Articles tagged as Disease | Smithsonian Magazine

This false-color image depicts various compounds that ants smell to detect where their nestmates stand in the colony's social hierarchy.

Studying Ant “Noses” Could Lead to Better Bug Repellents

The new class of repellents, called “excito-repellents,” is similar to “getting on an elevator with someone who’s put on way too much perfume”

July 11, 2017

The early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic were marked with stigma and confusion.

The epidemic’s early days were perplexing and terrifying

July 3, 2017

Animals like prairie dogs can play host to plague-infected fleas.

The deadly disease can be spread by household pets

June 28, 2017

A cocktail of steroids and vitamin C, often found in citrus and leafy green produce, might hold the key to treating sepsis. Or, clinical trials might prove it overhyped.

New Research

Could Vitamin C Be the Cure for Deadly Infections?

A new protocol that includes this common nutrient could save millions of lives—and has already sparked a raging debate among doctors

June 27, 2017

Over 200,000 cases of cholera have been documented in Yemen thus far.

More than 200,000 cases have been reported in a country racked by civil war

June 26, 2017

The "abortion pill" (actually two separate medications) can be taken up to 10 weeks after pregnancy, according to the FDA.

The Science Behind the “Abortion Pill”

Legal or not, more American women are opting for abortion by medication. We asked doctors: How safe is it?

June 23, 2017

The Little Brown Bat’s Mighty Talent

Accounting for body size, the little brown bat lives longest of any mammal–but no one knows why

June 22, 2017

Cyanobacteria, sometimes known as blue-green algae, are single-celled organisms that use photosynthesis to produce food just like plants do.

New Research

Need to Fix a Heart Attack? Try Photosynthesis

Injecting plant-like creatures into a rat’s heart can jumpstart the recovery process, study finds

June 19, 2017

In the past half-century, this tiny object has gone from feminist icon to dangerous villain to, incredibly, feminist icon once again. And no, we're not sure why the background is pink.

From Medical Pariah to Feminist Icon: The Story of the IUD

After decades of being shunned by women and doctors alike, this T-shaped device is enjoying a new surge of popularity

June 15, 2017

Pasteur took blood samples from a cow, a sheep and a horse who had died of anthrax.

How Sheep’s Blood Helped Disprove This Wacky Nineteenth-Century Theory of Illness

Scientists didn’t understand that bacteria caused disease, but then enter Louis Pasteur

June 13, 2017

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