Distillations magazine

Mary Papanicolaou, the woman behind the man behind the Pap smear.

A basic scientific error hid in plain sight for decades until an Indonesian geneticist spent Christmas break on a lab bender.

Washes and other gaps in the Sonoran Desert.

Science that ushered in a new epoch also revealed stunning details from Earth’s distant past.

Adventure and tangled interests under the sea.

An inconspicuous technology sparks revolution on the subcontinent.

How the scientific prowess of King Mongkut of Siam helped stave off European incursion.

Oxycodone’s early years.

Arsenic cycles through racism and empire in the Americas.

Is it right to publish research from an unrepentant murderer?

Desperate women, mistreated by the 19th century’s medical establishment, risked black-market remedies and the wrath of Anthony Comstock’s moralizing thugs.

Segregated lives of privilege, pride, and peril on Firestone’s Liberian plantations.

Often dismissed as a “trash fish,” the porgy anchors black maritime culture.

Can a new look unlock a new life?

Essential oils have long straddled the lines between magic, medicine, and scam.

Modern agricultural practices are unsustainable. Is tree farming the answer?

The Bronx Zoo’s strange obsession with an even stranger bird.