Disease

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

You can't sit with us. You smell like poo.

Gut Check: Mandrills Sniff Poop to Avoid Peers With Parasites

Researchers have documented one of the first instances of social avoidance in a non-human animal

The tick discovered preserved in amber

30-Million-Year-Old Tick Full of Monkey Blood Found in Ancient Amber

Scientists think the tick was plucked from a primate before being dropped in a puddle of sticky tree resin

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

The University of London's Senate House inspired Orwell's description of the Ministry of Truth. Orwell's wife Eileen Blair worked in the building during World War II, when it was the real headquarters of the Ministry of Information.

George Orwell Wrote '1984' While Dying of Tuberculosis

Orwell, like thousands around the globe today, struggled with tuberculosis for many years before finally succumbing to the disease

The notorious RPB: the rusty patched bumble bee.

The Bee That Breaks Your Heart

Insects are hard-pressed to get protection as endangered species. Can one fuzzy anomaly beat the odds?

Commuters in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam use makeshift face masks to protect them from smog. Doctors are warning that climate change will affect human health, in part by increasing air pollution.

Doctors Warn That Climate Change Makes People Sick

Medical associations join forces to sound the alarm on climate change and human health

Itchy and scratchy: When they see their peers scratching away, mice get the urge to itch.

Why Is Itching So Contagious?

Scientists figure out how compulsive scratching spreads in mice, and maybe humans

One surprising group is getting colon cancer at rates not seen since the 1890s.

New Study Shows Sharp Rise in Colorectal Cancers Among Young Adults

Its authors are not sure why the cancers have risen so much—only that they’re increasing every year

The last natural case of smallpox was recorded in Somalia in 1977.

A Child From 17th-Century Europe Might Have Rewritten the History of Smallpox

The deadly scourge goes back for centuries, but how many?

Yellow Fever Outbreak in Congo and Angola Finally Comes to an End

After almost 1,000 confirmed cases of the disease, the WHO has declared outbreak over

Seagrass grows near a village in the Spermonde Archipelago in Indonesia. Researchers there recently discovered that coastal areas with seagrass have less bacteria than grassless areas.

Seagrasses Reduce Bacteria in Polluted Waters

A new study suggests the mesmerizing fields could be important for the health of humans and sea creatures alike

Henrietta Lacks was a real person—and her cancer cells have led to many medical discoveries.

New Claims Prove the Henrietta Lacks Controversy Is Far From Over

The family of the woman who changed science forever is seeking compensation

World Health Organization workers gear up to go into an old Ebola isolation ward in Lagos, Nigeria.

Superspreaders Caused Much of the 2014 Ebola Epidemic

Just three percent of infected people caused two thirds of overall infections

After the defeat of Cleopatra's forces by Octavian (later Augustus, emperor of Rome), the Egyptian queen and her lover Marc Antony fled to Egypt. In Shakespeare's imagining, one of Cleopatra's greatest fears was the the horrid breath of the Romans. Shown here: "The Death of Cleopatra" by Reginald Arthur, 1892.

The History and Science Behind Your Terrible Breath

Persistent mouth-stink has been dousing the flames of passion for millennia. Why haven’t we come up with a cure?

Saiga at the watering hole in a federal nature reserve in Kalmykia, Russia

A Quarter of the World’s Saiga Antelope Are Dead

A virus is decimating an already fragile species

A view into Flint drinking water pipes, showing various types of iron corrosion and rust.

Scientists Now Know Exactly How Lead Got Into Flint's Water

New report points blames corrosion and warns that fixing lead poisoning nationwide will require more work than we hoped

Chinese researchers have harnessed the power of deep learning to help doctors identify this rare disease.

Can Eagle-Eyed Artificial Intelligence Help Prevent Children From Going Blind?

Deep learning pinpoints cataracts more accurately than humans, and could help prevent this form of vision loss in children

Robo-Dermatologist Diagnoses Skin Cancer With Expert Accuracy

A neural network can recognize and categorize skin lesions as well as MDs and may lead to a cancer-screening mobile app

Doctors suggest that women get Pap smears to screen for cervical cancer. But should the guidelines be changed?

More Women Die of Cervical Cancer Than Previously Thought

Past studies significantly underestimated cervical cancer deaths—and racial disparities

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