All articles by Michael Freemantle
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PodcastChlorhexidine
An antimicrobial compound that kills bacteria and viruses quickly – found in some of the most colourful antiseptic solutions
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PodcastTannic acid
Tannic acid in green acorns can kill wild animals and livestock, but you can prevent poisoning with pannage pigs
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PodcastCimetidine
Mike Freemantle introduces the peptic ulcer treatment cimetidine, which – as Tagamet – became the first blockbuster drug
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PodcastSodium cyanide
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the Baia Mare disaster, when toxic sodium cyanide spilled from a gold processing plant led to ecological damage on a huge scale.
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PodcastCobalt oxide
From ancient Egyptian pottery to distinctive blue bottles, cobalt oxide has been providing ‘chemically and artistically perfect’ pigments for centuries
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PodcastIminosugars
After some promising results treating ill pets, some researchers think iminosugars could become treatments for infection and even cancer. Mike Freemantle explores the buzz around iminohoney
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PodcastBoric acid
Mike Freemantle revisits battlefield surgery to investigate boric acid, a key part of Dakin's antiseptic solution used extensively in the first world war
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PodcastHydrogen sulfide
Mike Freemantle finds the connection between Land of Hope and Glory and the noxious, corrosive, flammable gas that stinks of rotten eggs
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PodcastZinc polycarboxylate
Lay back in the chair and say 'Ahh', as Mike Freemantle introduces zinc polycarboxylate dental cement
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PodcastTocopherols
Mike Freemantle discovers sea buckthorn fruits also called 'beauty berries' because of their high concentration of tocopherols and tocotrienols, collectively known as vitamin E
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PodcastFerrous sulfate
The iron compound that has been turning oak gall extract into indelible ink for centuries, but is now eating though our ancient manuscripts and musical scores
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PodcastCacodyl
It made Robert Bunsen seriously ill, Michael Faraday thought it 'barbaric' to use in battle and even Fritz Haber – the 'father of chemical warfare' – abandoned it after a fatal accident in his lab. This week, Mike Freemantle tells the story of tetramethyldiarsine, otherwise known as cacodyl.
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FeatureThe great war clean-up
A century after the end of the first world war, the task of disposing of old chemical weapons continues. Michael Freemantle reports