Distillations magazine

Warfarin started life as a rat poison, and for all its success the anticoagulant remains as dangerous as its origin suggests.

Where do new drugs come from? And why do so many fail?

How Joseph Lister’s application of germ theory revolutionized surgery in the mid-19th century.

Do cats mess with your brain?

Candy stores in the 19th century sold sweets as deadly as they were delicious.

A globe-hopping doctor and a weird amphibian produce a fast, inexpensive pregnancy test.

In a time of warring empires and transoceanic voyages, sailors dreaded scurvy more than any other disease.

John Harvey Kellogg’s Battle Creek Sanitarium was at the intersection of new ideas of religion, health, and nutrition.

For more than a century ozone therapy has been a source of false hope for the sick and ill-gotten gains for the crooked.

A molecule used in antifreeze may one day heal damaged spinal cords.

A simple invention that saved lives and led to the discovery of a hidden form of life.

The story of Louis Pasteur and the development of the rabies vaccine.

Dive into the world of nixtamalization, and find out how you’re eating a small piece of ancient chemistry each time you bite into a taco.

In the 1920s author Paul de Kruif turned science into an adventure story.

How one man’s youthful rebellion may unlock a cure for cancer.

Using chemistry to put a lid on unsavory practices.

Many young people living with HIV put themselves at risk by not taking their medication properly.

Anthropologist Jason Pine offers an up-close view of methamphetamine culture in small-town America.