Surviving a Pandemic, in 1918
A century ago, Catholic nuns from Philadelphia recalled what it was like to tend to the needy and the sick during the great influenza pandemic of 1918.
Discovering the Joy of Solitude While Social Distancing
Does the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Romantic notion of solitude offer a lesson for those practicing social distancing?
Sheep Snarf Seaweed at the Scottish Seashore
A seaweed-only diet seems to curb methane emissions in sheep on a tiny island in Scotland.
An Islamic Approach to Environmentalism
A number of contemporary Muslim environmentalist groups have been inspired by Koranic verses that stress the conservation of nature.
Could Foreign Policy Stop Another Pandemic?
Diseases know no borders. International cooperation and solidarity, say scholars, are as essential as funding.
What’s the Difference between Pandemic, Epidemic, and Outbreak?
The World Health Organization has declared COVID-19 a pandemic. What exactly does that mean?
Boccaccio’s Medicine
In the Decameron of Boccaccio, friends tell one another stories of love to while away the hours of quarantine.
When Coffee Cargo Was Quarantined
In the 1800s, sick passengers weren’t blamed for disease epidemics—their baggage and cargo was.
How Emily Dickinson Wrestled with Darwinism
The current vogue for the Amherst poet needs to give credit to the way she readily examined her childhood ideas about fixed and immutable truth.
The Protestant Astrology of Early American Almanacs
The wildly popular books helped people understand farming and health through the movement of the planets, in a way compatible with Protestantism.