Chemistry was in trouble when weird words like phlogiston and calx were invented to help explain experimental observations — Despite his genuine attempts to advance chemistry as a science, Handsome Robby B’s voluminous tomes didn’t get much traction when it came to uniting the “clans” — you know, the battle royale between the philosophers and the practicing experimenters. His failure to advance a theory to replace the four elements…

Alchemists and the Captain Planet elements (earth, wind, water, and fire) hung around for a while until… — I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again… only a few more times… when trying to understand the history of chemistry and really transplant ourselves into the mind of the budding scientists, we have to consider context. I’ve hammered this concept of context quite a bit recently, but it…

Persecuted as “occult” for centuries, the best practicing chemists were highly underrated — For centuries, alchemy was characterized as what some would call “malarkey” because the writings of its practitioners were so esoteric. The mysterious nature of their notes coupled with their laughable goal of turning various metals into gold (and failing, obviously) resulted in them essentially being outcast by society…so they became…

…starts with Captain Planet — Context is Everything Training your brain to think in a different context is very difficult. For example, try balancing your checkbook (do those even exist anymore?) in binary or, better yet, hexadecimal. Don’t know what those are? Binary and hexadecimal are different ways to represent numbers. Our typical, everyday interactions with numbers occur…

Let’s have a happy little accident or two and talk about the chemicals that make up pigments — I am an unabashed level 99 Bob Ross fanboy. I can’t get enough of his quips — you know, “criss-cross strokes,” “two hairs and some air,” and “happy little accidents.” Even without those soft-spoken one-liners, Bob Ross was the PBS equivalent of a motivational speaker whose message went far beyond the realm of oil painting and the TV studio…

Two scientists almost a century apart have the same regrets despite their world-changing innovations — “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” — Winston Churchill Profits drive business growth — this is a universally accepted truth (and if it isn’t it should be…I wouldn’t know, I’m a chemist). In trying to drive growth, businesses seek any advantage that will boost efficiency and…

Why being a dad-scientist is both a blessing and a curse — Since the beginning of time, children have asked their parents ridiculous questions for which parents, one way or another, have to come with an answer. The answers to “why is the sky blue?” and “when we close the doors to the car, how come we don’t run out of air?”…

If you haven’t heard of the magical Oscillating Clock Reaction, you clearly fell asleep in gen chem — In order to drum up interest in chemistry, instructors at all levels perform demonstrations (or demos) of chemical reactions. The power of demonstrations has been used to lure the uninitiated since the 18th century. …

Here’s how to make sense of the strangeness of the atomic nucleus — There’s a reason I initially felt, shall we say, “uncomfortable” writing about nuclear chemistry, but it wasn’t until I talked to my friend (who has a PhD in nuclear chemistry) in preparation for writing this article that I figured out why. There’s something about nuclear chemistry and nuclear physics that…