The History of Chemistry

184: Alles ist Chemie (Conclusion)

09 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

I conclude this series, touching on why I ran this podcast. I give eleven overarching goals for the podcast. I also go far back into my own past, and ...

183: New World Coming

01 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

I give a brief history of finding planets around other stars, including discovery by gravitational wobbling, dimming as the planet crosses in front of...

182: It's Life, Jim, But Not As We Know It

22 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We take an imaginary trip around our Solar System to hear the history of chemical attempts to find life, starting in the late 1950s. Among our stops o...

181: A Work in Progress

17 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In which we bring research into molecular machines up to date. We discuss fuels, specifically what chemists think are the best kinds of fuels to power...

180: Farm to Market

08 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Instead of just digging in the ground to extract minerals, over the past half-century scientists have begun to explore agriculture of hyperaccumulatin...

179: This Episode is Meta

01 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The History of Chemistry is itself an academic discipline, and in this episode we explore the history of chemical history. We start with chemist Thoma...

178: Honors and Awards

25 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In which we explore the various honors and awards available to chemists, starting in high school with the International Chemistry Olympiad, founded du...

177: Greek Salad

17 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode we run through the Greek alphabet and see the history behind each symbol as used in chemistry, from alpha for alpha particles to omega...

176: Inside Information

08 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

While outdoor solar cells make big news, there is a quiet revolution also for solar cells that make do with far less illumination, indoor lighting. We...

175: It's All Fun and Games Until...

26 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Chemistry can be fun, too, so we explore some of historical satirical art about chemistry, humor based on nonsensical molecular structures, actual com...

174: Just Add Water

20 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Water, the most important chemical for us, deserves its own episode describing the history of how chemists understand it. We start with pre-Enlightenm...

173: Midnight Blue

12 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We start with a 1927 patent awarded to George Washington Carver, an agricultural chemist, for a locally-sourced Prussian blue. We learn a bit about Ca...

172: A Life of Its Own

06 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In which we discuss the history of scientists attempting to determine a half-life of a specific radioactive isotope of samarium, and why that determin...

171: Talk Dirty to Me

29 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is a brief history of how chemists understand the way liquids wet things. The first glimpse was by Francis Hauksbee in the early 1700s, and how w...

170: A Clean Break

23 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In which we talk about the history of fractals and how they relate to chemistry. There is a brief overview of what a fractal is and how it developed i...

169: A Bone to Pick

07 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's an ancient story, but fossils have been with us since time immemorial. In this episode, we hear about the history of chemists and their inte...

168: Chill Out

27 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Refrigeration always has been closely intertwined with chemistry. In this episode we explore the history of refrigerants, from the first hints of arti...

167: A Sound Idea

21 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Magnetic tape was an integral part of the new, growing recording industry. Herein we talk about the chemical history of magnetic recording, from the f...

166: The Dagwood

15 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Here we talk about supersized sandwich compounds and their history, beginning with ferrocene in the 1950s. We go from single-decker to double-, triple...

165: Building Blocks

06 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Herein we examine the cubical hydrocarbon, cubane, and its role in chemical history. We talk of difficulties in synthesis, possible uses as an explosi...

164: Mirror, Mirror

30 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In which we talk about how chirality, or handedness, has diffused through chemistry since its discovery in the 19th century, starting with Louis Paste...

163: Basic Fuel

23 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In which we talk about the history of using ammonia, the nitrogen analog of methane, as a fuel. We start two centuries ago with Goldsworthy Gurney, mo...

162: The Game of Life

16 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Here we talk about how chemists historically have viewed the way life began: as chemicals self-organizing. The earliest serious chemical views began i...

161: Political Science

09 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Contrary to popular belief, chemists have always found involvement in politics. Herein are some examples of chemists getting involved politically, whe...

160: Reuse It or Lose It

02 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We look at the history of some recent problems in recycling materials. First we examine the history of wind farms, and how to recycle the fan blades. ...

159: Suck It Up, Buttercup!

23 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Given the environmental catastrophe into which we now zombie-walk, here is a bit about the history of extracting greenhouse gases directly from the ai...

158: It's a Gas

16 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We hear about the history of hydrogen gas as a fuel, starting in the early 1800s with François Isaac de Rivaz. We continue through the 19th and 20th ...

157: Cain and Abel

09 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In which we talk about the history of differently abled chemists, from around the year 1600 to the present. We mention some differently abled chemists...

156: Quantum Love

03 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We hear about the recent history of quantum computing to do quantum calculations on molecules. First we briefly discuss different types of computers. ...

155: Sci-fi Chemistry

27 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In which we [cue theremin!] discuss how chemistry is presented in science-fiction stories. We start with Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein,"...

154: Tile by Tile

20 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We discuss the history of finding quasicrystals, those arrays of atoms that are like crystals--but aren't quite crystals. These are rarely talked...

153: Plastic Arts

13 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We finally return to polymers, but in a more ecological way. We learn about using wood waste to make plastics. We hear of how to make plastic naturall...

152: Built to Last

05 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We give a "solid foundation" to chemistry by recounting the history of concrete, starting with the earliest architectural use of lime around...

151: No Bones about It

29 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This episode relates the history of the new field of "skeletal editing" of molecules. While there have been a few known reactions of this ty...

150: The Medium is the Message

22 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We reach the Big 1-5-0, in which I discuss the venerable history of mRNA vaccines, from the 1960s to the present, from a chemical point of view. We he...

149: It's the Kosher Thing

15 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode we touch on how chemistry has directly influenced religion. Our example is how knowledge of chemistry affected a rabbi's decision...

148: The New Electronics

08 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What if we could make flexible electronics for clothing or medical sensors? We examine the history of this quest from the 1990s onward, focusing on li...

147: Good to the Last Drop

01 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The history of chemistry in water microdroplets is discussed. We start with the observation by R. Graham Cooks that certain chemical reactions went fa...

146: Electrical Switch

24 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode we examine the history of non-lithium batteries. We talk of changing the anode material and cathode material, whether separately or to...

145: State of the Art

17 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In which we learn about the beginnings of chemistry applied to art conservation, from the initial attempts by Edward Forbes, but especially when he hi...

Break Time

03 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dear Listener,I have been posting episodes weekly for two and a half years. I need a short break. I promise I will be back very soon. I have many more...

144: Rare as Hens' Teeth

28 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Here we explore the history of unusual and uncommon isotopes of known elements on the periodic table. We discuss the (almost) true statement that all ...

143: Queer as a Clockwork Orange

20 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In which I give a brief history of queer chemists. We talk of the rise of queer scientific associations, and the slog to acceptance of the Gay and Tra...

142: Molecular Valves

14 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Science-fiction writers (and scientists) have been promoting molecular transistors since the 1950s, and we explore the history of why that hasn't...

141: Chemical Communications

06 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I have a conversation with Professor David Perlmutter in the Communications Department at Texas Tech University, on the public's...

140: Chemical Paranoia

29 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We start with the first chemical conspiracy theory from 1996, "chemtrails." Then we move to another popular chemical hoax, "alkaline wa...

139: To the Max

22 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A new material, the MXene, discovered in 2010, is the topic of this episode. We hear of its creation and derivation at Drexel University in Philadelph...

138: Smells Like Teen Spirit

15 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We finally get to discuss what the term "aromatic compound" means in chemistry, from Michael Faraday's report in 1825 of a new organic ...

137: Light My Fire

08 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Aerogels, those feather-weight materials, have a century-old history. We begin with Samuel Kistler, the inventor of the first aerogels, and move forwa...

136: AI, Robot

01 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Artificial intelligence, or AI, can be applied to chemistry, too. Here we discuss a brief history of AI, especially for chemistry, beginning with Djer...

135: Bond, Chemical Bond

25 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In which we consider what, really, is a chemical bond. Lewis and Langmuir promoted the idea that bonding was sharing of electron pairs. Then we hear a...

134: Atto-boy!

18 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In which we talk about the fastest spectroscopy yet, attosecond spectroscopy, which can resolve electrons moving around atoms. The topic begins with C...

133: A Horse of a Different Color

11 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Instead of molecules that absorb light based on their molecular orbitals, this episode talks of nanostructures and their materials that refract light ...

132: Name Dropping

04 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This episode concerns the phenomenon in organic chemistry of classifying a set of similar reactions by a single umbrella name. Most named reactions ho...

131: From Fluor to Ceiling

28 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, seem to be ubiquitous now in the environment and the news. In this episode I delve into why chemists found these ...

130: I Have an Axe to Grind

21 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mechanochemistry, using purely mechanical processes to run a reaction, is much less known in the chemical world, but has been around since the ancient...

129: Sheets and Giggles

14 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In which we learn of the history of graphite, its molecular structure, and electrical properties. Then we discuss the isolation of thinner and thinner...

128: Heavy, Man, Heavy!

07 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With this episode, we complete our history of the discovery of the elements (up through writing this episode). We talk of elements 110 through 118, co...

127: Black is Beautiful

30 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In which we discuss the entry of People of Color into chemistry, mostly in the USA. We start with the first Black to get an Ph.D. in Chemistry in the ...

126: Run of the Mill

23 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In which we talk of a huge problem currently plaguing chemistry (and science in general), the "paper mill," in which researchers pay to get ...

125: Das Model

16 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Here we discuss all sorts of kits chemists use to build models of different molecules. We start with the pre-molecule set built for John Dalton, and t...

124: Lumen Large

09 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Our history of LEDs continues with the entry of LEDs into commercial lighting. We talk of different ways to get white light out of LEDs, and materials...

123: Setting the Ground Rules

02 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This episode gives a basic review of geochemistry, starting with pioneers such as Christian Friedrich Schönbein, Frank Wigglesworth Clarke, and thenc...

122: Catch the 'Wave

26 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Even though the potential for using microwaves to do chemistry was there since 1946, it wasn't until the late 1970s that the first use of microwa...

121: Let the Sun Shine in

19 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We talk about perovskite minerals and compounds, their discovery, and general crystal structure. Then we learn about how researchers gradually learned...

120: Snap Judgement

12 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Click Chemistry came about as several researchers came to similar conclusions in parallel, but from different angles: Barry Sharpless, Morten Meldahl,...

119: Tiny but Mighty

05 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We reach the point in our chemical history when microplastics were first recognized as a pervasive environmental pollutant. Visible plastic bits were ...

118: Hold Tight, Stick Tight

28 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This episode deals with glues and adhesives, from prehistoric times to the present. We talk of prehistoric glue from tree saps, petroleum tar, animal ...

117: The Set Table

21 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Periodic Table we've all seen in chemistry books and classes is not always the way it was, nor the way it must always be. In this episode we ...

116: Open Frame of Mind

14 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We introduce the first chemical construction set in chemistry (besides natural proteins, starches, sugars, etc.), the metal-organic framework. A DuPon...

115: Reach for the Stars

08 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode we talk about astrochemistry, which began in the 20th century. The first detection of molecules outside our solar system began with Th...

114: We Can Work It Out

01 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Here we talk of the first real molecular machines of the 1990s, and the chemistry advances required to invent them. We define what such a machine is, ...

113: Ready Set Go

24 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On a topic that's a little different, here is an episode about chemistry sets. We explore their origins in Germany as portable laboratories in th...

112: Connect the Dots

17 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Here we discuss the discovery of quantum dots, those small particles hovering between molecule-size and macroscopic-size. We begin with physicist and ...

111: O Say Can You See

10 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We return to the history of light-emitting diodes, LEDs, but now talk about the development of organic versions, OLEDs, from the secret work of Roger ...

110: Rattle My Cage

03 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After chemists discovered the soccer-ball molecule, buckminsterfullerene, and its siblings--could they do chemistry with it? We explore putting atoms ...

109: Bon Appetit

25 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This episode deals with the field of molecular gastronomy, founded in the late 1980s and grew in the 1990s, under the leadership of Nicholas Kurti and...

108: Fuel Transformation

18 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In which I discuss my Dear Wife's doctoral dissertation, which deals with converting hydrocarbon fuel (say, methane) into a liquid (say, methanol...

107: Transfermium Wars

11 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We now look at the controversies over discovery and rights to naming elements 104 to 109 in the 1960s to 1990s. The various laboratories included Univ...

106: Natural Order of Things

04 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Through the 1960s up to the 1990s scientists learned how to read DNA's sequence of bases, first by handfuls, then faster and faster. Ray Wu learn...

105: Safety First

28 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We talk of safety equipment in chemical laboratories: goggles, rubber (or non-rubber) gloves, fume hoods (or cupboards), eyewash stations, and lab coa...

104: Inside Job

21 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This time we focus on how nuclear magnetic resonance evolved into a way to peer inside a living creature, that is, magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI....

103: It's Not Easy Being Green

14 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We learn about Green Chemistry, which began with the United States Pollution Prevention Act in 1990, and the Chemistry Council in the European Union&a...

102: Chemical Philosophy

07 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This episode takes a bit of a sidestep: instead of actual chemistry, we discuss the philosophy of chemistry, which underwent a revival in the 1980s an...

101: Totally Tubular

31 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We examine the history of carbon nanotubes, starting with Sumio Iijima in 1990. Or maybe Howard Tennett. Or maybe A.M. Nesterenko, N.F. Kolesnik, Yu.S...

100: I Have the Power

24 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

To celebrate our 100th episode, we have an extended discussion on the history of lithium batteries, which power so many of our portable electronic dev...

99: Lite Brite

17 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode covers the developments in inorganic LEDS in the 1980s and 1990s, including higher-brightness LEDs suitable for car brake lights and traf...

98: Surface Chemistry

10 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For this episode I discuss my doctoral dissertation as an example of real research into surface chemistry in the early 1990s. We examine the structure...

97: Moving Atoms

03 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Feynman gave a lecture in 1959 on atomic ultraminiaturization.  We learn about Donald Eigler and Erhard Schweizer's work in 1989 to make...

96: Journal Square

26 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We hear of the evolution of chemical communications, how chemists tell other chemists of their research, starting with Henry Oldenburg in 1665, who pu...

95: Plastic Love

19 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

New polymers were still being invented or commercialized in the 1980s, so we mention some of the most important 1980s polymers: biaxially-oriented pol...

94: Grape Expectations

12 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We hear about the chemistry behind winemaking, especially the discovery that a fungus generates the alcohol. Then there are the other residues from th...

93: Resistance is Futile

05 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We hear of events from the early 19th century onward that led to the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in the 1980s. Surprisingly, it al...

92: Infinite Loop

29 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Recycling became common in the 1980s, and we learn why. We also learn of the seven different types of plastic in the recycling world, why they need to...

91: In the Air Tonight

22 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Atmospheric environmental chemistry in the 1980s is today's topic. First is Jonathan Shanklin and his discovery of the ozone hole, which led in a...

90: Computerwelt

15 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode focuses on the entry of computers into the chemical laboratory, which began in tiny doses in 1948, but expanded in the 1960s with the LIN...

89: Pathological Science

08 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is all about chemical examples of "pathological science," as Irving Langmuir called it, "the science of things that aren&a...

88: Contamination

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We continue on the path of environmental chemistry, with several egregious examples of pollution in the 1980s. First is the story of Times Beach, Miss...

87: Charge It Up

24 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We hear of an unusual idea that appeared in the 1970s: that metals can become anions and gain electrons! These are the alkalide compounds, first disco...

86: Turnabout is Fair Play

17 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We turn to an oddity in the world of chemistry that became more widely known in the 1980s: non-equilibrium thermodynamics, and especially oscillating ...