All Resource articles – Page 78

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On This Day - Apr 08 : Melvin Calvin was born

He is most famed for discovering the Calvin cycle, the pathway for carbon dioxide (CO₂) assimilation in plants. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1961 for this work.
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On This Day - Apr 04 : Synthesis of Vitamin B6

Merck, Sharp and Dohme were the first to artificially synthesise Vitamin B6, which is required for good health. It has a role in the production of haemoglobin – the molecule that carries oxygen (O2) around our bodies – and regulates blood sugar levels. Related resources: Haemoglobin podcast
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On This Day - Apr 03 : New soap-making process

William Gossage, a chemical manufacturer and founder of the Gossage soap company, patented the process for adding sodium silicate (Na₂SiO₃) to soap. Sodium silicate acts as a mild abrasive, a pH buffer and reduces the hardness of water.
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On This Day - May 02: Nicholson split water

The English chemist discovered that when leads from a battery are placed in water (H₂O), the water breaks up into hydrogen (H₂) and oxygen (O₂) bubbles, which collect separately at the submerged ends of the wires. This process is called electrolysis.
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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 - 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 - Mar 03 : Joseph Wharton was born

He improved the process of refining nickel (Ni) and his company made the first pure nickel metal. Wharton was the driving force in establishing the zinc (Zn) and nickel metal industries in the United States.
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On This Day - May 03 : George Thomson was born

Thomson shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1937 with Clinton Davisson for their discovery of the wave properties of electrons when diffracted by crystals. He was the son of Nobel laureate Joseph John Thompson.
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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.