Public Health
Visit Philly Instagram post

Visit Philadelphia: History, Culture & Cocktails
Media Coverage
Nurse Linda Ruggiero poses for portrait wearing face mask.

COVID’s Hidden Toll on Nurses

Distillations Podcast
Genre oil painting

Quacks, Plagues, and Pandemics

Distillations Article
Sanitation workers in masks in front of a garbage truck

The Why: A Camera, a Mask, and 2020’s Most Enduring Image
Media Coverage
A nurse in a mask

UWISHUNU: The Top Things to Do in Philly This Week & Weekend, November 2–8
Media Coverage
Cows in a barn

The Washington Post: The Idea of Herd Immunity to Manage the Coronavirus Should Ring Alarm Bells
Media Coverage
Philadelphia Nurse Sara Cohen in her Personal Protective Equipment

Between Us and Catastrophe

Distillations Podcast
Bike delivery person in a mask

PhillyVoice: Photos of Essential Workers to Be Displayed by the Science History Institute
Media Coverage
Mask makers shown with a sewing machine and their dog

Science History Institute Debuts New Outdoor Exhibition
Press Release
A nurse in a mask

Between Us and Catastrophe
Museum
Illustration of a young woman with skin lesions

Joseph Goldberger’s Filth Parties

Distillations Article
A man in a mine, wearing breathing apparatus and holding a lantern, finds asphyxiated miners. Wood engraving, ca. 1900.

The Alchemical Origins of Occupational Medicine

Distillations Podcast
children learning geography in a classroom from 1921.

Science and Disability: Part 2

Distillations Podcast
Engraving showing tableau of injected vessel and infant skeletons by Frederick Ruysch,

Collecting Monstrosity

Distillations Podcast
Photo of Magda Marquet posing

Interview with Magda Marquet

Distillations Podcast
Black and white movie still image

A Silent, Savage Menace: Reassessing "Panic in the Streets"

Distillations Article
Robert Langer working on a bed at home while wearing a mask

Interview with Robert Langer

Distillations Podcast
Mark Stevenson of Thermo Fisher Scientific

Interview with Mark Stevenson

Distillations Podcast
Alnylam CEO John Maraganore

Interview with John Maraganore

Distillations Podcast
Photo of Katrine Bosley

Interview with Katrine Bosley

Distillations Podcast
William Haseltine on a stage

Interview with William Haseltine

Distillations Podcast
Susan Weiss headshot

Interview with Susan Weiss

Distillations Podcast
Screenshot of Twitter post

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Anonymous Too Long—STL Women Shorted on Credit for Scientific Work
Media Coverage
Photo of Susan Desmond-Hellmann at the Fortune Most Powerful Women

Interview with Sue Desmond-Hellmann

Distillations Podcast
Former Gilead CEO John C. Martin holds bottle of Truvada

Interview with John C. Martin

Distillations Podcast
Michael Somogyi and Unidentified Women in Laboratory

Massive Science: Can You Help Identify Unnamed Women Scientists of the Past?
Media Coverage
Photo from 1918 showing Philadelphia streetcar with sign reading "Spit spreads death"

Spit Spreads Death

Distillations Podcast
Cuyahoga River Fire

Vox: 18 Fascinating Nonfiction Podcasts
Media Coverage

Philadelphia Magazine: Explore Philly from Your Couch with These Virtual Tours of Local Attractions
Media Coverage
Exterior of Science History Institute building

A Message from the Science History Institute about COVID-19
Press Release
Rubella (German Measles) vaccination clinic in 1969

Roe v. Wade v. Rubella

Distillations Podcast
Woodcut of well-dressed crowd and cow strapped to table

Smallpox and the Long Road to Eradication

Distillations Article
Two women standing on street dabbing their eyes

Smith Griswold Sells the War against Smog

Distillations Article
Illustration of rat climbing down a ship's mooring rope with a city in the distance

San Francisco’s Plague Years

Distillations Article
Advertisement for Bendix MA-3 Gas Chromatograph system

Distilled #9: Lovely Ladies Sell Instruments

Distillations Video
Satirical cartoon on food adulteration from Puck magazine

Harvey Wiley’s Fierce Pursuit of Food Safety

Distillations Article
Fire in the Cuyahoga River with a firefighter boat blasting water

The Myth of the Cuyahoga River Fire

Distillations Podcast
Polio vaccine dropped on to sugar lump for child patient.

Book Club: The Story of the Polio Vaccine

Distillations Article
Closeup of a penicillin fermentation jug

Distilled #8: Penicillin Jug

Distillations Video
Science history photo collage

Love, Hate, and Sex from the History of Science

Distillations Podcast
Still from Where Are My Children: At the end of the film the Waltons are visited by the spectral images of their offspring, first as children and then as young adults.

Where Are My Children? Public Health in the Movies

Distillations Article
19th century breast reliever

Distilled #7: Bicycle Horn or Breast Pump?

Distillations Video
Photo illustration of woman with migraine

Sex(ism), Drugs, and Migraines

Distillations Podcast
Lab mouse in red Harvard sweater/bowtie

The Mouse That Changed Science

Distillations Podcast
Soldiers at Camp Dix during the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918

Exhuming the Flu

Distillations Article
Photo illustration of poppy flowers and opioid addict

Treating America’s Opioid Addiction

Distillations Podcast
Photo illustration of poppy flowers and meeting chairs

Treating America’s Opioid Addiction

Distillations Podcast
Photo illustration of poppy flowers and prison-hospital for addicts

Treating America’s Opioid Addiction

Distillations Podcast
Helitrim trimming potentiometers on the moon

The Folly of the Martian Back-Up Plan

Distillations Article

Opioids’ Devastating Return

Distillations Article

If You Smell Something, Say Something

Distillations Article
Woman irritated by smog in LA in the 1950s

Fighting Smog in Los Angeles

Distillations Podcast
Curator holding bottle of Lift vitamins.

Distilled #1: Caffeine Pills in Disguise

Distillations Video
Man walking in forest of fall leaves

Whatever Happened to Acid Rain?

Distillations Podcast
Penguins on an iceberg

Whatever Happened to the Ozone Hole?

Distillations Podcast

The Mystery of Yellow Rain

Distillations Article

Imagining Philadelphia’s Energy Futures
Research

Cat Craze

Distillations Article
Detail from Sanborn map of Ambler, PA.

Studies in Sustainability
Research
Innovation and Regulation on the Open Seas: The Development of Sea-Nine Marine Antifouling Paint

Studies in Materials Innovation
Research

Here Comes the Spray Man!

Distillations Video

Fizzy Water

Distillations Video
Vintage margarine ad

Butter vs. Margarine

Distillations Podcast

Greetings from Isotopia

Distillations Article
Portrait of refugee doctor

Refugee Doctors

Distillations Podcast
9/11 memorial column

Conserving the Stories They Tell

Distillations Article
Detail of illustration outside confectionery, 1885

Our Mutual Friend

Distillations Article

The Birds, the Bees, and the Froggies

Distillations Article
Still image from Rethinking Ink animation

Rethinking Ink

Distillations Video
A group of Amish people standing in a field

High-Tech and Amish

Distillations Podcast

The Age of Scurvy

Distillations Article

How Drinking Beer Is in Our DNA: An Interview with Jessica Zinskie

Distillations Article

Richard Nixon and the Rise of American Environmentalism

Distillations Article
Men wearing gas masks

A Tear Gas Tale

Distillations Article
AIDS

Going Viral

Distillations Article

A Recipe for Good Health

Distillations Article

A Killer of a Cure

Distillations Article
Old soda spray bottles in various colors

Fizzy Water

Distillations Podcast
Insectoline

Beyond Silent Spring: An Alternate History of DDT

Distillations Article
Restoring the Mary Rose

Chemical Hope

Distillations Article
Smog in Tiananmen Square

Is the Smog Out?

Distillations Article
Crocidolite asbestos, Pomfret Mine, Vryburg, South Africa.

Flexible Meaning
Research
Diagram of sports bra

Second Skin

Distillations Podcast
Arie Haagen-Smit with lab equipment, 1961

The Flavor of Smog

Distillations Article
Illustration of a Pasteur-Chamberland filter

The Filter of Life

Distillations Article
Illustration of childbirth

(Natural) Childbirth

Distillations Podcast
TOMS and SBUV on display at the Institute. Photo by Gregory Tobias.

TOMS and SBUV
Research
Maximilian Ringelman Smoke Charts, 1897. The Institute Collections.

Ringelmann Smoke Charts
Research
Electron Capture Detector, 1958. The Institute Collections. Courtesy of James E. Lovelock.

James Lovelock's Electron Capture Detector
Research
Papers of Edward C. Dunlop, 1943.

Edward C. Dunlop Water Analysis, Manhattan Project
Research
Detail of the Beckman HC/CO tester. Courtesy of Beckman Coulter Heritage Council

Beckman HC/CO Tester, Beckman Instruments
Research
Bird with Plastic

Polymer Scientist—Medical Applications
Learn
Bird with Plastic

Pro−Plastic Bag Advocate
Learn

The Ancient Chemistry Inside Your Taco

Distillations Video
Detail from Sanborn map of Ambler, PA.

REACH Ambler
Research
Bird with Plastic

Case Study for Waste: Trash and Treasure
Learn

Nicholas Shapiro

People
Bird with Plastic

Game Home
Learn
Students debating in a classroom

Science Matters: Role-Playing Games for Students
Learn
Women in Chemistry

Women in Chemistry
Learn
Vaccinating for polio in South Sudan, 2014.

Political Ills

Distillations Article
Phillip Sharp.

Phillip Sharp
Historical Profile