One of the fundamental reactions we teach in organic chemistry is “nucleophilic substitution” in which an atom or group of atoms in a molecule is exchanged for another one. Quite logically, the...
Last week, we were told that DNA performed a bit of a miracle: it identified a man who was born in 1894 and who died during the First World War. His name was Percy Howarth. He was born in...
It all started in Bavaria, southern Germany, 1895. Dr. Roentgen, a physicist, noticed a spooky greenish ray seeping through the completely sealed test tube and projected onto the screen wall. What...
Certain concepts simply irk me. They are often needlessly complicated and their meaning gets distorted in an attempt to make them understandable.
Take, for example, the idea of a Mitochondrial Eve.
Should you let your genes decide what you eat? The field of nutrigenomics certainly leans in that direction. Frustratingly, there are two sides to nutrigenomics. On the one hand, it is a research...
There are bugs in your cup of tea. Not whole bugs (hopefully not). But the essence of a hundred species of insects can be found in that tea bag you buy from the store. Even if you have been sipping...
When you consider how babies are made, you bump up against a basic math problem. No need for calculus here, or even the mental gymnastics of carrying the one. It’s a problem of doubling.