Every 17 minutes, someone is killed with a gun. It's a wave of violence that political debate can't seem to stop. Is this an epidemic that scientists can help cure? Could gun crime be a virus?

Odds are excellent that extra-terrestrial life exists. So why haven't we found aliens out in the galaxy? Are we looking in the wrong places?

What or who created all of the billions of species that have lived on Earth? Is all life the product of evolution as Charles Darwin proposed or was it the guiding hand of a higher power?

Are the wealthy just born in the right place at the right time? Are the poor victims of a system designed to keep them down? Or do physics and biology determine who is rich and who is poor? Throughout history, distribution of wealth is governed by hidden forces: DNA, environmental stress, patterns of human migration and even the laws of thermodynamics! Nature seems to demand winners and losers in life. But does this mean greed is king, and the rich can take what they want? Or is cooperation – between microorganisms, monkeys, and humans – more essential to survival of a species?

Humanity’s potential seems limitless. But could we become as powerful as God? Scientific breakthroughs grant our species seemingly divine abilities. Biologists tinkering with DNA are figuring out ways to grow new life forms, while neuroscientists try to create artificial consciousness. Statisticians around the world are using big data to predict the future and computer scientists have discovered a “God algorithm” that could solve any global problem in an instant. But to truly become God, we not only have to be all knowing, but all being. Quantum physicists are figuring out how to teleport matter at the speed of light!

A dissection of the causes of terrorism.

Science reveals the line between male and female is blurred, and the battle of the sexes happens deep within our cells.

As scientists peer across the galaxy, a new revelation emerges: The universe is shockingly organic. Are the secrets to the life and death of the universe hidden not in physics, but biology? Could it be that the universe is alive?

With cloning and genetic engineering, we can bring back extinct animals. But could we also bring back dead humans? Is it possible to keep our brains alive after our bodies have died? Could we rise from the dead in some strange new form? Can we - should we - resurrect the dead?

Many religious traditions have predicted that our world will come to an apocalyptic end. Scientists agree that Earth can't last forever, but disagree on whether the universe and time itself can ever disappear. Some may hope for eternity, but the possibility of never-ending time has mind-bending implications for the present.

It is a nightmare that has stalked us for centuries: hordes of human beings transformed into mindless, cannibalistic monsters. Could this civilization-ending nightmare become reality? Scientists have discovered pathogens that turn insects into the walking dead. New strains of viruses are attacking humans every day. Mathematicians have calculated the likelihood of surviving a zombie virus outbreak: they’re not hopeful. Now neuroscientists are discovering how easy it is for us to lose conscious control of our bodies. Are we at risk of becoming puppets? If we were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, would we even know it?

Could science ever make the clock move backwards? Experiments in quantum physics are showing that the future influences the present: what happens later limits the choices we think we have now.

We all agree lying is shameful. Yet we still deliberately deceive each other constantly. Are our brains wired for lying from a young age? The brains of pathological liars may provide insights. Will technology make it easier for us to be dishonest, or could it someday instantly reveal someone is lying? Perhaps we are deceitful because our limited senses prevent us from seeing the real truth. Scientists say our own memories deceive us, and have managed to implant false memories. Other scientists look for ultimate truth in the subatomic world - only to end up turning reality on its head.

Mankind longs for proof that we are not alone in the universe, but the moment of first contact will certainly mean the end of the world as we know it. Whether that is a bad thing for humanity or the start of a great future is uncertain.

How different are the races? Is there even such a thing as race? Could technology create a superior race? The answer may tell us where humanity is headed, what our descendants will look like and how they will think.

What is it that makes you you? Scientists are searching the brain for the core of who we are - some would call it the soul, others, our personal identity. How do we become who we are?

Is empty space really empty? Scientists regard understanding the true nature of empty space may explain where the universe came from, whether it is fated to expand into oblivion or whether it will undergo another dramatic transformation that could destroy everything we know.

Every single person who has ever lived was created from the genes of one man and one woman. But human sexual reproduction, unchanged for millions of years, is about to undergo radical change.

What if everything that has or will happen in the universe has already been determined and we are unable to change our inevitable destinies? Until the discovery of quantum uncertainty, physicists were convinced free will does not exist. Now neuroscientists and geneticists have stepped into the fray, arguing that free will is an illusion thanks to the genes we are born with, the automatic processes working in our brains, and the conforming pressures of society.

Is God worshipped in other worlds across the cosmos? How might alien deities differ from our own? Have advanced aliens discovered everything there is to know about the universe, or are they too looking for answers? The answer may lie buried on Earth.

With a little imagination, could a few terrorists sabotage a mighty nation? Perhaps even tear down modern civilization? The stability of the US, Europe, China, or any global power depends on high-speed digital communication. Our increasing dependence on digital devices and global interactivity may be placing us in grave danger. Scientists around the world are dealing with new threats such as body hacking, Trojan horse viruses, and brain-damaging Internet addiction. But what if the ultimate threat isn’t an attack on technology, but the technology? Could the final superpower be the disembodied mind of the Internet itself?

There could be an undiscovered species on Earth unlike anything we’ve ever known. Not in the ocean, but the ocean itself! Its body spans thousands of miles; its heart beats with a one-thousand-year pulse. It could even have an immune system capable of annihilating all other life on earth. Just as our bodies function through the interaction of water with individual cells, including bacteria and other microorganisms, the ocean’s residents might collectively form a super-organism. A recent discovery suggests the ocean is a living being capable of thought. If so, what is the ocean thinking about us?

Evolution say that all life exists only to reproduce; a new theory proposes that instead of passing on genes, humans have another purpose.

Our universe seems real. But what if it's a video game? Scientists in a variety of fields are taking seriously the possibility that we live in a virtual reality.

Scientists are peering inside the mechanisms of aging, tampering with the cellular makeup of our DNA, and imagining a world where death is cured like a disease. Are we entering a new age of immortality? Or is dying necessary for our race's survival?