All History articles
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NewsChemists think they know what happened on board the Mary Celeste
While many theories have surfaced as to what caused a loaded ship to be devoid of its crew, could this explanation close the case?
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FeatureFritz Strassmann: the principled chemist who discovered nuclear fission
Analytical chemist Friedrich Strassmann played a crucial role in discovering nuclear fission with Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner, but his principled opposition to Nazi ideology nearly destroyed his career. His story of scientific rigour and moral courage deserves greater recognition
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ResearchRadical chemistry pioneer Moses Gomberg probably made a trivalent carbon years before he realised
Recreation of Gomberg’s experiments suggests that he may have made a hypovalent carbon species years before reporting their discovery
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OpinionLetters: March 2026
Readers discuss the long-lasting effects of sabotage, a mix-up of Maxes, and how PFAS regulations might affect inhalers
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OpinionHarrison’s bimetallic strip and the problems with temperature control
Making thermostats possible – now we need to learn how to use them correctly
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OpinionChemistry has always been women’s business
Female chemists played essential roles in developing chemical practice
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OpinionWhen we ate whales for breakfast
A reminder that technological developments aren’t sufficient to solve environmental problems
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PodcastAlphaGenome & the RNA world hypothesis
In this episode, we discuss Google DeepMind’s latest deep learning model AlphaGenome, dissect the origins of life from chemicals to complex lifeforms, and hear the latest headlines.
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PodcastBench-stable butyllithium & secrets of Pompeii’s limescale
In this episode, we discuss the latest formulations designed to make a set of fiery reagents safer, explore what limescale can tell us about ancient civilizations and hear the latest headlines.
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ResearchWas the ‘Baghdad battery’ really two cells?
A new study suggests it had an ‘outer’ cell that reacted with air to supply a higher voltage. But was it a battery at all?
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OpinionThree centuries of Roman limescale reveals a dirty secret about Pompeii’s public baths
Carbon isotope ratios suggest that pre-aqueduct, the water was often contaminated with human waste
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OpinionDemocratising science, one step at a time
Artifical intelligence is just the latest method to open up chemistry to more people
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BookCrucibles: from alchemy to chemistry
An excerpt from Philip Ball’s book Alchemy traces chemistry back to its beginnings
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OpinionLangmuir’s pump and the optimism of science
Creativity nurtured by an explorative environment
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ResearchRomans’ hot recipe for self-healing concrete unravelled in Pompeii
Discovery of building materials abandoned at construction site reveals secrets of ancient concrete that can set underwater
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OpinionLetraset’s transfers and placing precision back on the drawing board
Professional lettering with a few rubs of a ballpoint pen
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ResearchRoman-era ink reveals surprising chemical complexity
2000-year-old residue indicates the Romans wrote with iron-gall inks hundreds of years earlier than expected
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OpinionThe wide-ranging influence of the Bohr effect
While not a Nobel prize-winning discovery in itself, this challenge to the reductionist view of physiology has links to several other winners
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ResearchTraditional yoghurt recipe reveals ants’ fermentation power
Rebecca Trager meets a cross-disciplinary team investigating an ancient way to make yoghurt, which involved a trip to a tiny Bulgarian village
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OpinionOtto’s ozoniser and the value of nurturing inventors
Marius-Paul Otto (1870–1939) patently used his entrepreneurial spirit to clean up