Medicine

How a Captain Morgan Advertisement Inspired an Emergency Room Technique

Captain Morgan, hip fixer

A relative unknown, Werner Forssmann won the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for inventing the cardiac catheter. Some of his equally qualified peers have not been as fortunate.

How Not to Win a Nobel Prize

A search through the Nobel archives shows how the history of the famous prize is filled with near misses and flukes

Scientists Can Now Sequence a Human’s Genome in 26 Hours

New tools cut sequencing time almost in half

A Popular Coral for Home Aquariums Can Release Deadly Toxin

The coral produces a toxic mist that can cause serious health problems

Rampant miscommunication in medicine due to language barriers compromises patient safety and quality of care while widening existing health disparities.

Millions of Americans Are Getting Lost in Translation During Hospital Visits

Miscommunication due to language barriers is a growing health care issue, and technologies to aid interpretation are racing to keep up

Bottle of Diphtheria Anti-Toxin in Case, 1900s

How Vaccines, a Collective Triumph of Modern Medicine, Conquered the World's Diseases

Smithsonian curators present a virtual tour of several objects from the collections that revolutionized public health care

A statue of goddess Durga in Kolkata — India was the location of the first recorded nose job

The Nose Job Dates Back to the 6th Century B.C.

But for a long time, the nose was built up instead of shaved down

Jaundice is usually treated with short-wave blue light.

These Plastic Canopies Could Save Thousands of Babies

Researchers have developed sunlight-filtering canopies as a low-tech treatment for jaundice in newborns

Mayapple plant

Scientists Manipulate Common Plants to Produce Cancer Drugs

Stanford researchers have figured out how to transfer a rare plant's chemical "assembly line" into a cheap, common lab plant

This pig could be growing a heart or lungs for a transplant.

The Future of Animal-to-Human Organ Transplants

Could a genetically engineered pig heart one day function in a person?

How Is Brain Surgery Like Flying? Put On a Headset to Find Out

A device made for gaming helps brain surgeons plan and execute delicate surgeries with extreme precision

This Exoskeleton Is Actually Controlled by the Wearer's Thoughts

Engineer Jose Contreras-Vidal's "brain-machine interface" uses electrical activity in a person's brain to move a robotic exoskeleton

Why A Single Vial Of Antivenom Can Cost $14,000

It’s not because all antivenom is expensive to make.

Nima food allergen detector

Test Your Restaurant Meal for Allergens in Two Minutes

Nima, a handheld food analyzer, can test for gluten on the spot

Charles Lindbergh was the innovator and designer of the perfusion pump.

To Save His Dying Sister-In-Law, Charles Lindbergh Invented a Medical Device

The famous aviator’s biography is incomplete without the story of how the aviator worked to perfect his glass-chambered perfusion pump

Can This App Predict Your Headache?

Migraine Buddy is one of a growing number of apps that use big data to help consumers manage their health issues

This Box Can Bring Dead Hearts Back To Life

The device could widen pool for heart transplants, but raises ethical questions

How does skin heal? You'll never look at a scab the same way again.

Ask Smithsonian: How Does Skin Heal?

The skin is an organ system that is unique to each individual, so not everyone heals the same way

Sure, it looks cute now, but a new study explores why babies influence their moms' DNA for years.

Baby’s Cells Can Manipulate Mom’s Body for Decades

An evolutionary approach may help scientists understand why mothers become genetic chimeras and how that affects their health

Knut, the star of the Berlin Zoo, died due to swelling in his brain.

Knut the Polar Bear’s Mysterious Death Finally Solved

The famed Berlin Zoo bear suffered from an autoimmune disease that until now has only been known to occur in humans

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