Handle with care!

Karl Christe takes danger in his stride. He has to. In forty years as a chemist developing explosives and rocket propellants, he’s seen how bad it can get. But then, it’s not an area that attracts faint hearts. Christe has earned a reputation for ignoring conventional wisdom. He’s synthesised dozens of previously unknown compounds, including several the textbooks said were impossible. His latest made headlines last year as one of the most violently explosive materials ever produced. It was also the first new form of nitrogen in more than a century. Jonathan Knight wondered what spurred him on .…