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Malaria and the benefits and pitfalls of government-funded biomedical research.
Are salt alternatives scarier than the substance they are replacing? A brief history of a “terrifying” food.
The first balloons, both hot-air and hydrogen powered, drew spectacular crowds and set off a craze—balloonomania!
An 1828 murder trial provides insight into the moral ambiguity of forensic science and scientific testimony.
Svante Arrhenius was one of the founders of modern physical chemistry. His later work cosmological work carried him beyond the scientific limits of many of his colleagues.
David Healy reviews Nicholas Rasmussen’s On Speed: The Many Lives of Amphetamine.
Aspirin has had a long history as a pain reliever—2,000 years of history. But only in the 1970s did scientists begin to uncover its chemical secrets.
A personal portrait of the Nobel prize-winning crystallographer.
Interactions between the pharmaceutical industry, the biomedical sciences, and legislators is a longstanding hot topic in Washington.
The history of pasteurization and the controversy surrounding it demonstrate the complexity of milk as a chemical substance.
Cellophane celebrates its 100th anniversary with a comeback, after losing out to cheaper imitations in the 1970s.
Assessing J. Robert Oppenheimer as a leader.
Scientists have only recently begun to investigate the chemical components that give wines their distinct and complex flavors.
How 50,000 people tried to maintain a normal existence while living in isolation at the largest the Manhattan Project site.
Part experimenter and part entertainer, Humphry Davy was a 19th-century icon.
The founding of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers represented the beginning of American technological dominance in the 20th century.
The invention of nylon in 1938 promised sleekness and practicality for women and soon ushered in a textile revolution for consumers and the military alike.
On today’s show, we investigate Olympic mysteries, from the flame of the torch to the composition of those so-called gold medals.
Fatal results of the lax safety standards of yesterday provide powerful lessons in the importance of safety in today’s labs.
The rise and fall of hormone replacement therapy.
Innovations have reduced industry’s impact on human health and the environment while also saving companies money.
Technologies using nanosized objects have been around for hundreds of years.
In the 18th century Joseph Priestley and others developed artificially carbonated mineral water, uniting the therapeutic powers of an ancient natural restorative with the emerging science of modern chemistry.
Dalton proposed atomic theory in 1808; an additional century passed before the theory was universally accepted by scientists.
Is chemistry’s ubiquity why we so rarely talk about its historical importance?
Two books trace the history of Arabo-Islamic science during the European Middle Ages.
In 1788 Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and Jacques-Louis David were introduced during a sitting for the illustrious scientist’s portrait.
From antibiotics to chemotherapy, modern pharmaceuticals transformed the experience of illness in the 20th century.
How do scientists explain what they do to the larger public, and how can historians help?
With the curiosity of a scientist and the personal motivation of having lost family members to cancer and bacterial infection, Elion fulfilled a vital role in the fight against disease.