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.
Female Mosquito filled with blood

Scientists Are Putting Mosquitoes on Human Diet Drugs

Humans and mosquitoes share a surprising amount of genes and have similar hunger controls.
Ignaz Semmelweis

The Man Who Invented Modern Infection Control

He's hailed as the "father of infection control" and the "savior of mothers," but the truth about Ignaz Semmelweis is more complicated than that.
Antigua sugar cane slavery

Did Venereal Disease Lead to Abolition?

Many abolitionists seeking to end slavery in the British West Indies were concerned less with human rights, more with the preponderance of what they saw as "interracial sex."
A pair of tweezers removing a tick

A Brief History of Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is seeing an upswing. But the-now widespread condition was not formally described until 1977, based on a case in Old Lyme, Connecticut.
Cantaloupe

Salmonella: The Good, the Bad, the Unexpected

A recent salmonella outbreak, connected with pre-cut melon, has put the bacteria back in the news. Is there any bright side to salmonella?
Poison art

Hidden Poisons of the Royal Court

How noble lords and ladies, terrified of poison, unknowingly poisoned themselves on a daily basis.
John Snow

John Snow and the Birth of Epidemiology

Even though this physician pre-dated germ theory, he was able to track a London outbreak of cholera to one particular water pump.
Frida Khalo painting

Did Frida Kahlo Suffer From Fibromyalgia?

Studying the artist's paintings may reveal more about the her early trauma and subsequent pain than suspected.
Atacama Desert Solar Panels

China Denounces Coal, Chile Goes Solar, and Guinea Tackles Sleeping Sickness

Chile turned the Atacama Desert into a giant solar farm, China denounced coal power, and Guinea has been plagued by sleeping sickness.