Reciprocal Vulnerability in the Face of Patriarchal Violence
“Everything is research data.” As PhD students we must have heard this statement from teachers, mentors, and supervisors a hundred times. The …
“Un-fixing” hormones: searching for the multiple in hormonal selves
What are hormones? While biomedical notions of hormones focus on their biological functions in bodies, hormones are also cultural artifacts, shaping understandings …
On The Social Life of TBI
A Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a common injury that occurs when a physical blow or force to the head damages the …
No, “Racial Genetics” Aren’t Affecting COVID-19 Deaths
In the U.K., people of black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds have been disproportionately hard hit by COVID-19. Tim Dennell/Flickr Around the …
U.S. Coronavirus Advice Is Failing Pregnant Women
Zully, a COVID-19 patient whose last name was withheld for privacy, holds up a photo of her newborn baby, Neysel, on April …
Privilege and Certainty: Middle Classes and Confinement
The house and the body are the protagonists of isolation. In Argentina, staying at home is experienced as an unequal privilege. The …
Do I Have Microremains in My Teeth?
Southwestern Finland isn’t a great place for archaeologists to find anything other than the sturdiest of remains. The pine needles that fall …
The life of the coral body by Cameron Allan McKean
Life comes apart on the reef. Changes to ocean chemistry and temperature—generated by the fossil-hunger of militarism, extractivism, and industrialism—break open coral …
Could COVID-19 Permanently Change Hand Hygiene?
(no-caption) Malte Mueller/Getty Images Here in the Philippines, as in many parts of the world, there’s been an outbreak of hand sanitizers. …
Race Is Real, But It’s Not Genetic
[no-caption] KTS Design/Science Photo Library/Getty Images Please note that this article includes an image of human remains. A friend of mine with …
Neanderthals: Body of Evidence
As every fan of crime drama television knows, the human body holds a wealth of information about its once-living owner. Flesh and …
How the Opioid Crackdown Is Hurting Chronic Pain Patients
In the wake of a 2016 federal guideline, many chronic pain patients have had difficulty accessing their previous dose of opioids such …
The Neanderthal Ear—Prone to Irritating Infections
As I sit writing this column post, my sinuses feel like they are made of concrete, and my ears are aching and …
Does Tattooing Boost Health?
A Samoan schoolteacher receives a full pe’a, the traditional tattoo generally worn by males. Christopher D. Lynn This article was originally published …
Neanderthal Legs and Feet—Suited to Sprinting
If you’re like me, you view long-distance running as a somewhat unrealistic aspiration and see those people who do it well as …
How Rituals of Pain Help Heal
During the kavadi attam ritual in Mauritius, devotees are voluntarily pierced, in some cases hundreds of times. Dimitris Xygalatas Inside a stuffy, …
India’s Third Gender Rises Again
Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, high priestess of a convent of hijras, takes selfies with admirers at India’s 2019 Kumbh Mela religious festival. Ina …
The Colour of Coffee: Racism, Gender and Coffee Consumption in 19th Century Algeria
Today, coffee is consumed everywhere in the world. Despite its neo-colonial forms of production, it is a drink which brings people together, …
Neanderthal Bones: Signs of Their Sex Lives
In a cave tucked into the limestone hills of the Asturias region of Spain, there lie the remains of a group of …
What to Expect When You’re Not Expecting Down Syndrome
Down syndrome is typically caused by an error in cell division during fetal development, which results in an embryo with three copies of chromosome 21 …
How Hearts Align in a Muslim Ritual
Devotees gather for the Sufi ritual of dhikr in downtown Istanbul. Dimitris Xygalatas In downtown Istanbul, Turks in religious garb filter into …
The Neanderthal Diet—From Teeth to Guts
One of the more tenacious misconceptions about Neanderthals is that they were exclusively meat eaters. Sure, in some of the colder regions …
Gun Violence Harms, Even if You’ve Never Been Shot
Shoes representing the estimated 7,000 U.S. children who were killed by gun violence since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting cover …
The Neanderthal Arm—Hints About Handedness
The human body is often visualized as a symmetrical form: Picture the geometric precision of Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic drawing of a …