How Courageous Should Nurses Have to Be?
According to three scholars, it's asking a lot for health care professionals to be completely selfless.
Plant of the Month: Cascarilla
Epidemics revive old remedies and accelerate experimentation with new ones.
The Decapitation Experiments of Jean César Legallois
This French scientist conducted a series of gruesome experiments in his quest to discover the true limits of life and death.
COVID-19 Causes Some Patients’ Immune Systems to Attack Their Own Bodies
Severe infection is linked with autoantibody production.
A History of Transphobia in the Medical Establishment
At a time when trans people who wanted surgery needed to trust doctors, transphobia made it difficult.
The Wellcome Collection—Perfect Medicine for the Incurably Curious
Pharmacy genius, Henry Solomon Wellcome amassed a lot of knowledge—and amazing tchotchkes too.
The Surgeons Who Said No to Gloves
In the late 1800s, doctors in German-speaking countries were having trouble agreeing on one simple thing: whether to wear gloves during surgery.
Before Vaccines, Variolation Was Seriously Trendy
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is credited with popularizing variolation among the aristocracy in England.
How Influenza Devastated the Navajo Community in 1918
Like COVID-19, the 1918 influenza pandemic moved swiftly through the Navajo community, but firsthand accounts of the devastation are rare.
The Weird Ways People Have Tied Blood Types to Identity
Scientific racism. Paternity tests. And mass tattooing, just in case of nuclear attack.