Periodycal #25: Mussels, beards, jelly and an award

An ambitious attempt to cram five months of updates into one newsletter

Apr 07, 2025

Hello! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Again! I’m pretty sure I had a similar newsletter lapse around the same time last year. Effectively a newsletter hibernation of sorts, really, sluggishly lurching back into action now spring has arrived.

Anyway, there’s a lot to catch you up on, including a few months of Periodic Graphics in C&EN, a look at so-called “forever chemicals” and where to find them, and a collaboration with the University of Oxford’s Periodically podcast. Oh, and the small matter of me winning an American Chemical Society chemistry communication award!

Award win

You might recall that, in August, I shared that I had been selected as the 2025 winner of the American Chemical Society’s James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the General Public. At the end of March, I flew to San Diego to the ACS Spring meeting for a glitzy award ceremony.

Photo of Andy Brunning receiving the 2025 Grady-Stack Award — 2025 Grady-Stack Award recipient Andy Brunning (second left) is presented with his award by Dorothy J. Phillips, ACS President (first left) and sponsor representatives Silvia S. Jurisson (second right) and Matthew Windsor (first right). **Photo Credits: EPNAC.com**

I already shared some personal reflections on receiving the award over on LinkedIn (which is, as we all know, the designated social space for professional navel-gazing), so I’ll spare you them here. However, I will take the opportunity to thank all of you who follow the graphics, share them, or use them in outreach and education. My reach and impact would be very limited without you all.

To mark winning the award, a graphic on the medal’s composition felt appropriate. I also took the time to dig into the C&EN archives to find out a little more about the two men the prize is named after. You can read more about their lives in the accompanying post.

Infographic on the Grady-Stack Medal. The graphic shows the composition of the medal: 10 carat (41.7%) gold, with the balance made up by a mix of copper, silver and zinc. The graphic also provides detail on James T. Grady, managing editor of the American Chemical Society's News Service from 1923 until 1948, and James H. Stack, managing editor from 1948 until 1960. — Click to view and download on the Ci site

Mussels, beards, jelly and tin

I’ve powered through a few editions of Periodic Graphics since the last newsletter, so here’s a quick rundown of what we’ve covered:

A look at the science of beard products, from oils, through balms, to waxes
A celebration of ten years of Periodic Graphics looking at tin, traditionally given as a 10-year anniversary gift
A summary of the history, uses, and side effects of weight-loss drugs
A comparison of different food gelling agents
A dive into the chemistry that explains how mussels stick to rocks

Periodycal meets PERIODically

Towards the end of last year, I published the first of a two-graphic collaboration with PERIODically, the Oxford Chemistry Period Podcast. Started in 2023, the podcast brings together undergraduate and postgraduate chemists at the University of Oxford to discuss how having a period has affected their study of chemistry – or, as they term it, “how periods just get in the bloody way.” The podcast won the Royal Society of Chemistry’s 2024 Horizon Prize for Education.

The first of the two graphics looks at the chemistry of the menstrual cycle, highlighting the key hormones involved, how their levels change, and the impacts these changes have.

Keep an eye out for the second graphic, which is coming soon!

Infographic on the chemistry of the menstrual cycle. The graphic highlights the two sub-cycles, the ovarian cycle and the uterian cycle, and the varying hormone levels during them.

Follicle stimulating hormone stimulates the growth of a follicle in the ovaries. After ovulation, levels drp to prevent development of multiple follicles.

Luteinising hormone triggers the release of an egg from the ovaries and starts the conversion of the follicle to a corpus luteum which is essential for establishing and maintaining pregnancy.

Estrogen, produced by the ovaries, causes the uterine lining to grow and triggers the production of luteinising hormone. Low levels of estrogen and progesterone cause the top layers of the uterine lining to break down - this is menstruation.

The corpus luteum releases progesterone which stimulates thickening of the uterine lining and the production of prostaglandins. Prostaglandins cause contractions which shed the uterine lining and cause cramps. — Click to view and download on the Ci site

Fluorinated “forever chemicals” and where to find them

Another recent collaboration saw me team up with Agata Communications and ANEMEL to put together this graphic on so-called “forever chemicals”.

These are organic (carbon-based) compounds that contain fluorine atoms in place of hydrogen atoms. This graphic looks at some everyday examples and how they’re used, the chemical properties that earned them their “forever chemicals” moniker, and what’s being done to phase out the worst offenders.

Infographic on fluorinated 'forever chemicals' and where to find them. Fluorochemicals are organic (carbon-based) compounds that contain fluorine atoms in place of hydrogen atoms. These compounds are often referred to as “per and polyfluoroalkyl substances”, or PFAS.

The bond between carbon and fluorine atoms are very strong and stable. Because of this, PFAS don’t break down easily and can accumulate, posing potential problems for human health and the environment.

The graphic goes on to show the structures of some common PFAS and details their uses. — Click to view and download on the Ci site

Help keep Ci’s infographics free-to-access

I’ve been making chemistry infographics for coming up to twelve years now. While I produce some on a commissioned basis, along with the Periodic Graphics for C&EN, I don’t receive any direct funding to support keeping the graphics free to access on the website.

Like everything, the costs associated with the website have increased over the past few years, and it now costs me over £60 a month in hosting fees alone. I know some of you will already be supporting me over on Patreon, and I’ve also recently set up a Ko-fi account. Any contribution there helps ensure these educational resources remain accessible to everyone, so if the graphics have helped you at any point in the past, I’d hugely appreciate your support.

That’s all for this edition. Hopefully, the next newsletter will be slightly less tardy!

Thanks for reading,

Andy

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