From Muck to Mauve: the creation of modern dyes from coal tar

05 Nov 2025 in Dyes on Purple, Coal-tar, Aniline, Chemistry, Dyes, Basf, Kekulé, Dream, Perkins, Quinine, Pauling, Aromaticity, Resonance, Benzene, Thomas, Pynchon, Porphyrins, Orobouros, Gravitys, Rainbow

📖 40 min read • Aniline and the birth of the German chemical industry

Photo credit: James St. John. Flickr [CC BY 2.0]

Nitrogen fixation: artificial lightning, bird poop, and how kudzu grew out of control

14 Jun 2023 in Nitrogen-fixation on Lightning, Haber-bosch, Guano, Nitrogenase, Kudzu

📖 15 min read • How breaking the N₂ bond unleashed unstoppable growth

Photo credit: Clinton Steeds. Flickr [CC BY 2.0]

Content notice: this post discusses the history and chemistry that was occurring within the context of the invention of some of the worst chemical agents of World Wars I & II, but doesn’t go into detail. It also mentions a suicide, deaths in an industrial accident, bombing campaigns, and indefinite detention of migrants.

The chemistry behind bioluminescence

15 Apr 2023 in Photobiology on Luciferin, Luciferase, Photobiology, Bioluminescence, Fireflies, Jellyfish

📖 10 min read • How breaking an oxygen pair bond generates light

Photo credit: Adam Foster. Flickr [CC BY-NC-SA 2.0]

Selecting an active space

12 Apr 2023 in Guide on Active-space, Casscf, Multiconfigurational, Electronic-structure, Conical, Intersection

📖 10 min read • Input examples for Gaussian multiconfigurational conical intersection searches

This post is adapted straight from my PhD Thesis, and deals with the struggle of creating a workable active space for multiconfigurational calculations.

An Ersatz Ansatz

12 Apr 2023 in Guide on Electronic-structure, Dft

📖 15 min read • Computational chemistry methods for beginners

This post is adapted straight from my PhD Thesis, and is intended as a primer for beginner computational chemists. Thanks goes out to Dr Laura McKemmish, whose notes on compchem for undergraduates is the urtext for this guide.