the.com/ethylene
the gas that ripens your bananas and built the entire plastics industry from the same molecule.
means a simple hydrocarbon gas, two carbons double-bonded to each other, that acts as both a plant hormone and the raw material for polyethylene plastic.
from first synthesized in 1795 by dutch chemists who called it olefiant gas, oil-making gas, because it formed an oily liquid with chlorine; renamed ethylene in the 19th century once chemists mapped it onto the ethane family.
plant hormonetriggers ripening, so one rotten apple spoils the barrel
production scaleover 200 million tons made globally every year
double bondthat single bond makes polyethylene bags possible
combustion gasburned in torches for high-temperature metal cutting
for instance
polyethylene bags — made from ethylene polymerized into the world's most common plastic
banana ripening rooms — exposed to ethylene gas to ripen green bananas on demand
delphi oracle vapors — ancient greeks may have inhaled ethylene seeping from rock fissures