Distillations magazine

Unexpected Stories from Science’s Past

Gerson’s Magic Bullet

Why have so many rejected established cancer therapies for juice cocktails and coffee enemas?

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

Early Science & Alchemy

Cloth of the World

In Renaissance maps geography becomes an art form.

Inventions & Discoveries

Tiny Productions

Sometimes scientific discovery requires an unusual tool.

People & Politics

The Invisible Woman

Katharine Burr Blodgett was the first female scientist hired by General Electric. Her work was truly invisible, deliberately so.

Arts & Culture

Colors Run Riot

The rise of synthetic color and the scientists and designers who tried to save society from itself.

Arts & Culture

The Philosophers’ Stove

Fancy some alchemical recipes from 15th-century Italy?

Health & Medicine

Write for a Free Booklet: Howard Bishop’s Crusade to Decontaminate America

The man who wanted to make the United States a healthier place and the sometimes fuzzy line between science and quackery.

Arts & Culture

Making Gemstones

How hard can it be to make a gemstone? Plenty hard. People have been trying for almost 2,000 years, but success finally beckoned in 19th-century France.

Color illustrations of a donut-shaped space colony
Inventions & Discoveries

A Future without Limits

For decades serious people have tried to turn the stuff of science fiction—space colonies, self-replicating machines, and solar sails—into scientific reality.

Color illustration of an open mouth showing a diseased tongue
Health & Medicine

Yellow Fever Fiend

A Confederate doctor had no problem breaking the Hippocratic oath.

Harvard Cyclotron
Inventions & Discoveries

Accelerating Oncology

How a machine used to create atom bombs became a tool for healing.

Environment

Clearing the Air

Three atmospheric scientists describe carrying their work beyond the lab.

Inventions & Discoveries

Harold C. Urey: Science, Religion, and Cold War Chemistry

What most frightened the Nobel Prize–winning chemist and explorer of Earth’s deep past?

Inventions & Discoveries

Whales in Space

Whale oil has been used in soap, explosives, and even margarine. Has it also fueled space exploration?

Inventions & Discoveries

Peak Phosphorus?

What does a world short on phosphorous look like?

Inventions & Discoveries

Processed: Food Science and the Modern Meal

The early 20th century was an especially rich time for creating ways to process and preserve food.

Illustrated depiction of 19th century lab
Inventions & Discoveries

Where’s the Beef?

Mix a 19th-century chemist with a South American roader builder. Add cows and boil.

Sheldon Kaplan’s patent diagrams for his improved automatic injector, EpiPen.
Health & Medicine

A Mighty Pen

Discover the history of the EpiPen.

Woodcut from the March 11, 1865, Harper’s Weekly
Health & Medicine

“The Popular Dose with Doctors”: Quinine and the American Civil War

During the Civil War necessity drove the North and South to develop different strategies for dealing with malaria.