Science

Dr. Larry Brilliant, who helped eradicate smallpox, says past epidemics can teach us to fight coronavirus.

Dr. Maurice Hilleman caught the 1957 flu when even the military and WHO couldn't.

Until the mid-1800s, doctors didn’t bother washing their hands. Then a Hungarian medic made an essential, much-resisted breakthrough.

What we can learn from the Spanish flu.

How midlife crises—and menopause—came to be defined by the experience of men.

When a remarkable new invention by Louis Daguerre was announced by the French, it was American inventor Samuel Morse who sensed its commercial potential.

There’s a fatal history behind the claim that African Americans are more resistant to diseases like Covid-19 or yellow fever.

On Hosea Easton’s and David Walker’s attempts to debunk scientific racism.

The differences between the global response to the Great Flu Pandemic and today’s COVID-19 outbreak could not be more striking.

How mesmerism threatened early 19th-century gendered constructs of virtue and honor.

The historian Frank M. Snowden discusses the politics of restricting travel during epidemics and more.

A century before today’s celebrity health gurus, an American businesswoman was a beauty with a brand.

A "test tube baby" grapples with the dark corners of 20th century reproductive technologies.

Women are slightly better at hand-washing than men. Here’s one theory for why.

If kissing was deemed necessary during the flu pandemic, a handkerchief should be used to prevent direct contact with the lips.

A newly minted celebrity to the world, the future president used his position to procure his preferred beast of burden from the king of Spain.

The measure of thermal energy expended by exercise was adapted from the study of explosives and engines.

How the "census tract" came into being.

The 1980s brought about America's gym obsession—and a machine that demands a notoriously grueling cardio workout

A new look at detailed data about Civil War skirmishes along the Mississippi River reveals another key to the Union's victory.

People hunted and raised small farms near the ruins of the ancient city.

Despite its countercultural associations today, organic farming was entangled with fascist and quasi-fascist politics at its origins.

Acclimatization societies believed that animals could fill the gaps of a deficient environment.

Sixty years ago, a sharecropper’s son invented a technology to identify faces. The record of his role all but vanished. Who was Woody Bledsoe, and who was he working for?

Evidence shows Native Americans in New England lived lightly on the land for thousands of years. Europeans were the first to majorly impact the environment.

A longer look reveals interesting patterns and may clarify what is driving a rise in suicides.

A study of more than 100 cities shows neighborhoods subjected to discriminatory housing policies nearly a century ago are hotter today than other areas.

Reflections on the long career of race science at Mr. Jefferson's university.

From poisoned monks and nuclear bombs to the “transfermium wars,” mapping the atomic world hasn’t been easy.

Ed Dwight Jr. trained to go to the moon, but racism in the selection process kept him out of space.