From the teledactyl and the medical mantis to Zoom doctoring and beyond, scifi and real-world medical technology have developed hand in hand.
Amputees in 16th century Europe commissioned iron hands from artisans, many of whom had never made prostheses before.
Lernestål, Erik, Livrustkammaren/SHM
Gunpowder warfare kicked off a new era of invasive surgery and prosthetic technology in Western medicine.
Florence Nightingale experienced her personal call to nursing at age 16 and ultimately became known as the “Lady with the Lamp.”
Photos.com/Getty Images
Early modern societies in Latin America and Spain saw a convergence of traditional medical knowledge and the professionalization of medicine. The resulting differences in access to care endure today.
An ‘onmyoji,’ an expert on yin and yang, performs divination with counting rods in an Edo-period illustration.
Kyoto University Library/Wikimedia
The health care world has changed a lot in 40 years, but Medicare hasn’t. Here are three areas for radical forms to the system that will achieve its aims of universal health care for all Australians.
This 15th-century medical manuscript shows different colors of urine alongside the ailments they signify.
Cambridge University Library
Meg Leja, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Your doctor’s MD emerged from the Dark Ages, where practicing rational “human medicine” was seen as an expression of faith and maintaining one’s health a religious duty.
No matter how much we believe our knowledge and our technological capabilities have evolved, pandemics prove we are still at the mercy of the natural world.
For much of the 20th century, Americans were used to seeing people bearing the signs of past polio infection.
Genevieve Naylor/Corbis via Getty Images
Polio vaccines have been a massive public health victory in the US. But purely celebratory messaging overlooks the ongoing threat if vaccination rates fall.
Enforcement of binary gender norms has led to unwanted medical interventions on intersex and cisgender children.
Javier Valenzuela/EyeEm via Getty Images
The first transgender medical clinic opened in the US in the 1960s. But cisgender and intersex children began receiving similar treatments even earlier – often without their consent.
An astonishing discovery from the oldest known grave in Southeast Asia has revised medical history – the previous known amputation surgery was just 7,000 years ago.
Each of these five drugs have brought some incredible benefits. But they’ve usually also come with a legacy of complications.
The book includes haunting photos from inside the ghetto, along with its record of the medical effects of starvation.
'Maladie de Famine," American Joint Distribution Committee
The story behind the research can be as compelling as the results. Recording the effects of starvation, a group of Jewish doctors demonstrated their dedication to science – and their own humanity.
Does a painting from 1400 depict one of Jesus’ torturers as suffering from ‘saddle nose,’ a common effect of syphilis?
Detail of an Austrian painting c. 1400 of the Passion of Christ, The Cleveland Museum of Art
The idea that Europeans brought new diseases to the Americas and returned home with others has been widely accepted. But evidence is mounting that for syphilis this scenario is wrong.
Bill Sullivan, Indiana University School of Medicine
Albert Alexander was the first known person treated with penicillin. While his ultimately fatal case is well known in medical histories, the cause of his illness has been misattributed for decades.