All history articles
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WebinarWalter Kohn: from kindertransport and internment to DFT and the Nobel prize
Join us on 25 November as we explore the legacy of Walter Kohn, the 1998 joint winner of the Nobel prize in chemistry
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WebinarFood and us: the incredible story of how food shapes humanity
Join us on 9 December to learn about the intricate interplay between our genetic and physical makeup and the food we eat
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OpinionLetters: December 2021
Readers discuss the environment and greener fuels, and speculate on chemistry’s role in the first world war
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ResearchMarie Antoinette’s secret messages to Swedish count revealed by chemical analysis
Spectroscopy deciphers censored passages in 200-year-old letters between last French queen and the man rumoured to be her lover
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NewsExplainer: The science of alkyl nitrites aka poppers
From their origins as 19th century angina treatment to becoming an important part of gay subculture, these recreational drugs exist in a legal limbo
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PodcastDeep Sniff: A History of Poppers and Queer Futures by Adam Zmith – Book club
A history of a drug – and the queer community
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ReviewThe Poison Trials: Wonder Drugs, Experiment, and the Battle for Authority in Renaissance Science
An extremely well-researched monograph containing stories that bear an eerie resemblance to today’s politicised clinical trials
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ReviewUncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
20 years after it was first published, Oliver Sacks’ memoir remains a popular chemistry classic – and for good reason
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ReviewHalf Lives: The Unlikely History of Radium
The story of a radioactive element from its rise to a cure-all ingredient to the downfall of an entire industry
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ReviewDeath By Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings and Broken Hearts
A book for anyone with an interest in science, death, Elizabethan literature and British history – or all of the above
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ReviewFilm: Radioactive
Based on a graphic novel, this film is both a profile of Marie Curie and a celebration of her discovery, the phenomenon of radioactivity
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ResearchBiomolecular analysis unpicks human story of Himalayan skeleton lake
Archaeological deposits subject to ancient DNA analysis, stable isotope dietary reconstruction, radiocarbon dating and osteological analysis
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OpinionThe silent rise of the robots
Mechanical helpers have been creeping into our labs for decades