All RSC Education articles in Non-EiC content – Page 12

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On This Day - Nov 12 : Water declared a compound

This revelation was announced to the French Royal Academy of Sciences where the French nobleman performed an experiment using hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O). The product of a reaction between these elements was found to be water, which proved its composition.
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On This Day - Dec 12 : Compounds of californium

By treating californium (Cf) with steam and hydrochloric acid, Burris Cunningham and James Wallman of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory of the University of California had created californium trichloride, oxychloride, and oxide.
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On This Day - Apr 13 : Tellurium discovered

This semi-metal was discovered by Austro-Hungarian mineralogist Baron Franz Muller von Reichenstein. It is obtained as a grey powder and its compounds are not only poisonous, but even the tiniest amounts can lead to unpleasant body odours!
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On This Day - May 13 : Johannes Thiele was born

He made a huge contribution to our knowledge of nitrogen (N)-containing compounds, leading to the discovery of numerous new compounds and synthetic processes. During WW1 he developed a gas mask against the effects of carbon monoxide (CO).
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On This Day - Jun 13 : James Maxwell was born

Maxwell helped to formulate electromagnetic theory, which links magnetism, electricity and light. He also investigated the kinetic theory of gases and developed part of the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, which helps scientists to understand the effects of temperature on reaction rates.
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On This Day – Aug 13 : Discovery of argon

The first noble gas to be discovered was argon, named after the Greek word ‘argos’ (meaning ‘lazy’) because it was completely unreactive. For this work, Sir William Ramsey was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Lord Rayleigh the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1904.
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On This Day – Sep 13 : Americium was made

This radioactive metal was first produced by B.B. Cunningham and L.B. Werner. Most americium is produced by bombarding uranium (U) or plutonium (Pu) with alpha particles – one tonne of spent nuclear fuel contains about 100 grams of americium. It has few uses other than in smoke alarms.
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On This Day - Oct 13 : First zinc oxide

The Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc Company Mill produced zinc oxide (ZnO) from calamine ores. Zinc oxide is a white powder that is used as an additive to a wide range of products such as paints, plastics, adhesives, fire retardants and foods (nutrients).
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On This Day - Nov 13 : Edward Doisy was born

He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1943 for the isolation and synthesis of vitamin K, which encourages blood clotting and has several applications in medicine. Doisy also developed techniques that helped other scientists’ research sex hormones.
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On This Day - Dec 13 : Charles Coulson was born

He was a pioneer of the application of quantum theory of particle valency to solve many chemical and physical problems, in particular in developing theories for molecular orbitals, dynamics and reactivity.
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On This Day - Mar 14 : George Eastman died

He invented rolled film and created the Eastman Kodak company. Rolled film made photography accessible to everyone and helped found the motion picture industry.
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On This Day - Apr 14 : Nuclear batteries used

NASA’s Nimbus III weather satellite first made use of nuclear batteries, which use emissions from a radioactive isotope to generate electricity. Compared to other batteries they are very expensive, but have a very long life and produce lots of energy for their size.
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On This Day - May 14 : First smallpox vaccination

The English doctor inserted pus from a cowpox pustule into an incision on the arm of eight-year old James Phipps. From then on Phipps was immune to smallpox, one of the most virulent killer diseases of the time.
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On This Day - Jun 14 : Alois Alzheimer was born

He is recognised for identifying the first published cases of a progressive, degenerative brain disease that was eventually named after him. Today there are over 25 million sufferers of Alzheimer’s worldwide, but no known cure.
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On This Day – Jul 14 : Sir William Perkin died

He synthesised the first artificial dyestuff, called mauve or aniline purple, while trying to synthesize quinine from a coal tar chemical. Perkin commercialised his discovery, developing production methods and uses for the new dye.
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On This Day – Aug 14 : Hans Christian Ørsted born

He discovered that electric currents can create magnetic fields, an effect known as electromagnetism. He was also the first person to isolate aluminium (Al), which he did by reducing aluminium chloride.
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On This Day - Oct 14 : Alfred Nobel first patent

This patent was for the preparation of nitroglycerine, and was the first of his 355 patents. Nobel is most famous for the prizes carrying his name, awarded annually since 1901 for outstanding achievement in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace.
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On This Day - Nov 14: First fullerene discovered

The new forms of the element carbon (C) were discovered by Robert Curl, Richard E. Smalley and Sir Harold W. Kroto. This opened up a new field of chemistry with applications including nanotechnology. They were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996 for this work.
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On This Day - Dec 14 : Max Planck quantum theory

He presented his theoretical explanation of the spectrum of radiation emitted by an object that glows and introduced the notion of light as quantized energy packets to the German Physical Society.
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On This Day - Mar 15 : Nevil Sidgwick died

He contributed to the valence theory of chemical bonding by explaining the role of valency in covalent bonding, and demonstrated the existence and importance of the hydrogen (H) bond.