Distillations magazine

Unexpected Stories from Science’s Past

People & Politics

Science in a world of rules, regulations, and war

Woman at lab with instrument
People & Politics

A Seat at the Table

A recent collection showcases the famous and not-so-famous women who have left their mark on the periodic table.

People & Politics

The Dual Legacies of Henry Moseley

After transforming the periodic table should the promising young scientist have been allowed to fight in World War I?

Color map of Soviet- and Western-controlled countries
People & Politics

Spying in Plain Sight: Scientific Diplomacy during the Cold War

The covert politics behind American efforts to establish scientific freedom around the world.

People & Politics

Choosing a Better High-Tech Future

Rare earth elements make modern devices faster, brighter, and lighter, but it will take the creaky gears of government to make their production cleaner and more equitable.

People & Politics

The Transfermium Wars: Scientific Brawling and Name-Calling during the Cold War

The transfermium elements—the fleeting, lab-made substances that populate the end of the periodic table—have a history built on pride and acrimony.

People & Politics

How the First American Science Writer Found (Then Lost) God in the Cosmic Ray

In the 1930s a pride- and faith-fueled dispute between two Nobel Prize–winning physicists spilled onto the front page of the New York Times.

People & Politics

Hunting the Nazi Nuclear Hoard

In the last years of World War II a group of American scientists and soldiers raced to capture enemy physicists, sabotage Hitler’s nuclear ambitions, and do it all before their Soviet allies were any the wiser.

People & Politics

San Francisco’s Plague Years

As officials spread disinformation, a deadly epidemic edged its way into the United States.

People & Politics

Harvey Wiley’s Fierce Pursuit of Food Safety

Science writer Deborah Blum chronicles one chemist’s fight to bring order to a lawless food industry.

People & Politics

Ronald Fisher, a Bad Cup of Tea, and the Birth of Modern Statistics

A lesson in humility begets a scientific revolution.

Photo illustration with main image being man in hat and handcuff, surrounded by other portraits and illustrations
People & Politics

Harry Gold: Spy in the Lab

How did a Philadelphia chemist wind up a Soviet spy?

illustration of William and Caroline Herschel
People & Politics

Making Space for Women in Astronomy

For centuries women have been looking at the stars despite earthly obstacles.

black and white photo of pipes and fittings
People & Politics

Whose Knowledge Counts? Scientists with Cognitive Differences

Why emphasizing intellectual achievement and scientific “genius” harms scientists with intellectual disabilities—and the rest of us.

People & Politics

Baking Up a Storm

When crime and politics influenced American baking habits.

People & Politics

Through the Lens of Disability

What possibilities might we be ignoring when we unquestioningly privilege sight as the primary pathway to knowledge about the natural world?

People & Politics

The Rise and Fall of Vannevar Bush

One war made him the most powerful man in science; the war that followed took that power away.

People & Politics

It’s Nothing New: Sexism in the Lab

Why the recent findings of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine are enlightening, even if they aren’t surprising.

People & Politics

The Mystery of Yellow Rain

After the Vietnam War a mysterious yellow substance rained down from the skies of Southeast Asia. Was it a chemical weapon or something stranger?