An example of writing about chemical substances in an active voice:
"Marsh's idea was elegant in its simplicity. Rather than dig about trying to separate the arsenic from the liquid, he forced the arsenic to reveal itself. It was at once a way to separate out the arsenic and to test for its presence. Marsh used hydrogen gas, which deoxygenated the arsenic oxide; the arsenic would then combine with the hydrogen to create arsine (arsenic trihydride). Now turned into a gas, the arsine would separate itself from the liquid."
Helen Barrell (2017) Fatal Evidence. Professor Alfred Swaine Taylor & the dawn of forensic science. Pen & Sword
(Arsine was separated from the liquid because of its lower density and the differential effects of gravity – not because of any action taken by the substance.)
Read examples of anthropomorphism in science
