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Medicine

Guillaume Rondelet was an early anatomist who founded his own dissecting theater, which was a thing people did in the sixteenth century.

A Sixteenth-Century Hot Date Might Include a Trip to the Dissecting Theater

Anatomy theaters were an early site for science as spectacle

Doctors Once Prescribed Terrifying Plane Flights to “Cure” Deafness

Stunt pilots, including a young Charles Lindbergh, took willing participants to the skies for (sometimes) death-defying rides

Irregular heart rhythms

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Turning Irregular Heartbeats Into Music

A set of piano pieces could help doctors better understand heart rhythm disorders

The device is a pen-sized mass spectrometry device its developers are calling MasSpec Pen.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Scientists Invent a Pen That Can Detect Cancer in Seconds

This handheld mass spectrometer could make surgeries to remove cancerous tissue quicker and more accurate

A man named Georgios Papanicolaou invented the Pap smear, but Elizabeth Stern helped figure out how to interpret it.

Why The Pap Test Could Also Be Called the Stern Test

Elizabeth Stern played a vital role in cervical cancer testing and treatment

Astronaut Rick Mastracchio poses with the bacteria grown with antibiotics on the International Space Station

New Research

Why Bacteria in Space Are Surprisingly Tough to Kill

Learning how space changes microbes might help fight antibiotic resistance here on Earth

An apricot seed and the kernels found within them

Man Poisons Himself by Taking Apricot Kernels to Treat Cancer

Many believe these seeds can fight cancer, but there’s no scientific evidence to back up the claim

Could this brace alleviate "crouch gait?"

The Innovative Spirit fy17

This Robotic Exoskeleton Helps Kids With Cerebral Palsy Walk Upright

Children with cerebral palsy often walk in a crouched position, which is difficult to maintain over long distances. A robot suit can help.

This Algorithm Can Tell How Much Pain You’re In

Doctors may soon measure pain with an app

Pharmacists once used chocolate syrup to mask the bitter flavor of their remedies—and make a little money on the side.

The Unlikely Medical History of Chocolate Syrup

How the sundae staple went from treatment to just treat

Genetically modified immune cells ready to be reintroduced back into a person and attack leukemia.

First Gene Therapy Treatment Approved in U.S.

By modifying a person’s own immune cells, the treatment can effectively target leukemia cells

Paul Ehrlich was the first to take a chemical approach to immunity.

The First Syphilis Cure Was the First ‘Magic Bullet’

The term ‘magic bullet’ once just meant a targeted drug

Anandibai Joshee (left), Kei Okami and Tabat M. Islambooly, students from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.

Women Who Shaped History

This 19th Century “Lady Doctor” Helped Usher Indian Women Into Medicine

Ananabai Joshee dedicated her career to treating women and helped blaze a path for international doctors training in the U.S.

One of the best-known paintings of the doomed Franklin expedition. Full title: "They forged the last link with their lives: HMS ‘Erebus’ and ‘Terror’, 1849–1850."

A Dentist Weighs in On What Really Doomed the Franklin Expedition

Addison’s disease may have blackened the explorers’ gums and hastened their demise, proposes a history-obsessed dentistry professor

Today, the Mayo Clinic is a well-known research hospital.

One of the World’s Most Famous Hospitals Was Originally a Makeshift Tornado Relief Clinic

You could say the first Mayo Clinic was a dance hall that had been converted into a makeshift field hospital

An ancient knee joint that shows signs of grinding between the bones, a result of osteoarthritis

New Research

What a 6,000-Year-Old Knee Can Teach Us About Arthritis

By studying bones dating back thousands of years, researchers find that the disease may not be just a part of getting old

No ornamental fish antibiotics are regulated by the FDA.

This Is Why Taking Fish Medicine Is Truly a Bad Idea

Those who misuse aquatic antibiotics are playing a dangerous game with their health, doctors and veterinarians say

A new tissue paper (as in, paper made from biological tissue) is so strong it can be folded into origami.

A Lab Accident Leads to Bioactive “Tissue Paper”

A spill of bioactive ink made from ovarian cells led to the creation of paper made from organs and tissues, with various potential medical uses

Yisrael Kristal receiving his Guinness certificate

Trending Today

World’s Oldest Man, a Holocaust Survivor, Dies at 113

Candy maker Yisrael Kristal survived Auschwitz and celebrated his bar mitzvah 100 years after turning 13

Ruth Pfau in 2004

Trending Today

Ruth Pfau, “Mother of Leprosy Patients,” Has Died

Over five decades, the German-born physician and nun treated thousand of patients and got the leprosy epidemic under control in Pakistan

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