Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Medicine

In a small clinical trial involving 20 patients, bioengineered corneas helped improve or restore eyesight.

Cornea Implants Made From Pig Skin Restored Eyesight in a Small Clinical Trial

Fourteen patients who were blind could see again after the surgery, and three of them attained perfect vision

A pig steps into the sun in England. Cellular activity was returned to the organs of a dead pig after a recent experiment.

Scientists Bring Cells in Dead Pigs Back to Life

Scientists say the accomplishment may be the first step in making more organs available for transplant

A procedure developed by scientists in Japan can convert fish scales into a carbon-based nanomaterial.

Scientists Create a More Sustainable LED From Fish Scales

Researchers microwaved fish waste to produce a unique nanoform of carbon that could be used for LED devices in the future

Jynneos monkeypox vaccine

U.S. Declares Monkeypox a Public Health Emergency

The announcement comes as nationwide case counts reach 7,000

Medical student Anna Searcy in 1897

Women Who Shaped History

These Trailblazers Were the Only Women in the Room Where It Happened

A new book spotlights 100 historical photographs of lone women hidden among groups of men

The ultrasound sticker

Innovation for Good

This Wearable Ultrasound Sticker Can Continuously Image Organs for 48 Hours

Developed by engineers at MIT, the new technology is about the size of a postage stamp

The protein-based Covid-19 vaccine from Maryland biotechnology company Novavax. 

FDA Authorizes Novavax Covid-19 Vaccine for Emergency Use

The shots work similar to the way that vaccines against influenza and shingles work

Surgeon Bartley Griffith examines the pig heart before the transplant.

Why Did the First Human Patient to Receive a Pig Heart Transplant Die?

Scientists have come up with at least four explanations

Patients who are struggling with everything from ADHD to eating disorders have turned to art therapy for help.

The Future of Mental Health

How Making Art Helps Improve Mental Health

With depression and anxiety on the rise during the pandemic, more professionals may adopt art therapy as a treatment

Pages from Plastic Surgery of the Face by Harold Gillies

Inside a Trailblazing Surgeon’s Quest to Reconstruct WWI Soldiers’ Disfigured Faces

A new book profiles Harold Gillies, whose efforts to restore wounded warriors’ visages laid the groundwork for modern plastic surgery

Researchers at Northwestern University created an implantable device that attaches to a nerve to deliver pain relief.

Innovation for Good

This Dissolvable Implant Could Revolutionize Pain Management

After some success on rats, researchers are hopeful this device could provide humans a more targeted and less addictive alternative to opioids

The Tower of London with the slogan "End Polio Now" on World Polio Day in October 2021

Poliovirus Found in London Sewage

No cases have been reported and the overall risk to the public is low, but public health officials are urging vaccination

As of June 15, the World Health Organization had recorded a total of 2,103 confirmed monkeypox cases in 42 countries. Pictured: a colorized transmission electron micrograph of monkeypox virus particles (green) cultivated and purified from cell culture

History of Now

What You Need to Know About the History of Monkeypox

Mired in misconception, the poxvirus is endemic in certain African countries but was rarely reported in Europe and the U.S. until recently

The new gel uses a protein called ecarin from the venom of the saw-scaled viper and the protein textilinin from the eastern brown snake’s venom to seal wounds. (Pictured: An eastern brown snake)

Innovation for Good

Made From Snake Venom, These Hydrogels Could Treat Uncontrolled Bleeding

Scientists have found that two proteins repurposed from snake venom can initiate blood clotting in under 60 seconds

On average, Osborne experienced 20 to 40 involuntary diaphragm spasms per minute. In total, he hiccupped an estimated 430 million times before his death in May 1991 at age 97.

The Curious Case of Charles Osborne, Who Hiccupped for 68 Years Straight

A 1922 accident sparked the Iowa man’s intractable hiccups, which suddenly subsided in 1990

Colon cancer cell illustration

Good News

Small Cancer Trial Resulted in Complete Remission for All Participants

The results are promising, but experts say the trial should be replicated

A baby receives a mallaria vaccine from a nurse at the maternity ward of the Ewin Polyclinic in Ghana in 2019.

Why Did It Take 35 Years to Get a Malaria Vaccine?

The parasite’s complex biology played a role in the delay, but experts say there was also a lack of urgency and funding

At a time of widespread public health crises and evolving ideas about how illnesses spread, kissing was an easily avoidable vector of disease. Unfortunately for Imogene Rechtin, most people proved unwilling to give it up.

Untold Stories of American History

The Woman Who Fought to End the ‘Pernicious’ Scourge of Kissing

New understandings of how disease spread informed Imogene Rechtin’s ill-fated 1910 campaign to ban a universal human practice

Visitors looking at sculpture by Skellon Studio in “Cancer Revolution” at the Science Museum.

Exhibition Explores the Art and Science of Cancer—and the Hope of a Future Without It

The Science Museum in London explores the past and future of the disease, and the resilience of its survivors

As of 2019, doctors can prescribe an FDA approved ketamine-based antidepressant for treatment-resistant depression.

The Past, Present and Future of Using Ketamine to Treat Depression

The drug’s initial successes have upended what many neuroscientists know about the brain and mental illness

Page 18 of 63