Daily MOS: The Long Breakup With Asbestos
A mining company in western Russia sells asbestos branded with Donald Trump’s face. All I’m asking is… why are you still selling asbestos?
SCIENCE
Daily MOS: The Radium Girls
In the early twentieth century, radiation was understood about as well as 5G is understood by conspiracy theorists today. How were we supposed to know that mysterious glowy things signaled danger decades before the modern horror movie?
Daily MOS: The Golden Pursuit of Phosphorus
Hennig Brand was the first person in modern times to discover an element. It just took one torrentially putrefied basement and a mid-sized lake of wee.
Daily MOS: The Demon Core
At the end of WWII, we had the unused heart of a nuclear bomb sitting around waiting to fuck shit up. Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory couldn’t be expected to just leave it alone. It was so shiny. So new. So full of untapped data.
Daily MOS: The Invention of Handwashing
It’s been hard to get people to take some common sense advice during this pandemic, but hand washing was an easy one to get people on board with. The first guy who said “hey maybe wash your hands when doctoring” was beaten to death in an insane asylum.
Daily MOS: The First Acid Trip
Dr. Albert Hofmann discovered LSD and thought it was a failure. Then, five years later, he touched it.
Daily MOS: Phlogiston, the Father of Chemistry, and the Guillotine
Antoine Lavoisier ended the theory of phlogiston. And the guillotine ended Lavoisier.
Daily MOS: The Life Changing Magic of Botulism
How did the deadliest neurotoxin on the planet morph from a treatment for crossed eyes into modern medical duct tape?