DISTILLED: From Disputes to Discussions, a new publication that operates at the intersection of science and the humanities, held a launch event on April 14 to celebrate the release of its inaugural issue.
The publication is the brainchild of molecular biophysics and biochemistry graduate student and editor-in-chief, Raj Basak, who said that the DISTILLED team prides itself on the magazine’s cross-disciplinary approach to topics at the forefront of discussion in the scientific community.
DISTILLED aims to provide a forum for well-informed authors, in both the sciences and the humanities, to weigh-in on scientific debates of increasing societal relevance, guided by the philosophy that seemingly disparate modes of inquiry have a tremendous amount to say to each other. DISTILLED is not a scientific journal or a popular science magazine, but aims to combine the best elements of both: rigorous evidence-based argumentation and palatable science.
The inaugural issue, funded by 15 departments and programs at Yale, covers subjects ranging from the ethics of gene therapy and particle physics to the stigma surrounding substance abuse and labor automation. Authors and editors include graduate students, undergraduates, medical students, and law students. Contributors also included writers from Amherst College, Tufts University School of Medicine, and the Icahn School for Medicine at Mount Sinai.
The launch party at the Rose Alumni House drew approximately 100 people, including the magazine’s team, professors, and sponsors. Ramamurti Shankar, the John Randolph Huffman Professor of Physics at Yale University, gave the keynote address.
DISTILLED joins Palimpsest, the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, and the Yale Journal of International Affairs as the fourth magazine run by Yale GSAS students and registered with the McDougal Graduate Student Center.
Limited print copies can be found around Yale’s campus. DISTILLED can also be found online.
