If there’s a chemical with a cooler name than “fuming nitric acid,” we can’t think of it. Nearly pure nitric acid is useful stuff, especially if you’re in the business of making rocket ...

The most useful and important vehicle for dissolving gold is aqua regia, (royal water), composed of two parts of hydrochloric (muriatic) acid, and one part of nitric (aquafortis). Gold is ...

Much like etching a PCB, Blake started with a copper sheet, writing and drawing his works backwards with stopping varnish, an acid-resistant varnish that sticks around after a nitric acid bath.