Sulphuric acid, which has the traditional name, 鈥渙il of vitriol.鈥 It is a nasty, corrosive liquid, making 鈥渧itriolic鈥 an apt term for virulent language. At first it may seem odd that the term ...
Not if it tested for morphine, as long as we let L. Frank Baum get away with a little poetic license. In the 1939 movie classic The Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West conjures up a poppy...
In October 2000, while walking along the shores of the "Great Salt Lake" near Salt Lake City, two hunters made a gruesome discovery. In a plastic bag, they found a white sock, a shirt, a few bones...
Victorian ladies fainted with alarming frequency. They had been characterized as the weaker sex and had become conditioned to fulfil the role. A little shock, such as a glance at a passage in Lady...
Take the carcass of a duck and place 35 grams of its liver and 15 grams of its heart in a one liter bottle filled with a solution of pancreatic juice and glucose. When after forty days the liver...
Subjecting various foods to smoke is an age-old method used both for preservation and flavouring. But there are issues. Smoke contains a variety of cancer causing compounds. And in this case, we...
Probably what first attracted the Chinese to the odd looking root was its shape. It had a decidedly human appearance and was therefore given the name "ginseng," meaning "man- like." The uncanny...
Maya Blue, a vibrant light blue colour, characterizes the civilisation that flourished across Mesoamerica between the 3rd and 10th century. The pigment was used to decorate pottery, murals and...