Science

Elizabeth Catte’s new book traces a shameful history and its legacy today.

Sixty-six years ago, people celebrated the polio vaccine by embracing in the streets. Our vaccine story is both more extraordinary and more complicated.

After the Soviet Union sent the first human safely into orbit, the U.S. government doubled down on its effort to win the race to the moon.

America’s first opioid crisis came after its bloodiest war, but the lessons of the original debacle have been lost in history.

Over 30 years, dramatic consolidation has meant higher prices, fewer treatment options and less incentive to innovate.

History shows that the benefits of such a system can extend far beyond the venues into which such a passport would grant admission .

It’s easier to blame individuals for the opioid crisis than to attempt to diagnose and cure the ills of a society.

Vaccination is of critical importance right now. History shows us that our problems are nothing new.

Nearly two centuries later, many tribes remain suspicious of the drive to get them vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Racism documented in files from the “Central Lunatic Asylum for the Colored Insane.”

Disease reshapes our lives in surprising ways.

It's the health inequities of today, not the infamous "Tuskegee Study," that explain many Black people's distrust of the American health system.

At the first hint the virus was receding, people pushed to get life back to normal. Unfortunately another surge of the disease followed.

The two prevailing historical visions of Louis Agassiz — one gentle and reverential, the other rigid and bigoted — may simply be two sides of the same coin.

Whose body was harvested to create a spectacular anatomical specimen, and did that person know they would be on display more than a century later?

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted racial disparities with roots in the past.

It took hundreds of years of research to develop in-vitro fertilization or IVF.

Decades before 'Zoom fatigue' broke our spirits, the so-called computer revolution brought with it a world of pain previously unknown to humankind.

Three hundred years ago, Cotton Mather starred in a debate about treating smallpox that tore Boston apart.

Free blacks cared for those infected with yellow fever even as their own lives were imperiled.

The front lines of a terrible epidemic, through the eyes of a young doctor profoundly touched by tragedy.

An activist, writer, doctor and intellectual, James McCune Smith, born enslaved, directed his talents to the eradication of slavery.

The founding father of American birding soared on the wings of white privilege. How should the birding community grapple with this racist legacy?

Distributing them equally is key to defeating the coronavirus.

When it comes to education technology, school leaders have often leaped before they looked.

“Green” public relations work has flown below the radar but made a huge impact.

Notes toward a history of isolation.

A century ago, few Americans had any idea how much they weighed. Here’s why that changed so dramatically.

Since World War I we’ve been solving problems with dangerous chemicals that introduce new problems.

“Pseudoscience,” race, and American politics.