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In today’s reading list, our editors have compiled stories about new and promising medical developments, including breakthroughs to treat lupus, a possible birth-control revolution, and a food-allergy fix that’s been hiding in plain sight.
Your Reading List
A ‘Crazy’ Idea for Treating Autoimmune Diseases Might Actually Work
Lupus has long been considered incurable—but a series of breakthroughs are fueling hope.
By Sarah Zhang
The Coming Birth-Control Revolution
An abundance of new methods for men could transform women’s contraception too.
By Katherine J. Wu
Why People Itch, and How to Stop It
Scientists are discovering lots of little itch switches.
By Annie Lowrey
A Food-Allergy Fix Hiding in Plain Sight
Why did it take so long to reach patients?
By Sarah Zhang
Bats Could Hold the Secret to Better, Longer Human Life
A team of researchers dreams of anti-aging, disease-tempering drugs—all inspired by bats.
By Katherine J. Wu
A Fix for Antibiotic Resistance Could Be Hiding in the Past
Phage therapy was once used to treat bubonic plague. Now it could help inform a new health crisis.
By Patience Asanga
The Cystic-Fibrosis Breakthrough That Changed Everything
The disease once guaranteed an early death—but a new treatment has given many patients a chance to live decades longer than expected. What do they do now?
By Sarah Zhang
The Week Ahead
Essay
The Invention That Changed School Forever
By Ian Bogost
Some objects are so familiar and so ordinary that it seems impossible to imagine that they did not always exist. Take the school backpack, for example. Its invention can be traced to one man, Murray McCory, who died last month. McCory founded JanSport in 1967 with his future wife (Jan, the company’s namesake). Until JanSport evolved the design, a backpack was a bulky, specialized thing for hiking, used only by smelly people on mountain trailheads or European gap years. By the time I entered school, the backpack was lightweight and universal. What did anyone ever do previously?
They carried their books. Let me repeat that they carried their books.
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