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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.
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.
Now ubiquitous and vital to modern life, aluminum was once more expensive than gold, locked away in its ore without a commercially viable method to release it.
Rudolph Pariser’s early life and career were shaped by world wars and other international events.
Historians have uncovered evidence of the immense influence of Arabic alchemy—a largely unexplored piece of the alchemical puzzle.
DuPont’s colorists were prophets of the color revolution, guiding corporations and consumers in choosing hues for everything from car fenders to countertops.
Our long history with a potent poison.
The rise of the digital age depended on integrated circuits made with new materials and techniques that could both increase performance and drive down cost.
Mendeleev’s greatest achievement was not the periodic table so much as the recognition of the periodic system on which it was based.