Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Innovation / Health & Medicine

3D-printed masks made for a New Hampshire hospital amid PPE shortages in March.

Covid-19

Covid-19 Has Designers Reimagining Personal Protective Equipment

The global pandemic has led to a surge in demand for PPE. Inventors have responded—with mixed results.

A doctor checks the temperature of a child at a mobile clinic.

Covid-19

What Happens When Children’s Covid-19 Symptoms Won’t Go Away

Some parents say their kids have been sick for months, and experts aren’t sure what’s going on

A speech therapist forms an L during a stuttering therapy.

What Neuroscientists Are Discovering About Stuttering

After centuries of misunderstanding, researchers are tying the condition to genes and brain alterations.

A man who recovered from COVID-19 donates plasma in Bogota, Colombia.

Covid-19

The Peculiar 100-Plus-Year History of Convalescent Plasma

Blood has been considered a viable treatment for infectious disease for over a century, but it has rarely proven to be the best solution.

The formation of a blood clot

Covid-19

Why Blood Clots Are a Major Problem in Severe Covid-19

Out-of-control clotting can endanger some patients even after the virus has gone. Researchers are trying to understand the problem and how to treat it.

Cars line up at a drive-in coronavirus testing site in Miami Gardens, Florida, in late June. Testing in many states has been hampered by bottlenecks and long delays, problems that could be eased by the rapid, simple tests scientists are now developing.

Covid-19

Scientists Are Racing to Develop Paper-Based Tests for Covid-19

Inexpensive—and potentially at-home—tools could take only minutes to tell if someone is infected

A young boy in Benin, in West Africa, receives a bed net designed to help prevent malaria.

Covid-19

How Covid-19’s Spread Could Drive an Increase in Malaria Deaths

Health professionals worry the pandemic could stress resources and lead to misdiagnosis in Africa

Riker Laboratories advertised its new device for treating asthma in 1957—two years after a teenager’s truly inspiring suggestion.

The History of the Asthma Inhaler

How a brilliant quip led to a treatment that helps millions every minute

Concert attendees cheer at an event in Porto, Portugal, on August 15, 2020.

Covid-19

What Super-Spreading Events Teach Us About Protecting Ourselves From COVID-19

Scientists are increasingly finding that a small number of people may be the source of many cases

Allied freighters ablaze in the harbor of Bari, Italy, after the German attack.

How a Chemical Weapons Disaster in WWII Led to a U.S. Cover-Up—and a New Cancer Treatment

The physician who led the investigation into a deadly explosion in Italy found the truth, and some hope

A customer talks to a waiter in a mask while eating his meal at a table divided with transparent panels in Bangalore, India.

Covid-19

What Scientists Know About Airborne Transmission of the New Coronavirus

Aerosol experts, from engineers to doctors, weigh in on the ability of tiny droplets to transmit the virus that causes COVID-19

Jewish doctors give medical examinations in the Warsaw Ghetto

Covid-19

How a Public Health Campaign in the Warsaw Ghetto Stemmed the Spread of Typhus

A new study shows how life-saving efforts by Jewish doctors helped curb an epidemic during World War II

Even though social insects tend to live in super-tight quarters, colonies of such species are somehow able to limit the spread of contagions.

Covid-19

In Social Insects, Researchers Find Clues for Battling Pandemics

Studying the ability of some ants, termites, bees and wasps to contain pathogens may help human societies control diseases of their own

A boy has his temperature checked as he receives a free COVID-19 test in Los Angeles.

Covid-19

What Scientists Know About How Children Spread COVID-19

As communities struggle with the decision over whether to open up schools, the research so far offers unsatisfying answers

In April, people queued at a testing tent in East New York in Brooklyn. COVID-19 rates are highest among black New Yorkers in Kings County.

Race in America

What ‘Racism Is a Public Health Issue’ Means

Epidemiologist Sharrelle Barber discusses the racial inequalities that exist for COVID-19 and many other health conditions

John Rogers and his colleague Shuai Xu’s tech startup Sonica Health is submitting the device with a pulse oximeter and its algorithms to the FDA for approval later this month.

Covid-19

This Band-Aid-Like Patch Could Detect Early COVID-19 Symptoms

Northwestern University scientist John Rogers has developed a wearable that adheres to the throat and relays data to a physician

Pooling samples means one test can screen multiple people.

Covid-19

Pooled Testing Could Be the Fastest and Cheapest Way to Increase Coronavirus Screening

Placing swabs from multiple individuals in a single test gets more people diagnosed using fewer supplies

Specimens like these at Dublin’s Natural History Museum contain valuable information about the evolution of pathogens and host organisms.

Covid-19

How Museum Collections Could Help Scientists Predict Future Pandemics

The broad array of animal specimens could allow researchers to identify likely pathogen sources, hosts and transmission pathways

Video visits with doctors and other health-care workers saw a sharp uptick as the COVID-19 pandemic took off.

Covid-19

Is COVID-19 the Tipping Point for Telemedicine?

Sheltering in place has pushed virtual health care into the mainstream, making us wonder if we’ll ever go back to waiting rooms

A woman sunbathes in a roped-off distancing zone marked out along the beaches in La Grande Motte, southern France.

Covid-19

Five Safety Measures Beaches Are Taking to Minimize the Spread of COVID-19

Seaside areas around the world are using technology and strict regulations to try to protect visitors from the virus

Page 10 of 38