All Resource articles – Page 77

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On This Day – Sep 11 : Rudolf Schoenheimer died

He developed the technique of “tagging” molecules with radioactive isotopes. This made it possible to trace the pathways of organic molecules in animals and plants, and revolutionized metabolic studies.
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On This Day - Nov 11 : Discovery of cosmic rays

Cosmic rays are particles that bombard the Earth from outside its atmosphere. They were investigated as early as 1911 by Victor Francis Hess, a Nobel laureate in physics, however the name ‘cosmic rays’ was only coined in 1925.
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On This Day - Dec 11 : Explosion at Buncefield

Although the accident did not cause any fatalities, the immense scale of the explosion made it Europe’s biggest fire in peacetime.
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On This Day - Mar 12 : William Perkin was born

Credited with founding the organic chemical industry, Perkin discovered mauveine dye by accident when working with coal tar. Realising the commercial potential of this new purple dye, Perkin patented his synthetic process when he was just 18.
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On This Day - Jun 12 : Fritz Lipmann was born

Lipmann was awarded half the 1953 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of coenzyme A and its role in nutrition. Coenzyme A is a molecule required in the synthesis and oxidation of fatty acids.
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On This Day – Jul 12 : Discovery of xenon

The British chemists used a powerful machine that cooled and liquefied air to obtain krypton (Kr). They then repeatedly distilled the krypton until an even denser substance separated out, which they named xenon (Xe).
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On This Day – Aug 12 : Phenol used in surgery

The British surgeon was a pioneer of antiseptic surgery and pushed the idea of sterile surgery while working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Using sterile instruments and cleaning wounds were of great success and vastly reduced the number of people dying from post-operation infections from 50% to 15%.
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On This Day – Sep 12 : Irène Joliot-Curie born

Like her parents, she was also a scientist. She and her husband Frédéric bombarded stable atoms with alpha particles to transmute them into different radioactive elements. They created nitrogen (N) from boron (B), phosphorus (P) from aluminium (Al), and silicon (Si) from magnesium (Mg).
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On This Day - Oct 12 : Iron lung respirator

An iron lung is a cylindrical container, encasing a person’s entire body apart from the head. It regulates air pressure to help a person breathe, and was first used to save the life of a young girl with polio.
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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.