All RSC Education articles in Non-EiC content – Page 119
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On This Day - Jun 03 : Emmet Culligan died
He invented the Culligan water softener system that made water softening available to home users. These systems reduce the amount of calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and other metal cations found in hard water. He founded the Culligan international water treatment products company in 1936.
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On This Day – Jul 03 : Discovery of bromine
The French chemist was an unknown young laboratory assistant when he discovered the element in seawater, which is a liquid at room temperature. This was independent to Carl Jacob Löwig’s preparation of bromine one year earlier. The word bromine comes from the Greek word bromos, meaning “stench”.
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On This Day – Aug 03 : Platinum catalysis
He realised that a platinum (Pt) sponge could cause the ignition of hydrogen (H) at room temperature by lowering the activation energy. This effect was the precursor to the theory of catalysis, and in 1835 the term “catalyst” was coined by Swedish chemist Jacob Berzelius.
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On This Day – Sep 03 : Fritz Pregl was born
He began research on bile acids in 1904. With only tiny yields to study, he pioneered micro analytical techniques and designed a new balance capable of weighing 20 grams to an accuracy of 0.001 milligrams. Pregl was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1923 for his efforts.
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On This Day - Oct 03 : Charles Pedersen was born
He shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the synthesis of crown ethers. These are a group of compounds that can “recognize” each other and choose which other molecules to form complexes, much like the behaviour of molecules found in living organisms.
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On This Day - Nov 03 : Antifouling paint patent
It was made from a mixture of a copper oxide (CuO), tar and naphtha, and offered protection against growth of barnacles and seaweed for twelve months. There are now concerns that copper oxide based antifouling paints are environmental pollutants, and replacements are being introduced.
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On This Day - Dec 03 : Bhopal disaster
A leak of toxic methyl isocyanate gas occurred at the Union Carbide India pesticide plant. It caused almost 4000 deaths, and is considered to be one of the World’s worst industrial catastrophes.
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On This Day - Mar 02 : Discovery of radioactivity
Becquerel discovered that potassium uranium sulfate crystals can produce images on photographic plates even when kept in the dark. He deduced that the crystals must spontaneously emit radiation, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 along with Marie Curie. Related resources: 175 Faces of chemistry ...
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On This Day - Apr 02 : Theodore Richards died
He determined accurate measurements of elemental atomic weights, suggesting the existence of isotopes. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1914 as recognition of his work.
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On This Day - Jun 02 : Edward Elgar was born
Although he is best known for being a musical composer, Elgar was a keen amateur chemist who built a laboratory in his back garden and carried out experiments there. Some of his surviving musical manuscripts are still stained with chemicals!
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On This Day – Aug 02 : Discovery of positrons
He was examining chamber photographs of cosmic rays when he realised that the tracks orientation revealed the existence of positively charged particles too small to be protons. These sub-atomic particles have the same mass as an electron, but with a positive charge.
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On This Day – Sep 02 : Friedrich Ostwald was born
He was one of the founders of classical physical chemistry. In particular, Ostwald was a pioneer of electrochemistry and chemical dynamics. He won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1909 for his work on catalysis, chemical equilibrium, and reaction velocities.
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On This Day - Oct 02 : First atomic clock
Atomic clocks keep time using the microwave signal that is emitted when electrons in atoms change energy levels. This early clock, the Atomicron, used the constant frequency from the oscillations of the caesium (Cs) atom at 9,192,631,830 MHz.
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On This Day - Dec 02 : Atomic Age began
The first artificially initiated self-sustained nuclear fission reaction was engineered by the Italian scientist Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago.
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On This Day - May 01 : AC motor patented
Not only was this the first alternating current (AC) motor, but it also heralded a new system of power transmission, which is the basis for the mains power we use today. The Serbian-American physicist, engineer and inventor is recognised as one of the pioneers of electric power.
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On This Day - Jun 01 : Flixborough disaster
A temporary pipe containing cyclohexane caught fire and burst. It left 28 people dead, 36 injured and around 1800 nearby buildings damaged. Consequently, UK government regulations in hazardous industrial processes were significantly tightened.
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On This Day - Oct 01 : Thalidomide was marketed
This notorious drug was marketed as a mild sleeping pill that was safe even for pregnant women. It wasn’t until 1962 that the severe side effects were revealed, where it had caused the development of malformed limbs in babies.
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On This Day - Dec 01 : Martin Klaproth was born
In 1789 he discovered uranium (U), which was named after the planet Uranus. This planet was actually discovered eight years earlier by another German scientist, William Hershel.
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On This Day - Jan 31 : Irving Langmuir was born
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1932 for his work on monolayers and surface absorption. He was the first non-academic chemist to be awarded the prize.
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On This Day - Jan 26 : Nuclear fission reported
The discovery was made by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann and was interpreted by Lise Meitner and Otto Frish. Danish physicist Niels Bohr then reported the discovery of nuclear fission at the Washington conference. Related resources: Chemistry will play a central role to the future of UK nuclear The ...