Medicine

Fruit bats are thought to be the natural host for the Ebola virus. Groups like USAID PREDICT regularly monitor such diseases in wildlife to prevent the jump from animal to humans.

Can Saving Animals Prevent the Next Deadly Pandemic?

A global disease monitoring network is banking on the idea that healthier wildlife means healthier humans

Stay back! A beached Portuguese man o’war

Urine Luck: Vinegar Is the Best Treatment for a Man O' War Sting

A new study suggests urine, sea water and lemon juice all do more harm than good on painful stings

John Scott Haldane at his laboratory in Oxford.

To Protect Allied WWI Soldiers, This Researcher Tested an Early Gas Mask on Himself

John Haldane developed a rudimentary respirator that protected wearers against chlorine gas—at least for a few minutes

A field hospital in Virginia, photographed in 1862, shows the grim conditions during the Civil War.

Fearing a Smallpox Epidemic, Civil War Troops Tried to Self-Vaccinate

People knew that inoculation could prevent you from catching smallpox. It was how Civil War soldiers did it that caused problems

Unlikely savior: The remarkable properties of spaghnum moss help preserve long-dead bodies, sequester carbon and even heal wounds.

How Humble Moss Healed the Wounds of Thousands in World War I

The same extraordinary properties that make this plant an “ecosystem engineer” also helped save human lives

In an Emergency, You'll Want This Hi-Tech First Aid Kit

Ram Fish, founder and CEO of 19Labs, talks about developing his clinic-in-a-box

Trauma surgeon Sarah Murthi tests an AR headset prototype, which uses a Microsoft HoloLens and custom software with an ultrasound, on a volunteer "patient."

Augmented Reality Could Change Health Care—Or Be a Faddish Dud

Doctors and engineers at the University of Maryland team up to build a tool that projects images and vital information right above a patient

A recipe for an eyesalve from ‘Bald’s Leechbook’

Medieval Medical Books Could Hold the Recipe for New Antibiotics

A team of medievalists and scientists look back to history—including a 1,000-year-old eyesalve recipe—for clues

The slimy skin of Hydrophylax bahuvistara harbors antimicrobial powers

This Frog’s Slime Kills Flu Viruses

But don’t go kissing frogs just yet

Why I Take Fake Pills

Surprising new research shows that placebos still work even when you know they’re not real

A new study recommends that the peanut-allergic try consuming other nuts—but only under the supervision of a licensed allergist.

Tree Nut Allergies May Be Massively Overdiagnosed

But don’t go for the jar of almond butter just yet

View of the exhibition Body Worlds Pulse Gunther von Hagens that counts the history of human body in the 21st century at Discovery Times Square in New York in the United States.

Why Are We So Obsessed With Dead Bodies?

<i>Body Worlds</i> taps into a long, fraught history of humans displaying the deceased for "science"

Computer-assisted reconstruction of the cavities

13,000-Year-Old Fillings Were “Drilled” With Stone and Packed With Tar

You can't handle the tooth

The Eighteenth-Century Founder of Homeopathy Said His Treatments Were Better Than Bloodletting

Samuel Hahnemann was trying to fix the unscientific field of medicine

Rhinos grazing in a South African park

South Africa to Legalize Domestic Rhino Horn Trade

A court ruling overturns a 2009 ban, a move that conservationists worry will increase poaching

The Carnes arm had a complicated mechanism that controlled the movement of wrist and fingers.

How World War I Influenced the Evolution of Modern Medicine

Medical technology and roles during World War I are highlighted in a new display at the National Museum of American History

New Device Allows Paralyzed Man to Move His Arm With His Mind

The brain implant bypasses the patient's injured spinal cord, allowing him to eat and drink on his own

Tools of diabetes treatment almost always include improved diet and regular exercise.

MIT Mathematician Develops an Algorithm to Help Treat Diabetes

The key to managing the disease, which afflicts 29 million people in the U.S., might be in big data

This dioarama, which used actual human remains, is another example of the ways Ruysch used bodies to make art.

This 17th-Century Anatomist Made Art Out of Bodies

Using human bodies in this way still happens–and it’s controversial

In the eyes of Joseph Guillotin, the guillotine was an invention in the best ideals of the Revolution: humane, equalizing and scientific.

The Guillotine's Namesake Was Against Capital Punishment

And contrary to popular myth, he died of natural causes, not by beheading

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