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Distillations magazine

Unexpected Stories from Science’s Past

Hatching a Legend

Audubon and the Bird of Washington.

Read

Distillations articles reveal science’s powerful influence on our lives, past and present.

Environment

The Flavor of Smog

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

People & Politics

Large and in Charge

Ernest Lawrence championed the idea of science done collectively. But he failed to champion his own scientists during the Red Scare.

Environment

Imagining a Postcarbon Future

How do we think about a world that doesn’t yet exist?

Inventions & Discoveries

The Frontiersman

In Silicon Valley’s renegade days, a hardheaded Texan chased dreams of a flying car.

Health & Medicine

The Filter of Life

A simple invention that saved lives and led to the discovery of a hidden form of life.

Inventions & Discoveries

Synthetic Threads

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

stuffed dog
Arts & Culture

Death and Taxidermy

Step into the weird and wonderful world of stuffing animals.

painting of Louis Pasteur in his lab
Health & Medicine

Biting Back

The story of Louis Pasteur and the development of the rabies vaccine.

Inventions & Discoveries

Information Overload

Data overload is nothing new. How have people in the past managed their versions of big data?

person making tacos
Health & Medicine

The Ancient Chemistry Inside Your Taco

Dive into the world of nixtamalization, and find out how you’re eating a small piece of ancient chemistry each time you bite into a taco.

Inventions & Discoveries

The Secrets of Life

Resurrecting radium’s role in early genetics research.

Arts & Culture

Waning Interest

Two space-loving PR men consider the marketing of NASA’s Apollo program.

Environment

Future Calculations

Was Svante Arrhenius the first climate change believer?

Inventions & Discoveries

Thinking Machines: The Search for Artificial Intelligence

Does history explain why today’s smart machines can seem so dumb?

Early Science & Alchemy

Isaac Newton and the American Alchemist

A manuscript reveals the mark a mysterious American alchemist made on Isaac Newton and other early chemists.

Inventions & Discoveries

Tough Stuff

Some of the most indestructible menswear ever made.

People & Politics

Political Ills

Smallpox, polio, and the political and scientific haggling behind two medical triumphs.

Inventions & Discoveries

Speaking in Tongues

Science’s centuries-long hunt for a common language.