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.

A new book traces the surprisingly short history of the environment as a shared conceptual construct.

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

Meet some of the people featured in the February 2019 issue of The Scientist.