Machine Age (1850 - 1945)
A horse trotting. Photogravure after Eadweard Muybridge.

The Murderer Who Made Movies Possible

Distillations Podcast
Torn red piece of company scrip

Greenbacks, Chits, and Scrip

Distillations Article
Disk with black and white quadrants with rope attached

The Simple Usefulness of the Secchi Disk

Distillations Article
Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein and the Worst Prediction in the History of Science 

Distillations Podcast
Color illustration of old-timey car chased by animal ghosts

The Toll of the Road

Distillations Article
Color abstract landscape painting

Claude Monet and Bee Purple

Distillations Podcast
Color illustration of a 19th-century cholera victim

John Snow Hunts the Blue Death

Distillations Article
A portrait of Niccolo Paganini on his deathbed.

Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius as Written by Our Genetic Code

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

Chemistry International: Downstream
Media Coverage
Impressionist painting of a lily pond

Could Claude Monet See Like a Bee?

Distillations Article
Black and white photo of man in suit

Matthew Carey Lea and the Origins of Mechanochemistry

Distillations Article
Portrait of Alessadro Moreschi

The Sinister Angel Singers of Rome

Distillations Podcast
Archival photo of the transylvania university

The Murderous Origins of the American Medical Association

Distillations Podcast
muller portrait

The Big ‘What If’ of Cancer

Distillations Podcast
drawing of trial

The Harvard Medical School Janitor Who Solved a Murder

Distillations Podcast
Archival photo of cleveland fire of 1929

Burn After Watching

Distillations Podcast
portrait of Mary Ward

History’s First Car Crash Victim

Distillations Podcast
Photo of a brain

Real-Life Zombies

Distillations Podcast
microscopic image of viruses and a bacterium

Bacteriophages and the Fight Against Cholera in Cold War Afghanistan

Distillations Article
Collage of Charles Darwin and barnacles

Darwin’s Barnacles

Distillations Article
Downstream promotional banner

Institute’s ‘Downstream’ Exhibition Featured in Multiple Media Outlets
Media Coverage
Drawing of factory with photo of human eyes superimposed

How Two Outsider Scientists Saw Inside Climate Change

Distillations Article
Model of Delaware River Basin, 1964.

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Must-See Museum Exhibits in Philly This Fall
Media Coverage
Research curator Jesse Smith shows off Downstream exhibition

WHYY: Exhibition Traces a 200-Year History of Water Pollution in Philadelphia
Media Coverage
Illustration of women in colorful clothing

Fit to Be Dyed

Distillations Article
Miners Hauling Electronics Amidst Pollution

C&EN: Rare Earths’ Magic Comes at a Cost
Media Coverage
Downstream web banner

Take a Watery Journey through History and Science with Institute’s New ‘Downstream’ Exhibition Opening September 14
Press Release
Lady Science logo

Ladies Talking to Ladies about Ladies (in Science)

Distillations Podcast
Archival photo of Forest Service after the 1910 fires.

Paradise Is Burning

Distillations Podcast
Postcard from Walther Nernst to Georg Bredig

10K Records Published to Institute’s Digital Collections
Press Release
Picture of Colin Dickey

Bonus Episode: Interview with Colin Dickey

Distillations Podcast
Image of mural by José Clemente Orozco

Let’s Get to Work: Bringing Labor History and the History of Science Together

Event
Image of mural by José Clemente Orozco

Let’s Get to Work: Bringing Labor History and the History of Science Together
Visit
Portrait of the Fox sisters, spiritualists in the mid 19th-century.

Ghost Hunting in the 19th Century

Distillations Podcast
Vampire preys on a sick woman

Vampire Panic

Distillations Podcast
Roald Hoffmann

Institute Receives National Archives Grant to Digitize Oral Histories of Immigrant Scientists
Press Release
Jacob Older Green headshot

Jacob Older Green

People
Peter Thompson in tan jacket

Peter Thompson

People
C.C. Dennis using mortar and pestle at Dearborn laboratory

Science History Institute Debuts ‘Mechanochemistry: The Science of Crush’ Digital Exhibition
Press Release
Doctors perform ancient neurosurgery

When a Hole in the Head Is a Good Thing

Distillations Podcast
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
Drawing of an anopheles mosquito

When Mosquitoes Cured Insanity

Distillations Podcast
Black and white photo of Sonny Boy the Woodpecker

The Death of the Lord God Bird

Distillations Podcast
Advertisement of a child eating

Chewing It Over—and Over and Over and Over

Distillations Podcast
Black and white photo portrait of woman in uniform

Lou Henry Hoover, Lost in Translation

Distillations Article
Marie Curie in her lab

Crowdfunding Radium

Distillations Podcast
Black and white photo of man and woman in a lab

For the Sake of Science

Distillations Article
Bust of pekin man

Parking Lot or Peking Lot?

Distillations Podcast
Interior of old German passportq

Science History Institute Receives CLIR Grant to Digitize Papers of Georg and Max Bredig
Press Release
black and white photo portrait of older man

The High-Flying, Death-Defying Discovery of Helium

Distillations Article
Image of sam Kean

Tales of Love and Madness from the Periodic Table

Distillations Podcast
Mock-up photo of a cellphone displaying a QR code

COVID-19 Health Passports: What’s Old Is New Again

Distillations Article
Interior of old German ID card

Escape from Nazi Terror

Distillations Article
Genre oil painting

Quacks, Plagues, and Pandemics

Distillations Article
Cows in a barn

The Washington Post: The Idea of Herd Immunity to Manage the Coronavirus Should Ring Alarm Bells
Media Coverage
Illustration of a large laser

The Undying Appeal of Nikola Tesla’s “Death Ray”

Distillations Article
Cartoon of mechanic getting electricuted

Comics: Old-School Distance-Learning Tools

Distillations Article
Illustration of a young woman with skin lesions

Joseph Goldberger’s Filth Parties

Distillations Article
Photo of FDR in a wheelchair

Bonus Episode: Interview with Kim Nielsen

Distillations Podcast
The Instrumental Chemist video title image

The Instrumental Chemist
Research
Seated man holding brush, peering into microscope

Hashime Murayama and the Art of Saving Lives

Distillations Article
Painting of shipwreck in rough seas

Reginald Fessenden and the Invention of Sonar

Distillations Article
Photograph of an operation in a surgical amphitheater

The Nurse Who Introduced Gloves to the Operating Room

Distillations Article
child on table surrounded by a group of men and women

The Story of Serum Therapy

Distillations Article
Photo from 1918 showing Philadelphia streetcar with sign reading "Spit spreads death"

Spit Spreads Death

Distillations Podcast
black and white photo of young man in lab

The Dual Legacies of Henry Moseley

Distillations Article
Woman in laboratory at Hercules Hopewell plant

Women in Science
Learn
Edison wax cylinder phonograph

Distilled #12: Edison’s Record Player

Distillations Video
Historical photo of Philadelphia's Fairmount Water Works

How Philadelphia’s Water Pollution Problems Shaped the City

Distillations Podcast
Rubella (German Measles) vaccination clinic in 1969

Roe v. Wade v. Rubella

Distillations Podcast
Portait of Rohm and Haas worker George Trapp

Distilled #10: Fancy Portraits for Factory Workers

Distillations Video
Two brain scans: one seemingly healthy one and one afflicted by alzheimer's

The Alzheimer’s Copernicus Problem

Distillations Podcast
Grainy photograph of a well-dressed crowd

Marie Curie, Marie Meloney, and the Significance of a Gram of Radium

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
Eight uniformed men working in and around a concrete and steel hole

Hunting the Nazi Nuclear Hoard

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
Satirical cartoon on food adulteration from Puck magazine

Harvey Wiley’s Fierce Pursuit of Food Safety

Distillations Article
Dutch tea advertisement

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

Distillations Article
miners hauling electronics that are causing pollution

Rare Earths: The Hidden Cost to Their Magic

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

Baking Up a Storm

Distillations Article

Family Practice

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

Exhuming the Flu

Distillations Article

Saving Old Movies

Distillations Article
An early 20th century porcelain painting kit

Distilled #5: Porcelain Painting

Distillations Video
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
stereoscope with stereograph

Distilled #4: Virtual Reality in the 19th Century

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

Treating America’s Opioid Addiction

Distillations Podcast

Probing the Mysteries of Human Digestion

Distillations Article

Opioids’ Devastating Return

Distillations Article
Closeup of telegraph sent by Eleanor Roosevelt

Distilled #3: Water Fit for a King

Distillations Video
A portrait of Charles Darwin by Thomas Johnson

Book Club: Simultaneous Discovery and Darwin’s Ghosts

Distillations Article
caricature of a man blowing smoke out of his nostrils

If You Smell Something, Say Something

Distillations Article

Distilled #2: An Early (Gold-Plated!) Not-Quite-IUD

Distillations Video