Even if you’re not a chemist, you’ll doubtless remember learning about acids back in school. They’re routinely described as strong or weak, concentrated or dilute. But what’s the difference between a strong acid and a concentrated acid? Explaining that is a little trickier than it sounds; in this ...

mehr

We’re heading out of this world for today’s post, to examine theatmospheric compositions of the other planets in the solar system, as well as our own. Practically every other planet in our solar system can be considered to have an atmosphere, apart from perhaps the extremely thin, transient ...

mehr

It’s worth taking a look at the decomposition process as a whole. Decomposition can be roughly divided into four stages: the fresh stage, the bloated stage, the active decay stage and the advanced decay stage. Some overviews of the process also add in a final stage, when all that is left of the ...

mehr

The Chemistry of Fake Tan

We’re all well versed in the dangers of spending too much time in the sun. A goldentan after a few weeks away in the sun is everyone’s aspiration, but no-one wants to come back from a holidayred as a cooked lobster, hence the need for sunscreen (which we looked at in a previous post). However, ...

mehr

The pH scale is something we’re all familiar with; most people will remember it from school chemistry lessons. It’s the scale used to rank how strong an acid (or alkali) a solution is. The colours associated with each number correspond to the colour that universal indicator turns in solutions of ...

mehr

Next week, the winners of this year’s batch of Nobel Prizes will be announced. Every winner receives a Nobel Prize medal, featuring a portrait of the founder of the prizes, Albert Nobel. This graphic takes a look at the composition of these medals – and how chemistrywas once used to make them ...

mehr

The Chemistry of Avocados

Anyone who’s ever purchased an avocado willtestify that, after taking several days to reach the point of perfect ripeness, they remain at that point for an incredibly short amount of time before morphing into a brown, sludgy mess. As if to confound this problem, if you do catch them at the ...

mehr

The Chemistry of Jam-Making

If you’ve ever tried your hand at jam-making, you’ll know that it’s something of a tricky process. A number of factors need to be just right to achieve a perfectly set jam – and chemistry can help explain why. There are three key chemical entities that go into jam-making: sugar, pectin, and ...

mehr

There are few things better than an ice cold beer on a hot day. Chances are, when you crack open a beer this summer, you probably won’t be thinking much about chemistry – but it’s the particular chemicals in beer, produced inthe brewing process, that give beer both its bitterness and ...

mehr

Everyday Chemicals

Acetic acid also has the name ethanoic acid, though this is less commonly used. Most people will know of its presence in vinegar, from which its name is derived –it originates from the latin word for vinegar. In vinegar acetic acid is generated by fermentation, which produces ethanol, and then ...

mehr