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A Real 鈥淏reaking Bad鈥 Story

3 Dec 2021

As a chemistry professor, I find it particularly appalling when a member of the profession goes astray. That is just what Professor Bradley Allen Rowland did at Henderson State University in...

Would the Lone Ranger鈥檚 silver bullets have tarnished?

26 Nov 2021

We do get some interesting questions. The Lone Ranger was a television series that ran from 1949 to 1957 and recounted the adventures of a former Texas Ranger who with his companion, the Native...

From the Earth to the Moon

25 Nov 2021

No, this story is not about space travel. It is about the naming of elements, specifically, selenium, discovered by the Swedish chemist Jons Jacob Berzelius in 1817. He named it after Selene, the...

The Word 鈥淐isgender鈥 Has Scientific Roots

13 Nov 2021

In 2015, the Oxford English Dictionary added the word 鈥渃isgender鈥 to its ever-evolving listing. It defines the adjective as 鈥渄esignating a person whose sense of personal identity and gender...

A Rotten Apple Really Does Spoil the Barrel

21 Oct 2021

A rotten apple spoils the whole barrel. That鈥檚 not just an old adage. It鈥檚 a scientific fact. And it聽all has to do with ethylene, a gas produced internally by the fruit to stimulate ripening....

Are You Left-Handed? Science Still Yearns to Know Why

17 Sep 2021

Being left-handed can be devilishly hard. In 1937, an educational psychologist whose work was later discredited wrote of many left-handers that 鈥渢hey squint, they stammer, they shuffle and shamble,...

How do sparklers work?

17 Sep 2021

You stick them into a birthday cake, stand back and revel in the brilliant shower of sparks. What you are witnessing are glowing metal particles, usually aluminum, but iron titanium, zinc or...

Plexiglass: Protection for 鈥淭he Pieta鈥 and Us

11 Sep 2021

Some companies have benefitted from COVID-19. Like those that manufacture plexiglass. Banks, stores, automobile dealers all feature plexiglass panels to reduce the chance of viral transmission. The...

The Science of Basil

11 Sep 2021

Sir Francis Bacon, an important figure in the development of the scientific method, claimed in his work on natural history that when a basil plant was exposed too much to the sun, it became wild...

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