Science
A 1,600-year-old medical text helped a scientist end her search for a malaria cure
Assigned to a secret 1969 government project to find a malaria treatment, Tu Youyou combed centuries of Chinese medical texts and found a fourth-century recipe using sweet wormwood. She realized the standard hot-water extraction was destroying the active compound, switched to a low-temperature method, and isolated artemisinin — now the basis of the world's frontline malaria drugs.