Why must blue indigo temporarily stop behaving like blue indigo before it can dye your jeans? Sodium dithionite makes possible one of textile chemistry's most elegant reduction-oxidation cycles.
How can straight hair become a long-lasting curl? The chemistry is surprisingly elegant: open sulfur bridges inside keratin, reshape the hair, then build the bridges again.
A bridge can begin fighting corrosion on the day its concrete is poured—even if the chloride that threatens its steel won't arrive until years later.
Nickel plating without connecting the part to a power supply? Sodium hypophosphite is one of the chemicals that makes electroless nickel plating possible.
Can electricity replace a bottle of reducing agent? 3-Nitrobenzotrifluoride offers a fascinating real-world example.
What do coffee, laundry detergent, animal feed, paper and an oil well have in common?
Have you ever wondered why your face cream doesn't spoil a few weeks after you open it?