Distillations magazine

Modern agricultural practices are unsustainable. Is tree farming the answer?

The Bronx Zoo’s strange obsession with an even stranger bird.

How the investigation into a grisly murder shocked 19th-century France and framed the scientist as an accomplice.

The gas mask’s grip on our collective consciousness.

How popular narratives of the atomic age obscure the bomb’s first victims.

Pyro enthusiasts converge on Lake Havasu City, Arizona, for an annual event known as the Western Winter Blast.

A promising young man from a politically marked family navigates China’s era of Maoist upheaval.

Seduced by a racist idea, archaeologists hyped an outrageous hoax.

Seventy years ago, a group of Philadelphia scientists and a brave 18-year-old pushed surgery to its final frontier.

How did a field meant to reclaim genetics from Nazi abuses wind up a haven for race science?

Reflecting on the trailblazing chemist’s fight for dignity and the myths we tell about our scientific heroes.

How one doctor’s letter and a string of dodgy studies spurred a public health panic.

By monitoring sewage, scientists can track disease outbreaks in near real time. But will the technology leave long-term privacy risks in its wake?

Lessons from the Polio Pioneers in an era of misinformation.

Can scrutinizing the ailments of historical figures really teach us anything?

Restoring the legacy of a physical chemistry pioneer.

Or will the scientist’s 200th birthday be his last hurrah?

Dow’s gamble on magnesium helped push the boundaries of human exploration and launched an ocean of consumer products.