Distillations | Science History Institute

Latest Episodes:

The Disappearing Spoon: The Anatomy Riots Jun 01, 2021

Show notes

In the 1700s human dissection was a big taboo—people feared that it would leave their bodies mangled on Judgment Day, when God would raise the dead. As a result, government officials banned most dissections. This led to some unintended consequences, most notably a shortage of bodies for anatomists to dissect. To meet the heightened demand, a new profession emerged: grave-robbers. These so-called resurrectionists dug up the bodies of poor people to sell to anatomists, which led to riots in the streets.

Credits

Host: Sam Kean Senior Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer

When a Hole in the Head is a Good Thing May 25, 2021

Show notes

Credits

Host: Sam Kean Senior Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer

Music:

"Trois Gnossiennes 3," "Stately Shadows," "Darklit Carpet," "Vernouillet," and "Tossed" by Blue Dot Sessions.

"Conjunto Sol del Peru," by Pockra (Vol. 2: Musica de los Andes Peruanos).

"Conjunto Sol del Peru," by Wuaylias Tusy (Vol. 2: Musica de los Andes Peruanos).

"Conjunto Sol del Peru," by Ckashampa (Vol. 2: Musica de los Andes Peruanos)

Image courtesy of the Wellcome Collection.

The Disappearing Spoon: When Mosquitoes Cured Insanity May 18, 2021

Show notes

How an early 20th century doctor pitted one scourge (malaria) against another (syphilis).

Credits

Host: Sam Kean Senior Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer

Music:

"Delamine" by Blue Dot Sessions. All other music composed by Jonathan Pfeffer.

The Death of the Lord God Bird May 11, 2021

Show notes

The ivory-billed woodpecker is sometimes called the Lord God bird, a nickname it earned because that's what people cried out the first time they ever saw one: "Lord God, what a bird." Even though the last confirmed sighting was in the 1930s, birders have been claiming they have seen the Lord God bird throughout the years, turning it into a myth. The sad part is it didn't need to be this way. And it's all Hitler's fault. As crazy as it sounds, the ivory-billed woodpecker was one of last victims of the Nazi war machine. Host: Sam Kean Senior Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer

Disappearing spoon: Chewing it Over—and Over and Over and Over May 04, 2021

Show notes

If Ted Talks were around in the early 1990s, Horace Fletcher would have given his fair share of them. Fletcher was a health reformer who thought people didn't chew their food nearly enough. He believed that most swallowed food way too quickly. This had all sorts of detrimental health consequences, he said, including nasty bowel movements. So he over-chewed his food. He once chewed a green onion 722 times before he let himself swallow it. His idea became such a sensation that it became a movement known as "Fletcherism." His ideas made it to the White House and could have even changed the tide of World War I.

Credits

Host: Sam Kean Senior Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer

Music:

Photo: Science History Institute.

The Disappearing Spoon: What's the Longest Word in the English Language? Apr 27, 2021

Show notes

Shakespeare had a go at at the longest word in the English language with "honorific-abilitude-in-i-tat-i-bus." If you play the game of stacking suffixes and prefixes together, you can get "antidisestablishmentarianism," one letter longer for a total of 28 letters. But the longest word by far appeared in 1964 in Chemical Abstracts, a dictionary-like reference for chemists. The word describes a protein in what's called the tobacco mosaic virus, and it runs 1,185 letters long. Besides being too long to write here, it tells us a lot about the unusual chemistry of carbon.

Credits

Host: Sam Kean Senior Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer

"Delamine" by Blue Dot Sessions. All other music composed by Jonathan Pfeffer.

The Disappearing Spoon: Why Don't We Have a Male Birth Control Pill Yet? Apr 20, 2021

Show notes

The debut of the female birth control pill in 1960 was revolutionary. The combination of progesterone and estrogen allowed women to control their reproductive lives much more easily and effectively. But the pill had many unpleasant and even dangerous side effects. In fact, some doctors argue that it wouldn't win government approval today. So why haven't scientists tried to create a birth control pill for men? It turns out they have. In the 1950s scientists created a really good one. But it had one problem—you can't drink alcohol when you take it.

Credits

Host: Sam Kean Senior Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer

Music:

Jean-Claude Risset - Mutations Peter B - The Growling Dog Hit Perry & Kingsley - Cosmic Ballad Charlie Hoistman - Ptpar(({|i|[i*8,Pbind(\scale,[0,2,4,7,9],\degree,Pseq(32.fib.fold(0,10),4)+(2*i+i)-10,\dur,1+2**i%2/6)]}!4).flat).play // #supercollider Régis Renouard Larivière - Contrée Raymond Scott - Lightworks Deerhoof - Despareceré Juk Suk Reet Meate - B3 (excerpt from Solo 1978/79) Ben Vida - Ssseeeeiiiiii Marmots - Sheath and Knife Tim Walters - play{({|k|({|i|y=SinOsc;y.ar(i*k*k,y.ar(i*k**i/[4,5])*Decay.kr(Dust.kr(1/4**i),y.ar(0.1)+1*k+i,k*999))}!8).product}!16).sum}//#supercollider Eva-Maria Houben - quatuor iv Young Marble Giants - Zebra Trucks All other music composed by Jonathan Pfeffer.

The Disappearing Spoon: Crowdfunding Radium Apr 13, 2021

Show notes

From the Disappearing Spoon, our new podcast!

Radium was once the trendiest element in the world. It glowed alluringly in the dark and was hailed it as a medical panacea. It was also the basis of Marie Curie's research—for which she won her second Nobel Prize in 1911. But by 1920 radium was scarce and its cost was eye-popping: one hundred thousand dollars per gram. When Curie's research ground to a halt because of the expense, thousands of American women stepped in to raise money for the precious chemical element.

The Disappearing Spoon: Parking lot or Peking lot? Apr 06, 2021

Show notes

From our new podcast, the Disappearing Spoon:

The so-called "Peking Man" fossils are some of the first ancient human remains discovered in mainland Asia. So when they disappeared during World War II, it was called one of the worst disasters in the history of archaeology. Now some archeologists claim to have tracked them down. The only problem is they're underneath a parking lot.

Credits

Host: Sam Kean Senior Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer Original Music by Jonathan Pfeffer

Wang Fan - Zero (from An Anthology of Chinese Experimental Music 1992-2008) Listening to the Pine-trees (from Chine / Musique Classique) Sarah Hennies – Fleas Wang Changcun - Through the Tide of Faces (from An Anthology of Chinese Experimental Music 1992-2008) Zhegu Fei (The Partridge) (from Chine / Musique Classique) All other music composed by Jonathan Pfeffer.

The Disappearing Spoon: Orphan Vaccines Mar 30, 2021

Show notes

The Science History Institute has launched a second podcast! We've teamed up with New York Times best-selling author Sam Kean to bring you even more stories from our scientific past. Don't worry, Distillations podcast isn't going anywhere; we're still producing the in-depth narrative-style episodes you know and love! We've just doubled your history of science listening pleasure.

For the next 10 weeks we'll bring you stories from the footnotes of the history of science, from the saga of the male birth control pill to this inaugural episode: how the smallpox vaccine made its way around the world before refrigeration.

Amid all the logistical headaches of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, one huge challenge involves the cold chain. The cold chain is a network of freezers and refrigerators that keep vaccine doses at the consistently cold temperatures they need to stay viable. Though complicated, this is all doable in the 21st century. But how did the world's very first vaccine, created for smallpox in 1796, make it around the world? Live carriers—specifically, orphan boys.

Credits

Host: Sam Kean Senior Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer

"Delamine" by Blue Dot Sessions "La Flecha Incaia" by El Conjunto Sol Del Peru. All other music composed by Jonathan Pfeffer.

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