The term molecular gastronomy can sound pretentious, but food writer Harold McGee describes it as “the science of deliciousness.” Learn more about the science of food (and deliciousness) in this week’s episode. First we take precautions by discussing Pepto-Bismol, in the event that an experiment in the kitchen goes wrong. Next we find out how [...]

There’s an old stereotype that portrays science and religion as inevitably mired in conflict. On today’s show we look past the clichés—evolution and Galileo and all that—for some areas where the two have something constructive to say to each other. We start off with early philosophers’ attempts to understand the soul as an element. Next, [...]

The scientific aspect of motherhood is not a common angle to consider. In this week’s episode, we explore the history of pregnancy tests. At one point South African clawed frogs were used to help a human determine if she was pregnant or not! Also, Janet Golden, an expert on fetal alcohol syndrome, joins us to talk [...]

Chemistry has been part of the American experience ever since the settlers at Jamestown built a lab for blowing glass and assaying metal (you can learn more on our Jamestown episode). Today we celebrate the 4th of July with a tribute to American scientific and technological achievements—and we’ve thrown in some fireworks, just for fun. [...]

Matter can neither be created nor destroyed. So when you take your garbage out to the curb every week, do you ever stop to think about where it’s going? In this week’s episode, Jori Lewis explores how New York City is trying to make it easier for residents to recycle their electronic waste. Electronic devices [...]

Summer 2008 officially begins today, June 20, at 7:50 EDT (at least in the Northern Hemisphere). Here at Distillations, we’re celebrating with a show dedicated to poolside lounging. We’ve got the sunscreen and the chlorine—in fact, two different kinds of chlorine. Later in the show, CHF’ s own David Caruso explains how buoyancy allows some [...]

Illumination has been a quest of humans for centuries now—both in terms of the cerebral and the physical. In today’s episode we focus on the physical type of illumination. First we learn about light pollution and why sodium vapor lamps are used so abundantly today. Then producer Ann Dornfeld goes to Bioluminescent Bay in Vieques, Puerto [...]

Baseball, track, swimming, biking—is there any sport that hasn’t suffered a scandal in the past few years? It turns out that the obvious culprits—performance enhancing drugs—are just the tip of the iceberg for how chemistry can alter athletic competition. In today’s show we look at some of the chemistry going on both inside and outside [...]

There are four fundamental qualities: time, length, mass, and temperature. All other units can be derived from them, but these four can’t be broken down any further. This week we focus on time—the measurement that orders our lives. Catalysts are something chemists use to speed up time; in other words, to make chemical reactions work faster. [...]

At least some members of the Distillations crew will join millions of other Americans in drinking a beer this Memorial Day weekend. Beer is produced through fermentation—a biological process whose details are greatly affected by chemistry. In today’s show we’ll explain how alpha acids in hops (pictured) affect the bitterness of beer and what pH [...]

Entropy is defined as the degree of disorder in a system, and according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics entropy is always increasing. Preservation is a way that humans are trying to beat entropy, and this week we look at why and how we preserve. Document preservation is important for historical items like the Constitution. We learn that [...]

Blogs, YouTube, Facebook, and wikis are just a few of so-called Web 2.0 technologies that are transforming the look and feel of science on the Web. Last week a group of leading science educators met at CHF during the annual Leadership in Science Education Conference to discuss how these new media technologies are affecting science [...]

Sound is often thought to be a science of physics, but on today’s show we consider its chemistry. When we hear sounds, we’re really encountering waves. The frequency and amplitude of these waves are largely determined by the kinds of materials that produce them, or that they encounter on the way to our ears. And [...]

Tuesday, April 22 was Earth Day. Amid all the hubbub about “going green,” it’s a fair question to ask how much power individual consumers have to reduce their environmental impact. Today’s show looks at a range of environmental issues at three different points on the individual/collective responsibility spectrum. Producer Jori Lewis takes a closer look [...]

Jamestown celebrated its 400th anniversary last year. Many people may know that it was the first permanent English settlement in North America, but less commonly known is that Jamestown was also the birthplace of the American chemical enterprise. Today we learn why the settlers of Jamestown purposely packed copper waste products to bring to the New [...]

Semiconductors are at the heart of countless electronic devices. Although we often think of Silicon Valley as being built on computer chips, the companies that make the chips often depend upon materials and equipment manufacturers who build the component parts. On today’s show we explore some of the unheralded companies that have made the Digital [...]

Science has long been a component of warfare, and in this week’s episode we look at how it has played a part in both destruction and preservation during times of war. Villanova University history professor Jeffrey Johnson spoke to us about dual use technology and how products and processes can be used by the military and [...]

In today’s show we take a closer look at vitamins, the tiny substances that are vital to our health. You’ll hear how the British biochemist Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins discovered vitamins (or, as he preferred, “vitamines”) in 1909 and find out why the rate of rickets is once again increasing. Finally, producer Jocelyn Ford takes [...]

While chemistry often plays a silent role in art, such as synthetic additives in acrylic paints, both artists and scientists have consciously chosen to intersect the two. CHF’s Erin McLeary was astounded by the work of Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge, who created images with filter paper and called them “self-grown pictures.” In this week’s episode, Erin tells [...]

Is science on the silver screen any less real than science in the lab? A crew from CHF attempts to answer this question with a visit to a new Star Wars exhibit at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. In a commentary on how cartoons shape our ideas about emerging science and technology, Jody Roberts suggests [...]

You’ve heard the hype—but what’s nanotechnology really all about? Today’s show is an investigation into the current reality and the future potential of nanotechnology. In an interview with CHF’s Chi Chan, Harvard University chemist George Whitesides explains how nanofabrication works, what it has to do with chemistry, and what new developments we should expect to [...]

In today’s world, technology is seemingly ubiquitous. Chemistry plays a role in many technologies and may be obvious in some products, but is quite invisible in others. This week we learn about the discovery of liquid crystal and how it is used for many different electronic displays—from digital watches to computer screens. We also explore the [...]

From antibiotics to chemotherapy, modern pharmaceuticals have transformed the experience of illness in the 20th century. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (left), the founder and chairman of Biocon, Ltd., joins us for a discussion of how the global business of pharmaceuticals is changing the culture of science in India. But while modern “wonder drugs” have saved countless [...]

Color literally fills our world, and it plays a dominant role in how we perceive our surroundings. Scientists have been fascinated with the question of what color is ever since Isaac Newton discovered that white light contains the entire color spectrum. Our show on color explains not only how color is produced, but also looks at how scientists use color to investigate [...]

Please note: In today’s episode we have included more mature content than a typical show.  A Valentine for our listeners, this show is dedicated to the chemistry of love. In today’s show, we explain why passion has always been associated with fire and how the stars can influence your love life. We will also look at the long history [...]

Today’s show takes a look at how scientists and educators are reinventing American science education. We chat with Tom Tritton, former president of Haverford College and CHF’s new president and CEO, about how to introduce liberal arts students to science—and just as importantly, vice versa. (Check out Tom’s blog, The Periodic Tabloid.) Later in the [...]

We don’t normally think of computers, radios, and cell phones as products of chemistry, but none of these devices would be possible without specialized chemical manufacturing components and techniques. The integrated circuits at the heart of these tools depend on the unique electrical properties of certain inorganic elements such as silicon, germanium, and gallium. On today’s show we speak [...]

Good news for anyone with a slow internet connection! We’ve added new ways to listen that allow you to hear our shows without downloading the entire episode. Simply click on the “Listen now” icon, and your default MP3 player will open. You should hear the beginning of the episode within a few seconds. If you prefer [...]

Creating ink for both the printed and handwritten page, as well as preserving it, has a long history in which chemistry plays an integral part. Some historic inks have started to destroy the pages they’re printed on. Other books and manuscripts have been damaged as a result of older conservation practices that place more emphasis on looks than historic accuracy. In [...]

Western medicine has always looked at the body as a system in balance. Today’s show looks at how ideas about the body’s equilibrium have changed over the past few centuries, from humoral theory to the discovery of vitamins and the role of trace elements in human health. In a new segment, “Mystery Solved,” Erin McLeary, [...]

Chemistry has always been a science of measurement. In this episode, we look at several cases of how measurements affect scientific research and practice as well as daily life. We also explore two instances where the “standards” are changing: debates over how to fix the standard kilogram, housed at the Bureau International des Poids et [...]

This week, in honor of the holiday season, we’re offering a toast to chemistry. We’ll explain what makes champagne bubble, and why size matters when you’re talking about carbonation. From all of us to all of you: Happy Holidays. The Element of the Week: phosphorus. Listen now (streaming file) Download or listen (6.7 MB MP3 file) Show Clock 00:00 Opening [...]

A couple of our listeners have noted that they were surprised that we didn’t say more about the controversies surrounding phlogiston, particularly where Joseph Priestley and Carl Scheele were involved.  As it happens, my original script included this material, but Priestley and Scheele found themselves off the air as we found out just what fits [...]

After the recent oil spills in the San Francisco Bay and the Kerch Strait, Distillations delves into the reality of cleaning up human-made messes. In this episode, Jody Roberts, the program manager for environmental history and policy at CHF’s Center for Contemporary History and Policy, talks about environmental remediation. Also, learn about how the San [...]

How do scientists explain what they do to the larger public, and how can historians help? In this first episode of Distillations, we explore this question by looking at phlogiston, an obsolete element once thought to explain combustion. We also talk with Paul Smith, director of laboratory demonstrations at Purdue University. For more than 15 [...]

This is Distillations, a podcast presented by the Chemical Heritage Foundation. Each week we bring you extracts from the past, present, and future of chemistry. Stay tuned—our first episode will be posted later today. Meanwhile, take a look around our site to find out more about who we are and what we do.