Government & Policy
Color map of Soviet- and Western-controlled countries

Spying in Plain Sight: Scientific Diplomacy during the Cold War

Distillations Article
Historical photo of Philadelphia's Fairmount Water Works

How Philadelphia’s Water Pollution Problems Shaped the City

Distillations Podcast
Rubella (German Measles) vaccination clinic in 1969

Roe v. Wade v. Rubella

Distillations Podcast
Two children stare at cellphone in front of smokestacks

Choosing a Better High-Tech Future

Distillations Article
Neodymium magnet

Forbes: Rare Earth Minerals Could Be Sourced Through Outdated Smartphones, Batteries, Wind Turbines
Media Coverage
Bredig Archive materials

Hamodia: A Golden Age Turned Black
Media Coverage
Illustration highlighting the rare earth elements in the periodic table

Book Club: The Risks and Rewards of Rare Earth Elements

Distillations Article
Panelists discuss rare earth elements

UCLA Daily Bruin: Panelists Discuss Challenges Caused by Use of Rare Earth Elements
Media Coverage
Scrolling on cell phone

The Hill: R&D, Not Greenland, Can Solve Our Rare Earth Problem
Media Coverage
Grainy image of a craggy lunar landscape.

Book Club: Let’s Go to the Moon!

Distillations Article
Identification papers from the Bredig archive

Archive Smuggled from Nazi-Era Germany Is Acquired by the Science History Institute
Press Release
miners hauling electronics that are causing pollution

Rare Earths: The Hidden Cost to Their Magic

Distillations Podcast
Periodic table with cellphones depicting US and China flags

Green Tech Media: A Strategic Approach to Rare Earth Elements as Global Trade Tensions Flare
Media Coverage
Fire in the Cuyahoga River with a firefighter boat blasting water

The Myth of the Cuyahoga River Fire

Distillations Podcast
Cow photo illustration

High Steaks at the Border

Distillations Podcast
Photo collage of JFK

Making the Deserts Bloom

Distillations Podcast
Science history photo collage

Love, Hate, and Sex from the History of Science

Distillations Podcast
Periodic table showing rare earth elements

GreenBiz: Reimagining Rare Earth Elements in a Sacrifice Zone-Free Future
Media Coverage

Armageddon’s Fingerprints

Distillations Article
Photo illustration of woman with migraine

Sex(ism), Drugs, and Migraines

Distillations Podcast
Lab mouse in red Harvard sweater/bowtie

The Mouse That Changed Science

Distillations Podcast

Nor Any Drop to Drink

Distillations Article
Photo illustration of poppy flowers and opioid addict

Treating America’s Opioid Addiction

Distillations Podcast
Roger Eadley-Pryor takes a guided kayak tour of the Schuylkill River led by Drexel chemistry professor Pete DeCarlo and University of Pennsylvania environmental humanities professor Bethany Wiggin.

Imagining a Way Forward

Distillations Article
Photo illustration of poppy flowers and meeting chairs

Treating America’s Opioid Addiction

Distillations Podcast
Photo illustration of poppy flowers and prison-hospital for addicts

Treating America’s Opioid Addiction

Distillations Podcast
Helitrim trimming potentiometers on the moon

The Folly of the Martian Back-Up Plan

Distillations Article

Opioids’ Devastating Return

Distillations Article
Closeup of telegraph sent by Eleanor Roosevelt

Distilled #3: Water Fit for a King

Distillations Video

The Rise and Fall of Vannevar Bush

Distillations Article
Woman irritated by smog in LA in the 1950s

Fighting Smog in Los Angeles

Distillations Podcast

It’s Nothing New: Sexism in the Lab

Distillations Article
Man walking in forest of fall leaves

Whatever Happened to Acid Rain?

Distillations Podcast
Woman and penguins in Antarctica

Whatever Happened to the Ozone Hole?

Distillations Podcast

Imagining Philadelphia’s Energy Futures
Research

Sketch of a Scientist

Distillations Article
Laser inventor Gordon Gould playing chess 1940

The Man, the Myth, the Laser

Distillations Podcast
Women wearing orange yoga pants and yellow sneakers

The Yoga Pant Problem

Distillations Podcast
Detail from Sanborn map of Ambler, PA.

Studies in Sustainability
Research
Innovation and Regulation on the Open Seas: The Development of Sea-Nine Marine Antifouling Paint

Studies in Materials Innovation
Research

Here Comes the Spray Man!

Distillations Video
Vintage margarine ad

Butter vs. Margarine

Distillations Podcast
Portrait of refugee doctor

Refugee Doctors

Distillations Podcast
Fist and flask graphic

Political Science

Distillations Podcast

Political Scientist

Distillations Article

Richard Nixon and the Rise of American Environmentalism

Distillations Article
Before and after of laser tattoo removal

Rethinking Ink

Distillations Podcast
Girl with sign at March for Science protest

The Message of the March for Science

Distillations Article

Waging War on Immigration and Science

Distillations Article
Crocidolite asbestos, Pomfret Mine, Vryburg, South Africa.

Flexible Meaning
Research
Arie Haagen-Smit with lab equipment, 1961

The Flavor of Smog

Distillations Article
Lawrence and team, 1938

Large and in Charge

Distillations Article

Imagining a Postcarbon Future

Distillations Article
TOMS and SBUV on display at the Institute. Photo by Gregory Tobias.

TOMS and SBUV
Research
Liston-Becker Model 28 Exhaust Gas Analyzer, ca. 1956.

Liston-Becker Model 28 Exhaust Gas Analyzer
Research
Electron Capture Detector, 1958. The Institute Collections. Courtesy of James E. Lovelock.

James Lovelock's Electron Capture Detector
Research
Papers of Edward C. Dunlop, 1943.

Edward C. Dunlop Water Analysis, Manhattan Project
Research

Deb Niemeier
Research
Bird with Plastic

Polymer Scientist—Medical Applications
Learn
Bird with Plastic

Society for the Plastics Industry Lobbyist
Learn
Bird with Plastic

Senatorial Aide
Learn
Edward Dunlea calibrating an aerosol mass spectrometer at the Storm Peak Laboratory.

Scientists
Research
Detail from Sanborn map of Ambler, PA.

REACH Ambler
Research
Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. (NASA)

Waning Interest

Distillations Article
Mary Lowe Good.

Mary Lowe Good
Historical Profile
Oral History bound books

Oral History Collections
Collections
Babes of Science logo

Babes of Science, a Guest Episode

Distillations Podcast
David Caruso

David J. Caruso

People

Where Have All the Trailers Gone?

Distillations Video
Oil derricks line Huntington Beach, California, in this 1956 photo.

Bleak Future

Distillations Article

Social Science

Distillations Article
Soldiers during World War II gathering meteorological data in the Caribbean.

Weather Service

Distillations Article
German physicists from before World War II

Magical Thinking

Distillations Article

Promises, Promises

Distillations Article
A biologist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) examines animal tissue, ca. 1970.

A Vulnerable Earth

Distillations Article
Press Conference

Breaking New Regulatory Ground

Distillations Article
Distillations Magazine

Vital (T)issues

Distillations Article
Library reading room at the U.N. Headquarters in New York City.

Life in Translation

Distillations Article
Linus Pauling during an oral history interview conducted by the Chemical Heritage Foundation, now the Science History Institute, in 1987.

Linus Carl Pauling
Historical Profile
Rachel Carson.

Rachel Carson
Historical Profile
Harvey Washington Wiley.

Harvey Washington Wiley
Historical Profile
Glenn T. Seaborg in 1942, adjusting a Geiger counter.

Glenn Theodore Seaborg
Historical Profile
Mario Molina, left, and F. Sherwood Rowland at the University of California, Irvine, January 1975.

Mario Molina
Historical Profile
Susan Solomon in her NOAA office in Boulder, Colorado, next to a globe showing Antarctica.

Susan Solomon
Historical Profile
Participants of the REACH Ambler project, 2014.

Center for Applied History
Research
Research fellow Roger Eardley-Pryor.

Research Activities
Research
A Beckman model D oxygen analyzer monitoring an infant in an incubator.

Arnold O. Beckman Legacy Project
Research
Pollution hangs in the air over a United States Steel Corporation coke plant in Clairton, Pennsylvania, April 1973. Previously it had been cited for violations of the Clean Air Act.

TSCA: From Inception to Reform
Research

Archives
Collections

T. T. Chao Symposium on Innovation
Visit

Synthesis Book Series
Research

Photographs
Collections
Street Gang

Rebel without a Chemistry Set

Distillations Article
Operation Greenhouse

An Aging Army

Distillations Article
Drawing of tortilla making

The Ancient Chemistry Inside Your Taco

Distillations Podcast
Bruce Alberts speaking

The Reformer

Distillations Article
Kidney donation promotion

Do You Need That Kidney?

Distillations Podcast
DDT advertisement

DDT: The Britney Spears of Chemicals

Distillations Podcast
trade secret document

Stealing Industry Secrets

Distillations Podcast
The Gowanus Canal

The Gowanus Canal

Distillations Article
Alex Wellerstein

Telling Secrets

Distillations Article
Genetically engineered corn

Genetic Engineering and Organic Farming: An Unexpected Marriage

Distillations Podcast