Distillations magazine

Unexpected Stories from Science’s Past

Not So Fast

The limits of racism, power, and the Good Roads Movement in the Americas.

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

view of the side of a white trailer
Environment & Nature

Where Have All the Trailers Gone?

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita displaced more than a million people in 2005, many of whom turned to trailers provided by FEMA. But it soon became apparent that these trailers were making people sick.

People & Politics

Weather Service

Before these men became successful chemists they were World War II meteorologists.

Arts & Culture

Graphic History

Comic books have been wrestling with the consequences of the atomic age for as long as their readers.

cover of Microbe Hunters
Health & Medicine

Bug Hunters

In the 1920s author Paul de Kruif turned science into an adventure story.

Arts & Culture

Rebel without a Chemistry Set

As child labor gave way to child education in the early 20th century, do-gooders sought a novel solution to juvenile delinquency.

Inventions & Discoveries

An Aging Army

The Cold War is long gone, but many nuclear weapons remain. What happens when some weapons can’t be retired?

Cottingley Fairy
Arts & Culture

The Magic of It All

How Victorians found a foolproof way to make science interesting for their children.

Health & Medicine

The Cancer-Free Dwarfs of Ecuador

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

Arts & Culture

Man Made: A History of Synthetic Life

Science writer Philip Ball digs into myth, history, and science to untangle the roots of our fears of artificial life.

Health & Medicine

Science, Protector of the Common Good

Using chemistry to put a lid on unsavory practices.

red and white piil capsules
Health & Medicine

Young and Positive

Many young people living with HIV put themselves at risk by not taking their medication properly.

Magical Thinking

What happened to physics in Nazi Germany?

Health & Medicine

Making Sense of Making Meth

Anthropologist Jason Pine offers an up-close view of methamphetamine culture in small-town America.

A dog sticks its head in a toilet
Environment & Nature

Waste Not, Want Not

Is recycled wastewater too much to swallow?

Arts & Culture

The Petroleum World

A government oilman maps a hidden realm.

Health & Medicine

Sickening Sweet

Relics from a lab hint at centuries spent trying to solve diabetes.

Environment & Nature

The Gowanus Canal

The fight for Brooklyn’s coolest Superfund site.

Arts & Culture

Stranger Than Fiction

Is there any truth in truth serums?