Navy Anti-Malaria Unit, Guadalcanal, circa 1942

The Origins of the CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began during World War II to prevent the spread of malaria to troops stationed in the South.
Medical staff taking blood from a blood donor at the Princeton Medical Center in New Jersey, USA, circa 1950.

The Weird Ways People Have Tied Blood Types to Identity

Scientific racism. Paternity tests. And mass tattooing, just in case of nuclear attack.
Gif og a woman alseep on a white sheet with clocks blinking in and out of sight

What Is Chronobiology?

Does it explain why we’re having so much trouble sleeping?
T helper cells and interleukin molecules

Cytokine Storms: The Cruel Irony of an Immune Response

When bodies fight back against infection, they can overwhelm themselves with their own destructive force.
A male doctor sitting down and looking pensive

How Doctors Make End-of-Life Choices

Many people facing the end of their life receive treatments that ultimately have no benefit. A team of researchers set out to find out why.
A series of torn up academic papers against a blue background

Preprints, Science, and the News Cycle

Preprints are academic papers that haven't been peer-reviewed yet. When preprints make news, that's often overlooked.
An illustration of the coronavirus in front of a strand of DNA

Can We Protect Against Coronavirus by Rewriting Our Genomes?

Genome recoding could offer new modes of virus resistance, but the technology raises serious ethical concerns.
La Malaria by Auguste Hebert

Cracking the Malaria Mystery—from Marshes to Mosquirix

It took science centuries to understand malaria. Now we’re waiting to see how the 2019 vaccine pilot works.
Photograph showing Waldemar Mordecai Wolffe Haffkine (1860-1930), Bacteriologist with the Government of India, inoculating a community against cholera in Calcutta, March 1894.

Anti-Asian Racism in the 1817 Cholera Pandemic

We should learn from, instead of repeating, the racist assignations of the past.
A Waffle House in Augusta, Georgia on March 30, 2020

Waffle Houses Mean Way More Than Waffles in Disasters

The restaurant chain and FEMA work together in calamities like tornadoes and hurricanes, for good reason.