Today’s news has been dominated by the terrible explosion in Beirut, Lebanon. The blame for the explosion has been directed at 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate that was being stored in a warehouse in Beirut’s port. What is ammonium nitrate, why can it explode, and what happens when it does? This graphic takes a look.
Now that Spring is here and we’re all busy social distancing, it’s likely we’ll all be spending more time in the garden. The latest edition of Periodic Graphics in C&EN takes a look at what’s in the fertilisers we add to our gardens at this time of year, and how they help plants grow. View the full graphic on the C&EN site.