A weekly check-up of gender, medicine, and history in the news.

• Sex and polio in the movies.
• Your condoms are not made in Condom, France.
• Oldest message in a bottle found.
• Why abortion apologies hurt the pro-choice cause.
• Ancient Korean love letter unearthed.
• The dangers of deconstructing women.
• The really strange and sad story behind the man who wrote, “Strange Fruit.”
• Junk DNA theory is, well . . . junk.
• The contentious history of the popsicle.
• “Blanket hornpipe” and other sex euphemisms from the 1800s.
• Learning to play piano can cause sexual disorders (according to 19th-century doctors).
• Methadone moms caught in the middle.
• 9,000-year-old charms found in Israel.
• The intersection of history and neuroscience.
• Drugs and sexuality still fuel the debate behind Alice in Wonderland.