📚️ #NationalLibraryWeek is quickly approaching! Celebrate with us on April 22, as we host our annual Othmer Library After Hours. See rare and modern treasures, support the library by adopting a collection item, enjoy our annual book-themed cake, and take home a souvenir!
🎟️ Register for FREE ⬇️
Can oats be controversial? Can porridge be political? Or dangerous? Do the choices in the grains you eat betray your character? Yes, and they have for millennia.
Read the latest story from #Distillations magazine, Fitter for a Stable Than a Table, written by @helenaaeberli.bsky.social ⬇️
A festival in Old City on Saturday will commemorate the creation of the matchbook in 1892 by Philly attorney Joshua Pusey.
“He was a big cigar smoker, and he was really frustrated with existing match technology,” said Jesse Smith, museum director @sciencehistory.org. billypenn.com/2026/03/18/m...
Edward Teller, "father of the hydrogen bomb," is confident that the atom's power "is ready to unlock a treasure chest of arctic oil, dig open an Alaskan harbor, open the spigot for Colorado's shale..." and much more! Popular Mechanics March 1960 Scan courtesy of Internet Archive
"We're Going to Work Miracles"
Read Edward Teller's 1960 essay on Project Plowshare on @archive.org: archive.org/details/Popu...
(Or read this blog post by @sciencehistory.org's Patrick Shea: www.sciencehistory.org/stories/maga...)
#histSTM #histsci #ColdWAr
We will have copies of Richardson’s groundbreaking book, The Maternal Imprint, for sale in our gift shop prior to the event, and signed copies will be available the night of.
Join us on Thursday, 3/19, for a free, thought-provoking talk with Sarah S. Richardson as she explores the hidden history of beliefs about pregnancy and children’s health.
🟣 Register here: www.sciencehistory.org/maternalimprint
Photo of woman using a Beckman Microlab 252MX Computing Infrared Spectrophotometer
This #WomensHistoryMonth, explore powerful historic images and stories of women in science in our digital collections. From labs to fieldwork, women's contributions to science and history have sparked innovation, challenged assumptions, and opened doors for future generations. ⬇️
rb.gy/v7ytpj
🎆 From how fireworks are made and tested to how they’re sold and launched, Flash! Bang! Boom! explores the global history and colorful chemistry behind this sparkling spectacle. Opening as part of America’s 250th anniversary, it reveals rare designs, origin stories, and what’s inside a firework!
🧨 An explosive new exhibition is coming to Old City!
Opening April 10, 💥 Flash! Bang! Boom! A History of Fireworks explores the chemistry, craft, and global stories behind dazzling displays. Join us for a FREE opening celebration on, April 10, 5–8pm. Visit sciencehistory.org/fireworks for more info!
Science History Institute will open "Flash! Bang! Boom!" this spring with rare books, art and the chemistry behind pyrotechnics.
🔗 Read more: bit.ly/3NCwgdZ
This month I feature @roguechieftan.bsky.social, @sciencehistory.org, @thewalrus.ca, @whitehorsepress.bsky.social, @carsoncenter.bsky.social, @sarahjaquetteray.bsky.social, @edgeeffectsmag.bsky.social, and more!
#envhist
Long before railroads stitched continents together, mules and their Afro-Indigenous arrieros moved silver, sugar, cotton, and environmental knowledge across borders. In Distillations, @roguechieftan.bsky.social traces the mule as a tool of empire and a symbol of Black and Indigenous resistance. ⬇️
🪲 Cochineal, tiny insects that live on prickly pear cacti, powered a global red dye trade and transformed European fashion. The Spanish Crown built a monopoly for control of its production, but Tlaxcalteca growers weren't giving in without a fight.
Read more in our latest Distillations story. ⬇️
Today, we honor George Washington Carver, whose pioneering research in crop rotation and sustainable farming transformed American agriculture and helped shape modern environmental science. 🥜 🌱
Shown here: Philatelic First Day Cover honoring Carver, issued on January 5, 1948.
En estos días en los que el juego y la infancia cobran especial protagonismo, cabe recordar esta fantástica exposición virtual del @sciencehistory.org sobre la historia de los sets de química para niños y niñas: artsandculture.google.com/story/scienc...
Applications for 2026-27 fellowships at @sciencehistory.org are still open until Jan 15, with recommendations due Jan 31! ⏰📚
Could your research benefit from time in our archives, rare books, instruments, and other collections? Find info about our fellowships and our guide for applicants here!
In Ecuador’s Los Cedros cloud forest, activists used the country’s constitutional “rights of nature” law to stop mining. A landmark 2021 ruling protected the forest—but the fight isn’t over.
Read the latest #Distillations story from @scribblingsam.bsky.social here ⬇️
Henry Moseley in the Balliol-Trinity College Laboratories, soon after his graduation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Moseley#/media/File:BigMoseleyCard.jpg)
Henry Moseley, the English physicist whose X-ray spectroscopy experiments led to a reorganization of the #PeriodicTable, was born #OnThisDay in 1887. He later died in the Battle of Gallipoli.
More via @sciencehistory.org: www.sciencehistory.org/stories/maga...
#histSTM #physics #chemistry #WWI 🗃️📜
In the 1970s, paramedic units were illegal in the United States. One (very bad) television show, Emergency!, set out to change that—and saved tens of thousands of lives in the process. Episode below!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
@sciencehistory.org sciencehistory.org/stories/disa...
A 1700s book on color experiments reveals a vibrant magenta stain, likely from cochineal dye. Modern dyers confirm cochineal-alum makes a similar magenta. Read our latest Collections Blog post, as this stain tells the story of how New World ingredients transformed Old World dyes. ⬇️
Judith Kaplan's case study focuses on Science in American Life, an exhibit that opened in 1994 at the National Museum of American History.
As she notes, the exhibit's stakeholders (e.g., curators, donors, the public) had different goals--commemoration, historical educ., sci. literacy, etc. #HSS2025
Smith uses @sciencehistory.org's upcoming exhibit on fireworks (Flash! Bang! Boom!) to highlight many themes familiar to historians of science (e.g., links b/w military & civilian tech; advances in mat. sci & mfg., the creation of safety standards)
www.sciencehistory.org/visit/exhibi... #HSS2025 🎆
He was a brilliant ornithologist—and a spy so colorful that James Bond was based on him. Richard Meinertzhagen was also a liar and a thief, and perpetrated the biggest fraud in biology history. Episode below!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
@sciencehistory.org sciencehistory.org/stories/disa...
Glad to publish with @shacorg.bsky.social on the Chinese American Chemical Society and science diplomacy in the 1970s-80s
Very grateful for the generous financial & research support of @sciencehistory.org
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
In the latest Distillations Magazine story, find out how a shady car battery additive called AD‑X2 sparked a showdown between the U.S. political and scientific establishments.
@samkean.bsky.social ⬇️
www.sciencehistory.org/stories/maga...
Rectangle pizza gets a bad wrap, but it did win @sciencehistory.org's School Lunch Bracket!
(This contest was held in connection w/the Institute's exhibit, Lunchtime: The History of Science on the School Food Tray, open until Jan. 2026 www.sciencehistory.org/visit/exhibi...) #histSTM #FoodHistory 🗃️
Taxonomy has an ugly history of naming species after despicable people—even Adolf Hitler. But taxonomists have resisted most efforts to change such names, for reasons both good and bad. Episode below!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
@sciencehistory.org sciencehistory.org/stories/disa...
The Othmer Library is celebrating #Halloween 🎃! When our electric pencil sharpener broke, staff replaced it with a Mitsubishi KH-20 manual sharpener, which became a hit! Jahna Auerbach, our digital collections librarian, dressed up as the sharpener for Halloween, and the results are fantastic!
The eagle that made John James Audubon famous—the Bird of Washington—was a fraud. In fact, historians now know that much of Audubon’s legendary life was built on lies. Episode below!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
@sciencehistory.org sciencehistory.org/stories/disa...
Claire Sabel discusses the gem trade in SE Asia & the way it was impacted by European traders 17-18c @uchicagopress.bsky.social
@scarcerc.bsky.social
@harunkucuk.bsky.social
@univie.ac.at
@nhmwien.bsky.social
@sciencehistory.org
@historyscience.bsky.social timetoeatthedogs.com/2025/10/27/g...