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Medicine

The small, bright yellow dots are lipid cells within subcutaneous fat tissue, which can be used as natural lasers.

New Research

Living Cells Armed With Tiny Lasers May Help Fight Disease

The biological light sources may one day help researchers see deeper into the body’s microscopic workings

Malaria infected blood cells (blue)

Trending Today

The First Malaria Vaccine Could Be Released Soon

The vaccine isn’t as effective as hoped however, and needs several more approvals

The Scanadu Scout is just one of the many devices that attempt to act like a real-life tricorder

Cool Finds

A List of All the Times People Have Tried to Build a Working Tricorder

Star Trek-style scanning has been a bit more complicated than expected

A veteran visits the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 1988.

New Research

Over a Quarter-Million Vietnam War Veterans Still Have PTSD

Forty years after the war’s end, twice as many vets with combat-related PTSD are getting worse as those who are improving

Brain-to-brain interfaces may soon be a therapeutic technique.

New Research

Linking Multiple Minds Could Help Damaged Brains Heal

Monkeys and rats hooked up as “brainets” may lead to innovative treatments for Parkinson’s, paralysis and more

A SmartSpecs user looks at a magazine; the laptop screen shows his view.

These Glasses Could Help the Blind See

Developed by Oxford scientists, SmartSpecs capture real time images and enhance the contrast for legally blind users

Crystalized acetaminophen, the drug in Tylenol

Cool Finds

When This Photographer Got Sick, He Started Taking Beautiful Photos of Painkillers and Tears

The extreme closeups were one way for the photographer to understand what he was taking

A scanning electron micrograph of Yersinia pestis bacteria

New Research

These Two Mutations Turned Not-so-Deadly Bacteria Into the Plague

The ancestor of the bacterium responsible for the Black Plague isn’t nearly as deadly

Benjamin Rush, prominent colonial physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence, wrote a treatise on alcohol in 1784 that still influences how medicine views substance abuse today.

Cool Finds

Meet the Doctor Who Convinced America to Sober Up

Meet Benjamin Rush, father of the temperance movement, signer of the Declaration of Independence

Smart Startup

Can You Crack a Medical Mystery?

A startup called CrowdMed asks volunteer detectives to study cases of patients with symptoms that baffle doctors

The U.K.'s National Health Service plans to test artificial blood in a clinical trial in 2017.

The First Human Clinical Trial of Synthetic Blood Will Begin Soon

People could receive artificial blood transfusions as early as 2017

Joyable helps individuals address different situations that trigger social anxiety.

Smart Startup

There is Now a 12-Week Online Program for Overcoming Social Anxiety

Two Stanford graduates are the brains behind Joyable, a startup that pairs users with coaches to tackle social challenges

Cool Finds

In Sweden the Blood Bank Will Text You When Your Blood is Used

Stockholm’s blood bank uses text messages and Facebook posts to remind donors to give again

These 15th-century female musicians are clearly in grave medical danger.

Cool Finds

Some 19th-Century Physicians Thought Music Could Infect the Brain

When it comes to music in the brain, medicine has come a long way

A ward in Carver Hospital in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War. One key innovation during this period was the division of hospitals into wards based on disease.

Six Ways the Civil War Changed American Medicine

150 years ago, the historic conflict forced doctors to get creative and to reframe the way they thought about medicine

Beth Ripley holds a 3D printed heart in her hands at the National Maker Faire last weekend in Washington, D.C.

The Innovative Spirit

Doctors Can Study 3D Printed Models of Your Organs Before Surgery

In a new era of personalized medicine, advanced models are better preparing surgeons for what they will encounter in the operating room

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Does Dieting Actually Make Your Stomach Shrink?

Not exactly, says science—stretchiness and psychology seem to play bigger roles than size in determining how much a person can eat

IBM Watson Makes Things Elementary, Indeed

The cognitive computing system makes for an ideal sidekick—in museums, kitchens, hospitals and classrooms

A Harvard Student’s App Could Bring 911 Into the Future

With just one click, RapidSOS sends GPS and medical information to emergency dispatchers

CellScope automatically detects and quantifies infection by parasitic worms in a drop of blood.

This Smartphone Microscope Uses Video to Spot Moving Parasites

A team of Berkeley bioengineers has created CellScope, a mobile phone attachment that can quickly test blood for tropical diseases

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