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Distillations

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Black Pills
Health

Episode 7 from the ‘Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race’ series.

Bad Blood, Bad Science
Health

Episode 6 from the ‘Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race’ series.

Percy Julian and the False Promise of Exceptionalism
People

Reflecting on the trailblazing chemist’s fight for dignity and the myths we tell about our scientific heroes.

The African Burial Ground
Culture

Episode 5, Part 2 from the ‘Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race’ series.

Return, Rebury, Repatriate
Policy & Politics

Episode 5, Part 1 from the ‘Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race’ series.

The Rotten Science Behind the MSG Scare
Health

How one doctor’s letter and a string of dodgy studies spurred a public health panic.

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The Dark Stars of Marietta Blau
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Searching for Isabel Morgan
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Reconsidering the fate of an overlooked polio fighter.
Crowdfunding Radium
People
When American women bought Marie Curie a vital gram of the element.
The Sun Queen and the Skeptic: Building the World’s First Solar Houses
Environment
In the mid-20th century, colleagues-turned-rivals Maria Telkes and Hoyt Hottel engineered new ways of heating American homes.
The Nurse Who Introduced Gloves to the Operating Room
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 Caroline Hampton and the forgotten origins of the first personal protective equipment.
Dr. Butler and the Quest for the Philosophers’ Stone
Early Science & Alchemy
How searching for alchemy’s secrets helped create modern science.
Lou Henry Hoover, Lost in Translation
People
Though often celebrated, the adventurous First Lady never received full credit for her scientific accomplishments.
Ruth Patrick’s Lovely Creatures
Water
The groundbreaking ecologist showed that the biological diversity within a stream can be used to diagnose its health.
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