Carbon, the building block of life on Earth, owes its existence to the fiery crucibles of stars. Alongside elements like oxygen and iron, carbon is forged in the intense nuclear reactions of stars and subsequently scattered across the universe when these stars meet their end in spectacular supernova explosions. These elements are not static wanderers […]
Chemistry
Posted inScience
The Covers of Some 19th-Century Books Contain Toxic Elements
The seemingly harmless covers of 19th-century books might harbor a potentially lethal secret—the presence of toxic elements that have remained hidden for decades, lurking on the shelves of libraries and private collections worldwide. The discovery began in 2022 when a librarian at the Winterthur Library in Delaware (United States) decided to conduct chemical tests on […]
Posted inScience
Chemical Analysis Unveils Hidden Elements in Tycho Brahe’s Alchemy Lab
In the Middle Ages, alchemy was shrouded in secrecy, with practitioners closely guarding their knowledge. The renowned Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, known for his groundbreaking work in astronomy, also had a keen interest in alchemy, which was typical of intellectuals of his time. His laboratory, located beneath his residence and observatory, Uraniborg, on the island […]
Posted inScience
Organic Material on Mars Sheds Light on Life’s Origins
NASA’s Curiosity rover, a robotic explorer on Mars for nearly 12 years, has made recent findings of sedimentary organic material with unique properties have scientists buzzing. These carbon-based materials, particularly their carbon isotope ratios, have led to intriguing questions about their origins. On Earth, similar organic materials are usually linked to microorganisms, but they can […]
Posted inScience
Scientists Uncover a Novel Energy Metabolism that Could Sustain Life on Extraterrestrial Planets
Scientists have stumbled upon a groundbreaking discovery that might hold the key to life beyond Earth. Let’s rewind to the late ’80s when a scientist doodled some calculations on paper. This scientist figured out that turning a chemical called phosphite into phosphate could release enough energy to power a tiny organism. Imagine this microorganism being […]
Posted inFirst World War, Science
The chemical process invented to manufacture explosives that today feeds one-third of the world’s population
If I review the term Haber Process and accompany it with descriptive words such as industry, ammonia, nitrogen, fertilizer, and energy consumption, it is almost inevitable that most people will picture factories working non-stop, emitting columns of smoke into the air through their long chimneys, and ultimately polluting the environment. And there is certainly some […]
Posted inModern Era
The alchemist who sought the Philosopher’s Stone and discovered phosphorus by chance
The word serendipity comes from the oriental tale The Three Princes of Serendip, in which the protagonists saw their problems solved by a series of fortunate eventualities; it is defined as a valuable finding that occurs in an accidental or casual way. In science it has been something frequent and it is not necessary to […]
