At Naughty Chemist we think chemistry is wonderful, but we know it can also be extremely dangerous! One example is strychnine, the famous poison that killed Alexander the Great in 323 BC. This molecule, is extremely toxic by inhalation and ingestion. The symptoms of poisoning appear 10-20 minutes after exposure and death follows in roughly 2 hours. Want to know more about how this molecule works and why it is so toxic? More info in this article.

Winter has now passed, but some of you might still miss cold and snow…No problem! We have what you are looking for. You can make some fake snow at home in few seconds. The only things you need are: a superabsorbent polymer (e.g. sodium polyacrylate, which can be obtained by cutting a nappy) water. Wondering about how to do it? Have a look at this video!

Nature is always of great inspiration for the development of novel materials with biological applications. This is what the research team of Prof Ali Khademhosseini did by creating hydrogel based soft robots that allowed the growth of cardiomyocytes and showed self-actuating motions aligned with the contractile force of the cells. These soft robots were fabricated by mimicking the biomechanical model of a batoid fish. Find out more about the different components of the robots