'Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.'

Jonas Salk developed the first successful polio vaccine—and tested it on himself

The American medical researcher developed the inactivated virus vaccine from 1952 to 1955 and proved that it could prevent disease. He tested the virus on himself and his family in 1954 and then carried out formal clinical trials on more than 1.3 million children.

View this timeline of polio milestones and vaccine development

Polio has a long history in art and medicine, dating back centuries. It includes a representation of an apparent polio survivor with a shriveled leg in ancient Egyptian art. See milestones in the history of polio in this timeline.

Edward Jenner, the father of vaccinations

The British physician was the first to attempt to inoculate someone from smallpox using its milder cousin, cowpox. His innovations and documentations would prove crucial to the deployment of widespread vaccinations.

A quote by scientist Nikola Tesla

"The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result ... His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way."

'Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.'

- Senator Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968)

Variola: the second-deadliest virus on Earth

Because it was declared eradicated in 1980, many forget smallpox is one of history's deadliest diseases—in its final century, it's estimated to have claimed 500 million lives. This 11-minute video from production studio Kurzgesagt takes a look at...

A history of vaccine rollouts

History tells us the public will tolerate risk of harm from a vaccine if their fear of the disease exceeds their fear of the vaccine.

'Too often we participate in the globalization of indifference. May we strive instead to live global solidarity.'

- Pope Francis (1936 - 2025)

Read more about the backstory on the 2025 Nobel Prize for immune system work

A trio of scientists won the Nobel in Physiology or Medicine that year, but they performed their award-worthy work beginning about two decades before winning the prize. This announcement includes details about the science and notes that the three scientists will equally share the 11 million Swedish kronor (almost $1.2M).

'The bounty of nature is also one of the deep needs of man.'

- Lady Bird Johnson (1912-2007)

Beyond DNA, Franklin's legacy extends into modern virology and steel production

While remembered for her critical but under-credited role in uncovering parameters for the structure of DNA, Rosalind Franklin made significant contributions across coal chemistry and virus structure. Her research helped improve fuel efficiency, wartime protective equipment, and foundational knowledge in molecular biology.

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

Social work pioneer Jane Addams (1860 - 1935) on civilization

"Civilization is a method of living, an attitude of equal respect for all men."

Before Dawkins, other biologists proposed the power of mutating ideas

Nobel Prize winner Jacques Monod proposed, “Ideas have retained some of the properties of organisms. Like them, they tend to perpetuate their structure and to breed; they too can fuse, recombine, segregate their content; indeed they too can evolve, and in this evolution selection must surely play an important role.”

Listen to how the 1902 'poison squad' experiments changed food safety in America

As part of government research, a group of young men were paid to eat standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—which revealed the dangers of unregulated food. The work was led by the first FDA commissioner, Harvey Wiley, who helped end the "century of the great stomachache."

J. Robert Oppenheimer’s grandson says his grandfather would back nuclear power

While the "father of the atomic bomb" referred to the bomb as "an evil thing," after the Manhattan Project, he also described nuclear energy’s potential as an environmentally friendly solution to address the world's energy problem.

'There are only four kinds of people in the world—those who have been caregivers, those who are caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers.'

- Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter (1927–2023)

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

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

How personalized gene-editing saved a baby's life

KJ Muldoon had a 50% chance of surviving a genetic mutation until doctors developed a one-of-a-kind gene-editing therapy. In an interview with one of the researchers behind the treatment, learn what it will take to make personalized genetic medicine possible for everyone.

Chimpanzees are dying from human colds

For some great apes, the threat of human-borne diseases outweighs poaching or habitat loss. This article details the danger of reverse zoonoses, which refers to diseases that spread from humans to animals.

See the evolution of Ebola vaccine and treatment development.

'When you come to a fork in the road, take it.'

- Baseball great Yogi Berra (1925-2015)

History’s largest intergenerational wealth transfer is happening in the next few decades

The founder of a multifamily office firm offers lessons on how to preserve wealth for generations from a global perspective, like educating younger family members.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

'You shouldn't dream your film, you should make it!'

- Filmmaker Steven Spielberg (1946-present)

The quest to find natural ways to extend lifespan

Tales of searching for the Fountain of Youth persist. Our modern-day version is marked by promises of pharmaceutical miracles and a proliferation of viral "biohacking" routines. One doctor’s quest to unlock the keys to longevity stimulated much of this renewed fervor, though his ideas are often taken out of context.

Svante Pääbo's life work was to discover the Neanderthal in our genes

Geneticist Svante Paabo reconstructed the genome of long-extinct human relatives, showing we have more in common with Neandertals than previously thought. Read up on his research and its impact on the wider scientific community.

The basics behind mRNA vaccines

In this video, Yale experts Saad Omer, MBBS, MPH, PhD; Onyema Ogbuagu, MBBCh; and Akiko Iwasaki, PhD, explain the science behind COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

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

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Human-to-human transmission of hantavirus remains extremely rare, so the 2026 hantavirus cruise ship outbreak doesn't mean we're facing a COVID-style pandemic risk.

Larger animals like giraffes, elephants, and blue whales have developed a unique defense against cancer, a phenomenon known as Peto's Paradox

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) generated controversy, raised concerns about ethics in photography, and eventually led to the photographer's death.

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

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

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

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

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

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

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

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