Oil is a stew of hydrocarbon molecules. Oil doesn’t sink, it floats, and when it spills, it spreads out in a thin sheen. Parts of the oil spill, asphaltenes, froth up and emulsify in waves, becoming tarry globules of hydrocarbon chains mixed with other molecules (nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur, as well as trace amounts of [...]
Slippery, slathery, sparkly soap. We squirt a dollop on our hands, rub it in timed to the birthday song, rinse off, and our hands are squeaky clean. But what is soap, and why does it work? Soaps first appeared in recorded history several thousand years ago, and undoubtedly, the substance was around for some time [...]
What can be a poison in one form can be therapeutic in another, which begins to explain why researchers would look to the biotoxins produced by warm water dwelling snails for solutions to chronic pain and a host of other neurological conditions in humans. The venom of some snails has been shown to be 1000 [...]
In a sea of green vegetation, you’ll find reds, yellows, oranges, blues, and purples—a beautiful range of colors that pop out, saying to insects and other pollinators, “visit me, visit me, no, not that one…. me!” Flower colors have evolved to attract certain kinds of insects and birds, which ensures they can propagate the next [...]
“Though wholly fabricated from such common raw materials as coal, water and air, nylon can be fashioned into filaments as strong as steel, as fine as the spider’s web, yet more elastic than any of the common natural fibers and possessing a beautiful luster.” A Dupont Press Release announcing the development of nylon Strong as [...]
Reds and pinks, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, purples, browns, even grays and blacks, these represent a spectrum of colors that we take for granted thanks to synthetic dyes, but once weavers and fabric makers took great pains to extract these colors and fix them to textiles. Dyers made the colors from lichen, henna, rose madder [...]
Ammonia is one of the chemicals that feeds the world. No, you shouldn’t drink it from a bottle, and mixing it into your flan would be a bad idea, but about 83% of ammonia produced industrially is used as fertilizers, either as salts or as solutions, and it is estimated that fertilizer generated from ammonia [...]
Salads, sandwiches, and, of course, hamburgers feature condiments for flavor and texture. Tuna and chicken cling to onions and celery with the aid of mayonnaise. A teaspoon or so of mustard might add some bite to the salad. And if you’re feeling inventive, you could add a drop or two of hot sauce mixed with [...]
Pucker up, it’s time to talk pickles. Pickled peppers, cukes, onions, eggs, really anything that can be preserved by tossing it in a brine solution and letting nature take its course. In the case of pickling, its about establishing the right conditions for one group of bacteria to win out over another. The ones that [...]
It’s so simple, it almost seems magical. Leaves take in sunlight, convert it to sugars and starches, and the plant feeds itself and becomes the first link in a food chain that reaches all the way to the apple you chew and swallow on the way to the big game. So, how does it work? [...]
