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.

Oxycodone’s early years.

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

Can a new look unlock a new life?

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

How one doctor’s letter and a string of dodgy studies spurred a public health panic.

By monitoring sewage, scientists can track disease outbreaks in near real time. But will the technology leave long-term privacy risks in its wake?

Lessons from the Polio Pioneers in an era of misinformation.

Can scrutinizing the ailments of historical figures really teach us anything?

Or will the scientist’s 200th birthday be his last hurrah?

In showing that cholera spreads through tainted water, an English doctor helped lay epidemiology’s foundations.

Could a Soviet-era therapy offer a new defense against antibiotic-resistant superbugs?

Reconsidering the fate of an overlooked polio fighter.

A scientific dispute takes a violent, absurd turn.

What drove a blind biochemist to experiment with LSD?

To speed reopening, government and business leaders are pushing a modern version of a centuries-old idea.

What charlatans of the past can teach us about the COVID-19 crisis.