Unwrapping our chocolate cover
Posted by Neil on Wed 16 Dec 2015Categories: Front cover chemistry | [12] Comments
Hopefully, it hasn’t escaped your notice that our December issue had a feature about chocolate in it – one of our tastiest articles this year! As soon as we knew that article was going in the issue, we knew exactly what we wanted on the cover: chocolate, and lots of it. But we’re Chemistry World, not Cadbury World, so we had to shoehorn in some chemistry.
What better way than to make a molecule of theobromine (one of the key alkaloid compounds found in everyone’s favourite cocoa-bean-based confectionery) out of chocolate?
In extensive (and hunger-inducing) discussions among the team, we came down to a couple of options: make a model ourselves out of shop-bought chocs or get a pro to do it. So armed with £20 out of the magazine’s budget, I headed to the shops to try the first option. (more…)