Most of you are familiar with lithium batteries and the drug for bipolar disorder. But did you know it used to be put in soda for hangovers, and it saved the lives of the Apollo 13 astronauts? You don't? Better keep reading.
Chemicals & Chemistry
Too many journalists are experts in nothing and behave like partisans and activists. That's how a journalist can go on social media and celebrate that her poor reporting caused a company to lose hundreds of millions in market capitalization.
Proposition 65, which began its miserable life as The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, now has little to do with safe water or safe anything else. It's a bad joke to scientists, a plague on California businesses, and a goldmine to attorneys. Coffee went onto the list and now it's off. Why? Good question.
As it turns out, not a whole lot! There's only one nutritional difference between them: the kosher variety has no added iodide.
Human body odor is an extremely complex mixture of compounds, with a virtually infinite possibility of combinations. There are thousands and thousands of compounds continuously floating through our bloodstream and lymphatic system, originating either directly from food or from the numerous metabolic reactions occurring in the body.
If you've ever had the pleasure of having a kidney stone, you certainly don't need a lesson about pain. But just in case that wasn't sufficient, here's some more: a lesson about the chemistry of kidney stones. There will be a quiz. Hope you pass it.
"Two lawyers, a zoologist, and a nutritionist walk into a bar to try to write about chemistry." The preceding statement is true, except for the bar. The Environmental Working Group, with the aid of these four experts, wants to tell us how all the chemicals in food are going to lead us to an early dirt nap. They get an F in chemistry. As usual.
A couple of years ago Panera Bread went crazy. Those high up in the corporation decided that selling really great tasting food was no longer a sufficient strategy. No, they reasoned, if Panera Bread wanted continued success it needed to go on a full-frontal assault against science.
Time for another hideous chemistry lesson. No one requested a tutorial on this interesting metal. But guess what -- you got one anyhow! Palladium, named after a Greek goddess and worth more than gold, also keeps our air clean. There's plenty of interesting stuff you'll learn here (if you can stand to read this).
The FDA just announced the approval of a new drug for psoriasis. But it really isn't new at all -- it's a combination of two generic psoriasis drugs in one tube. The price of the tube is interesting and the company involved even more so. Welcome to the world of insanely expensive generics.
Although the name is derived from the Greek “calos” meaning “good" and “melas” for “black,” "calomel" -- the name given to mercurous chloride, the most common medicine of the era -- is neither good nor black. So what's the story?
The coroner's report on the tragic death of a teenage girl last year in a Montreal suburb was just released. What was at first speculation now proves to be true.