Like any plant, the tea plant is composed of hundreds of different compounds. Some of the most interesting ones fall into the category of polyphenols, so called because of their molecular structure...
Counterfeiting of coins has a long history. No less a personage than Isaac Newton took this bull by the horns. Late in his career he became Master of the Mint and obsessed about counterfeiters. He...
It is a common misconception that aspirin is a naturally occurring substance that was discovered in the bark of the willow tree. A related compound called salicin does indeed occur in white willow...
Sleepies, eye gunk, eyeboogers… Whatever you call them, the proper name for that gunk that collects in the corners of your eyes is rheum. It's exuded from your eyes while you sleep (as you know)...
Ever step on a rusty nail? It was, in all likelihood, rapidly followed by your parents dragging you to the doctor’s office for a painful (but safe!) tetanus shot. The memory of my first tetanus...
Malaria kills around 400 thousand individuals annually. It’s the result of a bodily infection by single-celled parasitic organisms from the Plasmodium genus and causes fever, vomiting, chills and...
Emperor Napoleon III offered a prize to anyone who could find "a suitable substance to replace butter for the navy and less prosperous classes." The French chemist Hippolyte Mege-Mouries had...
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