All RSC Education articles in Non-EiC content – Page 108

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On This Day - Apr 08 : Melvin Calvin was born

He is most famed for discovering the Calvin cycle, the pathway for carbon dioxide (CO₂) assimilation in plants. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1961 for this work.
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On This Day - Apr 04 : Synthesis of Vitamin B6

Merck, Sharp and Dohme were the first to artificially synthesise Vitamin B6, which is required for good health. It has a role in the production of haemoglobin – the molecule that carries oxygen (O2) around our bodies – and regulates blood sugar levels. Related resources: Haemoglobin podcast
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On This Day - Apr 03 : New soap-making process

William Gossage, a chemical manufacturer and founder of the Gossage soap company, patented the process for adding sodium silicate (Na₂SiO₃) to soap. Sodium silicate acts as a mild abrasive, a pH buffer and reduces the hardness of water.
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On This Day - May 02: Nicholson split water

The English chemist discovered that when leads from a battery are placed in water (H₂O), the water breaks up into hydrogen (H₂) and oxygen (O₂) bubbles, which collect separately at the submerged ends of the wires. This process is called electrolysis.
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On This Day - May 31 : Louis Ignarro was born

Ignarro was co-awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1998 for the discovery that nitric oxide (NO) acts as a signalling molecule, controlling the expansion and contraction of blood vessels.
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On This Day – Jul 31 : Gene therapy in USA

Gene therapy uses DNA to treat disease, usually by replacing a faulty gene with a healthy copy. Recent clinical studies suggest this technique holds promise for the future treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
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On This Day – Aug 31 : First chemotherapeutic drug

German scientist Paul Ehrlich coined the term ‘chemotherapy’ to describe what he called a ‘magic bullet’: a substance that could find and kill infectious microbes without harming the host. Chemotherapy still plays a very important role in cancer treatment today.
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On This Day - Oct 31 : Robert Mulliken died

He was awarded the 1966 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on chemical bonds and describing the electronic structure of molecules using the molecular orbital method. His research still leads this field.
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On This Day - Dec 31 : Drunkometer was invented

Invented by Rolla N. Harger of Indiana University School of Medicine, it was the first successful machine for testing blood alcohol content through breath testing. The machine used acidified potassium permanganate solution as a colour indicator for the amount of alcohol present.
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On This Day - Mar 30 : The first anaesthetic used

American surgeon Crawford Long encouraged his patient to inhale ether during a medical procedure to remove a neck tumour. This marked the beginning of the use of anaesthesia during surgeries.
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On This Day - Apr 30 : Discovery of the electron

Thomson was studying the properties of cathode rays, and found that they were over 1,000 times lighter than the hydrogen (H) atom and that they were the same mass irrespective of the parent atom. He called these particles “corpuscules”, but scientists later dubbed them “electrons”.
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On This Day - May 30 : Krypton was discovered

Krypton (Kr) was discovered by William Ramsay and Morris Travers. Its name is derived from the Greek “kryptos”, meaning hidden. Krypton is one of the rarest gases in the Earth’s atmosphere, accounting for only 1 part per million by volume.
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On This Day – Jul 30 : John Antoine Chaptal died

He authored the first book on industrial chemistry, and coined the name “nitrogen”. Chaptal also helped improve the technology used to manufacture sulfuric acid, saltpetre for gunpowder, beetroot sugar and wine, amongst other things.
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On This Day – Aug 30 : Jacobus van't Hoff was born

He was the first person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Van’t Hoff was a pioneer in chemical kinetics, reaction equilibria and stereochemistry. He also helped to found the discipline of physical chemistry.
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On This Day - Nov 30 : Smithson Tennant was born

He discovered iridium (Ir) and osmium (Os), the latter named for the unpleasant odour of some of its compounds (from the Greek word ‘osme’ meaning odour). He also proved that diamonds are pure carbon.
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On This Day - Feb 29 : Bohr issued bowl of balls

Danish physicist Niels Henrik David Bohr made fundamental contributions to the understanding of atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922.
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On This Day - Mar 29 : New electron microscope

This electron microscope enabled atoms to be seen for first time. Advances in imaging have allowed materials to be probed with astonishing resolution using transmission electron microscopy (TEM).
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On This Day - Jun 29 : Peter Waage was born

Waage discovered the Law of Mass Action with Cato Guldberg. This law relates the rate of a chemical reaction to the concentration of the reactants, and has become the basis for determining reaction rate constants.
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On This Day – Aug 29 : Meitnerium synthesised

Meitnerium was first synthesised in Darmstadt, Germany. It is believed to be the heaviest element in group 9 of the periodic table, but it is incredibly unstable and very little is known about its chemical properties.
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On This Day – Sep 29 : CERN was established

The organisation runs the world’s largest particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. In September 2011 CERN scientists reported that some particles appeared to be travelling faster than light, although it’s now thought that the experiment was flawed.