EFFINGHAM, Ill. — The vast Petro truck stop here is a neon-lit, blacktop oasis at the crossroads of America. It beckons big-rig drivers with showers, laundry machines, a barber shop, even a knife store. “Professional drivers only,” reads the sign above the tables of the Iron Skillet restaurant,…

Driscoll’s relentless focus on breeding has helped shape the supermarket strawberry. Illustration by Jack Sachs One foggy May morning, the Joy Makers, a team of scientists employed by Driscoll’s, the world’s largest berry company, gathered at its research-and-development campus, which is known as…

Say there's a murder. Blood everywhere, a dead guy on the floor. The cops come in with their yellow tape, chalk line, the little booties, cameras, swabs, the fingerprint dust. One of them finds a gun on the floor. The gun! He lifts it with his pinkie, examines it, takes note of the serial number.…

THE MAGAZINE: From the July 25 Issue Was Paul McCartney the real John Lennon? A bit past the midpoint of the last century, roughly from early 1967 to late 1969, a sizable number of human beings believed that Paul McCartney was the coolest man who ever lived. Compared with your average…

Opportunity and obligation had collided, the way they can in hockey. His father bought a program the night before. Boogaard scanned the roster, checking heights and weights. He later recalled that he barely slept. A trainer in the dressing room offered scouting reports. As Boogaard taped his stick…