Distillations magazine

Unexpected Stories from Science’s Past

Health & Medicine

Bodies, minds, and the things that help and harm them

Health & Medicine

A Study In Scarlet

Warfarin started life as a rat poison, and for all its success the anticoagulant remains as dangerous as its origin suggests.

Health & Medicine

Hard Work and Happenstance

Where do new drugs come from? And why do so many fail?

Health & Medicine

From Barbers and Butchers to Modern Surgeons

How Joseph Lister’s application of germ theory revolutionized surgery in the mid-19th century.

Health & Medicine

Cat Craze

Do cats mess with your brain?

Health & Medicine

Our Mutual Friend

Candy stores in the 19th century sold sweets as deadly as they were delicious.

Health & Medicine

The Birds, the Bees, and the Froggies

A globe-hopping doctor and a weird amphibian produce a fast, inexpensive pregnancy test.

Health & Medicine

The Age of Scurvy

In a time of warring empires and transoceanic voyages, sailors dreaded scurvy more than any other disease.

Health & Medicine

A Recipe for Good Health

John Harvey Kellogg’s Battle Creek Sanitarium was at the intersection of new ideas of religion, health, and nutrition.

Health & Medicine

A Killer of a Cure

For more than a century ozone therapy has been a source of false hope for the sick and ill-gotten gains for the crooked.

Health & Medicine

Chemical Hope

A molecule used in antifreeze may one day heal damaged spinal cords.

Health & Medicine

The Filter of Life

A simple invention that saved lives and led to the discovery of a hidden form of life.

painting of Louis Pasteur in his lab
Health & Medicine

Biting Back

The story of Louis Pasteur and the development of the rabies vaccine.

person making tacos
Health & Medicine

The Ancient Chemistry Inside Your Taco

Dive into the world of nixtamalization, and find out how you’re eating a small piece of ancient chemistry each time you bite into a taco.

cover of Microbe Hunters
Health & Medicine

Bug Hunters

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

Health & Medicine

The Cancer-Free Dwarfs of Ecuador

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

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.

Health & Medicine

Making Sense of Making Meth

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