An empty wheelchair

The Complicated Issue of Transableism

Some people born in able bodies feel as if they were meant to have disabilities. How should the medical community be responding?
An illustration of vitamin pills

How Dietary Supplements Can Cause More Harm Than Good

The real problem with useless vitamins and other supplements? A psychological side effect known as "illusory invulnerability."
A Shocking Announcement by Vittorio Reggianini

Why Do People Faint?

Fainting—or, more technically, syncope—has a variety of causes.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giovanni_Aldini,_Essai...sur_le_galvanisme..._Wellcome_L0023892.jpg

Will Reanimating Dead Brains Inspire the Next Frankenstein?

In recent experiments, scientists brought back cellular functions to the brains of dead pigs, recalling early galvanism.
A profile illustration of a child's head filled with science and education icons

Big Brains Are Hard to Grow

Human brains take a long time, and a lot of energy, to grow to their mature state. This may well be an evolutionary tradeoff for having such big brains.
A woman looking out a train window into the sunset with vitamin d pills approaching

How Does the Body Make Vitamin D from Sunlight?

A Curious Reader asks: How exactly does exposure to sunlight cause the the human body to synthesize Vitamin D3?
Someone pouring a glass of gin

Is Alcoholism a Moral Failing?

Cultural explanations for alcoholism have changed significantly throughout the years, sometimes blaming social problems, sometimes psychological.
Sara Josephine Baker

To Reduce Infant Mortality, Train the Babysitters

“Little Mothers’ Leagues,” a program started by Dr. S. Josephine Baker at the turn of the last century, taught school-age girls to care for babies.
Illustration of a man lying on a couch

Workplace Burnout is Nothing New

Doctors were talking about the dangers of chronic stress, exhaustion, and anxiety back in 1909, predicting dire consequences if the symptoms were ignored.
A physician wearing a seventeenth century plague preventive costume

How the Plague Reshaped the World

The bacterium that causes the plague emerged relatively recently, as bacterium go. And yet the pandemics it's created have altered the world.