Ever wondered why tea’s stimulant effect feels different to that of coffee? Or why sometimes, when you make a brew, thin scum forms on the tea’s surface? On National Tea Day, here’s a graphic to answer those questions and more!
This year marks 40 years since the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Geoffrey Wilkinson and Ernst Otto Fischer for their work on the determination of ferrocene’s structure and subsequent research on sandwich compounds. The latest edition of Periodic Graphics in C&EN looks at the history of ferrocene, other types of sandwich compounds, and some of their everyday applications.
8 March is International Women’s Day, so here’s another edition in the Women in Chemistry History series. This graphic highlights another twelve women whose achievements in chemistry range from the development of vaccines and the production of antibiotics to the development of techniques for chemical analysis.
Snot, tears, and spit might sound unpleasant, but all three are an important part of our immune systems. In the latest edition of Periodic Graphics in Chemical and Engineering News, we compare them and look at their components’ role in protecting us from infections. View the full graphic on the C&EN site.
On this day (26 February) in 1946, Egyptian-American chemist Ahmed Zewail was born. Zewail pioneered femtochemistry, the use of laser pulses to see the movement of individual atoms during chemical reactions. This graphic gives an overview of the ultrafast laser spectroscopy that makes this possible.
The first vinegars were accidents of oxidation, wine left out too long which turned sour. The word vinegar even derives from the Latin for ‘sour wine’. Today, varieties of vinegar range from balsamic to rice vinegar, produced on a commercial basis. This graphic takes a look at some of the chemical quirks of the different types.