Category Archives: science history

Cough Syrup, Dead Children, and the Case for Regulation

By Deborah Blum
Posted: March 17, 2012

Category: consumer protection, science history, Speakeasy Science | Tagged anti-regulation, Arthur Kallet, diethylene glycol, Elixir Sulfanilamide, EPA, ethylene glycol, Ezra Klein, F.J. Schlink FDA, One Hundred Million Guinea Pigs, Pew Research Center, S.E. Massengill, U.S. Food and Drug Administration | 33 Comments

Plumb crazy

By Deborah Blum
Posted: March 8, 2012

Category: lead, poison, science history, Speakeasy Science | Tagged CDC, Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, lead, lead poisoning, plumbism, plumbum, U.S. Centers for Disease Control | 12 Comments

Arsenic and the Forgotten Serial Killer

By Deborah Blum
Posted: February 10, 2012

Category: arsenic, poison, science history, Speakeasy Science | Tagged arsenic, Belle Gunness, David Wilson, Frederick Seddon, Herbert Rowse Armstrong, Jane Toppan, Mary Ann Cotton, Rudolph Witthaus | 7 Comments

Of Dead Bodies and Dirty Streets

By Deborah Blum
Posted: August 25, 2011

Category: lead, science history, Speakeasy Science, The Poisoner's Handbook | Tagged Alexander Gettler, Charles Norris, Dupont, ethyl gasoline, lead poisoning, leaded gasoline, loony gas, New York City Medical Examiner's Office, Standard Oil, Tetraethyl Lead, Thomas Midgley Jr. | 27 Comments

At the Door of the Loony Gas Building

By Deborah Blum
Posted: August 24, 2011

Category: consumer protection, lead, science history, Speakeasy Science, The Poisoner's Handbook | Tagged Alexander Gettler, Charles Kettering, Charles Norris, Dupont, Jr., lead poisoning, leaded gasoline, loony gas, New York City Medical Examiner's Office, Standard Oil, Tetraethyl Lead, Thomas Midgley | 25 Comments

The Protochemists Among Us

By Deborah Blum
Posted: August 15, 2011

Category: chemistry, science history, Speakeasy Science | Tagged American Chemical Society, Bassam Shakashiri, chemistry, IUPAC, lead, Liliana Mammano, protochemistry, Puerto Rico, Roald Hoffmann, San Juan, University of Wisconsin, World Chemistry Congress | 17 Comments

A Dazzle in the Bones

By Deborah Blum
Posted: March 26, 2011

Category: radium, science history, Speakeasy Science, The Poisoner's Handbook | Tagged Alexander Gettler, alpha radiation, dial workers, Harrison S. Martland, New York City Medical Examiner's Office, radiation exposure, radioactivity, radium, Radium Girls, The Poisoner's Handbook, U.S. Radium Corporation | 31 Comments

Life in the Undark

By Deborah Blum
Posted: March 25, 2011

Category: radium, science history, Speakeasy Science, The Poisoner's Handbook | Tagged alpha radiation, beta radiation, Consumers Union of New Jersey, gamma radiation, Harrison S. Martland, Japan, Marie Curie, nuclear power, polonium, radioactivity, radon, The Poisoner's Handbook, The Radium Girls, U.S. Radium Corporation, uranium | 9 Comments

The Radium Girls

By Deborah Blum
Posted: March 24, 2011

Category: radium, science history, Speakeasy Science, The Poisoner's Handbook | Tagged 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics, Alexander Gettler, Charles Norris, Harrison S. Martland, Henri Becquerel, Marie Curie, N.J., New York City Medical Examiner's Office, nuclear, Orange, Pierre Curie, polonium, radioactivity, radium, The Radium Girls, U.S. Radium Corporation, uranium | 19 Comments

Those Dreadful Hammers

By Deborah Blum
Posted: November 3, 2010

Category: science history, Speakeasy Science | 7 Comments