The Alzheimer’s Copernicus Problem Thirty years of research have failed to solve the Alzheimer’s riddle. Is the problem a blind embrace of scientific dogma? Listen to the podcast >>

Smallpox and the Long Road to Eradication It’s one thing to make a scientific discovery, but making it count is another thing entirely. Read the article >>

The Transfermium Wars: Scientific Brawling and Name-Calling during the Cold War The transfermium elements—the fleeting, lab-made substances that populate the end of the periodic table—have a history built on pride and acrimony. Read the article >>

Book Club: The Risks and Rewards of Rare Earth Elements Our book club reads Rare: The High-Stakes Race to Satisfy Our Need for the Scarcest Metals on Earth by Keith Veronese. Read the review >>

RECOMMENDED Rediscover some old favorites from our archives.

The Real Thing: How Coke Became Kosher  As Coca-Cola’s popularity spread in the United States in the 1920s, rabbis around the country asked, is Coke kosher? Read the article >>

Comic Drama: Illustrating the Manhattan Project Peek into the studio of author and illustrator Jonathan Fetter-Vorm, and watch the creative process behind his book Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb .   Watch the video >>

Produced by the Science History Institute, Distillations reveals science’s role in a complicated, ever-changing, and often strange world. New to Distillations? Sign up for our newsletter and get the latest stories delivered right to your inbox each month.

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