Menu
Excerpts
Exhibits
Collections
Originals
Categories
Map
Search
Person
Sam Kean
Bylines
The Rotten Science Behind the MSG Scare
How one doctor’s letter and a string of dodgy studies spurred a public health panic.
by
Sam Kean
via
Distillations
on
March 2, 2023
The Big ‘What If’ of Cancer
How a feisty, suicidal Nobel laureate infuriated both Hitler and Stalin, and stalled cancer research for fifty years along the way.
by
Sam Kean
via
The Disappearing Spoon
on
November 23, 2021
Historians Expose Early Scientists’ Debt to the Slave Trade
Key plant and animal specimens arrived in Europe on slavers’ ships
by
Sam Kean
via
Science
on
April 3, 2019
The True Story of Phineas Gage Is Much More Fascinating Than the Mythical Textbook Accounts
Each generation revises his myth. Here’s the true story.
by
Sam Kean
via
Slate
on
May 7, 2014
Related Excerpts
Viewing 1–3 of 3
The Baseball Player-Turned-Spy Who Went Undercover to Assassinate the Nazis' Top Nuclear Scientist
During World War II, the OSS sent Moe Berg to Europe, where he gathered intel on Germany's efforts to build an atomic bomb.
by
Zachary Clary
via
Smithsonian
on
August 31, 2023
The Murderer Who Made Movies Possible
When horses gallop, do all four hooves ever leave the ground at once? This episode of The Disappearing Spoon recounts the saga that led to the answer.
via
The Disappearing Spoon
on
May 10, 2022
The Murderous Origins of the American Medical Association
How a bloody gun duel between two doctors in Transylvania sparked a frenzy of outrage—and helped create the American Medical Association.
via
The Disappearing Spoon
on
November 30, 2021