September 5, 2026
Essay
Project SUNSHINE’s Supply of Human Bones
How Project SUNSHINE built a supply of human bones to measure radioactive fallout, and what its correspondence reveals about the people and institutions behind the samples.
History · Disease · Human arrangements
Disease follows
human arrangements.
Ships and barracks. Markets and wells. The crowded room and the delayed decision. Disease moves through the worlds we build.
I’m Devin Teichrow, a UCLA-trained epidemiologist at UC Irvine. I write about the evidence disease leaves behind—and the institutions that shape its course.
The latest essay
Enter the exhibit
A ship is a disease environment.
Look inside the Maritime Disease Atlas. Follow a route, open a case, or inspect the spaces where infection and deprivation meet.
Explore the ship and its historyPublished writing
Recent essays
August 27, 2026
Essay
College Football’s Century-Long Experiment in Injury Prevention
It’s college football season, my favorite time of year. Another year of rivalries, institutional histories, and loyal fans keeping ancient grievances alive. Not that you care, but I’m a UCLA fan.
August 19, 2026
Essay
Supplement Labels Should Be a Test Result
Why every supplement batch should be verified before sale
August 10, 2026
Essay
One in Six: The direct and indirect toll of Iceland’s 1783 Laki eruption
In June of 1783, a fissure broke open in southern Iceland and didn’t stop erupting for eight months.
August 2, 2026
Essay
The Rabies Denominator Problem
Clinical rabies is known to be fatal, but its human infection-fatality rate is still unknown
July 26, 2026
Essay
Before the Odyssey, Apollo Sent a Plague
The Iliad, a Hittite mortality-crisis, and the limits of diagnosing ancient diseases
July 19, 2026
Essay
The Group Prohibition Helped Most: What Prohibition did for the unborn before pregnancy came with an alcohol warning
The Prohibition of alcohol in early 20th century American history became the policy everyone knows failed.
Current reporting
The Pathogen Dispatch
Follow outbreak reporting back to the underlying sources.
Texas Department of State Health Services News
Expanding Coverage
Measles transmission and vaccination
Monitoring: News Release July 29, 2026 DSHS alerts clinicians, public about Montgomery County measles outbreak The Texas Department of State Health Services issued a health alert after four cases of measles were .....
ECDC News
Expanding Coverage
Ebola virus disease
Monitoring: Ebola disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Toledo-Lucas County Health Department Cyclosporiasis Update
Expanding Coverage
Cyclosporiasis
Monitoring: Toledo-Lucas County Health Department Cyclosporiasis Update
The exhibit collection
History you can inspect.
Explore a place, compare a record, and examine what the evidence supports.
Research Search
Interactive exhibit
Histsearch
Browse historical epidemiology dossiers with reviewed sources, transparent search strategies, and downloadable research records.
Timeline
Interactive exhibit
American Epidemic Timeline
A carefully cited timeline of major U.S.-linked epidemics, outbreaks, and public-health turning points.
Atlas
Interactive exhibit
Pathogen Atlas
A cited digital exhibit about pathogen origins, reservoirs, transmission ecology, historical spread, and evidentiary uncertainty.
Atlas
Interactive exhibit
Maritime Disease Atlas
A cited map-first digital exhibit on ships, ports, quarantine, naval warfare, captivity, trade, migration, and maritime disease ecology.
Atlas
Interactive exhibit
Revolutionary War Disease Atlas
Follow smallpox, troop movements, inoculation orders, and winter encampments through a cited chronological atlas.
Atlas
Interactive exhibit
Viking Health Atlas
Compare cited archaeological site records, sample sizes, dates, findings, and limits across Viking Age and later Norse material.
Work with me
Research into something people can use.
Websites, evidence briefs, analysis, science writing, and interactive exhibits.