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The science of why things spread

From deadly pandemics to viral tweets, Adam Kucharski explores what makes something contagious.

WhatsApp aunties and the spread of fake news

The advantages of WhatApp chat groups – especially as a cost-free way of keeping in touch with family around the world – make them fertile ground for the spread of bogus medical advice. Writer Rianna Walcott explores how to encourage ‘aunties’ in the community to question the truth of unattributed health hoaxes.

The cook who became a pariah

New York, 1907. Mary Mallon spreads infection, unaware that her name will one day become synonymous with typhoid.

The colonist who faced the blue terror

India, 1857. In a British enclave, Katherine Bartrum watches her friend, and then her family, succumb to the deadly cholera.

Our Covid complicity

Athena Stevens thought she had a cold that she tried to ignore, but it turned out to be Covid-19. Here she reflects on how we have all put ourselves and others at risk with the choices we’ve made during this pandemic.

Fake news and the flu

Discover how history shows that fake news could play a deadly role – by generating potentially lethal misinformation during a future pandemic.

The stranger who started an epidemic

New Orleans, 1853. James McGuigan arrives in the port city and succumbs to yellow fever.

How Mills & Boon made medicine romantic

‘Doctor-nurse’ romances are a hugely popular trope. Agnes Arnold-Forster explores their history and surprisingly nuanced depictions of womanhood, hospitals and the welfare state.

Splendid isolation

In episode four of his lockdown podcast, comedian Mark Thomas considers the impact isolation is having on him and his mum, and on the health workers he chats to every night.

Wool, fleas, plague

During the bubonic plague epidemic of 1665-6, the residents of Eyam in Derbyshire quarantined themselves to help prevent the disease spreading. Simon Norfolk tells the story of this small community’s sacrifice.

Superstition, contagion and medical rumour

The great generator of confusion, rumours have not spared human health from their chaos. Find out how whispers, gossip and rumours have caused medical mishaps through the ages.

Between sickness and health

In early 2020, the subject Will Rees was studying – imaginary illnesses – took on a new relevance as everyone anxiously scanned themselves for Covid symptoms each day. But this kind of self-scrutiny is nothing new, as he reveals.

Chasing down a mystery illness

In an extract from their graphic novel about a deadly, drug-resistant illness, Val McDermid and Kathryn Briggs explore why knowledge isn’t always the same as power.

How we visualise viruses

Discover how images of the antigens that make us sick have evolved over time and been tailored to meet the demands of different epidemics.

Deadly stinks and life-saving aromas in plague-stricken London

In the plague-ravaged London of 1665, could perfume really save your life?

Why pandemic denial is nothing new

Could today’s Covid-deniers be taking lessons from history? After all, it’s nearly 200 years since frustrations at a cholera-induced lockdown erupted in Sunderland.

Epidemic threats and racist legacies

Epidemiology is the systematic, data-driven study of health and disease in populations. But as historian Jacob Steere-Williams suggests, this most scientific of fields emerged in the 19th century imbued with a doctrine of Western imperialism – a legacy that continues to influence how we talk about disease.

The tradesman who confronted the pestilence

The City of London, 1665. As the Great Plague hits the capital, John New faces a deadly dilemma.

Dirt, disease and the Inspector of Nuisances

In the days when ‘bad air’ was thought to spread disease, dozens of Inspectors of Nuisances ceaselessly struggled against the perils of dirt – both visible and invisible.

Illness and the influence of the stars

Could alien germs from space have caused major pandemics across the world? Taras Young investigates the ideas of a few unconventional scientists who believe this to be the case.

The child whose town rejected vaccines

Gloucester, 1896. Ethel Cromwell is taken ill at the height of Britain’s last great smallpox epidemic.

Jim, the horse of death

Horses’ blood was used to produce an antitoxin that saved thousands of children from dying from diphtheria, but contamination was a deadly problem. Find out how a horse called Jim was the catalyst for the beginnings of medical regulation.

Surviving a flesh-eating disease

Nearly dying from a skin infection gave Scott Neill a chance to start again after an early life marked by grief and depression.

Titans in the landscape

Losing touch

In these pandemic times, when touch has become taboo, Agnese Reginaldo explores the importance of physical contact to our wellbeing.