Two hundred and fifty years ago today, John Dalton was born in the small town of Eaglesfield, Cumbria, in England. Though his background was entirely unassuming, he would go on to take pioneering steps in developing our ideas about elements and atoms, as well as making the first attempt at devising a symbol-based nomenclature for the elements. Here we take a brief look at his life and achievements.
Today, 30 August, marks the birthday of Ernest Rutherford. Rutherford is primarily considered a physicist, but his contribution to our understanding of the atom is also important to chemistry. He was also a chemistry Nobel Prize winner, for his work on radioactivity. This graphic looks in detail at one of his most famous experiments, the gold foil experiment which is often name-dropped in school science lessons!
Today marks 71 years since the first nuclear weapon detonation. Codenamed ‘Trinity’ it was detonated on July 16, 1945, in the Jornada Del Muerto desert in New Mexico. This graphic takes a brief look at the device itself, and also at trinitite, the pale green glass left behind as a remnant of the test.
Whether you know it as an Erlenmeyer flask, conical flask, or by some other name, it’s a piece of glassware most of us, chemists or not, have likely used at some point. The Erlenmeyer flask is the most stereotypical piece of chemistry glassware there is, and today marks its creator’s birthday. Emil Erlenmeyer was born on 28 June in 1825; here we take a look at his eponymous flask, as well as some of his other achievements.
[Click here to view a larger version of this table]
With yesterday’s announcement of the proposed names for the periodic table’s four newest members, the periodic table of elements will soon have a completed seventh period. This graphic, featured in The Conversation, and produced in collaboration with Professor Mark Lorch of the University of Hull, takes a look at the origins of the names of all 118 elements!
Over the weekend, the news of Sir Harry Kroto’s passing filtered slowly through the internet. Perhaps the best summary of his life and achievements was already written by Kroto himself, so here we take a brief look at his most acclaimed discovery: that of the amusingly named form of carbon, buckminsterfullerene.
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