British scientist Rosalind Franklin died #OTD in 1958.
Her most famous contribution to science came from her X-ray diffraction images of DNA, particularly Photo 51, which provided crucial evidence for the double helix structure of DNA. Her photo was shared without her knowledge with J. Watson & F. Crick, who used it as a basis for their model of DNA's structure. Their work overshadowed her contribution, & she was not fully recognized for her role until after her death.
#Introduction
I was never on twitter, but I figured I'd try out Mastodon. I'm a chemist and chemical biologist by training and my work comes home a bit too often as an amateur baker. I've done bike commuting in worse climates with better infrastructure (Fort Collins, CO and PDX) and better climates with much worse infrastructure (Orange County, CA). Anti-car, pro-community. #Science#Chemistry#ChemicalBiology#Baking#Biking#BikeCommuting
Happy birthday to chemistry trailblazer Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier (20 January 1758 – 10 February 1836), wife and collaborator of French scientist Antoine Lavoisier (26 August 1743 – 8 May 1794).
The Lavoisiers, working closely together, modernized and quantified chemistry and the scientific method, recognized and named oxygen and hydrogen, explained the role that oxygen plays in combustion, 🧵1/n
I find it incredible that the Organic Chemistry textbook I learnt from many moons ago in University is now freely available via OpenStax! This was the first textbook I read from cover-to-cover, devouring the problem sets at the end—and was the beginning of my love affair with the central science.
What a great boon to the chemistry education community, and a wonderful way to honor John McMurry’s son. #Chemistry#Chemiverse
Some of the most eminent scientific women. Top row, lefth to right: Émilie du Châtelet, Ada Lovelace, Maria Mitchell, Elisabetha Koopman Hevelius, Laura Bassi, Marie Curie. Bottow row, left to right: Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Rosalind Franklin, Hedy Lamarr, Jane Goodall, Katherine Johnson, Lise Meitner.
Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius was born #OTD in 1859. He was famous for showing how dissolved salts separate into charged particles ("ions"). In developing a theory to explain the ice ages, Arrhenius, in 1896, was the first to use basic principles of physical chemistry to calculate estimates of the extent to which increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide will increase Earth's surface temperature through the greenhouse effect.
This is our first toot on mastodon. We are looking forward to get in touch with the german and international chemical community to exchange ideas about research data. #chemie#chemistry#research#data#nfdi4chem
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.
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.
Happy birthday to Marie Skłodowska-Curie (1867 – 1934, Polish-born, naturalized-French #physicist & #chemist. The contents of her lab glassware in my print appropriately glow-in-the-dark!
Marie Curie was the 1st woman to win a Nobel prize, the only woman to ever win 2 Nobel prizes, and the only person ever to win in two different sciences: #physics & #chemistry. She was also the 1st woman prof at the U of Paris, … 🧵1/n
#OTD in 1911 the French Academy of Sciences rejected the membership application of Marie Curie.
In 1910 Curie succeeded in isolating radium; she also defined an international standard for radioactive emissions that was eventually named for her and Pierre (the Ci). Nevertheless, in 1911 the French Academy of Sciences failed, by 1 or 2 votes, to elect her to membership in the academy. Elected instead was Édouard Branly. via @Wikipedia
Italian physicist and chemist Alessandro Volta was born #OTD in 1745.
He was a pioneer of electricity and power and is credited as the inventor of the electric battery and the discoverer of methane. He invented the voltaic pile in 1799, and reported the results of his experiments in 1800 in a two-part letter to the president of the Royal Society. via @wikipedia
Swedish physicist and physical chemist Svante Arrhenius died #OTD in 1927. Arrhenius was the first to use the principles of physical chemistry to estimate the extent to which increases in the atmospheric carbon dioxide are responsible for the Earth's increasing surface temperature. His work played an important role in the emergence of modern climate science. via @wikipedia
#OTD 1869. Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.
After becoming a teacher in 1867, Mendeleev wrote Principles of Chemistry (1868-70), which became the definitive textbook of its time. This is when he made his most important discovery. As he attempted to classify the elements according to their chemical properties, he noticed patterns that led him to postulate his periodic table. via @wikipedia
"We have discovered that hard, electrical conductors (e.g., metals or graphite) can be adhered to soft, aqueous materials (e.g., hydrogels, fruit, or animal tissue) without the use of an adhesive. The adhesion is induced by a low DC electric field."
I can see this being quite useful for possibly attaching imaging equipment or electrodes for neural recordings.
An interesting thing happens when you take the infrared light from an object, like this planet-forming disk, and spread out the light by wavelength into a spectrum. You sometimes get these regularly spaced peaks in brightness.
It turns out that this comes from a combination of vibration and rotation of molecules, like carbon monoxide (CO).
Congratulations to the entire @VirginAtlantic team consisting of researchers from several universities and private companies for successfully completing the 1st transatlantic flight from London to NY in a commercial Boeing 787 using non fossil fuel made from waste fats.
The researchers will be making their exact process opensource for all.
Happy birthday to Kathleen Lonsdale DBE FRS (née Yardley, 1903-1971) who solved a longstanding #chemistry conundrum of the shape of benzene, here with her drawing of electron density for hexachlorobenzene (green) & model of hexamethylbenzene explore shape in different forms. Her husband said, “Before prison it might have bothered her to go to Buckingham Palace. Afterwards, Holloway or Buckingham Palace were all the same.” She was a #physicist, #crystallographer, #pacifist & prison reformer. 🧵1/
Making Infrared Cooling Paint From Grocery Store Items (w/Novel CaCO₃ Microsphere Synthesis) (youtu.be)
A way to passively achieve cooling below ambient temperature, using non-toxic common chemicals. 40 minute video, but very informative.