Scientific Discovery

Science History Institute and Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie Name Joseph Gal Winner of 2022 Franklin-Lavoisier Prize
News
engraving depicting a graphic scene 1802

First Friday: Spooky Science

Event
Beckman Oligo 1000M DNA Synthesizer

Institute, Tsinghua University Partner to Present Online Exhibition
News
People wearing half-chest binders

Redefining Nude
Museum
Europium (III) Hydroxide [Eu(OH)₃] under UV Light

Critical Metals: The Chemistry of Light
Museum
The BGL Chemical Set

Science at Play
Museum
Oil painting of an alchemist reading

Age of Alchemy
Museum
Encyclopédie by Denis Diderot

Things Fall Apart
Museum
Second Skin exhibit

Second Skin: The Science of Stretch
Museum
C.C. Dennis using mortar and pestle at Dearborn laboratory

Mechanochemistry: The Science of Crush
Museum
Illustration of tapping serum from a horse in a pharmacy

Animals and the Making of Human Vaccines
Museum
Ad for colored stockings 1955

Nylon: From Labs to Legs
Museum
Ivory barnacles

The Unsung Heroes of Darwin’s Evolution

Distillations Podcast
Illustration of tapping serum from a horse in a pharmacy

Institute’s Digital Exhibition on Vaccines Gets Boost from Google Arts & Culture
Press Release
Black and white photo of man in suit

Matthew Carey Lea and the Origins of Mechanochemistry

Distillations Article
Collections Deep Dive at the museum

Up Close
Visit
Frances Arnold headshot

Science History Institute Announces Nobel Laureate Frances Arnold Will Present 2022 Ullyot Lecture
Press Release
Engraving of the alchemical universe 1618

Atlas Obscura: How Scholars Cracked a Medieval Alchemist’s Secret Code
Media Coverage
Family Day participants

Family Day
Visit
Mario Molina, left, and F. Sherwood Rowland at the University of California, Irvine, January 1975.

HISTORY This Week: The Sky Is Falling
Media Coverage
Alchemical emblem

The Conversation: Deciphering the Philosophers’ Stone
Media Coverage
Collage of Charles Darwin and barnacles

Darwin’s Barnacles

Distillations Article
Drawing of factory with photo of human eyes superimposed

How Two Outsider Scientists Saw Inside Climate Change

Distillations Article

Philly Materials Day Online: Experiments for Home
Media Coverage
Miners Hauling Electronics Amidst Pollution

C&EN: Rare Earths’ Magic Comes at a Cost
Media Coverage
Carla Pereira headshot

ExxonMobil’s Carla Pereira to Receive 18th Annual SCI Gordon E. Moore Medal
Press Release
Science History Institute museum interior

Science History Institute’s Museum to Reopen July 1
Press Release
C.C. Dennis using mortar and pestle at Dearborn laboratory

Science History Institute Debuts ‘Mechanochemistry: The Science of Crush’ Digital Exhibition
Press Release
Ida Noddack banner

Chemistry World: Ida Noddack and the Trouble with Element 43
Media Coverage
color portrait of man and woman smiling

Wayne Woolley’s Marvelously Equipped Mind

Distillations Article
Ad for colored stockings 1955

Digital Exhibitions
Museum
Black and white photo of man and woman in a lab

For the Sake of Science

Distillations Article
black and white photo portrait of older man

The High-Flying, Death-Defying Discovery of Helium

Distillations Article
Robert W. Gore demonstrating the expansion of ePTFE, ca. 1982.

Science History Institute Mourns Loss of Bob Gore
Press Release
Illustration of a young woman with skin lesions

Joseph Goldberger’s Filth Parties

Distillations Article
The Instrumental Chemist video title image

The Instrumental Chemist
Research

Science History Institute and Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie Announce Winners of 2020 Franklin-Lavoisier Prize
Press Release
Color photograph of a mushroom cloud

Element Hunting in a Nuclear Storm

Distillations Article
Surrealist painting of artist drawing planet on canvas

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

Distillations Article
The Alchymist (1775), an engraving

Hennig Brandt and the Discovery of Phosphorus

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

Book Club: The Story of the Polio Vaccine

Distillations Article
Science history photo collage

Love, Hate, and Sex from the History of Science

Distillations Podcast

The Parasites in Our Past

Distillations Article
Lab mouse in red Harvard sweater/bowtie

The Mouse That Changed Science

Distillations Podcast
Image of microscope from Robert Hooke's "Micrographia" 1665

Through the Lens of Disability

Distillations Article
Photo illustration of poppy flowers and opioid addict

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

Probing the Mysteries of Human Digestion

Distillations Article
A portrait of Charles Darwin by Thomas Johnson

Book Club: Simultaneous Discovery and Darwin’s Ghosts

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

Fighting Smog in Los Angeles

Distillations Podcast
Man walking in forest of fall leaves

Whatever Happened to Acid Rain?

Distillations Podcast
Portrait of alchemist in his lab

Interview: Curator Elisabeth Berry Drago

Distillations Article
Penguins on an iceberg

Whatever Happened to the Ozone Hole?

Distillations Podcast

A Study In Scarlet

Distillations Article
Photo of automaton hand drawing a picture on paper

Serious Fun

Distillations Article

Second Chances

Distillations Article
Painting of a operation in a historical surgery theater

From Barbers and Butchers to Modern Surgeons

Distillations Article
Laser inventor Gordon Gould playing chess 1940

The Man, the Myth, the Laser

Distillations Podcast

An Interview with the Field Museum’s Emily Graslie

Distillations Article

Anticipating the Future: Historical Narratives, Imagination, and Innovation
Visit

Fizzy Water

Distillations Video

The Art of Memory

Distillations Article
An 1822 star map by Alexander Jamieson shows the constellation Telescopium Herschelii, depicted here, ironically, as a refracting telescope.

A Giant of Astronomy

Distillations Article
Start Talking Science participants

From STEM to STEAM: An Interview with Marion Leary

Distillations Article

Concrete Solutions

Distillations Article

Data from Disaster

Distillations Article
Reno

Air Born

Distillations Article

The Birds, the Bees, and the Froggies

Distillations Article
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
Fist and flask graphic

Political Science

Distillations Podcast
Men wearing gas masks

A Tear Gas Tale

Distillations Article
AIDS

Going Viral

Distillations Article

A Forgotten Star

Distillations Article
Encyclopédie by Denis Diderot.

Things Fall Apart

Museum
Rachel Carson on Hawk Mountain, Pennsylvania, 1945.

Drop-In Tours
Visit
Nitrous oxide party

High Times

Distillations Article
Illustration of a Pasteur-Chamberland filter

The Filter of Life

Distillations Article

Second Skin: The Science of Stretch
Museum
TOMS and SBUV on display at the Institute. Photo by Gregory Tobias.

TOMS and SBUV
Research
Electron Capture Detector, 1958. The Institute Collections. Courtesy of James E. Lovelock.

James Lovelock's Electron Capture Detector
Research
Coloring Chemistry

Learn
Learn

Instruments
Research
Waters: Glaciers and Bucks by Diane Burko.

Art
Research
Tho-Radia ad

The Secrets of Life

Distillations Article
Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. (NASA)

Waning Interest

Distillations Article
P.S. Krøyer's The Iron Foundry, Burmeister and Wain

Future Calculations

Distillations Article

Roger Eardley-Pryor

People

Oral History Collections
Collections
pH Meter Illustration

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

Political Ills

Distillations Article
Roald Hoffmann

Roald Hoffmann
Historical Profile
Oral History bound books

Oral History Collections
Collections

Modern Books and Journals
Collections

Rare Books
Collections
Babes of Science logo

Babes of Science, a Guest Episode

Distillations Podcast
Benjamin Gross headshot

Benjamin Gross

People
Rosalyn Yalow. Science History Institute

Rosalyn Yalow and Solomon A. Berson
Historical Profile
George Washington Carver, Tuskegee Institute, 1906.

George Washington Carver
Historical Profile
Elizabeth Hazen (left) and Rachel Brown, 1955. Smithsonian Institution Archives, image # SIA2008-3566

Elizabeth Lee Hazen and Rachel Fuller Brown
Historical Profile