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Second Chances

Tattoos are more than decoration. For many people they are lasting symbols of belief, marks of affiliation, declarations of self. But what can you do when the way you look no longer matches who you are?

A Study In Scarlet
Distillations Magazine
Warfarin, a drug that started life 70 years ago as a rat poison, remains one of the most important treatments for heart disease and stroke. But for all its success the anticoagulant remains as dangerous as its origin suggests.
Spring 2018

In This Issue

What would you give up for a second chance? In this issue sociologist Joseph Klett writes about tattoos and what their wearers will do to get rid of them. Join sociologist Ramya Rajagopalan as she takes us on the bloody journey of a rat poison turned medicine. Then find out how art connects two British luminaries: Nobel laureate Dorothy Hodgkin and Winston Churchill. And finally, take the oldest book in your library, open it, and sniff before reading about the people who smell books.

Michal Meyer

Editor in Chief, Distillations

Five Things We Learned in This Issue

1

To reduce methane emissions Argentinian scientists tried fitting cows with special backpacks to vacuum up their burps.

Learn More
2

The first keyboard instrument dates to the 3rd century BCE.

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3

The way we perceive odors is influenced by our genes, our age, and even our sex.

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4

Josiah Wedgwood, namesake of the famous cream-and-blue pottery, built one of the world’s first factories.

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5

Aspirin, one of the most widely used drugs, was nearly lost in Bayer’s rush to bring heroin to market.

Learn More

Keanium

Tummy Trouble

To slow global warming scientists have tried schemes both simple and bizarre to bottle up cow burps.

Uncovered

What’s That Smell You’re Reading?

Words are not always what hold book lovers captive.

Collections

Old Friends

Through fame, controversy, and peril Josiah Wedgwood and Joseph Priestley’s bond endured.

Collections

Sketch of a Scientist

A drawing of a biochemist connects two British political icons.

Reviews

From Barbers and Butchers to Modern Surgeons

How Joseph Lister’s application of germ theory revolutionized surgery in the mid-19th century.

Reviews

Hard Work and Happenstance

Where do new drugs come from? And why do so many fail?

Reviews

Serious Fun

Does joy drive civilization?

Table of Contents

Features
Second Chances
Features
A Study In Scarlet
Keanium
Tummy Trouble
Uncovered
What’s That Smell You’re Reading?
Collections
Old Friends
Collections
Sketch of a Scientist
Reviews
From Barbers and Butchers to Modern Surgeons
Reviews
Hard Work and Happenstance
Reviews
Serious Fun
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