Mike Sutton
Michael Alfred (Mike) Sutton: born London 1942; married, with two children and three grandchildren
Education: BA Hons (Chemistry) Oxford 1964; D Phil (History of Science) Oxford 1972
Employment: Research Assistant, The British Museum 1964-5; Assistant Lecturer, Oxford College of Further Education 1965-70; Lecturer/Senior Lecturer, Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic/Northumbria University 1970 – 2004 (Visiting Fellow there 2004-16)
Publications: Over 50 articles on history of science, history of ideas and folklore studies 1971 – 2016; Hon. Editor Ambix 1982-91
Other: involved since 1960 in traditional music, song and dance; member of team representing Britain at UNESCO International Folkloriada, Tokyo 2000
FeatureThe young female astronomer who worked out what the sun is made of
100 years ago, Cecilia Payne deduced that the sun is mainly made of hydrogen – but was encouraged to downplay her findings by her PhD supervisor. Mike Sutton takes up the story
FeatureHow DDT went from triumph to tragedy
Few compounds have a story as controversial as this insecticide. Mike Sutton traces the tale from its beginning 150 years ago
FeatureFifty years since the ferrocene furore
Only two of the discoverers of the sandwich compounds that revolutionised organometallic chemistry received the Nobel prize, leaving one very big name feeling left out. Mike Sutton traces the controversy
FeatureCelebrating Louis Pasteur’s bicentenary
Mike Sutton reflects on the dramatic discoveries of Louis Pasteur, born 200 years ago
FeatureThe discovery of mass spectrometry
Mike Sutton traces how Francis Aston’s mass spectrograph shook up chemistry
FeatureThomas Midgley and the toxic legacy of leaded fuel
Leaded petrol was around for 100 years, and the campaign against it for almost as long. Mike Sutton reveals its history
FeatureOne hundred years of insulin
Mike Sutton looks at the journey the diabetes treatment took from the Toronto miracle to mass-production – via a controversial trip to Stockholm
OpinionBarbara Low, penicillin and the protein pi helix
Mike Sutton celebrates the remarkable career of a female crystallographer, once mistaken for the tea-lady
FeatureThe birth of the polymer age
Mike Sutton unravels Hermann Staudinger’s long hunt to understand macromolecules, which began 100 years ago
FeatureWhat is the moon made of?
Mike Sutton looks at what we’ve learned about the moon’s chemistry in the 50 years since Apollo 11
FeatureThe father of the periodic table
Mike Sutton looks at how Mendeleev’s patience revealed periodicity in the elements
FeatureHahn, Meitner and the discovery of nuclear fission
80 years ago, Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner made a discovery that led to nuclear weapons – yet Meitner was never given the recognition she deserved
FeatureDerek Barton and shape-shifting molecules
It’s 100 years since Derek Barton was born. Mike Sutton looks at his work developing conformational analysis
FeatureMarie Curie, the migrant chemist
150 years after Marie Curie’s birth, Mike Sutton delves into her life and research
Feature200 years of Gmelin’s handbook
2017 marks 200 years since Leopold Gmelin first published his influential handbook – and it’s still going strong, as Mike Sutton discovers
FeatureThe chemist with x-ray vision
Mike Sutton tells the tale of John Kendrew and his work on the structure of myoglobin
FeatureHistory of noble gases
Mike Sutton tells the story of William Ramsay’s hunt for the noble gases
FeatureSulfate aerosols and the summer that wasn’t
After the Mount Tambora megavolcano erupted in 1815, the years that followed had weather that changed the world, as Mike Sutton explains
FeatureThe bonds that bind
Mike Sutton plots the journey of the scientists who solved the riddle of chemical bonding
FeatureSnakes, sausages and structural formulae
Mike Sutton tells the story of how August Kekulé dreamt up the structure of benzene