“Why do some people want to amputate a perfectly healthy limb? And why would any doctor help them?” Anil Ananthaswamy’s story launches Matter, a new magazine for long-form science journalism. If you care about deep, high-quality science writing, please support them. It’s only 99c.

The life and death of Knut the polar bear, & what it says about zoos

Transcendant Alexis Madrigal explains why Obama’s Narwhal skewered Romney’s Orca

You must read “Your Daughter Died” by Deborah Blum, about the unresolved poisonings of young women in Thailand

How one man tapped into the Web to crowd-source a “cure” (sort of) for his cancer

Excellent post from self-described “science groupie” Tania Browne on why non-scientists play a vital role in