Clik here to view.
Academic family: the Nobel prize in Chemistry 2014
Guest post by JessTheChemist ‘Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has a grander view?’ – Victor Hugo In 1873, German physicist Ernst Abbe reported that the resolution...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From Mould to Medicine
Guest post by Rowena Fletcher-Wood Excited, Mary Hunt tipped out the produce of her shopping: a large moulded cantaloupe. She had come across the cantaloupe by chance, and the ‘pretty, golden mould’...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Peering into Peer Review
‘I do not think it should appear in its present form’. Many a dejected researcher has read those words when their paper is summarily rejected by a journal. Rest assured, however, even the greatest...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Academic family – Robert Burns Woodward
Guest post by JessTheChemist In 1965 Robert Burns Woodward won the Nobel prize for chemistry for the synthesis of complex organic molecules, including natural products such as cholesterol, strychnine,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Christmas Lights – the invention of matches
Guest post by Rowena Fletcher-Wood It is Christmastime, and the season of light: everywhere you look, particularly after dark, is the twinkle of hundreds of little lights. As 2015 approaches, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
LEDs and the International Year of Light
Guest post by Jen Dougan ‘May it be a light to you, in dark places. When all other lights go out.’ J. R. R. Tolkien Yesterday saw the opening ceremony to mark the start of the International Year of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Captain of hooks
Guest post by Rowena Fletcher-Wood Open your eyes and take a closer look: sometimes that’s all it takes to realise a new invention has been with you all along, stuck, perhaps, to the cuffs of your...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Academic family: Adolf Butenandt and Richard Kuhn
Guest post by JessTheChemist ‘In order to avert such shameful occurrences for all future time, I decree with this day the foundation of a German national prize for art and science. Acceptance of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Volunteers for Viagra
Guest post by Rowena Fletcher-Wood It was the 1990s, and drug giant Pfizer was on the trail of an elusive angina medication to relieve constricted blood vessels and lower blood pressure. Pharmaceutical...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Mysterious X
The x-ray has always been a mysterious thing. An invisible beam of high energy electromagnetic radiation that passes through most kinds of matter, it is even named ‘x’ after the mathematical variable...
View Article