From vibrant dyes to volatile disasters - trinitrophenol’s unstable legacy. Few substances in human history have been both so brilliantly useful and so terrifyingly dangerous as picric acid. This humble-looking yellow crystalline compound, formally known as trinitrophenol (TNP), has lurked in the shadowy corridors of chemistry for well over two centuries, causing as much chaos as it has progress. It’s a chemical that epitomises humanity’s knack for fiddling with dangerous thi