Distillations magazine
Water and Power
Could a century-old aqueduct point the way to Los Angeles’s clean energy future?
Distillations articles reveal science’s powerful influence on our lives, past and present.
In the Pink
Winter’s coming, so wrap up and discover the history of home insulation.
The Electrical Wizard
Nikola Tesla’s career epitomizes the scientist as showman.
A Strange and Formidable Weapon
A terrifying weapon emerged in World War I: poison gas. In response, armies scrambled to protect their soldiers against these weapons and to treat those injured.
The DDT Collector
In the 1980s Phil Allegretti found an unusual hobby. His collection of old DDT cans, sprayers, and diffusers tells the story of our contradictory approach to pesticides.
Mummies and the Usefulness of Death
What do ancient Egyptian mummies, early modern medicines, a 19th-century philosopher, and a 21st-century chemist have in common?
Politically Unreliable: The State v. Otto Wichterle
Faced with political opposition to his work, the Czech chemist created the first wearable soft contact lens using a set of toys, a hot plate, and a gramophone motor.
Duck and Cover: Science Journalism in the Digital Age
For decades science journalists peacefully worked their beat. But trouble came to their ostensibly objective world. How did science writers get caught in the crossfire of the culture wars?
Forensic Chemistry in Golden-Age Detective Fiction: Dorothy L. Sayers and the CSI Effect
The ancestors of today’s CSI shows can be found between the covers of 20th-century detective stories.
A World without Darwin
Would we understand our world differently if Charles Darwin had never written On the Origin of Species?
True Science, Fake History
Scientists are known to be dedicated to accuracy. But sometimes, as in the case of Francesco Redi, a sense of humor can lead one astray.
Gold, Secrecy, and Prestige
Did alchemists disappear from history, or did they just change their coats?
Atoms for Peace: The Mixed Legacy of Eisenhower’s Nuclear Gambit
Following World War II, President Dwight Eisenhower attempted a risky balancing act between war and peace, secrecy and transparency.
Albertus Magnus, Mineralogy, and the Secrets of Women
What connects a founder of the Western model of university education to the secrets of women?
Pumped Up
More than 350 years ago the very first air pump changed how science was done.
Sputnik Fever
How did the launch of Sputnik I in 1957 change the lives of two Americans?
A Good Death
Death Salon founder Megan Rosenbloom tells us what a good death means to her.
Mammoth Undertaking
Can scientists bring the woolly mammoth back from extinction? And should they?
Butter-in-Law
Pity butter’s poor relative, margarine, which has shifted from outlaw to savior to villain in the space of 100 years.