Distillations magazine
Distillations articles reveal science’s powerful influence on our lives, past and present.
River Gods, Lake Monsters, and the Abiding Power of Myth
How ancient (and not so ancient) cultures thought about water purity and contamination.
Could Claude Monet See Like a Bee?
A harrowing eye surgery may have given the impressionist painter the ability to see UV light.
Matthew Carey Lea and the Origins of Mechanochemistry
A reclusive expert of 19th-century photography laid the foundation for green chemistry solutions emerging today.
A Perfect Glutton, Never Ceasing
With their creeping, bloodsucking ways, bedbugs continue to mock human superiority.
Ruth Patrick’s Lovely Creatures
The groundbreaking ecologist showed that the biological diversity within a stream can be used to diagnose its health.
Chasing the Clues in Isaac Newton’s Manuscripts
The tricks and tools book sleuths use to date the undated.
Bacteriophages and the Fight Against Cholera in Cold War Afghanistan
Could a Soviet-era therapy offer a new defense against antibiotic-resistant superbugs?
Darwin’s Barnacles
How an obsession with crustaceans guided the naturalist toward his most consequential insights.
How Two Outsider Scientists Saw Inside Climate Change
Eunice Foote and Guy Callendar showed the warming effects of CO2 in the atmosphere.
Fit to Be Dyed
The enduring appeal of tie-dye.
The Dark Stars of Marietta Blau
A scientist pitted hard work and ingenuity against the constraints she faced as a Jewish woman.
Why Did Annie Dookhan Lie?
Forensic science can be a powerful crime-fighting tool, but misdeeds, dubious methodologies, and bogus claims threaten its reputation—and the reputation of science as a whole.
Searching for Isabel Morgan
Reconsidering the fate of an overlooked polio fighter.
Vicious Doctors and Cruel Diseases in 18th-Century Jamaica
A scientific dispute takes a violent, absurd turn.
Wayne Woolley’s Marvelously Equipped Mind
What drove a blind biochemist to experiment with LSD?
Lou Henry Hoover, Lost in Translation
Though often celebrated, the adventurous First Lady never received full credit for her scientific accomplishments.
For the Sake of Science
Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner navigated a life of science through war and peace.
The High-Flying, Death-Defying Discovery of Helium
During the War of 1870, astronomer Jules Janssen risked his life for scientific prestige and French patriotism.