Dangerous delights: Victorian Britain’s cocaine habit
In the 19th century, a magic new drug took the medical community by storm, riding a wave of scientific endeavour. But, as this Long Read written by historian Douglas Small…
Spanish flu and early 20th-century expansion of a coronary heart disease-prone subpopulation
According to Stephen Jay Gould, "we have a strong preference for seeing trends as entities moving somewhere." However, trends may instead be the product of relative expansions and contractions of…
Buck v. Bell
Did you know that forced sterilization is still legal in the United States because of a 1927 Supreme Court case known as Buck v. Bell?
Monkeypox Is Spreading In The US and Europe
The first reported case of Monkeypox has been discovered in the United States after an outbreak in the United Kingdom and Spain.
The Stethoscope – 99% Invisible
In the early 1800s, an invention came along that changed everything. Suddenly the doctor could clearly hear what was happening inside the body. The heart, the lungs, the breath. This…
Repackaging the Pill – 99% Invisible
In 1960, a new wonder drug hit the U.S. market. And while lots of new drugs promise dramatic results, this one would actually transform millions of lives and radically shift…