Chemistry on the front line

Chemistry has once again made the front pages of all the newspapers. But for all the wrong reasons. This time it’s the poisoning of a former Russian military officer turned spy for the UK and his daughter with an exotic nerve agent in the sleepy city of Salisbury (see p8). Passions are running high, and bilateral relations are in trouble. A heinous weapon of war – illegal under international law – has been used in the UK, leaving two people critically ill. It has also injured emergency workers who attended to the victims. The UK government and the EU now agree that it is ‘highly likely’ that the Russian state was behind the poisoning.