Curated playlist
E-number additives
- NitrogenNitrogen, the gas in most of every breath, killed two shuttle technicians in 1981. It fills about 78% of Earth's air.
- OxygenOxygen makes up almost half of the Earth's crust, yet for most of human history nobody knew it existed.
- Sodium carbonateUntil the early 19th century, Europe made soda ash by burning plants. Chemists raced to make it from salt instead.
- AluminiumAluminium is the most abundant metal in Earth's crust, yet for most of history no one had seen any.
- Calcium carbonateA famous 1915 ulcer diet sometimes killed patients with too much calcium carbonate. It was called milk-alkali syndrome.
- Carbon dioxideCarbon dioxide is only about 0.043% of Earth's air as of July 2025. Yet it feeds plants and traps heat.
- HeliumHelium was found in sunlight 27 years before anyone isolated it on Earth.
- HydrogenHydrogen makes up about 75% of normal matter, yet nobody recognized it until the 1760s.
- ArgonArgon fills about one in every hundred breaths, yet no one knew it was there until 1894.
- Fatty acidA fatty acid's bend decides whether a fat is hard or soft. Cis kinks keep the chains from packing tightly.
- SilverThe Phoenicians found so much silver in Spain that it would not fit on their ships.
- Acetic acidRoman aristocrats ate a sweet syrup made in lead pots. Historians believe it fed their lead poisoning.
- Sodium hydroxideSodium hydroxide, better known as caustic soda or lye, is a white solid built from sodium cations and hydroxide anions. In 2022, factories around the world turned out roughly 83 million tons of it. Yet many people know it only through a…
- GoldGold's famous Witwatersrand deposit was not seeded by an asteroid. The impact only tilted buried rocks.
- Sulfuric acidAdding water to concentrated sulfuric acid can trigger an explosion. Chemists add acid to water instead.
- Potassium nitratePotassium nitrate, better known for centuries as saltpetre, once cost a queen a small fortune. In 1561, Elizabeth I of England was at war with Philip II of Spain and could no longer import the salt. Her kingdom had no home production of…
- Nitrous oxideNitrous oxide, also called dinitrogen oxide, dinitrogen monoxide, laughing gas or simply nitrous, is a colourless gas with a faint, slightly sweet scent and taste. By 2020, every billion molecules of air held 333 of its molecules, and that…