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Chemistry

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Heidelberg, Germany

Robert Bunsen Statue

A larger-than-life monument to the inventor of the Bunsen burner.
Maria points to a mysterious symbolic representation of an early chemistry experiment.
ancient

The Ancient Female Alchemist Whose Name Is in Your Kitchen

Who put the Marie in "bain-Marie"?
Andrew Coletti April 8, 2024
The limestone canopic jars of lady Senetnay featured lids shaped like human heads. Two jars are kept at the Museum August Kestner in Hanover, Germany.
mummies

Get a Whiff of Ancient Egypt’s 'Scent of Eternity'

Experts reconstructed the smell of mummified organs—and it’s actually pretty pleasant.
Roxanne Hoorn September 14, 2023
Chemist and physicist Marie Curie works in the lab with her husband Pierre in 1896. Curie would go on to win two Nobel prizes for her groundbreaking research on radioactivity.
radioactive

Marie Curie As You’ve Never Met Her Before

The world’s first two-time Nobel Laureate was a nerd’s nerd who broke the law for knowledge.
Sarah Durn April 20, 2023
This 1618 engraving by Matthaeus Merian the Elder depicts the alchemical universe with the Philosopher's Stone at its center.
science

How Scholars Cracked a Medieval Alchemist’s Secret Code

Written in a puzzling Latin cipher, it contains his formula for eternal life.
Sarah Durn November 11, 2021
The black material found on the final page of Brønlund's diary.
exploration

A Mysterious Black Spot Offers Clues to a Doomed Explorer's Last Moments

Jørgen Brønlund's diary contained information that wasn't written on the page.
Luna Shyr December 18, 2020
Displays at the Weaver Dental Museum include a jumble of dentures.
Itinerary

6 Fascinating Medical Marvels in Pennsylvania

50 States of Wonder
Sam O'Brien
These exposed plates fooled Strindberg—or perhaps he just wanted to believe.
science

In 1893, a Swedish Playwright Thought He’d Captured the Stars

August Strindberg’s failed photography experiment continued to evolve, chemically and beautifully, long after his death.
Isaac Schultz March 16, 2020
The researchers detected arsenic, lead, and antimony in the yellow paint—meaning it was more than just orpiment.
paintings

Found: Surprisingly Modern Paint on an Ancient Egyptian Gate

How did a pigment that Vermeer used in the 1600s wind up on Egyptian art from the 6th century BC?
Sabrina Imbler November 12, 2019
An illuminated atlas depicts Mansa Musa, emperor of Mali from 1312 to 1337, widely known for his vast vast wealth in the form of gold deposits.
science

Medieval Africans Had a Unique Process for Purifying Gold With Glass

And scientists in Illinois have recreated it.
Evan Nicole Brown May 9, 2019
The installation.
Prague, Czechia

Periodic Table of Charles University

A giant interactive periodic table with real samples of the elements.
Butter?
food

How Much of Ireland’s ‘Bog Butter’ Is Actually Buttery?

The chunks look and smell like rancid dairy, so scientists set out to confirm it.
Jessica Leigh Hester March 15, 2019
Stockholm, Sweden

Berzelius Park

This statue and park honor the Swedish chemist Jacob Berzelius, one of the founders of modern chemistry.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Museum
Warsaw, Poland

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Museum

This biographical museum honors the groundbreaking scientist at her birthplace in Warsaw.
The chart looks pretty good, all things considered.
science

Found: A Very Old Periodic Table, Rolled Up in Storage

The science-y magic of tidying up.
Jessica Leigh Hester January 17, 2019
Wrecks stand to see a number of threats in a changing ocean. Here, NOAA diver John Brooks a ship off the coast of Hawaii.
ships

The Second Death of Long-Submerged Shipwrecks

Climate change is coming for underwater archaeological sites.
Jessica Leigh Hester July 27, 2018
An Australian Olympic team swimsuit from the 1992 Barcelona Olympic games.
museums

The World's Largest Speedo Collection Almost Oozed Away

In 2012, Australia's Powerhouse Museum discovered that something strange was happening with some of their swimsuits.
Abigail Cain July 26, 2018
A colony of Flavobacterium IR1 in a agar plate.
science

In the Future, We May Paint With Brightly Colored Bacteria

Researchers have cracked the genetic code behind nature's structural colors, allowing them to be replicated fast.
Christina Ayele Djossa February 20, 2018