Distillations magazine

Meet J. J. Thomson, who disproved Einstein’s dictum that the man “who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of thirty will never do so.”

Discover alchemy, the secret science!

In the 17th century, experimentalists were only beginning to understand the connections among blood, respiration, and air.

When Communist East Germany built a wall across Berlin, it created two different cities, two different countries, and for scientists two different careers.

As Coca-Cola’s popularity spread in the United States in the 1920s, rabbis around the country asked, is Coke kosher?

The chemistry of the universe may help explain the presence of life on Earth.

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.

Reatha Clark King wanted to be a research chemist, so she made the journey from the segregated South to Illinois. At the University of Chicago her dreams came true.

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.

On May 1, 1915, Clara Immerwahr Haber sat down at her desk to write farewell letters to friends and family.

Rachel Carson’s genius lay in pulling together data from many areas and synthesizing it to create the first coherent account of the effects persistent chemicals had on the environment.

Jacques Brandenberger spent years perfecting a transparent, moisture-repellent film he named cellophane.

Joseph E. Snodgrass’s poetry memorably reflected the public faith in bloodletting as medical treatment.

Vanadium was a rare metal, but for 100 years after its first discovery in 1801 no one cared—until a chemist discovered it strengthened steel.

Neither medicine nor food, the vitamin pill was born in the early 20th century and came of age during World War II. Now, vitamins are here to stay—and so is the controversy that swirls around them.

Electricity and Enlightenment go together like Benjamin Franklin and 100-dollar bills.

A mother’s dogged search for the cause of her babies’ mental decline led to the discovery of a new disease.