Woman Injecting a Sample into a Beckman Model E Centrifuge Component, photo of a Beckman Instruments employee modeling the use of a syringe to inject a sample into a centrifuge vial, 1950s. 📷 Science History Institute

Subhadra Das, former curator of the Galton Collection at University College London, will discuss the colonial and racist ideas that framed the work of Francis Galton, a Victorian scientist who coined the term eugenics in 1883. This virtual Lunchtime Lecture is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the Institute’s Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race project.

Illustration of bottled pills included in the Hand Book of Pharmacy and Therapeutics created by Eli Lilly & Company, ca. 1919. 📷 Science History Institute

Join us for our next virtual JPS talk featuring NovaXS Biotech founder and CEO Alina Rui Su and Harvard Medical School professor Daniel S. Kohane, who will discuss alternative methods of drug delivery. This talk will be moderated by JPS chair Maria Maccecchini, founder, president, and CEO of Annovis Bio. Registration is required.

From Rachel Carson to ACT UP, our “drop-in” Science & Activism Tour explores how scientists and activists have shaped discovery and created change with stories of environmental justice, patients’ rights, and community science. Admission is free and no reservations are necessary.

Plate No. 14: Medicinal Plants from The Book of Health, 1898. 📷 Science History Institute

Our March First Friday features a peek at our upcoming digital exhibition about the Victorian obsession with “exotic” poisonous plants through the murderous mysteries of Sherlock Holmes. First Fridays are free and open to the public. Attendees will receive a 10% discount to National Mechanics restaurant.

Our “drop-in” Water Tour explores the importance of water and the histories of pollution and protection that have changed our relationship to this vital substance. Admission is free and no reservations are necessary.

Our next virtual Science on Tap features American Philosophical Society fellow Patrick Walsh, who will document the birth of the endocrinology field. This talk comes with a content warning: Walsh weaves a story of grisly and ghastly experiments performed by American doctors, who made foul-smelling and foul-tasting medicine from the offcuts of recently slaughtered animals.

Join us for a panel discussion featuring NPR’s Neela Banerjee and Yale University’s Paul Sabin. Maastricht University history professor and author Cyrus Mody will moderate this talk focused on the similarities, differences, and potential conflicts between journalistic and academic accounts of the past. 

This Distillations podcast and magazine project explores the historical roots and persistent legacies of racism in American science and medicine. Innate is centered around a series of 10 weekly podcast episodes examining the scientific origins of support for racist theories, practices, and policies.

Jennifer Doudna delivering the Institute’s 2018 Ullyot Public Affairs Lecture titled “CRISPR Biology and Biotechnology: The Future of Genome Editing.” 📷 Science History Institute/Conrad Erb

Distillations talks to the biochemist about the discovery of CRISPR-Cas9, the tool’s promise, and dangers of its misuse.

Read the Distillations article >>

Listen to the Distillations podcast >>

Listen to the Distillations podcast >>

Beckman Oligo 1000M DNA Synthesizer, the first multi-column, high-volume oligonucleotide synthesizer, 1990s. 📷 Science History Institute

Our digital collections house more than 13,000 curated items, including scientific instruments, letters, photographs, oral histories, advertisements, videos, and rare books:

Rosalind Franklin at work in her lab, 1955. 📷 Wikimedia Commons/MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology - From the personal collection of Jenifer Glynn., CC BY-SA 4.0

The discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953 was made possible by British chemist Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958), whose X-ray crystallography images allowed researchers Francis Crick (1916–2004) and James Watson (b. 1928) to create their famous two-strand, helical model. Shared without her knowledge by her King’s College London colleague Maurice Wilkins (1916–2004), Franklin’s “Photo 51” helped form the foundation of modern biotechnology and revolutionized the field of genetics. In 1962, four years after her untimely death at the age of 37, Crick, Watson, and Wilkins won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this groundbreaking discovery, while Franklin’s contribution went largely unacknowledged for many years.

X-ray crystallography machine on display in our permanent exhibition. 📷 © 2023 Google

Our museum is open Wednesday–Saturday, 10am–5pm. Admission is free.

You can also explore our digital exhibitions, book a group tour, or check out our museum programs and activities.

Our museum is free to visitors because of donors like you. 📷 Science History Institute

Satisfy the world’s scientific curiosity by making a gift to the Science History Institute. Your support helps us continue telling the stories behind the science.