Distillations magazine
Health & Medicine
Bodies, minds, and the things that help and harm them
The Rotten Science Behind the MSG Scare
How one doctor’s letter and a string of dodgy studies spurred a public health panic.
The Murky Ethics of Wastewater Surveillance
By monitoring sewage, scientists can track disease outbreaks in near real time. But will the technology leave long-term privacy risks in its wake?
Fighting through the Fear
Lessons from the Polio Pioneers in an era of misinformation.
Diagnosing the Dead
Can scrutinizing the ailments of historical figures really teach us anything?
Does Louis Pasteur Still Matter?
Or will the scientist’s 200th birthday be his last hurrah?
John Snow Hunts the Blue Death
In showing that cholera spreads through tainted water, an English doctor helped lay epidemiology’s foundations.
Bacteriophages and the Fight Against Cholera in Cold War Afghanistan
Could a Soviet-era therapy offer a new defense against antibiotic-resistant superbugs?
Searching for Isabel Morgan
Reconsidering the fate of an overlooked polio fighter.
Vicious Doctors and Cruel Diseases in 18th-Century Jamaica
A scientific dispute takes a violent, absurd turn.
Wayne Woolley’s Marvelously Equipped Mind
What drove a blind biochemist to experiment with LSD?
COVID-19 Health Passports: What’s Old Is New Again
To speed reopening, government and business leaders are pushing a modern version of a centuries-old idea.
Quacks, Plagues, and Pandemics
What charlatans of the past can teach us about the COVID-19 crisis.
Joseph Goldberger’s Filth Parties
A crusading doctor’s stomach-churning efforts to beat back pellagra in the American South.
Stress Baking and the Comfort of Connection
Baking homemade bread anchors us to millennia-long traditions.
Hashime Murayama and the Art of Saving Lives
A wildlife painter who ran afoul of xenophobic authorities during World War II found refuge and renewed purpose in the lab.
The Nurse Who Introduced Gloves to the Operating Room
Caroline Hampton and the forgotten origins of the first personal protective equipment.
The Story of Serum Therapy
How a 19th-century invention could save lives today.
Who Needs a Mammogram?
In the fight against breast cancer, entrenched interests and outmoded ideas may be hurting patients.