Controlling pollutions through disinfection, rather than preventing them outright, marked a critical feature of the chemical revolution that crested …
Of Plagues and Public Hygiene
From a comprehensive, sweeping look at pandemics that ravaged the world to the birth of public hygiene and the history of eradication.
Photo: thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
Renowned scientist and best-selling author Vaclav Smil offers a sweeping look at pandemics that ravaged the world. Editor’s note: As the global …
The authors of "Sulphuric Utopias" chart the history of ideas about fumigation and quarantine, and shed light on the origins of epidemic …
A wave of statistical enthusiasm, coupled with new technologies, paved the way for data visualization that laid the foundations for social reform in …
Nearly 100 years ago, in 1918, the world experienced the greatest tidal wave of death since the Black Death, possibly in the whole of human history. …
For decades now, global health organizations and deep-pocketed philanthropies like the Gates Foundation have worked to eradicate wild poliovirus — …
We are demigods of discards – but our copious garbage became a toxic burden only with the modern cult of ‘disposability’By Gabrielle HechtRead at Aeon
On May 8, 1980, the World Health Assembly endorsed a historic resolution, which declared “that the world and all its peoples have won freedom from …
Here’s betting you wouldn’t want anyone blowing smallpox scabs up your nose. But you might feel differently if you lived in 15th century China. Long ago, the Chinese recognized that people who had contracted...
You might think they are disgusting. But our war against intestinal worms has damaged our immune systems and mental healthBy William ParkerRead at …