Distillations: Science + Culture + History

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 Revolution possible.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:20 Element of the Week: Silicon 02:46 Conversation with Griff Resor 06:26 Virtual Tour of the Computer History Museum 10:52 Quote: N. Bruce Hannay 11:05 Closing Credits   CREDITS Special thanks to Hyungsub Choi and Mia Lobel for researching this show. Additional credits available at distillations.org.

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.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:16 Mystery Solved 04:00 Element of the Week: Strontium 06:24 Visiting Josh Simpson’s Glassblowing Studio 10:13 Quote: Captain John Smith 10:23 Closing Credits   CREDITS Special thanks to Robert Hicks and Amy Mayer for researching this show. Additional credits available at distillations.org.

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. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:19 Conversation with Jeffrey Johnson 07:35 Element of the Week: Chlorine 09:35 Review of This Republic of Suffering 11:46 Quote: William Jennings Bryan 11:56 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to David Caruso for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

In today’s show we take a closer look at vitamins, the tiny substances that are vital to our health.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:31 Introduction 01:39 Mystery Solved: Rickets 04:35 Element of the Week: Iron 06:41 Making Vitaming C 10:18 Quotation: George Bernard Shaw 10:38 Closing Credits   CREDITS Special thanks to Jocelyn Ford and Anke Timmermann for researching this show. Additional credits available at distillations.org.

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.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:09 Element of the Week: Neon 03:37 Commentary: Self-Grown Pictures 06:54 ChemArtists 10:51 Quote: Bo Malmstrom 11:04 Closing Credits   CREDITS Special thanks to Erin McLeary and Audra Wolfe for researching this show. Additional credits available at distillations.org.

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.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 00:50 Element of the Week: Krypton 02:28 Commentary: Cartoons as Science? 06:15 Exhibit Review: Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination 11:10 Quote: Lex Luthor 11:30 Closing Credits   CREDITS Special thanks to Jody Roberts, Jennifer Landry, and Tori Indivero for researching this show. Additional credits available at distillations.org.

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.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:31 Introduction 01:32 Element of the Week: Carbon 03:08 Conversation with George Whitesides 07:51 Mystery Solved! Damascus Steel 10:49 Quote: Richard Smalley 11:08 Closing Credits   CREDITS Special thanks to Chi Chan for researching this show. Additional credits available at distillations.org.

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.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:39 Element of the Week: Uranium 04:13 Mystery Solved: Liquid Crystal Displays 06:51 Hydrogenation 10:59 Quote: Karl Compton 11:19 Closing Credits   CREDITS Special thanks to Victoria Indivero, Jody Roberts, and Catherine Girardeau for researching this show. Additional credits available at distillations.org.

From antibiotics to chemotherapy, modern pharmaceuticals have transformed the experience of illness in the 20th century. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, 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.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:31 Introduction 01:14 Element of the Week: Sulfur 02:44 A Conversation with Kiran Mazumdar Shaw 07:50 The Complicated Legacy of Modern Pharmaceuticals 10:44 Quote: Hans Zinsser 11:00 Closing Credits   CREDITS Special thanks to David Caruso for researching this show. Additional credits available at https://sciencehistory.org/stories/distillations-pod/wonder-drugs/.

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.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:09 Element of the Week: Chromium 02:54 Chemistry in Your Cupboard 05:12 Making Mauvine 10:47 Quote: Claude Monet 11:06 Closing Credits   CREDITS Special thanks to Hilary Domush for researching this show. Additional credits available at distillations.org.

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.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 00:54 Element of the Week: Fire 02:45 Mystery Solved: Aphrodisiacs 05:46 Precise as Pastry 10:03 Quote: Robert Burton 10:31 Closing Credits   CREDITS Special thanks to Anke Timmermann for researching this show. Additional credits available at distillations.org.

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.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:23 Interview with Tom Tritton 04:45 Element of the Week: Hydrogen 07:22 Chemistry in Second Life 11:02 Quote: John Mason Brown 11:15 Closing Credits   CREDITS Special thanks to Audra Wolfe for researching this show. Additional credits available at distillations.org.

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.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:31 Introduction 01:30 Element of the Week: Germanium 03:25 Conversation with Henry Kressel 07:35 Listener feedback 09:55 Quote: William Shockley 10:15 Closing Credits   CREDITS Special thanks to Anke Timmermann for researching this show. Additional credits available at distillations.org.

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.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:31 Introduction 01:22 Element of the Week: Copper 03:09 Rare book tour with Ronald Brashear and Glen Ruzicka 08:43 Chemistry in Your Cupboard: Secret Inks 10:46 Quote: Vladimir Nabokov   CREDITS Special thanks to Anke Timmermann for researching this show. Additional credits available at distillations.org.

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.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:12 The Element of the Week: Black bile 02:52 Mystery Solved: Pellagra 05:39 Trace elements, or why do we need selenium and nickel, anyway? 08:55 Quote of the Week: Albert Szent-Gyorgyi 09:15 Closing Credits   CREDITS Special thanks to Erin McLeary for researching this show. Additional credits available at distillations.org.

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.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:09 The Element of the Week: Platinum 03:34 Interview with Norm Holden, Brookhaven National Laboratories, on changing atomic weights 07:21 Stoichiometry: Featuring Robert Wolke, author of What Einstein Told His Cook 11:28 Quote of the Week: Robert Weber 11:46 Closing Credits   CREDITS Special thanks to Hilary Domush for researching this show. Additional credits available at distillations.org.

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.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:03 Element of the Week: Phosphorus 02:48 The Science behind Champagne Bubbles 05:57 Quote of the Week: Graham Greene 06:16 Closing Credits   CREDITS Additional credits available at distillations.org

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.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 00:55 Commentary by Jody Roberts 02:55 Element of the Week: Mercury 04:44 Cleaning up the San Francisco oil spill 09:12 Quote of the Week: Barry Commoner 09:44 Closing Credits   CREDITS Special thanks to Jody Roberts for researching this show. Additional credits available at distillations.org.

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.   SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:42 The periodic table 01:52 Element of the Week: Phlogiston 04:02 Interview with Paul Smith, director of lecture demonstrations in the department of chemistry, Purdue University 09:16 Quote of the week: Primo Levi 09:43 Closing Credits   CREDITS Special thanks to Anke Timmermann for researching this show. Additional credits available at sciencehistory.org.