History
Five Curiosities From Medical History
Photos from the Mütter Museum’s newly searchable collection.
How Tourists Are Rescuing the Ancient City of Palmyra
Photographs taken from before terrorists destroyed the site are helping researchers digitally resurrect it.
What Is a Beautiful Experiment?
Finding beauty in science is timeless. But we shouldn’t let it blind us.
Finding the Color of an Empire
What a particular shade of black can teach us about an ancient civilization.
The 19th-Century Trippers Who Probed the Mind
In the age of self-experiment, scientists took mind-altering drugs to test the limits of subjectivity.
The Ancient Architecture that Defies Earthquakes
Stone buildings in northern India reveal secrets of old structures that could save lives.
The Strange Life of Glass
This essential substance has a history—and future—that’s far from clear.
The Explosive Chemist Who Invented Smokeless Gunpowder
James Dewar, the creator of cordite, likely helped win World War I. But why never a Nobel?
How Was Abortion Understood Historically?
One question for Claudia Ford, an herbalist and midwife turned environmental historian at SUNY.
When the Surgeon Was an Uneducated Barber
A medical student confronts the history of surgery.
Termination of Pregnancy Has Always Been Part of Women’s Health
Plants, prejudice, and history lessons for a post-Roe nation.
