This week, the UK has confirmed it plans to fortify non-wholemeal flour with folic acid. It’s not the first country to do so: the United States has been fortifying flour with folic acid since 1998. Most countries in South America and a number in Asia also have mandatory fortification programs. This graphic looks at the reasons for fortification with folic acid – and making it also got me wondering why the practice isn’t more widespread in Europe.
Five thousand: that’s the number of nappy changes the average child will need. There are several nappy choices available to parents, but disposable nappies make up a large portion of the market – and there’s a fair amount of chemistry behind how they keep a baby dry.
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Pregnancy has been in the news over the past month, with a royal baby back in October and the usual smattering of celebrity pregnancies. The inspiration for this post, however, originated a little closer to home; let’s just say that, in around 6 months’ time, my wife and I are going to be entering a fun new world of sleep deprivation! Pregnancy brings up a whole host of science and chemistry questions, the first of which is: how do pregnancy tests work?