SOUL/ALLOY Science · Toxicology & Epidemiology
Deadly History
The Deadliest Poisons and Diseases in Human History
A 20-entry series exploring mechanism, history, and the people who stopped them
Poisons
10 entries
Arsenic
The King of Poisons, Powder of Succession
Lead
The Sweet Poison That Toppled Empires
Mercury
Elixir of Immortality, The Mad Hatter
Cyanide
Suffocating the Mitochondria
Curare
From Arrow Poison to the Operating Room
Strychnine
When Every Muscle Convulses at Once
DDT
Nobel Prize Poison, Silent Spring
Ricin
The Cold War at the Tip of an Umbrella
Nerve Agents
Burning the Neural Circuits
Botulinum Toxin
The Deadliest Toxin That Saves Lives
Diseases
10 entries
Plague
The Black Death That Changed Civilization
Smallpox
The Only Enemy Humanity Eradicated
Malaria
Humanity's Oldest Nemesis
Cholera
The Man Who Removed the Pump Handle
Tuberculosis
The White Death
Syphilis
The Dawn of Chemotherapy
Rabies
Nearly 100% Fatal, Pasteur's Miracle
Spanish Flu
The Silence of 50 Million
HIV/AIDS
The Plague of the Century, Then the Reversal
Typhus
The Forgotten Killer That Decided Wars