An intro
Why I write...
For as long as I remember, I have had an infectious interest in exploring the world of chemistry. Since falling in love with chemistry as a young boy, I have been confronted by an incredible dearth of accessible chemistry content. Of the materials that there were, almost all were dense, academic and impenetrable to a lay readership (not that that ever stopped me from trying!). Indeed, the entire academic-publishing complex has, then and now, struck me as inherently exclusivist and (quite literally) inaccessible to broader audiences.
To remedy this, I’d like to share a running commentary on news in the chemical world from an interested layman’s perspective. I will also share anecdotes and longer-form explanations of what I feel to be underexplored and underappreciated in the chemical world. I hope to bring what tends to be discarded as ‘niche’ or ‘peripheral’ into full view, and offer a fresh take on the world of chemistry from someone who is neither a professor nor even a graduate nor in any way affiliated with some of the more ‘mainstream’ chemistry outlets.
I want to combine both breadth of coverage with an in-depth analysis of recent happenings from a chemical perspective, as well as offering a fresh take more established chemical concepts. From CRISPR-Cas9 to RAAC concrete to DeepMind, Chemistry in the news is often reported in a half-hearted and superficial way; hopefully this Substack will offer a take that will inspire you to take an even greater interest in the sublime beauty of the molecular world.
It is that beauty, a beauty that has fuelled the imagination of millions, that I hope I can share with you in this Substack.
Without further ado, tomorrow we will explore a very topical puzzle, namely the chemical properties (or deficiencies) of RAAC concrete.
Alchemist Discovering Phosphorus, Joseph Wright of Derby, 1771