Articles tagged as Medicine | Smithsonian Magazine

Illustration of a Greek vase shows Dionysus leading three revelers toward likely hangovers

Recently Translated Papyrus Details 1,900-Year-Old Hangover Cure

Those disappointed by the effectiveness of this 1,900-year old remedy can instead peruse the eye surgery techniques in other ancient texts

April 23, 2015

An Aedes aegypti mosquito stops for a quick bite.

New Research

Genes Make Some People More Attractive to Mosquitoes

Certain body odors appear to entice the pesky bloodsuckers—and those smells may be hereditary

April 22, 2015

New Research

Painkillers Might Also Dull Your Emotions

A study shows Tylenol could affect emotional evaluations, but judging the meaning of that finding is tough

April 15, 2015

Vacant casemates became open-air cells for more than 500 inmates serving time for desertion, mutiny, murder and other offenses.

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

How Samuel Mudd Went From Lincoln Conspirator to Medical Savior

Banished to an island prison in the Gulf of Mexico, the doctor who set Booth’s broken leg saved dozens of lives in a yellow fever outbreak

April 14, 2015

Conceptual image of Cancer cells with red blood cells

New Research

Sound Waves Could Help Find Elusive Cancer Cells

Researchers have developed a new device that could help determine the presence of tumor cells circulating in the bloodstream

April 10, 2015

Building a Bionic Pancreas

A device that tracks blood sugar and automatically administers insulin and glucagon could take some pressure off Type 1 diabetes patients and their parents

April 8, 2015

A shaman collects roots to prepare ayahuasca in Iquitos, Peru.

New Research

Amazonian Hallucinogen Could Be an Antidepressant

Drinking Ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic tea, could change the concentration serotonin in the brain

April 7, 2015

New Research

Crossing Your Fingers Could Reduce Pain (No Lie)

Researchers find the spatial arrangement of our digits affects the sensations they feel

March 30, 2015

New Research

Gold Nanoparticles Can Remote Control the Brain

It’s just the latest twist in nanotech that is using gold as medicine

March 27, 2015

A digital scan of a human kidney and pelvis.

Medical Holograms Are Now Part of the Surgeon’s Toolkit

Technology hitting the market will help doctors examine heart conditions or check for colon cancer without breaking the skin

March 27, 2015

Cool Finds

How a Stinging Swarm of Bees Can Save a Life

Bee venom might be a potent medicine

March 27, 2015

In Mozambique, rats, like this one shown, have been used to detect land mines. Now they're being put to work to aid the fight against tuberculosis.

Highly trained rodents are helping doctors better diagnose TB in a region hard hit by the deadly disease

March 25, 2015

Cats Get Breast Cancer Too, and There’s a Lot We Can Learn From It

Understanding aggressive tumors in pets may lead to better treatments for the nastiest forms of the disease in people

March 25, 2015

About a quarter of residents in a small town in Kazakhstan have fallen into a deep sleep for days at a time—and no one knows why

March 23, 2015

Marijuana buds are often two to three times as potent as they were 30 years ago.

New Research

Modern Marijuana Is Often Laced With Heavy Metals and Fungus

Medical and recreational marijuana use is increasingly legal—but do consumers know what they’re smoking?

March 23, 2015

Members of the Xhosa tribe, like the young initiates seen here in Khayelitsha, are among the South African groups that practice ritual circumcision. The affiliation of the young man who received a transplant is not known.

The doctors who announced the first successful procedure last week had a particularly difficult time finding willing organ donors

March 19, 2015

The iTBra by Cyrcadia Health aims to screen for breast cancer in a new way, but still requires much testing.

Could a Bra Actually Detect Breast Cancer?

Using thermodynamic sensors, the iTBra could one day screen for breast cancer, but experts are wary

March 19, 2015

New Research

1,800 Studies Later, Scientists Conclude Homeopathy Doesn’t Work

A major Australian study debunks homeopathy—again

March 11, 2015

New Drawings Show the Strange Beauty of Phages, the Bacteria Slayers

Phage viruses rearrange genes, prey on bacteria and maintain microbial diversity. Can we harness them to do our bidding?

March 9, 2015

A lithograph depicting an ancient Egyptian physician treating a patient for lockjaw. In the village of Deir el-Medina, this man may have still been paid while missing work.

Cool Finds

Some Ancient Egyptians Had State-Sponsored Healthcare

Craftsmen who built royal tombs enjoyed sick days, designated physicians and rationed medicine—all paid by the state

February 20, 2015