Tag: Summer 2025
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The Dubai Miracle Garden: A botanical marvel in the desert
Dubai Miracle Garden establishes itself as an outstanding horticultural marvel in the middle of the Arabian Desert. The 72,000-square-meter botanical garden in Dubai shows what can be achieved in one of the driest areas on Earth, which experiences ten centimeters of yearly rainfall and summer temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius. The project began under the leadership of Abdel Nasser Rahhal to fulfill Dubai’s mission of developing world-class attractions that would establish the emirate as a…
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The Cismigiu Gardens in Bucharest
Cismigiu Gardens (Parcul Cișmigiu), the oldest public garden in the Romanian capital Bucharest, spans 14.6 to 17 hectares in the heart of the city. It started as a natural pond called Balta lui Dura neguțătorul (“Lake of Dura the merchant”) that served as a fishing spot in the 17th century before being transformed into a vineyard around a water source that provided relief during the 1795 plague epidemic. …
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The Boston Public Garden: A botanical and medical landmark
Situated in the heart of Boston and adjacent to the Boston Common, the Boston Public Garden, established in 1837, was the first public botanical garden in the United States. The Garden exemplifies the city’s long-standing commitment to horticulture, public health, and civic beautification. Beyond its picturesque winding pathways, elegant Swan Boats, and Victorian floral patterns,…
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Wasting away: The silent death of tuberculosis at sea
Richard de GrijsSydney, Australia In the suffocating hold of the William Nichol, twenty-year-old Sarah Dorrett lay dying. For over a year she had been “subject to cough,” but the voyage from England to Australia had hastened her decline. Surgeon-Superintendent Peter Leonard (1801–1888) watched helplessly as she passed through “every indication of tubercular disease of the…
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Vernian foresight: Anti-infective cryotherapy from science fiction to standard of care
George ChristopherMichigan, United States The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras (1866) is a fictional account of an Arctic expedition set in 1860–1861 written by Jules Verne, the master of nineteenth-century science fiction. In one of the novel’s many dramatic episodes, the crew’s physician, Dr. Clawbonny, cured Bell, the ship’s carpenter, of diphtheria by applying…
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The Bois de Boulogne of Paris
The Bois de Boulogne, spanning 2,090 acres on the western edge of Paris, was originally a hunting ground for the kings of France, from King Dagobert, who used this forest to hunt bears and deer, to his grandson Childeric II who gave the forest to the Abbey of Saint-Denis, and to King Philip Augustus, who…
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The magnificent Boboli Gardens of Florence
The Boboli Gardens, one the most magnificent Renaissance gardens in Italy, originated in 1549 after Cosimo I de’ Medici bought the Pitti Palace to create formal gardens on the hillside behind it. Niccolò Tribolo was the first architect given the task to design the gardens, before other renowned architects such as Bartolomeo Ammannati, Bernardo Buontalenti, and Guilio and Alfonso and Parigi joined the project. A two-century-long collaboration produced…
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Jacob Spon, the French doctor archaeologist
Born in 1647 in Lyon, internationally reputed scholar Jacob Spon pioneered the exploration of the monuments of Greece. Following medical studies at Strasbourg, he received his doctorate in medicine from Montpellier (1668) and subsequently practiced in Lyon to a wealthy clientele. He traveled to Italy, Greece, and Constantinople. In 1675–1676, he visited the Levant with…
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The history of chemotherapy
Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States When Sahachirō Hata developed a cure for syphilis while working in Paul Ehrlich’s laboratory,1 Ehrlich began to look for other chemicals that could destroy infectious agents without affecting normal host cells. In 1907, he coined the term chemotherapy2 and declared that “the optimal agent would combine high parasitotropism with low…
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Augustus Pitt Rivers: Leader in medical anthropology and healthcare understanding
Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers (1827–1900) established himself as one of the leading figures who shaped contemporary medical anthropology and archaeology. During his time as a British Army officer (he later received the honorary rank of Lieutenant-General), he studied how different societies handled their health needs and treated their diseases. The medical field became his direct focus when he…