Articles tagged as Disease | Smithsonian Magazine

A hazmat crew cleans the steps outside the Dallas apartment of a health care worker who tested positive for Ebola.

How Do You Clean Up an Ebola Patient’s Home?

Decontaminating biohazard sites can be a tough job, but the hardest microbe to wash away may not be what you think

October 16, 2014

A Dallas resident in a neighborhood where one of the persons diagnosed with Ebola lives peers out of her window.

For some, the disease is a chance to make money; for others, it brings out racism

October 15, 2014

Liberian nurses carry a dead body suspected of dying from the Ebola virus at the Roberts field highway on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia, 25 September 2014.

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Now We’re Crowdfunding Ebola Research?

One leading Ebola researcher is turning to the crowd for more funding

October 14, 2014

CDC director Tom Frieden during a press conference last week announcing Duncan's diagnosis with Ebola.

The total cost of fighting Ebola could push $32 billion

October 8, 2014

New Research

Cancer Spreads Through Our Bodies at Night

This could mean that therapies delivered after dark might be more effective

October 7, 2014

There are more than 400 species of mantis shrimp, including some with claws that can strike with the speed of a bullet and crack glass. But it’s the animal's vision, sensitive to polarized light, that is helping scientists build a compact camera that can see cancer.

A Mantis Shrimp Inspires a New Camera for Detecting Cancer

The mantis shrimp’s eyes, which can see differences in polarized light, are informing researchers building a tiny, easy-to-use camera that can spot cancer

October 3, 2014

Medical staff take a blood sample from a suspected Ebola patient at the government hospital in Kenema, July 10, 2014

Using survivors’ blood is an unproven treatment option

September 19, 2014

New Research

Artificial Sweeteners May Be Screwing Up How Your Body Handles Sugar

By affecting gut microbes, artificial sweeteners may be messing with your metabolism

September 18, 2014

The military may have capabilities others do not

September 17, 2014

MERS has killed over 300 people in the past two years

September 17, 2014

Blood-sucking kissing bugs carry the parasite that causes Chagas disease, a malady that plagues some 9 million people in Latin America.

New Research

A Blood-Sucking Foe Lurks in Central American Caves

Kissing bugs, which can spread Chagas disease, turned up positive for human blood meals in caves in Guatemala and Belize

September 17, 2014

New Research

Schizophrenia Might Actually Be Eight Different Disorders

The finding could help researchers devise more effective treatments that are tailored for individual patients

September 16, 2014

A digitally-colorized scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of Ebola virus particles.

New Research

Tracking the 2014 Ebola Outbreak Through Its Genes

Genetic detective work also revealed 395 mutations unique to the virus in West Africa

August 28, 2014

People ride past a board with control and prevention information of the Ebola epidemic outbreak in the Ebola-affected Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone, Aug. 17, 2014.

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What Will It Take to Stop Ebola?

The WHO has a plan for stopping the Ebola outbreak

August 28, 2014

This thread-like RNA (ribonucleic acid) virus is the cause of ebola haemorrhagic fever in humans. It takes its name from the location of the first recorded outbreak near the Ebola river in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Researchers think the Ebola outbreak is independent of the one in West Africa

August 25, 2014

New Research

Tuberculosis Probably Hitched A Ride To America on Seals

A new study finds that TB is not only younger than we thought, but it also spread in weird ways

August 21, 2014

Seawater contains hundreds of viruses, revealed with dye in the flask on the right. Most are harmless, but some microbes living under the sea and amid the sand aren't.

Eight Diseases To Watch Out For At the Beach

Forget sharks: These potentially deadly pathogens and parasites can lurk in sand and sea

August 15, 2014

New Research

Crawfish Can Convert Blood Cells into Neurons

This neat invertebrate trick could help researchers eventually figure out how to do the same for human cells

August 13, 2014

Nurses in a Liberian hospital dressed in protective clothing to prevent the spread of Ebola

Small supplies of the drug bring up a whole host of other ethical dilemmas

August 12, 2014

New Research

Here’s What the Newly Sequenced Cat Genome Might Tell Us

In addition to teaching us more about kitties themselves, the cat genome could shed light on human disease

August 12, 2014