Distillations magazine
Inventions & Discoveries
Tools and technology that changed the world
The Ripe Stuff
In pursuit of the perfect fruit.
The Comet Panic of 1910, Revisited
A recent discovery in a remote Puerto Rican cave sheds new light on the hysteria that greeted Halley’s Comet a century ago.
From the Front Line to the Freezer Aisle
How World War II changed the way we eat.
Picric Acid’s Volatile History
A mutable chemical and our collective choices.
We’re Going to Work Miracles
The failed promises of Project Plowshare.
That Time Demons Possessed the Telegraph
Solar storms from long ago have become the delight of some scientists—and the dread of others.
The Dinosaurs Died in Spring
Science that ushered in a new epoch also revealed stunning details from Earth’s distant past.
Matchmaking in Colonial India
An inconspicuous technology sparks revolution on the subcontinent.
A Cold Day in Stockholm
Like Monstrosities from Another World
The gas mask’s grip on our collective consciousness.
A Fix for the Unfixable: Making the First Heart-Lung Machine
Seventy years ago, a group of Philadelphia scientists and a brave 18-year-old pushed surgery to its final frontier.
Magnesium, from the Sea to the Stars
Dow’s gamble on magnesium helped push the boundaries of human exploration and launched an ocean of consumer products.
Greenbacks, Chits, and Scrip
Alternative currencies flourish in desperate times and situations.
The Simple Usefulness of the Secchi Disk
A centuries-old sailor’s hack enters the ecologist’s toolkit.
Matthew Carey Lea and the Origins of Mechanochemistry
A reclusive expert of 19th-century photography laid the foundation for green chemistry solutions emerging today.
Darwin’s Barnacles
How an obsession with crustaceans guided the naturalist toward his most consequential insights.
Charles Anderson Chases an Eclipse
A lucky streak sends a meteorologist on the flight of a lifetime.
Bob Gore’s Cozy Revolution
Gore-Tex changed the way Americans went outside.