Medicine

H1N1 influenza virus particles shown in a colorized transmission electron micrograph

Scientists Are One Step Closer to a "Personalized" Flu Shot

While still decades away, new research shows how custom vaccines could be developed

This drug delivery system folds up to fit in a capsule, then would reopen in the stomach

Can Digital Pills and Drug Delivery Systems Get People to Take Their Meds?

They are among new approaches to dealing with a big problem in American health care

This Hero Rallied Wounded USS Indianapolis Survivors

Dehydrated, exhausted, and preyed upon by sharks, the surviving crew of the sunken USS Indianapolis was in a living nightmare

Your Brain Swells—Then Deflates—While You Learn

Researchers hypothesize that the brain "auditions" various cells that form, but only keeps the best of the best

Did you get that injury during the night or day? It might be telling about how long it'll take to heal.

Why Wounds Heal Faster During the Day Than at Night

A new study suggests that you should consider staying away from sharp objects at night

Chopin at 25, by his fiancée Maria Wodzińska.

Chopin’s Preserved Heart May Offer Clues About His Death

Scientists who recently examined the organ have suggested that Chopin died of complications from tuberculosis

A demonstration of the technology, with the light fabric sewn into a onesie

These Light-Emitting Pajamas Could Help Treat Newborns With Jaundice

The method has an advantage over traditional phototherapy in that it allows babies to receive treatment in the comfort of their parents' arms

Harriot Hunt was accepted into Harvard Medical school and treated hundreds of patients over her 25-year-career, blazing a trail for future generations of female physicians.

The Medical Practitioner Who Paved the Way for Women Doctors in America

Harriot Hunt refused to let her gender limit her ambitions—or those of the next generation of physicians

The British Museum was the first free, public natural history museum in the world—but its creator, Hans Sloane, was intricately connected with the slave trade.

The British Museum Was a Wonder of Its Time—But Also a Product of Slavery

A new book explores the little-known life and career of Hans Sloane, whose collections led to the founding of the British Museum

The bottle of multivitamins at left were typical of the ways Americans became addicted to amphetamines.

A Speedy History of America’s Addiction to Amphetamine

In a startling parallel to today’s opioid crisis, the drugs were liberally—and legally—prescribed despite little information on safety

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The Next Pandemic

With Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the National Museum of Natural History, we look at the past, present and future of the flu

Flu pandemics begin when novel animal viruses start spreading between people.

How to Stop a Lethal Virus

With tens of millions of lives at stake, medical researchers are racing to create a revolutionary flu vaccine before the next devastating epidemic

An emergency hospital at Camp Funston, Kansas, 1918. “Of the 12 men who slept in my squad room, 7 were ill at one time,” a soldier recalled.

How the Horrific 1918 Flu Spread Across America

The toll of history’s worst epidemic surpasses all the military deaths in World War I and World War II combined. And it may have begun in the United States

A woman sells live poultry at the market in Gaosheng Township, where Long purchased chickens and later died from bird flu.

Is China Ground Zero for a Future Pandemic?

Hundreds there have already died of a new bird flu, putting world health authorities on high alert

A Hybrid III model crash test dummy.

These Dummies Gave Us a Crash Course on Auto Safety

Many of your car's safety features owe a lot to these inanimate people

Aimee Stapleton and other researchers at the University of Limerick have found that lysozyme—in tears, saliva, mucus, milk and chicken eggs—accumulates an electric charge when squeezed.

Your Tears Can Generate Electricity

A protein found in human tears can create electricity when placed under pressure, potentially paving the way for better biomedical devices

Nicholas Culpeper fought against the medical establishment of the time by taking the radical action of writing in English, not Latin.

How Nicholas Culpeper Brought Medicine to the People

His 17th-century text is still in print today

Marie Curie in one of her mobile X-ray units in October 1917

How Marie Curie Brought X-Ray Machines To the Battlefield

During World War I, the scientist invented a mobile x-ray unit, called a "Little Curie," and trained 150 women to operate it

A mid-century Band-Aid tin.

Get Stuck on Band-Aid History

Small injuries are a commonplace problem, but before the Band-Aid, protecting papercuts and other such wounds was a huge hassle

Close-up of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" (1893)

The Founder of Primal Scream Therapy Has Died. What Exactly Is Primal Scream Therapy?

Arthur Janov believed encountering trauma from childhood could help free people from adult neuroses

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