Even fictional characters sometimes receive unwarranted medical opinions. Doctors have diagnosed Ebenezer Scrooge with OCD, Sherlock Holmes with autism, and Darth Vader with borderline personality disorder. Sam Kean autismborderlinecharacter share on social
If studying the periodic table taught me nothing else, it's that the credulity of human beings for periodic table panaceas is pretty much boundless. Sam Kean beingboundlesscredulity Change image and share on social
Boron is carbon's neighbor on the periodic table, which means it can do a passable carbon impression and wriggle its way into the matrix of a diamond. But it has one fewer electron, so it can't quite form the same four perfect bonds. Sam Kean bondboroncarbon share on social
I'm kind of a sucker for the retro-diagnoses. Sam Kean diagnosekindretro Change image and share on social
Microchimeric sharing means that, even if the mother loses a child, she'll have a small memento of him or her secreted away inside her. Similarly, a bit of our mothers live on in all of us no matter how long ago Mom died. Sam Kean agobitechild share on social
X-rays revealed that some people were born without a corpus callosum, and they seemed just fine. Sam Kean bearcallosumcorpus Change image and share on social
I didn't mind staying home from school and medicating myself with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Being sick always gave me another chance to break an old-fashioned mercury thermometer, too. Sam Kean breakchancechocolate Change image and share on social
Even if we never cure a single disease, the Human Genome Project and other ventures will have been worth it. Sam Kean curediseasegenome Change image and share on social
Polonium is, frankly, pretty useless, and no country in the world except Russia bothered to refine it by the late 2000s. Sam Kean 2000sbothercountry Change image and share on social
Genes are like the story, and DNA is the language that the story is written in. Sam Kean dnagenelanguage Change image and share on social
