Fall 2009, Vol. 27, No. 3
From ancient underground oceans to spies (and their invisible ink) and on to 17th-century female pharmacists, chemistry goes everywhere.
During the 17th-century many women were skilled in making medicinal home remedies, but only a few women ran their own apothecaries and competed with male physicians for the right to make and prescribe medicines.
Nobel Prize winner Alan MacDiarmid reveals a creative way scientists fund their research.
Where do chemists network? The Web, of course! Find out more.
Steven Shapin, The Scientific Life: A Moral History of a Late Modern Vocation. Reviewed by Pei Koay.
Paul Lucier, Scientists and Swindlers: Consulting on Coal and Oil in America, 1820-1890. Reviewed by Brian Black.
Meet sodium chloride, the latest nutritional villain. But are the alternatives scarier than the substance it’s replacing? A brief history about a “terrifying” food.
Crossword Puzzle Solution
The 150th anniversary of Colonel Edwin Drake’s accidental discovery of oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania.
Books to Note: Fall 2009.
Leo B. Slater, War and Disease: Biomedical Research on Malaria in the 20th Century. Reviewed by David Caruso.
Museo Territoriale Bassa Friulana. Reviewed by Jonathan Taylor.
Color by numbers—no problem, thanks to Albert H. Munsell, who pioneered methods for color comparison.
Dow Chemical Company began when the innovative mind of Herbert Dow met the rich quantities of magnesium, chlorine, calcium, and bromine stored deep below the soils of Midland, Michigan. Photographs of the early chemical plant in the late 19th century document the pioneering of Dow’s company and the beginning of chlorine bleach.