Today marks the birthday of Antoine Lavoisier, one of the key figures in chemistry history and often referred to as ‘the father of modern chemistry’. This short graphic takes a look at some of his key contributions to chemical understanding and the system of naming chemical substances we still use today.
The Bunsen burner is one of the ubiquitous symbols of chemistry. Though it might be a rarer sight in university laboratories these days, due to some of the highly flammable substances used, they’re still very commonly found in school science classrooms, and for most of us probably bring back memories of school science lessons. As today is Bunsen Burner Day, this graphic takes a quick look at the burner’s anatomy, and we’ll discuss its history in a little more detail below.
On this day (26 February) in 1946, Egyptian-American chemist Ahmed Zewail was born. Zewail pioneered femtochemistry, the use of laser pulses to see the movement of individual atoms during chemical reactions. This graphic gives an overview of the ultrafast laser spectroscopy that makes this possible.
Svante Arrhenius was born on this day (19 February) in 1859. He’s famous for his eponymous equation and for suggesting in 1896 that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere might affect the Earth’s climate. He also clarified our understanding of solution chemistry and acids and bases.
On this day (9th January) in 1868, Danish chemist Søren Sørensen was born. He’s best known for developing the pH scale, which we’ve likely all encountered, to measure the acidity or alkalinity of solutions. This graphic gives a brief overview of the pH scale and what it means.
Today marks the anniversary of the birth of August Kekulé, most famous for his proposed structure for the benzene molecule. This graphic looks at his structure and its limitations and shows how later work improved upon his initial proposal.
