A closer look
Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge was a 19th-century chemist whose greatest legacy came from dripping chemicals onto filter paper. He noticed that different substances separated as they seeped through the paper via capillary action, leaving beautiful, concentric rings of color. He called them 'capillary pictures' and essentially invented chromatography. Modern forensic science, drug testing, and DNA analysis all owe their existence to a guy who just thought it looked super rad when his chemical stains bled into weird tie-dye patterns on his desk.
