Chemicals & Chemistry

Exploring the molecular world: new compounds, industrial chemistry, environmental impacts, material science discoveries, and the chemistry underlying everyday products and processes.

The chemical reaction that killed the manager of a Buffalo Wings restaurant in Massachusetts last week i
Once in a while (just for yuks) I'll write about some of the hideous chemicals that we chemists have to use now and then despite the fact that they are not only a pain in the a##, but also mighty dangerous.
If you are driving around the southwest and find yourself in the middle of nowhere...
Last year, my wife and I moved out of Seattle into a house in the suburbs. One of the many new responsibilities we acquired in the process is taking care of a yard.
Steve, the Mad Chemist, and I go back a long way. We were postdocs together (about 200 years ago) and later worked for the same pharmaceutical company for a decade.
Reprinted by permission of McGill University Office for Science and Society. ### 
Here's a diagram of a distillation apparatus. It's very simple. The liquid to be purified is placed in a distillation flask.
By Dr. Michael Dourson and Dr. Bernard Gadagbui
A group from the University of Arizona has come up with something that sounds like it belongs in a science fiction movie; an easy, immediate test for norovirus – the bug that causes the "stomach flu" – using a modified smartpho
Spoiler: Stupid Alert...