Eyelashes

Sam Kean

July 13, 2012 6:00 AM
Muscular Dystrophy, Cri du Chat, “Immigration Delay Disease”: When DNA Fails.

Sam Kean

July 12, 2012 6:00 AM
The Nasty Fight Between Scientists That Resulted in the Sequencing of the Human Genome

Sam Kean

July 11, 2012 6:00 AM
Will Men Go Extinct?

Sam Kean

July 10, 2012 6:00 AM
How Genetics—and a Very Dirty Diaper—Nearly Killed Off Darwinism

Sam Kean

July 09, 2012 6:00 AM