Talc, or magnesium silicate: Chemistry in its element
Coating your naked body with powdered magnesium silicate may sound strange, but it's an important part of many bathtime rituals
5 Apr 20196min
Tocopherols: Chemistry in its element
Mike Freemantle discovers sea buckthorns, also called 'beauty berries' because of their high concentration of tocopherols and tocotrienols, collectively known as vitamin E.
29 Mar 20196min
Trichloroanisole – Wine cork taint: Chemistry in its element
If you've ever been unlucky enough to experience 'corked' wine, then 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, or TCA was likely the chemical culprit
22 Mar 20195min
Vinblastine and vincristine – Vinca alkaloids: Chemistry in its element
Kat Arney unearths the story of a truly international effort to develop new drugs for cancer, and the female researcher whose key role went overlooked
15 Mar 20197min
Polyethylene glycol or PEG: Chemistry in its element
Kit Chapman on the simple polymer that preserves and protects ancient artifacts, and saved a historical Swedish shipwreck from complete collapse
8 Mar 20194min
Ferrous sulfate, or iron(II) sulfate: Chemistry in its element
Mike Freemantle on the iron compound that has been turning oak gall extract into indelible ink for centuries, but is now eating though our ancient manuscripts and musical scores
1 Mar 20196min
Nitrogenase: Chemistry in its element
The mysterious enzyme that can beat the world's biggest chemical process when it comes to breaking the dinitrogen triple bond
22 Feb 20197min
Lazurite: Chemistry in its element
A brilliant rich blue rock, prized in antiquity as a gemstone and a prominent pigment, lazurite is the basis of lapis lazuli, the original ultramarine paint and – as Brian Clegg finds – it even adorns...
15 Feb 20196min
