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.

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.

The authors of a new history of humanity's relationship with the environment detail how climate change fits into the equation.