Back in school, you’ll have learned that the air in our atmosphere is composed primarily of nitrogen, at 78%, and oxygen, at 21%, with a number of other trace gases. It’s to these trace gases we’re looking today – more specifically, at how human activity can result in the release of air pollution ...

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Sources and reactions of atmosphericorganic molecules containing nitrogen.

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The Compounds in Red Lipstick

Lipstick is one of the most commonly used cosmetic products – and arange of chemicals are required for its production. The choice of these ingredients is carefully considered to provide the desired colour, glossiness, and indelibility. A single stick of lipstick will contain several hundred ...

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Today, hair dyes are widely used, either to cover up grey hairs, or simply by those wanting to change their natural hair colour. The chemistry behind how they change the colour of hair can actually get pretty complicated, but this graphic tries to boil it down to the key classes of chemicals ...

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Today’s postmarks a slight detour for the aroma chemistry series. So far, we’ve look mainly at pleasant aromas, but today we turn to a major malodour: that of toilets, and, more specifically, human waste. It might seem like something of a childish subject, but there are some interesting chemical ...

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Sodium Hydroxide & Ammonia Precipitates

A previous post looked at the colours of transition metals, and the origin of their colours – this graphic, on the other hand, looks at how transition metals (and some non-transition metals) can be identified by the precipitates they form with sodium hydroxide and ammonia solutions. I’m going to ...

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