Machine Age (1850 - 1945)
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

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

If You Smell Something, Say Something

Distillations Article

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

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

Fighting Smog in Los Angeles

Distillations Podcast

Brown Bag Lecture: The Recognition of Pseudomorphism: Mineral Chemistry as a Historical Science

Event

Serious Fun

Distillations Article

Hard Work and Happenstance

Distillations Article

From Barbers and Butchers to Modern Surgeons

Distillations Article
Women wearing orange yoga pants and yellow sneakers

The Yoga Pant Problem

Distillations Podcast

Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès’s Recipe for Margarine

Distillations Video

Brown Bag Lecture: Ways of Seeing: Gray’s Anatomy and the Making of a Modern Textbook

Event

Braving the Elements: Why Mendeleev Left Russian Soil for American Oil

Distillations Article
Vintage margarine ad

Butter vs. Margarine

Distillations Podcast
Portrait of refugee doctor

Refugee Doctors

Distillations Podcast
Detail of illustration outside confectionery, 1885

Our Mutual Friend

Distillations Article

The Birds, the Bees, and the Froggies

Distillations Article

The Age of Scurvy

Distillations Article

Fellow in Focus: Fresh Air, Foul Odors, and the Growth of American Cities

Event
Fist and flask graphic

Political Science

Distillations Podcast

A Tear Gas Tale

Distillations Article

Women’s Work

Distillations Article

A Recipe for Good Health

Distillations Article

A Killer of a Cure

Distillations Article

A Forgotten Star

Distillations Article
1950s ad for Mum cream deodorant

The Smell of Shame

Distillations Podcast

Waging War on Immigration and Science

Distillations Article
LZR Racer

Winning Skin

Distillations Article
Amputation

Auld Medicine

Distillations Article
Figues de Solliès by Mon Œil

The Joy of Cooking

Distillations Article

Speaking Scientific Internationalism

Event
Crocidolite asbestos, Pomfret Mine, Vryburg, South Africa.

Flexible Meaning
Research
Lee Berry with Ambler interviewee Victor Romano.

Tips for Recording Your Family History

Distillations Article
Diagram of sports bra

Second Skin

Distillations Podcast

Still Life

Distillations Article
Filippo Marinetti, 1934

Food Fight

Distillations Article
Illustration of a Pasteur-Chamberland filter

The Filter of Life

Distillations Article
Illustration of childbirth

(Natural) Childbirth

Distillations Podcast
Walter Potter's Monkey Riding a Goat

Death and Taxidermy

Distillations Video

Home Away from Home

Distillations Article
Maximilian Ringelman Smoke Charts, 1897. The Institute Collections.

Ringelmann Smoke Charts
Research
Munsell Book of Color, 1940s. The Institute Collections. Photo by Gregory Tobias

Munsell Color Charts
Research
Millipore portable water-testing kit. The Institute Collections. Photo by Conrad Erb

Field Water Testing and Analysis Instruments
Research
Clara Esther Hartley lab notes. Special Collections, the Institute

Clara Esther Hartley Lab Notes
Research
Haeckel illustration of hummingbirds

Information Overload

Distillations Article

Learn
Learn

Science Kits at Play: 1900s

Distillations Video
Vaughn Bell poses with her work Village Green.

Home
Research

Instruments
Research

The Ancient Chemistry Inside Your Taco

Distillations Video

Science Kits at Play: 1850s

Distillations Video
Detail from Sanborn map of Ambler, PA.

REACH Ambler
Research

Behind the Beaker
Research
Tho-Radia ad

The Secrets of Life

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

Future Calculations

Distillations Article

Deanna Day

People

Oral History Collections
Collections
pH Meter Illustration

Virtual Chemistry
Learn

Historical Biographies
Learn
Medusa Nebula

Elements of Invention

Distillations Article
Cottingley Fairy

The Magic of It All

Distillations Article
Esperanto postcard

Speaking in Tongues

Distillations Article
Oral History bound books

Oral History Collections
Collections

Modern Books and Journals
Collections

Ramya Rajagopalan

People

Boom Times

Distillations Article
German physicists from before World War II

Magical Thinking

Distillations Article
Mysto Magic

Presto Chango

Distillations Article
U.S. postal inspectors, ca. early 20th century

Under Cover of Ink

Distillations Article
Portrait of Leo Hendrik Baekeland, early 20th century. Photograph by Underwood & Underwood Studios, New York, NY. Williams Haynes Portrait Collection, the Institute Collections.

Leo Hendrik Baekeland
Historical Profile
Charles Drew in the lab at Howard University, 1942.

Charles Richard Drew
Historical Profile
Irène Joliot-Curie.

Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot
Historical Profile
Ellen Swallow, about 1858.

Ellen H. Swallow Richards
Historical Profile
Percy Julian.

Percy Lavon Julian
Historical Profile
Rachel Carson.

Rachel Carson
Historical Profile
Alexander Fleming, holding a petri dish.

Alexander Fleming
Historical Profile
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev as a young man.

Julius Lothar Meyer and Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev
Historical Profile
Louis Pasteur in his laboratory, holding a jar containing the spinal cord of a rabbit infected with rabies, which he used to develop a vaccine against the disease.

Louis Pasteur
Historical Profile
Reinhold and Ruth Benesch.

Reinhold Benesch and Ruth Erica Benesch
Historical Profile
George E. Davis.

George E. Davis
Historical Profile
Henry Aaron Hill, ca. 1976–1977.

Henry Aaron Hill
Historical Profile
Roy J. Plunkett with a cable insulated with Teflon and a Teflon-coated muffin tin.

Roy J. Plunkett
Historical Profile
Felix Hoffmann.

Felix Hoffmann
Historical Profile
Stanislao Cannizzaro. Edgar Fahs Smith Collection, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

Stanislao Cannizzaro
Historical Profile