The constellation Orion What did Mesopotamians invent? From the Stone Age through the Islamic empires, great scientific discoveries have streamed out of West Asia. West Asia is one of the places where farming got started, [...]
Iranian science: A Safavid astrolabe from the 1600s AD New ideas come to Iran Iranian scientists in the Safavid Empire, and then in the country of Iran, were well placed to hear [...]
History of coca leaves: Coca farming in the Andes Mountains When did coca plants evolve? Like potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco, coca plants grow wild in the Andes Mountains of South America. They probably evolved [...]
Kids with yellow fever in Mississippi about 1870. See how all the people are white? The hospital wasn't letting black kids in, or hiring black women as nurses. Where did [...]
A woman with typhus Nobody seems to have caught typhus before about 1450 AD, so the disease probably didn't exist until then. Typhus is an infection caused by tiny germs (bacteria) [...]
Typhoid fever: A person with typhoid rash (Iran) Is it typhoid or typhus? Typhoid fever isn't the same thing as typhus at all. You catch typhus from being bit by lice that [...]
A child with tuberculosis What is tuberculosis? Tuberculosis is a lung disease caused by germs. Today we can usually cure it with antibiotics. But in antiquity there was no cure. Many people died [...]
A baby with smallpox (from the CDC) - History of smallpox What was smallpox? Smallpox was a very serious disease caused by a virus. Many people died of it. Smallpox caused [...]
Opium poppy flower Opium comes from a kind of poppy flower. It evolved around 100 million years ago in West Asia and Central Asia. People probably realized as soon as they got to West Asia, about 60,000 [...]
A kid with measles Symptoms of measles Measles is a sickness that first makes you feel sick, with a fever, a cough, and a runny nose. Then it gives you [...]
