Health & Medicine | Science History Institute

Health & Medicine

"Dr. Walter Freeman, left, and Dr. James W. Watts study an X ray before a psychosurgical operation.

The Making of a Lobotomist

Distillations Podcast

Water Blight ad

Water Stories: Clean Water Act 50th Anniversary Open House

Event

Black and white photo of demonstrators sitting with a sign

Confronting America’s Food Emergencies

Distillations Article

Jeannette Clarke performs blood analysis with Perkin-Elmer Atomic Absorption Spectrophotomer

Women in Chemistry Tour

Event

Water testing at EPA facility

Water Tour

Event

Start Talking Science

Start Talking Science

Visit

illustration of a screwworm fly dumping eggs on a wound

The Screwiest—and Perhaps Most Original—Idea of the 20th Century

Distillations Podcast

Three-dimensional anatomical diagram of the brain

When the Brain Deceives Itself

Distillations Podcast

Between Us and Catastrophe exhibition

‘Philadelphia Weekly’ Spotlights Institute’s Oral History Program, ‘Between Us and Catastrophe’ Exhibition

Media Coverage

Emory University’s Dennis Liotta to Receive 2022 SCI Perkin Medal

Press Release

Color illustration of a 19th-century cholera victim

John Snow Hunts the Blue Death

Distillations Article

A portrait of Niccolo Paganini on his deathbed.

Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius as Written by Our Genetic Code

Distillations Podcast

Ad for Hercules' Parlon paint 1940

Family Day

Event

ad for water toys 1954

Family Day

Event

Emblem 31 from Atalanta Fugiens 1618

Family Day

Event

Illustration of tapping serum from a horse in a pharmacy

Institute’s Digital Exhibition on Vaccines Gets Boost from Google Arts & Culture

Press Release

Chemistry International: Downstream

Media Coverage

Impressionist painting of a lily pond

Could Claude Monet See Like a Bee?

Distillations Article

Science History Institute Announces Nobel Laureate Frances Arnold Will Present 2022 Ullyot Lecture

Press Release

Portrait of Alessadro Moreschi

The Sinister Angel Singers of Rome

Distillations Podcast

Archival photo of the transylvania university

The Murderous Origins of the American Medical Association

Distillations Podcast

muller portrait

The Big ‘What If’ of Cancer

Distillations Podcast

Photo of a brain

Real-Life Zombies

Distillations Podcast

microscopic image of viruses and a bacterium

Bacteriophages and the Fight Against Cholera in Cold War Afghanistan

Distillations Article

picture of a fox

How Climate Change Will Remake the Human Body

Distillations Podcast

illustrations of chimney sweeps

The ‘Mary Poppins’ Cancer

Distillations Podcast

Water Pics exhibition

Science History Institute Mounts New Outdoor Exhibition

Press Release

What Causes Alzheimer’s?

Distillations Podcast

18th century mythological painting of Greek goddess Eos and Tithonus

Chasing Immortality

Distillations Podcast

Downstream web banner

Take a Watery Journey through History and Science with Institute’s New ‘Downstream’ Exhibition Opening September 14

Press Release

Ladies Talking to Ladies about Ladies (in Science)

Distillations Podcast

Vampire preys on a sick woman

Vampire Panic

Distillations Podcast

black and white photo of a woman

Searching for Isabel Morgan

Distillations Article

Photo of Stephane Bancel

Interview with Stéphane Bancel

Distillations Podcast

Cartoon of men in powdered wigs fighting

Vicious Doctors and Cruel Diseases in 18th-Century Jamaica

Distillations Article

Cartoon of group of men dissecting bodies in an attic

The Anatomy Riots

Distillations Podcast

Doctors perform ancient neurosurgery

When a Hole in the Head Is a Good Thing

Distillations Podcast

color portrait of man and woman smiling

Wayne Woolley’s Marvelously Equipped Mind

Distillations Article

Drawing of an anopheles mosquito

When Mosquitoes Cured Insanity

Distillations Podcast

Advertisement of a child eating

Chewing It Over—and Over and Over and Over

Distillations Podcast

Close up photo of contraceptive pill

Why Don’t We Have a Male Birth Control Pill Yet?

Distillations Podcast

A nurse in a mask

Hidden City Philadelphia: A Year in Ruins

Media Coverage

Physician inoculates boy with smallpox vaccine aboard ship

Orphan Vaccines

Distillations Podcast

Wendy Zukerman standing on stage holding microphone, wearing t-shirt that reads "science isn't here to make you feel better."

Predicting the Pandemic

Distillations Podcast

Mock-up photo of a cellphone displaying a QR code

COVID-19 Health Passports: What’s Old Is New Again

Distillations Article

Downstream museum view

Downstream

Nurse Linda Ruggiero poses for portrait wearing face mask.

COVID’s Hidden Toll on Nurses

Distillations Podcast

Genre oil painting

Quacks, Plagues, and Pandemics

Distillations Article

Philadelphia Nurse Sara Cohen in her Personal Protective Equipment

Between Us and Catastrophe

Distillations Podcast

Portrait of James Barry

How History Keeps Ignoring James Barry

Distillations Article

A nurse in a mask

Between Us and Catastrophe

Museum

Illustration of a young woman with skin lesions

Joseph Goldberger’s Filth Parties

Distillations Article

A man in a mine, wearing breathing apparatus and holding a lantern, finds asphyxiated miners. Wood engraving, ca. 1900.

The Alchemical Origins of Occupational Medicine

Distillations Podcast

Gabriela Serrato Marks doing fieldwork in a cave.

Bonus Episode: Interview with Gabriela Serrato Marks

Distillations Podcast

children learning geography in a classroom from 1921.

Science and Disability: Part 2

Distillations Podcast

Photo of FDR in a wheelchair

Bonus Episode: Interview with Kim Nielsen

Distillations Podcast

Catalogue image of microscopes

Science and Disability: Part 1

Distillations Podcast

Engraving showing tableau of injected vessel and infant skeletons by Frederick Ruysch,

Collecting Monstrosity

Distillations Podcast

The Instrumental Chemist video title image

The Instrumental Chemist

Research

Photo of Magda Marquet posing

Interview with Magda Marquet

Distillations Podcast

Robert Langer working on a bed at home while wearing a mask

Interview with Robert Langer

Distillations Podcast

Mark Stevenson of Thermo Fisher Scientific

Interview with Mark Stevenson

Distillations Podcast

Alnylam CEO John Maraganore

Interview with John Maraganore

Distillations Podcast

Photo of Katrine Bosley

Interview with Katrine Bosley

Distillations Podcast

Seated man holding brush, peering into microscope

Hashime Murayama and the Art of Saving Lives

Distillations Article

William Haseltine on a stage

Interview with William Haseltine

Distillations Podcast

Interview with Susan Weiss

Distillations Podcast

Photo of Susan Desmond-Hellmann at the Fortune Most Powerful Women

Interview with Sue Desmond-Hellmann

Distillations Podcast

Former Gilead CEO John C. Martin holds bottle of Truvada

Interview with John C. Martin

Distillations Podcast

Photograph of an operation in a surgical amphitheater

The Nurse Who Introduced Gloves to the Operating Room

Distillations Article

child on table surrounded by a group of men and women

The Story of Serum Therapy

Distillations Article

Photo from 1918 showing Philadelphia streetcar with sign reading "Spit spreads death"

Spit Spreads Death

Distillations Podcast

Color image of cancer cell

Who Needs a Mammogram?

Distillations Article

black and white engraving of a domestic scene

Medicinal Leeches and Where to Find Them

Distillations Article

A dancing couple in unusual clothes

Old Drug Ketamine Offers New Hope for Chronic Pain Sufferers

Distillations Article

Color anatomical drawing of a mosquito

Our Oldest, Deadliest Foe

Distillations Article

Cartoon of grave robbers

The Anatomy Riot of 1788

Distillations Article

Historical photo of Philadelphia's Fairmount Water Works

How Philadelphia’s Water Pollution Problems Shaped the City

Distillations Podcast

Rubella (German Measles) vaccination clinic in 1969

Roe v. Wade v. Rubella

Distillations Podcast

Color woodcut of two women on desolate shore

Searching for Schizophrenia

Distillations Article

Woodcut of well-dressed crowd and cow strapped to table

Smallpox and the Long Road to Eradication

Distillations Article

Two brain scans: one seemingly healthy one and one afflicted by alzheimer's

The Alzheimer’s Copernicus Problem

Distillations Podcast

Illustration of rat climbing down a ship's mooring rope with a city in the distance

San Francisco’s Plague Years

Distillations Article

Satirical cartoon on food adulteration from Puck magazine

Harvey Wiley’s Fierce Pursuit of Food Safety

Distillations Article

Sangeeta Bhatia

Interview: Sangeeta Bhatia

Distillations Article

miners hauling electronics that are causing pollution

Rare Earths: The Hidden Cost to Their Magic

Distillations Podcast

Illustration of pepper plant

Heat Therapy

Distillations Article

Jesse Gelsinger photo illustration

The Death of Jesse Gelsinger, 20 Years Later

Distillations Article

Jennifer Doudna at the 2018 Ullyot lecture

Interview: Jennifer Doudna

Distillations Article

Polio vaccine dropped on to sugar lump for child patient.

Book Club: The Story of the Polio Vaccine

Distillations Article

Closeup of a penicillin fermentation jug

Distilled #8: Penicillin Jug

Distillations Video

Close-up view of valves, pipes, and fittings

Whose Knowledge Counts? Scientists with Cognitive Differences

Distillations Article

Science history photo collage

Love, Hate, and Sex from the History of Science

Distillations Podcast

Still from Where Are My Children: At the end of the film the Waltons are visited by the spectral images of their offspring, first as children and then as young adults.

Where Are My Children? Public Health in the Movies

Distillations Article

19th century breast reliever

Distilled #7: Bicycle Horn or Breast Pump?

Distillations Video

Photo illustration of woman with migraine

Sex(ism), Drugs, and Migraines

Distillations Podcast

Jennifer Doudna gives the 2018 Ullyot Lecture

Book Club: Cracking Creation with Jennifer Doudna

Distillations Article

Harry versus the Volcano

Distillations Article

Lab mouse in red Harvard sweater/bowtie

The Mouse That Changed Science

Distillations Podcast

Soldiers at Camp Dix during the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918

Exhuming the Flu

Distillations Article

Snakes and Letters

Distillations Article

Photo illustration of poppy flowers and opioid addict

Treating America’s Opioid Addiction

Distillations Podcast