Foundations

Neuroscientist Rita Levi-Montalcini began her Nobel Prize–winning work in a makeshift laboratory in Italy during the Second World War.

Lore has always surrounded argonauts, pelagic octopuses that build shells and travel the seas.

In the past, it was not uncommon for researcher to test their experimental therapeutics and vaccines on themselves. Some even volunteered to be exposed to pathogen-carrying vectors.

Electron microscopy revealed that a deadly disease of birds was not a form of flu, but a different type of virus entirely.

The medical scientist made important contributions to polio treatment and Australian environmental policy—despite substantial resistance.

Microbiologist Maurice Hilleman foresaw the global spread of a novel influenza strain in 1957. His vaccine saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

Kim Peek, the inspiration for the title character in Rain Man, brought public attention to savant syndrome.

Advances in imaging technology over the last century have allowed increasingly sophisticated glimpses into the ancient processes of mummification.

An analysis of the En Tibi herbarium’s plants and handwriting has given clues to the identity of its maker.

Frederik Ruysch’s collections blended specimens for scientific discovery with macabre art.

Most know Rachel Carson for her work on the dangers of chemical pollutants, but the writer’s earlier prose took readers on a tour of a mysterious underwater world.

The beverage was a popular tonic and antiseptic.

Theodosius Dobzhansky’s work in population genetics influenced how genetics and natural selection were combined in evolutionary biology.

Robert Guthrie’s blood test for the metabolic disorder phenylketonuria launched a worldwide movement to screen every baby for the disease soon after birth.

Lymph from cattle proved more effective at inducing immunity to smallpox than the older, person-to-person method.

Marvin Minsky engineered the first known artificial neural network, in which “rats” represented as lights learned to solve a maze.

Mustard gas blistered men’s bodies on the battlefield, but paved the way for cancer-fighting drugs.

A quirk of nomenclature originates in the study of insect cells.

James Kirkham Ramsbottom saved Britain’s daffodil industry from a devastating parasite, only to be forgotten.