English chemist Dorothy Hodgkin was born #OTD in 1910.
Among her most influential discoveries are the confirmation of the structure of penicillin as previously surmised by Edward Abraham and Ernst Boris Chain; and mapping the structure of vitamin B12, for which in 1964 she became the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Hodgkin also elucidated the structure of insulin in 1969 after 35 years of work.
This is part of the 2nd paragraph and keeps escalating each new paragraph
“I mean, this was definitely not planned. It was just supposed to be the removal of these shelves full of strange-sounding names, and so I’m sorry for whatever damage they’ve had and sorry they had to be evacuated,” https://ksltv.com/639989/holladay-homeowner-apologizes-to-neighbors-for-home-explosion/ #chemistry
So, we're going back to organic chemistry everyone!
After my first post with my molecular model kit showing an environmental contaminant, I decided to post up another.
This one is a semi-volatile organic environmental contaminant that is commonly found in coal tar, mothballs, and mixed into creosote for rail ties. That distinct "mothball odor" is this compound! Fun fact - a human nose can detect the mothball odor before most standard electronic detectors of organic odors / vapors.
Can you guess the compound? Let me know in the comments!
French chemist Antoine Lavoisier died #OTD in 1794.
He is best known for his development of the law of conservation of mass, which states that mass is neither created nor destroyed in chemical reactions. This principle helped to debunk the phlogiston theory, which was a prevailing theory at the time that suggested substances released a material called "phlogiston" when they burned. He also made significant contributions in understanding respiration as a form of combustion.
"We must trust to nothing but facts: These are presented to us by Nature, and cannot deceive. We ought, in every instance, to submit our reasoning to the test of experiment, and never to search for truth but by the natural road of experiment and observation."
Elements of Chemistry (1790), pp. xviii.
By the age of six, many children already have negative feelings about the word “chemical”.
Ask the average person what a chemical is, and they’re likely to tell you it’s something bad. Products advertise themselves as “chemical-free” – an assertion that makes no scientific sense (since everything in the world is made of chemicals) but resonates with the consumer."
These will all be for sale this weekend at Somerville Open Studios - come see them in person at the Armory mezzanine, stop #45, 12-6p Saturday & Sunday.
Should you freeze your bread? Science Alert looks into the many TikTok claims that doing so makes it healthier. Among the findings, there’s a difference between homemade and store-bought bread. https://flip.it/.t_lQM #Science#Bread#Chemistry#Foodstodon#Food
Congratulations to Kimberly A. Prather, @kprather88, of @UCSanDiego, winner of the 2024 @theNASciences Award in Chemical Sciences for her pioneering research on aerosols! Watch her accept the award at the 161st NAS Annual Meeting, @theNASciences. #NASaward#academia#chemistry
We totally randomly met two #bicycle riders this morning near our home, apparently they're traveling around #Greece & #Albania with bicycles. They are a #German & #Italian couple. We invited them at my mom's home and we all had lunch together. Apparently they are #PhD candidates in #Austria, one in #chemistry and the other one in #biology. Very interesting young people. It was a good day today.
Another apparatus question: anyone know what this is?
Two glass bulbs connected by a glass tube. Watery orange liquid inside.
**Edit: It's called a "pulse glass" or "Franklin's palm glass."
A liquid with a very low boiling point is sealed. Holding one bulb will boil the liquid and it will flow to the opposite side. Used to show vapor pressure, IMFs, etc. Very cool piece of old equipment.
I don't talk about work here a whole lot, but I'm a chemical engineer by education and have been doing environmental engineering work for the past 17 years.
So, I have an organic chemistry molecular model kit that I have kept at work for years. I, periodically, make contaminants I've seen at various sites across my 17 year career cleaning up the environment.
Do you know what this chemical is supposed to be? Leave a comment below with your guess!
The most surprising revelation from NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover — that methane is seeping from the surface of Gale Crater — has scientists scratching their heads.