chemistry
Alchemy – the ultimate fool’s errand
Secretive, expensive and doomed to failure, the business of turning base metal to gold nevertheless occupied scholars for centuries
Who knew that chemistry could be so entertaining?
Here’s how the element antimony got its name. Once upon a time (according to the 17th-century apothecary Pierre Pomet), a…
Carbon – the stuff of life we’re shamefully ignorant about
‘I didn’t realise we were carbon,’ said a friend to whom I mentioned this book. She was the first of…
