Kat Arney
Kat Arney is a science communicator, author and harpist. She is a regular co-host of The Naked Scientists and also hosts the BBC Radio 5 Live Science Show. Her first book, Herding Hemingway's Cats, which was published in January 2016 by Bloomsbury Publishing, covers the state of knowledge of the human genome, the advances made since the 1950s and what remains unknown.
PodcastVinblastine and vincristine: Vinca alkaloids
Kat Arney unearths a story of an overlooked female researcher in the search for the origins of cancer drugs found in plants
PodcastPropanethial-S-oxide: how chopping onions makes you cry
Kat Arney’s investigation of the pungent chemical in onions is enough to bring tears to your eyes
PodcastPhenolphthalein
Kat Arney gets to the bottom of the story of phenolphthalein – a chemical with two very different uses. If you've measured pH in a classroom or had some trouble in the bathroom, you may have met this compound before.
CareersHow to become a chemistry teacher
Teaching can be an intense but rewarding and refreshing career change
PodcastTwistacenes
Kat Arney discovers the strange things that happen when organic compounds go round the twist
PodcastMethaemoglobin and diaphorase 1
Kat Arney discovers the biological chemistry behind a colourful blood disorder
PodcastAflatoxins
Kat Arney investigates the cancer-causing chemicals that could be lurking in that bag of peanuts
PodcastSodium polyacrylate
Need some fake snow for your Christmas party? Simply look inside a baby’s nappy.
PodcastFibrin and fibrinogen
From scabby knees to life-threatening strokes, this important protein is the fundamental link in the complex molecular chain that forms blood clots
PodcastNepetalactone
The catnip compound that felines go crazy for could have exciting uses for humans, too, as Kat Arney finds out