All RSC Education articles in Non-EiC content – Page 15

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On This Day - May 20 : Erika Cremer was born

She conceived the technique of gas chromatography, which separates gaseous compounds within a mixture. Cremer’s notes on the new technique were almost completely lost during air raids in WW2, which meant that her work was only published 30 years later.
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On This Day - Jun 20 : Mary Good was born

She is currently an industrial inorganic chemist, but spent many years working for the US government as an advisor in science and technology. She was the 1987-1988 president of the American Chemical Society.
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On This Day – Jul 20 : James Woodhouse professor

The American Chemist founded the Chemical Society of Philadelphia and authored numerous works on chemistry, including the first book of directed chemical experiments.
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On This Day – Aug 20 : Plutonium iodate isolated

American nuclear chemists Burris Cunningham and Louis Werner isolated a microgram of plutonium(IV) iodate, the first visible quantity to the human eye. Today, plutonium is widely used in the production of nuclear energy.
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On This Day – Sep 20 : James Dewar was born

His work blurred the line between chemistry and physics. Dewar’s achievements include designing an insulating double-walled flask with a vacuum between two silvered layers of steel or glass – the technology that led to the modern domestic Thermos flask.
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On This Day - Oct 20 : James Chadwick was born

By bombarding the element beryllium (Be) with alpha particles, he discovered a neutral particle in the atom’s nucleus - the neutron. Chadwick subsequently led the UK’s research team investigating the atomic bomb in World War II.
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On This Day - Dec 20 : Jaroslav Heyrovskȳ was born

He was awarded the 1959 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of polarography, an analytical tool that uses a dropping mercury (Hg) electrode to investigate the effects of varying currents and potentials of a compound.
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On This Day - Mar 21 : Plutonium was named

Plutonium (Pu) took its name from the dwarf planet Pluto. First discovered by Glenn Seaborg and colleagues as a product of nuclear fission, traces of plutonium were later found in a rock formation by Darleane Hoffmann.
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On This Day - Apr 21: Paul Karrer was born

Karrer was awarded half the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1937 for his research into plant pigments, namely yellow carotenoids, flavins, and vitamins A, B2 and E.
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On This Day - May 21 : Bengt Samuelsson was born

He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1982 with Sune Bergström and John Vane for their work on how prostaglandins are formed and metabolised. Prostaglandins are hormone-like substances that participate in a wide range of bodily functions.
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On This Day - Jun 21 : Boron was isolated

The French pair beat the English chemist Humphrey Davy to it by just nine days. Boron (B) is named after one of its compounds, borax, which had been used as a glazing agent for hundreds of years.
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On This Day – Jul 21 : Rudolph Marcus was born

He developed electron transfer theory, which describes the thermodynamics and kinetics of how electrons are transferred between chemicals during a reaction. The theory helps to explain reactions such as oxidation, photosynthesis and cell metabolism.
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On This Day – Aug 21 : Carbon dioxide cloud

The cloud travelled as far as 25 km from the lake and was moving fast enough to flatten vegetation, including trees. The cloud reached the deep, iron-rich waters of the lake causing a dramatic change of colour from blue to red as the iron (Fe) oxidised.
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On This Day – Sep 21 : Loius Cailletet born

He was one of the first people to investigate the role of heat in phase changes. He successfully liquefied several gases, including oxygen (O) and hydrogen (H), and installed a 300 m high pressure gauge on the Eiffel Tower!
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On This Day - Oct 21 : William Mitchell was born

He invented food products such as Pop Rocks, instant Jell-O, Cool Whip and the orange drink, Tang. Whilst working for the General Foods Corporation, he received over 70 patents for his food product inventions.
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On This Day - Nov 21 : Hieronymus Richter was born

He was the co-discoverer of indium (In), an element used to form transparent electrodes in liquid crystal displays in computers, televisions and touch screens.
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On This Day - Dec 21 : Thomas Graham was born

He is known as “the father of colloid chemistry” and was the founding president of the Chemical Society, which is now the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). The RSC’s Cambridge office, Thomas Graham House, is named after him.
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On This Day - Mar 22 : Robert Millikan was born

Famous for using oil droplets to measure the charge of an electron for the first time, Millikan went on to experimentally investigate the photoelectric effect corroborating Einstein’s theories. Millikan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923 for this work.
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On This Day – Jul 22 : Selman Waksman was born

He coined the term ‘antibiotic’ and discovered streptomycin, the first drug that was effective against tuberculosis. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1952 for this work.
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On This Day - Oct 22 : Xerography was performed

Xerography is a dry photocopying technique that is now used in photocopiers and laser printers. It was invented by Chester F. Carlson but the original process was cumbersome, requiring several manual processing steps. It took almost 18 years to become a fully automated process.