For many decades it has been suspected that chemistry and physics alone are not enough to account for the existence and behaviour of living systems. Even some of the simplest of forms of life can perform tasks that human engineers have no hope of matching. The most stunning example is perhaps that of a single fertilised human egg cell, which develops first into a fetus and ultimately into a mature adult. Apart from the chemical and physical processes involved, much speculation has focused on what else may be required to carry out such prodigious feats.
If you suspect that the superiority claims made for certain wines are simply nonsense, then this is the book for you.
The image of an orange glowing doughnut shape stirred a global sensation when it was revealed on 10 April 2019. The first visualisation of a black hole seen as a black shadow in the middle, is framed by the spiralling accretion disk of material being sucked into it. The strong deflection of light even from behind the black hole makes this radiation appear as a doughnut-shaped halo.
More than three billion years ago, a self-replicating polymer now known as RNA started catalysing the formation of peptide bonds.
To gain a grasp of the inherent complexity of our world is not as difficult a task as it may appear at first sight.
The production of wine and beer goes back millennia, spirits have been distilled since the 9th century, and surgery has relied on it as disinfectant and anaesthetic.
We are currently witnessing the emergence of an ever-growing number of microbes that have become resistant to most or all existing drugs designed to act against them.
Chemists are normally reticent when it comes to talking about chemical topics with their friends because such subjects generally lack the necessary human interest.