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Sam Kean

More From the Author

Diagnosing the Dead

Distillations Article

Can scrutinizing the ailments of historical figures really teach us anything?

The Tragedy of the World’s First Seed Bank

Distillations Article

Soviet geneticist Nikolai Vavilov led an ideologically perilous campaign to rid the world of famine.

William Dampier, Revered and Reviled

Distillations Article

The pirate-turned-naturalist-turned-pirate-again inspired generations of British writers and scientists.

Mouse Heaven or Mouse Hell?

Distillations Article

Biologist John Calhoun’s rodent experiments gripped a society consumed by fears of overpopulation.

The Toll of the Road

Distillations Article

Calculating the automobile’s grisly impact on wildlife.

Could Claude Monet See Like a Bee?

Distillations Article

A harrowing eye surgery may have given the impressionist painter the ability to see UV light.

Darwin’s Barnacles

Distillations Article

How an obsession with crustaceans guided the naturalist toward his most consequential insights.

Why Did Annie Dookhan Lie?

Distillations Article

Forensic science can be a powerful crime-fighting tool, but misdeeds, dubious methodologies, and bogus claims threaten its reputation—and the reputation of science as a whole.

Vicious Doctors and Cruel Diseases in 18th-Century Jamaica

Distillations Article

A scientific dispute takes a violent, absurd turn.

The High-Flying, Death-Defying Discovery of Helium

Distillations Article

During the War of 1870, astronomer Jules Janssen risked his life for scientific prestige and French patriotism.

Leo Alexander’s Unflinching Pursuit

Distillations Article

In the waning days of World War II, a psychiatrist raced across Germany to uncover the harrowing abuses of Nazi doctors.

The Undying Appeal of Nikola Tesla’s “Death Ray”

Distillations Article

Despite a lack of evidence, many have been captivated by the electrical whiz’s most mysterious project.

Joseph Goldberger’s Filth Parties

Distillations Article

A crusading doctor’s stomach-churning efforts to beat back pellagra in the American South.

Hashime Murayama and the Art of Saving Lives

Distillations Article

A wildlife painter who ran afoul of xenophobic authorities during World War II found refuge and renewed purpose in the lab.

The Nurse Who Introduced Gloves to the Operating Room

Distillations Article

 Caroline Hampton and the forgotten origins of the first personal protective equipment.

The Anatomy Riot of 1788

Distillations Article

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

Marie Curie, Marie Meloney, and the Significance of a Gram of Radium

Distillations Article

In the 1920s a pioneering journalist summoned the might of American women to revive a Nobelist’s career.

Ronald Fisher, a Bad Cup of Tea, and the Birth of Modern Statistics

Distillations Article

A lesson in humility begets a scientific revolution.

Can Science Build a Better Leaf?

Distillations Article

Better photosynthesis, bomb-sniffing spinach, and that’s just the start of the ways plants are inspiring scientific innovation.

Harry Gold: Spy in the Lab

Distillations Article

How did a chemist from Philadelphia wind up a Soviet spy?

Harry versus the Volcano

Distillations Article

Foul-mouthed, heavy-drinking eccentric Harry R. Truman became a folk hero for refusing to evacuate his home in the months before Mount St. Helens erupted. Where did he go once it did?

Sweating Blood

Distillations Article

A misunderstanding of hippo physiology gave rise to one of the most widespread and pointless practices in medical history.

Tummy Trouble

Distillations Article

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

The Scent of a Molecule

Distillations Article

Can artificial intelligence help us decipher smell?

The Birds, the Bees, and the Froggies

Distillations Article

A globe-hopping doctor and a weird amphibian produce a fast, inexpensive pregnancy test.

A Forgotten Star

Distillations Article

A discovery by Indian scientist and statesman Meghnad Saha revealed the nature of stars.

Chemical Hope

Distillations Article

A molecule used in antifreeze may one day heal damaged spinal cords. 

The Flavor of Smog

Distillations Article

In the 1940s two chemists joined forces to fight Los Angeles’s stinky, stinging air.

Forbidden Planet, Forbidden Chemistry

Distillations Article

Bizarre chemical structures are helping us better understand how our planet formed and, perhaps, where to find life elsewhere in the universe.

The Cancer-Free Dwarfs of Ecuador

Distillations Article

How one man’s youthful rebellion may unlock a cure for cancer.

Waste Not, Want Not

Distillations Article

Is recycled wastewater too much to swallow?

The Science of Satisfaction

Distillations Article

A Japanese gourmand discovers the fifth element of taste.

The Machiavelli Microbe

Distillations Article

Can a parasite in your cat’s litter box take control of your mind?

The Strange, Gruesome Search for Substance X

Distillations Article

John Hughes worked his way through uncounted pig brains to find the human body’s natural painkiller.

Ancient DNA

Distillations Article

Genetic fishing expeditions are now extracting information from ancient human bones and providing a few surprises along the way.

Nuclear Option

Distillations Article

Poisoners have long made use of the periodic table of elements for their dirty work—think arsenic and mercury—but modern technology offers a new elemental option: a disappearing poison.

Tiny Productions

Distillations Article

Sometimes scientific discovery requires an unusual tool.

Peak Phosphorus?

Distillations Article

Phosphorous helps power cells and forms the backbone of DNA. It’s also a vital ingredient in fertilizer, and one that may run short in the not-too-distant future.

Wild Ice

Distillations Article

In space no one can hear ice scream! For more than 100 years scientists have been discovering and creating bizarre, exotic ices. Ices that can even burn a hole in you!

Rocky Road

Distillations Article

Rocks in space! Yeah, we know space is filled with rocks, but until now no one had any plans to mine them for their metals.

Life in Space

Distillations Article

The chemistry of the universe may help explain the presence of life on Earth.

Colored In

Distillations Article

Modern chemistry can fill in some ancient gaps. It turns out that a few stubborn chemicals in soft tissues can survive decay almost indefinitely, even under extreme heat and pressure. And with these new particles scientists have started to piece together the textures, shapes, and even colors of ancient creatures for the first time, including the most famous extinct creatures of all, the dinosaurs.

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