Foundations

The first electron microscope to peer into an intact cell ushers in the new field of cell biology.

Anna Atkins, pioneering female photographer, revolutionized scientific illustration using a newly invented photographic technique.

How Nobel Laureate Barbara McClintock nearly gave up genetics for meteorology

A 19th century geologist and minister investigates a prehistoric cave full of hyena bones in his native England.

Twenty-five years later, the magazine is still hitting many of the same key discussion points of science.

An early advocate of the sequencing of the human genome reflects on his own predictions from 1986.

How an Italian scientist doing Frankenstein-like experiments on dead frogs discovered that the body is powered by electrical impulses.

After completing his studies in medicine and biology, a restless Ernst Haeckel set off for Italy in 1859 to study art and marine biology. The diversity of life fascinated the 26-year-old Prussian, and in addition to painting landscapes, he spent the

The discovery of a new and mysterious form of radiation in the late 19th century led to a revolution in medical imaging.

As epidemics swept across the United States in the 19th century, the US government recognized the pressing need for a national lab dedicated to the study of infectious disease. 

William Helfand began buying medically themed collectibles in the 1950s when he started working for Merck & Co. 

Seventeenth-century Tibet witnessed a blossoming of medical knowledge, including a set of 79 paintings, known as tangkas, that interweaved practical medical knowledge with Buddhist traditions and local lore.

During the Middle Ages, alchemists developed sophisticated ways to tap the medicinal powers of the Earth’s bounty. Liber de Arte Distillandi, published in 1512, is a layman’s guide to the preparation of these natural medicines.

Around the turn of the 20th century—before sunscreens hit the market and the damaging effects of UV radiation were widely appreciated—physicians saw the sun mostly as a source of healing. 

The drug may very well be one of mankind’s greatest discoveries.

As London suffered one of its worst cholera outbreaks, in the summer of 1853, John Snow took it upon himself to prove that the disease was transmitted through drinking water.