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How hard can it be to make a gemstone? Plenty hard. People have been trying for almost 2,000 years, but success finally beckoned in 19th-century France.
For decades serious people have tried to turn the stuff of science fiction—space colonies, self-replicating machines, and solar sails—into scientific reality.
What most frightened the Nobel Prize–winning chemist and explorer of Earth’s deep past?
Three Hungarian scientists who survived the Nazi occupation of their country and escaped Soviet oppression.
In the 1950s hearing aids shrank from the size of a cigarette packet to the size of a lighter. The secret behind this shrinkage? The mighty transistor.
Do you think of poison ivy as a scurrilous weed to be avoided at all costs? Think again! There was a time when the daring and curious found promise in poison ivy and its rash-inducing relatives.
In the early 1950s French physician Henri Laborit experienced a moment of serendipity that would fundamentally alter the landscape of psychiatry and mental illness.
Discover alchemy, the secret science!
Jābir ibn Hayyan, whose name is inextricably bound to the foundations of alchemy, is a man of mystery.
Neon is a dull and invisible gas until it’s trapped in a tube and zapped with electricity. Literally pulled out of thin air, it became a symbol of progress and an essential component of the electronic age.
Boyle’s Sceptical Chymist (London, 1661) is an acknowledged landmark of science. But the book’s reputation is based less on what it is than on what it is perceived to be.
A mother’s dogged search for the cause of her babies’ mental decline led to the discovery of a new disease.
Amphetamine didn’t cure anything, but it did make you feel better. Chemist Gordon Alles faced this paradox after patenting his discovery in 1932.
In the 1950s comic books took Mexico’s youth by storm. But alongside familiar superhuman avengers were other kinds of heroes: real-life chemists.
You can’t tell a book by its cover.
How did a seemingly benign chemical and a near-miraculous public-health initiative spark decades and decades debate?
The impact of the Civil War can still be seen politically, socially, and economically, but its influence on medicine is often obscured.
Observing as experts investigate whether La Bella Principessa is in fact the work of Leonardo da Vinci.
Thin became “in” during the 1920s, and the calorie became a vital tool in the battle to lose weight. Yet before becoming a fashion necessity, the calorie had a decidedly less glamorous role.
In the so-called Hamel Catastrophe of 1820, a scientific expedition lost three local guides after the entire party fell 1,200 feet in an avalanche.
Absinthe, an alcoholic drink introduced to France in the 1840s, developed a decadent though violent reputation.
First sold in 1791 to a scientifically literate audience, chemistry sets have since occupied many niches—and now they are making a comeback.
Although many were skilled in making medicinal home remedies, only a few women ran their own apothecaries, competing with males for the right to prescribe medicines.
Are salt alternatives scarier than the substance they are replacing? A brief history of a “terrifying” food.
The first balloons, both hot-air and hydrogen powered, drew spectacular crowds and set off a craze—balloonomania!
An 1828 murder trial provides insight into the moral ambiguity of forensic science and scientific testimony.
Aspirin has had a long history as a pain reliever—2,000 years of history. But only in the 1970s did scientists begin to uncover its chemical secrets.
Interactions between the pharmaceutical industry, the biomedical sciences, and legislators is a longstanding hot topic in Washington.
The history of pasteurization and the controversy surrounding it demonstrate the complexity of milk as a chemical substance.
Assessing J. Robert Oppenheimer as a leader.