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. We also talk with Paul Smith, director of laboratory demonstrations at Purdue University. For more than 15 years, Smith has been performing reenactments of the 19th-century chemist Michael Faradayâs Christmas lectures, complete with period costume and language.
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