Articles tagged as Disease | Smithsonian Magazine

Trapped inside this ice core is evidence that suggests humans have been polluting the atmosphere with lead for thousands of years.

New Research

Humans Polluted the Air Much Earlier Than Previously Thought

Ice cores suggest that humans have been polluting the air with lead for at least 2,000 years

June 2, 2017

A new vaccine is ready for action in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It’s the newest tool in health workers’ arsenal against the contagious virus

May 31, 2017

It’s common in kitchens, but a nationwide shortage is endangering more than baked goods

May 25, 2017

Aubrey de Grey says, “There’s no such thing as aging gracefully.”

Can Human Mortality Really Be Hacked?

Backed by the digital fortunes of Silicon Valley, biotech companies are brazenly setting out to “cure” aging

June 2017

A giraffe skin disease was first described in the mid-1990s in Uganda and evidence of the disease has been spotted in numerous other countries, including Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

Future of Conservation

How a Tiny Worm is Irritating the Most Majestic of Giraffes

They sound horrifying and look worse. A Smithsonian researcher is investigating the cause of these grotesque skin lesions

May 19, 2017

Chocolate, coffee and tea all played a role in overturning a medical theory that had dominated the Western world for more than a millennium.

How Coffee, Chocolate and Tea Overturned a 1,500-Year-Old Medical Mindset

The humoral system dominated medicine since the Ancient Greeks—but it was no match for these New World beverages

May 17, 2017

A nurse suits up in Liberia before entering an Ebola red zone in 2015. Now, a single case of Ebola has been confirmed in Congo by the World Health Organization.

A single death has been confirmed—now public health officials must keep an outbreak from becoming an epidemic

May 12, 2017

Frances Oldham Kelsey, a pharmacologist with the Food & Drug Administration, helped prevent a generation of children born with congenital deformities in the United States.

Women Who Shaped History

The Woman Who Stood Between America and a Generation of ‘Thalidomide Babies’

How the United States escaped a national tragedy in the 1960s

May 8, 2017

Drinking fountain on the Halifax County Courthouse (North Carolina) in April 1938.

New Research

Racism Harms Children’s Health, Survey Finds

Racism may not be a disease, exactly. But a growing body of research finds that it has lasting physical and mental effects on its victims

May 5, 2017

This memorial to the victims of Nazi Germany's "euthanasia" program was erected in Berlin in 2000.

A research society is still coming to grips with its past—and learning more about how the Third Reich targeted people with disabilities

May 5, 2017

Fruit bats are thought to be the natural host for the Ebola virus. Groups like USAID PREDICT regularly monitor such diseases in wildlife to prevent the jump from animal to humans.

The Next Pandemic

Can Saving Animals Prevent the Next Deadly Pandemic?

A global disease monitoring network is banking on the idea that healthier wildlife means healthier humans

May 5, 2017

During World War I, a critical shaving tool caused critical illness in hundreds of people.

World War I: 100 Years Later

How Shaving Brushes Gave World War I Soldiers Anthrax

A new paper looks back on an old epidemic—and raises fresh questions about antique shaving brushes

May 3, 2017

A field hospital in Virginia, photographed in 1862, shows the grim conditions during the Civil War.

Fearing a Smallpox Epidemic, Civil War Troops Tried to Self-Vaccinate

People knew that inoculation could prevent you from catching smallpox. It was how Civil War soldiers did it that caused problems

May 1, 2017

Roughly 70 pink pigeons exist in captivity around the world, including this one at the San Diego Zoo.

Future of Conservation

Threatened Species? Science to the (Genetic) Rescue!

This still-controversial conservation technique will never be a species’ panacea. But it might provide a crucial stop-gap

April 27, 2017

A baby in Ghana rests underneath a mosquito net. Ghana will become one of three African countries to pilot the new malaria vaccine in 2018.

The pilot program will focus on Kenya, Ghana and Malawi—countries at the center of the global malaria crisis

April 25, 2017

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

April 19, 2017

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

New Research

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

April 13, 2017

New Research

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

April 4, 2017

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

March 28, 2017

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

March 24, 2017