The latest in the series of food chemistry graphics looks at the chemistry of onions – specifically, what causes their odour, and why chopping onions will make your eyes water. Interestingly, none of the compounds that cause these effects are present in the intact onion; rather, when the cell walls of the onion are damaged by chopping, an enzyme released produces a range of compounds as a defence mechanism, which act as irritants.
The final elements infographic looks at the Transactinides. These elements are all synthetically produced, and do not occur naturally; as such their applications are minimal, and their chemistry relatively unknown. Hence this graphic looks more at their general properties, and at some of the scientists after whom a number of the elements are named.
The penultimate elements infographic focuses on the Actinides. Many of these elements don’t occur naturally, and are produced synthetically, with some of them existing only for a fraction of a second before they decay back into lighter elements.
The idea for this graphic came to me whilst saving the chilli peppers from a forlorn looking, aphid-infested chilli plant that’s probably on its metaphorical last legs. I thought it would be quite interesting to look at the origin of the heat in chilli peppers, and how this can be quantified.
This graphic looks at the elements known as the lanthanides – the ones stranded at the bottom of the periodic table, along with the actinides. For a group of elements that doesn’t really get much attention in chemistry teaching until at least undergraduate level, their applications are remarkably widespread and varied. Most modern electronic devices rely on rare earth elements in some part of their construction, so it’s remarkable that the average person on the street will probably have little to no knowledge of their importance.
This graphic looks at some general properties of the transition metals – I had a little less space to work with than with the previous graphics, on account of the large number of elements that the transition metals encompass, but hopefully what’s included is still of use.
