Afleveringen
-
In which we discuss the entry of People of Color into chemistry, mostly in the USA. We start with the first Black to get an Ph.D. in Chemistry in the USA, St. Elmo Brady, and work forward through the 1940s through the 1960s. We discuss various organizations to assist people of color in chemistry (and other sciences), such as NOBCChE, SACNAS, AISES, and the Society for Asian Scientists and Engineers. We examine a similar problem in the United Kingdom which has no independent assistance organization for People of Colour.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
In which we talk of a huge problem currently plaguing chemistry (and science in general), the "paper mill," in which researchers pay to get their name attached to others' publications, or they write fraudulent publications and pay to get them in print. We hear of a Chinese firm discovered to be such a broker, possible reasons why chemists would fake research, and specific examples of chemical fraud. One insidious problem is faked crystallographic data on molecular structures, uploaded to repositories. Finally we learn of some ways to identify paper mills.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
-
Here we discuss all sorts of kits chemists use to build models of different molecules. We start with the pre-molecule set built for John Dalton, and then we hear of August von Hofmann's set for lecture demonstrations. We talk of John Dewar's brass constructions, and then to Tinkertoy-like setups in the 20th century. Plastic first appears in molecular-model kits by the 1950s, and we continue through the later 20th-century. If you become a Patreon subscriber, you may download a supplemental sheet which shows some 20th-century kits, including a lecture demonstration kit I don't discuss in this episode!
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
Our history of LEDs continues with the entry of LEDs into commercial lighting. We talk of different ways to get white light out of LEDs, and materials for white-light LEDs. We briefly discuss color temperature because there are different kinds of white. Then we hear of the publication of an article in 2000 that consolidated thinking about home usage for LEDs, and why LEDs have advantages over other lamps. We mention ways geometrically to optimize LED construction to maximize the amount of light emitted. Finally, we note the development of second-generation emitting compounds in red, green, and blue that pushed LEDs over the finish line to make them practical for home usage.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
This episode gives a basic review of geochemistry, starting with pioneers such as Christian Friedrich Schönbein, Frank Wigglesworth Clarke, and thence into the 20th century, especially Victor Goldschmidt. We hear about the development of geochemical societies around the world, then we talk about various subfields of geochemistry. The question of "what's inside the Earth" is still a very active one, and we discuss ways to simulate the pressure inside the Earth, and likely constituents of the Earth's core.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
Even though the potential for using microwaves to do chemistry was there since 1946, it wasn't until the late 1970s that the first use of microwaves in the chemistry laboratory appeared. This episode covers the development of microwave chemistry from moisture analyzers to significant study of reactions, and then finally laboratory-standard microwave ovens appeared. We mention the controversy between Gregory Dudley and Oliver Kappe as to whether there were some special properties of microwaves that made reactions speed up. We talk of the reasons that chemists now preferentially zap their reactants with microwaves over traditional chemical methods.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
We talk about perovskite minerals and compounds, their discovery, and general crystal structure. Then we learn about how researchers gradually learned about their interesting electrical and optical properties. We hear of Tsutomu Miyasaka’s paper about building a solar cell using these perovskite minerals, and the sudden interest in making commercial, practical solar cells from perovskites. We delve briefly into the electronic orbitals in perovskites, the engineering aspects of building photovoltaic cells with them, and how their efficiency in generating electrical current has soared since they were first invented.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
Click Chemistry came about as several researchers came to similar conclusions in parallel, but from different angles: Barry Sharpless, Morten Meldahl, and Carolyn Bertozzi. We hear about their research goals in the 1990s and early 2000s: to snap together smaller molecules in a reliable way, perhaps with pharmaceutical or biological experiments and results in mind. We learn of Sharpless's goals for Click Chemistry, which sometimes overlap with Green Chemistry.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
We reach the point in our chemical history when microplastics were first recognized as a pervasive environmental pollutant. Visible plastic bits were first found by Edward Carpenter and K.L. Smith in the ocean back in 1972, and such detritus was confirmed all over the world's oceans over the next decades, resulting in the name "Eastern Garbage Patch" by 1997. Yet only in 2004 did Richard Thompson first study microscopic bits of plastic. In this episode we define a microplastic, and discuss various sources for microplastics. We talk of potential harm they do.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
This episode deals with glues and adhesives, from prehistoric times to the present. We talk of prehistoric glue from tree saps, petroleum tar, animal glues, casein glues, albumin glues, and starch glues, all known in ancient times. Medieval knowledge added fish glue, and by the Renaissance we start industrial-scale adhesive factories. The 19th century brought rubber cement, mucilage, and library paste. We talk of 20th-century products like white glue, epoxy, polyurethane glues, super glues, glue guns, glue sticks, and even Post-It Notes.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
The Periodic Table we've all seen in chemistry books and classes is not always the way it was, nor the way it must always be. In this episode we explore all kinds of periodic representations of the properties of elements, from Mendeleev's first published table in 1869, through wide and narrow tables, and spirals. There are even three-dimensional "tables," from helices to submarines, corners of walls, globes, pyramids, and tiles. My Patreon subscribers can download a supplemental sheet with a few samples of periodic tables which I discuss.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
We introduce the first chemical construction set in chemistry (besides natural proteins, starches, sugars, etc.), the metal-organic framework. A DuPont employee, E.A. Tomic, invented this type of molecule in the 1960s, but it took until Omar Yaghi's research in 1990s until chemists realized the value of metal-organic frameworks. We discuss the experiments and results leading up to Yaghi's work, what these frameworks are, their value in science and industry, and their nearly infinite flexibility to create porous materials.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
In this episode we talk about astrochemistry, which began in the 20th century. The first detection of molecules outside our solar system began with Theodore Dunham, which was finally recognized as a molecule in 1940. We talk of Gerhard Herzberg, Polydore Swings, and Dirk ter Haar, then meet Lyman Spitzer. Radio astronomy then became important in the 1960s and 1970s, allowing astrochemists to identify molecules based on quantum transitions at longer and longer wavelengths. We discuss the limited number of important elements for astrochemistry; the ever-growing number, size, and complexity of interstellar molecules detected, some ways they are formed, and end with some planetary chemistry.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
Here we talk of the first real molecular machines of the 1990s, and the chemistry advances required to invent them. We define what such a machine is, and reach back into organic chemistry of the 1940s and 1950s for "conformational analysis." We recall the Bell Labs chemists Harry Frisch and Edel Wasserman, and their foundation of chemical topology. Gottfried Schill, Arthur Lüttringhaus, plus Ian and Shuyen Harrison, synthesized interesting mechanical compounds. Through the 1970s and 1980s, chemists continued to advance molecular components of machines, and by the 1990s, the first true molecular machines (aside from existing biomolecules) were created.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
On a topic that's a little different, here is an episode about chemistry sets. We explore their origins in Germany as portable laboratories in the late 1600s. Johann Fredrich August Göttling's portable laboratory might be considered the first true chemistry set as an amusement rather than solely a carry-along lab. Our story continues in Britain through the 19th century, and then in the USA during the 20th century. We examine the sexism in marketing of these kits, and the demise of the chemistry set in the later 20th century as a result of legal liabilities. My Patreon supporters can download a supplemental sheet with images of some of the topics I describe.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
Here we discuss the discovery of quantum dots, those small particles hovering between molecule-size and macroscopic-size. We begin with physicist and refugee from Nazis Herbert Fröhlich, whose predictions led the way in the 1930s. Among the researchers we encounter are Aleksei Yekimov, Louis Brus, and Moungi Bawendi. Quantum dots were real, but could they be made reliably of specific sizes? The answer turned out to be yes, but you have to carefully control the conditions to make them.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
We return to the history of light-emitting diodes, LEDs, but now talk about the development of organic versions, OLEDs, from the secret work of Roger Partridge to the now classic publication by Ching Tang and Steven Vanslyke at Eastman Kodak. Through the 1990s, more and more colors were added, so by the mid-1990s, the first commercial OLED product was marketed by electronics firm Pioneer. We also distinguish between passive and active matrix OLEDs.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
After chemists discovered the soccer-ball molecule, buckminsterfullerene, and its siblings--could they do chemistry with it? We explore putting atoms and small molecules inside the ball. Then we discuss attaching atoms and molecules on the outside of the cage itself. We talk of futuristic uses for fullerene chemistry. We even mention sliding fullerenes inside a single-wall carbon nanotube.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
This episode deals with the field of molecular gastronomy, founded in the late 1980s and grew in the 1990s, under the leadership of Nicholas Kurti and Hervé This. We explore what molecular gastronomy researches and promotes, its goals, but also its controversies.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook -
In which I discuss my Dear Wife's doctoral dissertation, which deals with converting hydrocarbon fuel (say, methane) into a liquid (say, methanol) for much easier transportation from source to need. We dig into many details of experimentation, laboratory equipment, and even an unexpected side reaction. This was and is a popular topic among organometallic chemists since the 1980s.
Support the Show.
Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook - Laat meer zien