Science

We have no historical precedent for this moment.

For women who play sports, there's often no way to win.

Vaccines against smallpox during the Revolutionary War are one example of how mandates have protected the health of Americans for more than two centuries.

And then took credit for "saving" them.

As Progressive Era reforms increased the power of government, organized opposition to vaccination campaigns took on a new life.

During WWI the act of hearing was recast as a tactical activity — one that could determine human and even national survival.

The results of Foote's simple experiments were confirmed through hundreds of tests by scientists in the US and Europe. It happened more than a century ago.

The great discoveries of the age captivated Poe’s imagination. He almost always misunderstood them.

Hell hath no fury like a man with a vaginal douche named after him.

A history of record-breaking highs but also of sweaty, sticky, corporeal experiences.

Letting panic about fertility rates drive policy is dangerous.

Once a haven for tuberculosis patients, Barlow Respiratory Hospital is uniquely suited to the COVID and post-COVID eras.

People have come up with a range of ingenious, harebrained, and sometimes grim but often remarkable ways to stay cool during a summer scorcher.

A bottle of bitters from about 1918 had significant amounts of alcohol and lead—and not a trace of the supposed active ingredient.

On the rise and fall of radium in the beauty industry.

Early Americans conscripted the universe into their nation-building project.

Early Americans coped with disease through narratives that found divine providence and mercy in suffering.

Wally Funk has been ready to become an astronaut for six decades.

Colonial America was divided over smallpox inoculation, but he championed science to skeptic.

By thinking of diseases just as medical problems, we allow them to fester in poor communities.

The U.S. needs another innovation dream team.

The rise of optical illusions and magical effects.

A new book recovers the reputation Poe had in his own lifetime of being a cross between a science writer, a poet, and a man of letters.

An 80-by-10 grid punched into a paper card helped drive us out of the Industrial Age and into the Data Age.

A decade before Lewis and Clark, André Michaux wanted to explore the American continent. Spying for France gave him that chance.

Known as a master of horror, he also understood the power—and the limits—of science.

The smallpox epidemic of the 1860s offers us a valuable, if disconcerting, clue about how epidemics actually end.

Kevin Cook on the warnings NASA ignored, with tragic results.

Observing the visible features of Martian landscapes, Giovanni Schiaparelli began seeing things almost immediately.

While smallpox was ravaging late 18th century Britain, John Haygarth thought up of a plan to pay people for public health compliance.