Napoleon's Buttons

Napoleon’s Buttons explores the scientific phenomenon of molecules by highlighting how we can trace the origins of our entire existence to something as tiny as atoms and make sense of various events in history that shaped our world.

The story of Napoleon‘s disastrous Russian campaign is well-known. But what you might not know is that a little detail on the buttons of the soldiers in Napoleon’s army may have changed the course of history.

In fact, atoms had a lot to do with their loss. It seems that the French wore tin, which is a material that degrades in low temperatures. By the time the soldiers reached Borisov, half a million soldiers had turned into ten thousand men with the tin disease. What betrayed them were the atoms in their own clothes.

Take other examples from history, such as the expansion of the British Empire and cotton. In such high-humidity weather, the particles in cotton are linked well, as they thrive in that climate. Given how expensive it was and how much of it was produced, rainy Britain won a lot of the money that was used to build it.

And Manhattan? What’s that got to do with anything? Well, it seems that in the battle for nutmeg, which was thought to be a precious spice that cured diseases, what was once called New Amsterdam under a Dutch colony was given to the English in exchange for Run, an island where nutmeg was plenty.

We owe a lot to the accidental scientific experiments of the past.

Take Flemming’s discovery of penicillin, for example. It was actually a failed experiment that accidentally led to the discovery of one of humanity’s most important medicines.

Similarly, William Perkin’s purple synthetic dye was discovered when he was trying to create a cure for malaria. When he discovered the purple dye stains, he contacted distributors. If he got it cheap, he could make a lot of money off of the dye.

Even Queen Victoria wore clothes dyed by his groundbreaking discovery, which says a lot about its potential. These are just two examples of how experimentation has helped advance humanity in many ways.

It just goes to show how chemistry plays such an important role in our daily lives and in the bigger picture as well. While we might not think about it, when you put everything together you can see how something as tiny as the right atom at the right time can change the world.

Human beings have always been fascinated by the power of chemical reactions and biology. They’re what allows us to live, grow and change. And yet, we’ve only recently begun to understand them. You’ve probably heard how in the…