Distillations magazine
The Misogynist Dinner
In 1880, the 4-year-old American Chemical Society threw a tantrum disguised as a party. Here’s why it still matters.
Distillations articles reveal science’s powerful influence on our lives, past and present.
The Big Business of Wish Fulfillment
Essential oils have long straddled the lines between magic, medicine, and scam.
A Cold Day in Stockholm
Forests of the Future
Modern agricultural practices are unsustainable. Is tree farming the answer?
How to Display a Hoatzin
The Bronx Zoo’s strange obsession with an even stranger bird.
The Case Against Charles Darwin
How the investigation into a grisly murder shocked 19th-century France and framed the scientist as an accomplice.
Like Monstrosities from Another World
The gas mask’s grip on our collective consciousness.
In the Shadow of Oppenheimer
How popular narratives of the atomic age obscure the bomb’s first victims.
Chasing the Light
Pyro enthusiasts converge on Lake Havasu City, Arizona, for an annual event known as the Western Winter Blast.
Yue Xiong’s Great Leap
A promising young man from a politically marked family navigates China’s era of Maoist upheaval.
The Problem of Piltdown Man
Seduced by a racist idea, archaeologists hyped an outrageous hoax.
A Fix for the Unfixable: Making the First Heart-Lung Machine
Seventy years ago, a group of Philadelphia scientists and a brave 18-year-old pushed surgery to its final frontier.
Losing the Genetic Lottery
How did a field meant to reclaim genetics from Nazi abuses wind up a haven for race science?
Percy Julian and the False Promise of Exceptionalism
Reflecting on the trailblazing chemist’s fight for dignity and the myths we tell about our scientific heroes.
The Rotten Science Behind the MSG Scare
How one doctor’s letter and a string of dodgy studies spurred a public health panic.
The Murky Ethics of Wastewater Surveillance
By monitoring sewage, scientists can track disease outbreaks in near real time. But will the technology leave long-term privacy risks in its wake?
Fighting through the Fear
Lessons from the Polio Pioneers in an era of misinformation.
Diagnosing the Dead
Can scrutinizing the ailments of historical figures really teach us anything?
Georg Bredig: Scientist, Humanist, and Holocaust Survivor
Restoring the legacy of a physical chemistry pioneer.