That smoking causes cancer is a well known and scientifically proven fact. Everyone knows that nicotine is present in cigarettes, and causes addiction to smoking; however, what’s a little less well known is the range of chemicals contained within cigarette smoke that can lead to carcinogenic ...

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This graphic comes off the back of a number of requests for it to be added to the ‘Aroma Chemistry’ series. The characteristic ‘new car smell’, as with the majority of entries in this series, can’t be pinned down to just one compound – rather, it’s a complex mixtureof chemicals that, combined, ...

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18th May marks the date of birth of Thomas Midgley, who made significant contributions to something many of us make use of on a regular basis: petrol. Midgley was the research assistant to Charles Kettering, and the duo were responsible for the addition of the compound tetraethyl lead to petrol, ...

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Benzene is a hugely important compound in organic chemistry. It consists of six carbon atoms joined together in a ring, with a hydrogen atom bonded to each carbon; by replacing one or more of these hydrogens with a functional group, a large number of different compounds can be formed. This ...

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