Read excerpted accounts from some of the 8,000 residents with leprosy on Moloka'i

In 1865, Hawaii's king authorized forcible removal, quarantining of those with leprosy

King Kamehameha V authorized the removal of anyone with leprosy symptoms and for them to be placed in a medical facility later maintained by the Catholic Church on Moloka'i, Hawaii's fifth largest island. Patients weren't allowed to transfer to other medical facilities until 1969.

Read an account of what life was like in America's national leprosarium—its leper colony

José Ramirez Jr. shares an account of his eight years at the 300-acre national leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana, from 1968 through the mid-1970s. Mostly staffed by nuns with nursing degrees, this facility was home to hundreds of people at a time, and it's also the site where they were required to be buried.

Listen to what it was like living as a medieval leper

This podcast uses paleopathological and anthropological findings to reconstruct what it was like for people diagnosed with leprosy in medieval times on the Eurasian continent. If a town lacked a leprosarium—an isolated leper asylum or colony—or the suspected leper was a foreigner or a Jew, which would make them ineligible for leprosarium admission, they'd be expelled.

More than 200,000 people are diagnosed with leprosy annually

The disease still occurs in more than 120 countries. Brazil, India, and Indonesia continue to report more than 10,000 new cases annually.

Watch how doctors examine leprosy patients for signs of vision impairment

Clinicians must screen for symptoms of eye and vision damage in leprosy patients, including loss of sensation, reduced blink reflex, and inability to close or keep the eyes closed.

Leprosy bacteria are sometimes grown on mouse feet for research

The main leprosy-causing bacterium can't be grown in a petri dish, so the disease is challenging to study in the lab. For research purposes, it has been grown in the foot pads of mice.

Why Hawaiians live longer

Hawaii has the longest life expectancy at birth out of all 50 states, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Key factors include strong healthcare, lots of sunlight, and active lifestyles.

The Takaro Lodge, a therapeutic New Zealand community turned wellness cult

Founded by Slovenian "energy" healer Aiping Wang, the lodge members were promised spiritual growth, healing, and even radical gifts like flight and foresight. Things turned dark as the group embraced extreme beliefs and practices.

The US sent an iconic photographer to document the Japanese-American internment

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, 120,000 Japanese-Americans were removed from their homes and businesses and sent to internment camps across the American West and Arkansas. This nearly 15-minute video explores how the US government sent famed photographer Dorothea Lange to document the transfer and internment, only to restrict or impound many of her photos when they seemed less than positive.

Native voices share their histories along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail

Tribal historians recount their peoples' histories and perspectives on the Lewis and Clark expedition, offering an Indigenous narrative of the lands, encounters, and legacies that shaped the journey.

Researchers think most of its residents escaped with their lives—but how?

With only a few hundred bodies recovered, evidence suggests most Pompeiians fled. This TED-Ed animation follows the stories of three hypothetical residents—one who stayed inside, one who ran, and one who fled by sea—to illustrate how their survival ultimately depended on the choices they made.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

Why might someone want to stay in psychosis?

Author Abigail Gosselin writes that her verbal auditory hallucination, often assumed by others to be harmful or threatening in nature, offered a salve to loneliness, even as it told her to kill herself. This perceived benefit and others Gosselin shares offer insight into why people in psychosis may struggle to adhere to treatment and medication plans.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

Explore what it's like inside a patient isolation unit, used in situations such as treating a patient or suspected patient with Ebola.

Post-polio syndrome occurs decades after infection but isn't contagious

Affecting adults who contracted polio as children, this disorder can occur 15 to 40 years later, leading to slow, irreversible muscle weakening. Some research estimates that between 25% and 40% of polio survivors go on to develop this condition.

A family's yearslong poisoning

Over 14 years, a southern Indian family slowly lost six members, several of whom were found foaming at their mouths. Upon the third death, a post-mortem examination was requested, revealing cyanide had been ingested, though it was ruled as self-inflicted. Several will edits and three deaths later, relatives turned a critical eye toward Joliyamma "Jolly" Joseph, who had married into the family and been present at each death.

Hear what it's like to have malaria

In Kenya, as one malaria-sufferer explains, the disease is common enough that anytime a child has a fever or any sort of sickness families and the community will wonder if it's malaria. Sleeping under a mosquito net is recommended. Unfortunately, a gin and tonic will not keep malaria at bay.

After being diagnosed with lupus, O'Connor moved to her family's Georgia farm

In 1950, O'Connor began feeling ill and returned to Georgia, where she was diagnosed with lupus, the same disease that killed her father when O'Connor was just 15. After the diagnosis, O'Connor and her mother moved to Andalusia, the family farm north of Milledgeville, Georgia.

In 1951, a small French town was overtaken by the fungus that ultimately led to LSD

During the summer of 1951, the French town of Pont-Saint-Esprit appeared to go mad. Hundreds were treated for hallucinations and delirium, with some reporting ongoing hallucinations a month after the LSD-like symptoms appeared. Some historians argue it was a case of ergotism, better known in the Middle Ages as "burning disease" and "St. Anthony's Fire."

Take a 360-degree look inside Hong Kong's coffin homes

Hong Kong's lack of affordable housing is forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to live in "coffin homes" — a tiny partitioned apartment that is about the size of a coffin. Experience life inside a coffin home through this 360 VR video.

Read a technical review of extremophile categories, including the habitats of each

Acidophiles can survive in environments with acidity greater than that of the human stomach, and some radiophiles can live in places with radiation exposure hundreds of times higher than what is lethal to humans. Piezophiles—formerly known as barophiles—have been found in the Mariana Trench, where pressures are over 1,000 times larger than those on Earth's surface.

Watch patient stories describing life with macular degeneration

This video series features patients discussing their experiences with the disorder, family members describing caregiving, and other insights about the disease.

Disappointment Island

A shipwreck. A freezing island. No trees. No help. Just 16 sailors, stranded for 8 months on Disappointment Island in 1907.

Watch how coral bleaching resembles an organism's immune system attacking itself

Microorganisms called zooxanthellae are in a symbiotic relationship with coral polyps and provide them with food created through photosynthesis. When ocean temperatures or sunlight exceed an optimal range, zooxanthellae release harmful chemicals that irritate coral cells. To protect themselves, corals sacrifice their food source and expel the colorful microorganisms, becoming white.

The sordid soirées of the Olympic Village

The Olympic Village brings together some of the world's most physically fit young people for two weeks. That leads to lots of romantic connections, as this firsthand account from a few who have been there attests. The degree of connection at some Games in recent decades has required the village's medical facility to distribute more than 100,000 prophylactics.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

The Chernobyl exclusion zone remains a region restricted to public access

It now spans beyond the initial 30-kilometer radius around the nuclear plant to include surrounding areas found to have significant radioactive contamination. Aside from a handful of elderly self-settlers, permanent residency is banned, and access remains tightly controlled due to lingering radioactive contamination.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

Apeirophobia is an overwhelming fear of living forever, perhaps stemming from the brain's inability to conceptualize an infinite life.

Urushiol, the oily toxin in poison ivy, can remain allergenic on clothing for years.

Coral reefs get their colors from zooxanthellae—microorganisms that line corals' digestive tracts and provide them with sugars in exchange for a home within this protective tissue.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

Hookworm infection, though risky, may help fight certain autoimmune conditions by tamping down the immune system's inflammatory response.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by more than 1.5 million Muslims each year.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.