How the Inca world collapsed
The Inca Empire fell quickly. The collapse of Andean civilisation happened over generations, as epidemics, resettlement and forced labour broke the foundations of survival.
Health Checks on History
History’s outbreaks, policies and turning points in public health - and the lessons they keep teaching us.
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Two Koreas, two population crises
The Korean War split one population into two very different population crises: one ultra-modern but having fewer babies, the other experiencing food shortages in a secretive state.
Before climate change, there were volcanoes
Long before humans began warming the planet, volcanoes were the sources of environmental shocks that helped create the conditions for famine, disease and political crises across societies.
Guatemala's hidden experiments
Between 1946 and 1948, US researchers exposed Guatemalans to sexually transmitted infections under the guise of prevention. The scandal still asks who gets risked for the sake of scientific progress.
Mummies were never meant to be a medical archive
Mummification was intended to prepare the dead for the afterlife, but it also preserved evidence of ancient disease that modern science can now uncover thousands of years later.
The Vikings weren’t as healthy as you’d think
Vikings are often thought of as models of natural strength, until scientific evidence tells a messier story about infection, poor teeth, and health conditions shaped by the worlds they lived in.
What kept the American Revolution alive
From mass smallpox inoculation to sanitation at Valley Forge, public health was an essential part of military strategy during America's War of Independence.
A brain disease broke medical categories
Kuru began as a devastating brain disease in Papua New Guinea, but solving the mystery behind it exposed the limits of disease categories themselves.
Mosquitoes nearly stopped the Panama Canal
The Panama Canal was made possible by controlling yellow fever and malaria, but the science behind that breakthrough also expanded imperial power.
The Great Fire of London didn’t burn the plague away
The Great Fire of London is often credited with ending the Great Plague. But it's almost certainly wrong. So what really happened?