Distillations magazine
Inventions & Discoveries
The tools and technology that help us understand and change the world
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.
How the Elements Got Their Names
Wicked creatures and a defiant chemist make their mark on the periodic table.
The Undying Appeal of Nikola Tesla’s “Death Ray”
Despite a lack of evidence, many have been captivated by the electrical whiz’s most mysterious project.
Reginald Fessenden and the Invention of Sonar
How a radio pioneer transformed life at sea.
The Rise and Fall of Polywater
What happens when an earth-shattering discovery runs up against the scientifically impossible?
Element Hunting in a Nuclear Storm
A fighter pilot’s tragic flight into a nuclear explosion leads to the discovery of two elements.
How RCA Fell Flat on Flat-Screen TVs
In the 1960s RCA created the world’s first liquid-crystal displays. How did the company fail to cash in on one of the modern world’s most ubiquitous technologies?
Marie Curie, Marie Meloney, and the Significance of a Gram of Radium
In the 1920s a pioneering journalist summoned the might of American women to revive a Nobelist’s career.
The Death of Anton Chekhov, Told in Proteins
New forensics techniques are allowing researchers to solve historical mysteries based on the small traces we leave on everyday objects.