Distillations | Science History Institute

The Rise and Fall of Polywater

Tools & Technology

What happens when an earth-shattering discovery runs up against the scientifically impossible?

Distilled #12: Edison's Record Player

Tools & Technology

Dreams of turning a wax cylinder into a “talking book.”

Our Oldest, Deadliest Foe

Tracing the immense misery wreaked by the mosquito.

The Anatomy Riot of 1788

Early Science & Alchemy

When New York’s poor revolted against the city’s grave-robbing medical establishment.

Spying in Plain Sight: Scientific Diplomacy during the Cold War

Policy & Politics

The covert politics behind American efforts to establish scientific freedom around the world.

Distilled #11: A 16th-Century Pop-Up Book

Early Science & Alchemy

How an ancient mathematical pop-up book became “sophisticated.”

Recommended

For Love of the Lab

Reatha Clark King wanted to be a research chemist, so she made the journey from the segregated South to Illinois. At the University of Chicago her dreams came true.

Synthetic Threads

Synthetic fibers not only changed the fashion industry; they changed how women lived their lives.

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Chemical Relations: William and Lawrence Knox, African American Chemists

For brothers William and Lawrence Knox, earning PhDs in chemistry was not enough to overcome discrimination.

Aspirin: Turn-of-the-Century Miracle Drug

Aspirin has had a long history as a pain reliever. But only in the 1970s did scientists begin to uncover its chemical secrets.

Interview: Curator Elisabeth Berry Drago

Early Science & Alchemy

In the exhibition Age of Alchemy, paintings, laboratory tools, and more showcase the quest to transform the human body and the natural world.

Making Space for Women in Astronomy

For centuries women have been looking at the stars despite earthly obstacles.