All RSC Education articles in Non-EiC content – Page 6

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On This Day – Jan 01: Eugène Demarcay was born

In 1901 he used spectroscopy to analyse material that had been carefully separated from samarium magnesium nitrate and discovered the element europium (Eu). His specialist knowledge of spectroscopy also helped Marie Curie confirm she had discovered radium (Ra). Related resources: Marie Curie and Aspects of the History of ...
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On This Day - Feb 01 : Roger Tsien was born

He shares the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Osamu Shimomura and Martin Chalfie for their discovery of the green fluorescent protein (GFP). GFP is a protein that glows bright green in the presence of blue light and is found in Aequorea victoria jellyfish.
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On This Day – Jan 02 : Rudolf Clausius was born

He was one of the central founders of thermodynamics. He introduced the concept of entropy and stated the second law of thermodynamics for the first time. He also introduced concepts of kinetic theory to explain motion of gas molecules, in particular the mean free path of particles.
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On This Day - Feb 03 : Edmond Frémy died

He is best known for Frémy’s salt (potassium nitrosodisulfonate), which is a strong oxidising agent that he discovered in 1845. This salt is a long-lived free radical that can be used as a standard in electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy.
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On This Day - Feb 04 : Plunkett patented Teflon

Teflon is the brand name for polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a fluorinated plastic. It is used as a non-stick coating for pans because of its inertness and extreme slipperiness. It is the only known material to which gecko’s feet cannot stick!
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On This Day - Jan 06 : Anselme Payen was born

He is known for discovering the first enzyme diastase, and the carbohydrate cellulose, which is the most abundant organic compound on Earth. He also developed a process to industrially synthesise borax from boric acid that broke the Dutch monopoly on mined borax.
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On This Day - Feb 06 : Discovery of germanium

Germanium (Ge) is a silvery semi-metal element used in semiconductors. It is used as a transistor in thousands of types of electronics.
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On This Day - Jan 07: Patent for thermal cracking

This process involves breaking down large hydrocarbon molecules into smaller ones, which increases the amount of gasoline that refineries can produce from a barrel of crude oil.
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On This Day - Jan 08 : Melvin Calvin died

He was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the Calvin cycle. The Calvin cycle is a series of reactions that describe carbon (C) fixing in plants. Related resources: Photosynthesis Carbon - Element information
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On This Day - Feb 08 : Moses Gomberg was born

He discovered the first stable free radical triphenylmethyl during attempts to prepare the even more sterically hindered hydrocarbon hexaphenylethane. He was since known as the founder of radical chemistry.
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On This Day - Jan 09 : Søren Sørensen was born

He developed the pH scale (which ranges from 0-14) at the Carlsberg Laboratory in Denmark. This was the first time that the negative logarithm of proton (H⁺) concentration was used as a measure of acidity.
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On This Day - Feb 09 : Jacques Monod was born

Jacques Monod, François Jacob and André Lwoff received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1965 for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis.
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On This Day - Jan 11 : Thompson trialled insulin

On the verge of death, the 14 year old diabetic agreed to the trial. Insulin was first discovered by Banting, Best and Macleod in 1921, but it was Collip’s work on the purification of insulin that enabled it to be used clinically.
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On This Day - Feb 11 : Nuclear fission published

This paper was the first to explain the theory of nuclear fission, the process by which the nucleus of an atom splits into lighter nuclei and releases a very large amount of energy in doing so.
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On This Day - Jan 12 : Antonio de Ulloa was born

He is credited with the discovery of platinum (Pt) after publishing in 1748 accounts of his time in South America. Platinum had actually been used by pre-columbian civilisations, making Ulloa’s work of a‘re-discovery’.
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On This Day - Feb 12 : Wentorf made borazon

Borazon, a material hard enough to scratch diamonds, is created by heating equal quantities of boron and nitrogen at temperatures greater than 1,800 °C. It is used to manufacture high-precision steel and to sharpen high-speed steel tools.
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On This Day - Jan 13 : Ford patented plastic car

The Soybean car, or “Hemp body car”, was the first car to have a body entirely made of plastic. It was 30% lighter than a regular metal car and the panels were said to be only a quarter of an inch (6 mm) thick.
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On This Day - Feb 13 : Julius Thomsen died

He predicted the existence of the noble gases before they were discovered. He was also interested in thermochemistry, measuring the heat produced from around 3,500 chemical reactions.
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On This Day - Jan 14 : Paul Vieille died

He invented modern nitrocellulose-based smokeless gunpowder in 1884. The smokeless powder was three times more powerful than black powder for the same weight and left virtually no residues of combustion.
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On This Day - Feb 14 : Silly putty was first made

The first Silly Putty was made by mixing silicone oil with boric acid. This formula has remained essentially unchanged for 50 years, and more than 4,500 tons have been sold since 1950.