Chemical Education Today
Anniversaries: 1998 by Paul F. Schatz 1973 (25 years ago)
Artturi Virtanen (1895–1973). Virtanen discovered that with careful acidification, green fodder retained much of its nutritional value for longer periods of time. He was awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Selman Waksman (1888–1973). Waksman discovered the antibiotic substance streptomycin, produced by soil bacteria. Streptomycin is a triglyceride and is effective against gram-negative bacteria. Waksman was awarded the 1952 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for his work with antibiotic substances. {1935, 12, 511; 1950, 27, 101} 1948 (50 years ago)
Hartmut Michel (1948– ). Michel, Deisenhofer, and Huber were awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research on the photosynthetic reaction center, a protein complex crucial to the process of photosynthesis in certain bacteria. 1923 (75 years ago)
Photo by J. Jacobsen
Christopher Longuet-Higgins (1923– ). English theoretical chemist who used molecular orbital theory and symmetry arguments to explain electrocyclic reactions. {1957, 34, 30} Carl Djerassi (1923– ). American chemist recognized as being the father of “the Pill”, oral contraceptives. {1984, 61, 1075} Cyril Ponnamperuma (1923– ). Biochemist who worked on the primordial origins of life, focusing on compounds related to nucleic acids. {1982, 59, 89} Johann Goldschmidt (1861–1923). German chemist who developed a technique for preparing pure metals from their corresponding oxides by igniting a mixture of the metal oxide and aluminum. This technique is called the thermite reaction. {1979, 56, 675: 1994, 71, 327} Sir James Dewar (1842–1923). Dewar studied properties of materials at extremely low temperatures. In the course of this work he was the first to liquefy and solidify hydrogen. Dewar flasks, an essential tool for working with liquids at low temperatures, were invented by him. {1939, 16, 267} William Konrad Roentgen (1845–1923). Roentgen discovered Xrays and was awarded the 1901 Nobel Prize in Physics. {1962, 39, 360} Edward Williams Morley (1838– 1923). Morley was a meticulous experimentalist who accurately measured the atomic weights of oxygen and hydrogen. He collaborated with Michelson in the experiment that established the velocity of light as a conThermite reaction stant. {1924, 1, 129; 1980, 57, 711}
Structure of free penicillin G.
Johannes Diderik van der Waals (1837–1923). Van der Waals developed corrections to the ideal gas law assuming attractive forces between gas molecules. He was awarded the 1910 Nobel Prize in Physics for this work. {1954, 31, 599} 1898 (100 years ago)
Rachel Brown (1898–1980). American microbiologist who isolated the first antifungal antibiotic, Nystatin, in 1949. Karl Ziegler (1898–1973). Chemist who developed catalysts for polymerization. He and G. Natta were awarded the 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. {1948, 25, 510; 1983, 60, 1009} Howard Walter Florey (1898–1968). English pathologist who discovered the chemotherapeutic properties of penicillin, isolated from the mold discovered by Alexander Fleming. Florey and Ernst Chain were awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for their work on penicilA lin. {1979, 56, 454} William Thomas Astbury (1898–1961). Astbury studied the Xray diffraction patterns of fibers such as silk, wool, and hair. His explanations for the properties of these materials in terms of folding and B unfolding polypeptide chains laid some of the Astbury’s X-ray photographs of groundwork for unstretched and stretched wool. Pauling’s studies of proPart A shows the unstretched wool teins and Watson and a-fold; part B shows the stretched Crick’s studies of wool b-fold. nucleic acids.
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Chemical Education Today
Anniversaries: 1998
Rudolf Schoenheimer (1898–1941). He was a pioneer in using isotopes (deuterium and heavy nitrogen) to study the metabolism of fats and amino acids in the body. Sir Henry Bessemer (1813–1898). He invented the “Bessemer” process for making steel, using an air blast to oxidize impurities in hot pig iron. {1969, 46, 293; 1980,57, 139} John Newlands (1837–1898). Newlands prepared a periodic table of the elements (see below), preceding by five years the publication of Mendeleev’s periodic table. The elements were arranged in order of atomic weight and Newlands noted a periodicity of properties of the elements. Since the periodicity was with every eighth element, Newlands announced this as his “law of octaves”. This proved to be an unfortunate characterization, since it opened him up to ridicule, especially from a scientific cohort that was highly critical and skeptical. {1949, 26, 491} H. T. Richter (1824–1898). German chemist who, with F. Reich, discovered indium in zincblende in 1863. {1934, 11, 270; 1944, 21, 407; 1985, 62, 674} 1873 (125 years ago)
William Harkins (1873–1951). He developed the idea of the packing fraction for packing nucleons into the nucleus. He suggested that the hydrogen-to-helium conversion was the source of energy for stars. {1985, 62, 758} William Coblentz 1873–1962). Coblentz was a pioneer in developing the infrared spectrometer. Although the instrumentation available in his time did not have sufficient resolution, he was able to demonstrate that specific groupings of atoms could be correlated to absorptions at different wavelengths in the infrared spectrum. Otto Loewi (1873–1961). Loewi discovered the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine. Loewi and Sir Henry Dale shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology. {1986, 65, 108; 1988, 65, 108} Nevil Sidgwick (1873–1952). Sidgwick developed the concept of the coordinate bond, wherein a bond is formed by a pair of electrons originating from only one of the atoms of the bond. {1994, 71, 472} Hans Euler-Chelpin (1873–1964). Euler-Chelpin elucidated the structure of the coenzyme required in fermentation of yeast, a material first isolated in 1904 by Sir Arthur Harden. Euler-Chelpin and Harden shared the 1929 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. {1939, 16, 10}
istry. {1949, 26, 521; 1950, 27, 500, 557} Friedrich Dorn (1848–1916). Dorn determined that a gas, later named radon, was produced by the radioactive decay of radium. Henry Edward Armstrong (1848–1937). Armstrong was a well-known and prolific turn-of-the-century English organic chemist. He is also recognized as an educator and an energetic advocate for a technique for teaching science, called the “heuristic” method. Today, this method might be called the “discovery laboratory”. {1925, 2, 731} Jons Jacob Berzelius (1779–1848). Swedish chemist who prepared the first reasonably accurate list of atomic weights. He suggested the symbolic scheme for representing elements. He is credited with discovering several elements, including selenium, silicon, and thorium. {1948, 25, 500; 1954, 31, 207; 1955, 32, 373; 1975, 52, 53; 1976, 53, 714} 1798 (200 years ago)
Luigi Galvani (1737– 1798). Galvani observed that frog muscles twitch when they come into contact with two different metals. He reasoned that this phenomenon was caused by “animal electricity”, but this idea was later proved to be in error by Volta. {1963, 40, 655} 1698 (300 years ago)
Drawing of Galvani’s ex-
Charles du Fay (1698– periments from A History of 1739). Du Fay studied objects Chemistry by F. J. Moore. that had been electrified by touching them with glass and resin rods, electrified by rubbing them against silk cloth or fur. He noted that there appeared to be two types of electricity, “vitreous” and “resinous”. The two types of electricity he observed are now referred to as “positive” and “negative” charges. (See JCE Classroom Activity #5, “Charge It! An Activity with Electricity”, pages 80A&B in this issue.) Erasmus Bartholin (1625–1698). Bartholin observed the double refraction of light when it passed through a crystal of calcite, or Iceland spar, a crystalline form of calcium carbonate. Calcite is used to construct Nicol prisms for polarimeters, instruments used to measure optical activity in chemical substances.
1848 (150 years ago)
Victor Meyer (1848–1897). Meyer was a German chemist who discovered thiophene as an impurity in benzene obtained from petroleum sources. He also developed the concepts of steric hindrance and stereochemistry in organic chem24
At the end of some of the anniversaries are references to J. Chem. Educ. papers {year, volume, page} which are relevant to the topic or person.
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 75 No. 1 January 1998 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
Chemical Education Today
Other Historical Events 1973 (25 years ago)
1973 Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Ernst Fischer and Geoffrey Wilkinson for research on the chemistry of ferrocene. {1957, 34, 268; 1983, 60, 185; 1991, 68, 607} Claims for the existence of a highly ordered form of water, called polywater, are dismissed. The liquid that had been observed was only water plus some impurities leached from quartz tubes. {1971, 48, 667; 1972, 49, 445} The FDA ordered most diet drugs off the market. Most of the banned drugs contained dextroamphetamine or amphetamine. 1948 (50 years ago)
B. M. Duggar of Lederle Labs announces the discovery of aureomycin, an antibiotic effective against both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. Duggar was 76 years old when he discovered aureomycin. Chloromycetin, an antibiotic especially effective against typhus, is isolated by scientists at Parke-Davis Laboratories and Yale University. Sherman Fried of Argonne National laboratories isolates elemental technetium metal. {1951, 28, 186; 1962, 39, 436} Prometheum is synthesized by Marinsky and Glendenin at Clinton National laboratories, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, by the irradiation of neodymium with neutrons. {1959, 36, 3} Vitamin B12 is isolated by Rickes (Merck) and Smith (Glaxo). Mary Shorb finds that vitamin B12 is effective in the treatment of pernicious anemia. {1975, 52, 53} 1948 Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Arne Tiselius for research on serum proteins. {1951, 28, 538} 1948 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology is awarded to Paul Muller for the discovery of DDT and its potent toxicity to insects. {1974, 51, 198; 1992, 69, 362; 1945, 22, 122; 1945, 22, 170; 1945, 22, 238; 1970, 47, 634}
1923 Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Fritz Pregl for microanalysis of organic substances. {1958, 35, 608} 1923 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology to Banting and Macleod for discovery of insulin. {1963, 40, 211; 1926, 3, 134; 1955, 32, 488} Gyorgy Hevesy and Dirk Coster discover the element hafnium. {1963, 40, 36} Theodor H. E. Svedberg develops the ultracentrifuge. R. G. Dickinson and A. Raymond for the first time establish the structure of an organic compound, hexamethylenetetraamine, by X-ray diffraction. 1898 (100 years ago)
Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium and polonium. They also coin the term radioactivity. {1988, 65, 561; 1992, 69, 11; 1930, 7, 269; 1947, 24, 278} Sir James Dewar liquefies hydrogen. Ramsay discovers inert gases: xenon, krypton, and neon. {1983, 60, 758; 1990, 67, 93} 1848 (150 years ago)
Louis Pasteur demonstrates optical isomerism by separating tartaric acid into its two optical isomers. The resolution was accomplished by manually sorting crystals of tartrate salts that had crystallized into right- and left-handed forms. {1975, 52, 777}
Drawings of hemihedral crystals of sodium ammonium tartrates by Louis Pasteur. A mirror placed between the crystals will reflect one image onto the other
1923 (75 years ago)
“Valence and the Structure of Atoms and Molecules” by G. N. Lewis is published. Johannes Brønsted defines acids as proton donors and bases as proton acceptors. {1988, 65, 28}
Paul F. Schatz is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706; email:
[email protected].
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