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
Melarsoprol: Chemistry in its element
Cases of sleeping sickness – human African trypanosomiasis – are in decline, dropping 86% in Africa between 2000 and 2014. Gege Li explores the role that this toxic, arsenic-based medication has to pl...
8 Feb 20195min
Omega-3 fatty acids: Chemistry in its element
Many consume cod liver oil due to 'a vague sense we should be taking them for something' – but what to the omega-3 fatty acids actually do?
1 Feb 20195min
Cacodyl: Chemistry in its element
It made Robert Bunsen seriously ill, Michael Faraday thought it 'barbaric' to use in battle and even Fritz Haber – the 'father of chemical warfare' – abandoned it after a fatal accident in his lab. Th...
25 Jan 20196min
Bronze: Chemistry in its element
Kit Chapman takes us back to the 1904 Olympics in St Louis, via the bronze age and ancient Greece
18 Jan 20194min
Ellagic acid: Chemistry in its element
Louise Crane introduces the antioxidant that led to exaggerated claims that 'whisky helps fight cancer'
11 Jan 20196min
Myristicin: Chemistry in its element
The spice that gives your Christmas eggnog its distinctive taste and aroma is also a toxic narcotic that played an important role in international history. Florence Schechter shares the history of myr...
17 Dec 20186min
Low-background steel: Chemistry in its element
Post-nuclear steel is a little bit radioactive, so for some specialist jobs we need to find a source of steel from before the bomb
7 Dec 20185min
