The History of Chemistry

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. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://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. Hiss & Tell: Cat Behavior and Beyond Welcome to "Hiss and Tell", a podcast about cat behavior and more! Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify Support the Show. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://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. Hiss & Tell: Cat Behavior and Beyond Welcome to "Hiss and Tell", a podcast about cat behavior and more! Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify Support the Show. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://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. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://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. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://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. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://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. Hiss & Tell: Cat Behavior and Beyond Welcome to "Hiss and Tell", a podcast about cat behavior and more! Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify Support the Show. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://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. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://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. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://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. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://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. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://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. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook

We now look at the controversies over discovery and rights to naming elements 104 to 109 in the 1960s to 1990s. The various laboratories included University of California--Berkeley, JINR at Dubna, and GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt. There were arguments and spats over who discovered what, and what constitutes discovery. Eventually a Transfermium Working Group of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, along with the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, came to referee the battle--and even that caused more problems. Hiss & Tell: Cat Behavior and Beyond Welcome to "Hiss and Tell", a podcast about cat behavior and more! Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify Support the Show. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook

Through the 1960s up to the 1990s scientists learned how to read DNA's sequence of bases, first by handfuls, then faster and faster. Ray Wu learned to determine the order of a dozen or so bases in the late 1960s. The mid-70's brought Fred Sanger and Alan Coulson's "plus and minus" method, and the first viral DNA sequenced. We then talk of Maxam and Gilbert's method, Kary Mullis' polymerase chain reaction, and Alex Jeffrey's discovery of repetitive sequences. Semi-automatic sequencing arrived in the mid-1980s, and then the Human Genome Project was planned and begun by 1990. Hiss & Tell: Cat Behavior and Beyond Welcome to "Hiss and Tell", a podcast about cat behavior and more! Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify Support the Show. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook

We talk of safety equipment in chemical laboratories: goggles, rubber (or non-rubber) gloves, fume hoods (or cupboards), eyewash stations, and lab coats. From there, we move to labeling of chemical containers, the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals. Finally, we talk about the terrible case of Professor Karen Wetterhahn at Dartmouth, and the agony she underwent after being inadvertently poisoned in the laboratory. Support the Show. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook

This time we focus on how nuclear magnetic resonance evolved into a way to peer inside a living creature, that is, magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. We start with early researchers from the 1950s and 1960s, Jay Singer, Erik Odeblad, and Raymond Damadian. Damadian actually patented a primitive method of MRI, but it didn't catch on. We then hear about Paul Lauterbur's work, then a race between Peter Mansfield and Ray Damadian to create the first live human image and full-body scan in the 1970s. The 1980s and 1990s saw the development of "contrast agents", mostly gadolinium compounds, to improve the image. Hiss & Tell: Cat Behavior and Beyond Welcome to "Hiss and Tell", a podcast about cat behavior and more! Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify Support the Show. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook

We learn about Green Chemistry, which began with the United States Pollution Prevention Act in 1990, and the Chemistry Council in the European Union's "Chemistry for a Cleaner World" at about the same time. A UN Treaty on moving hazardous wastes came into force in 1992, and then in the late 1990s, a series of formal principles for Green Chemistry were published. We talk about these twelve principles, and what they mean in practice. Support the Show. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook

This episode takes a bit of a sidestep: instead of actual chemistry, we discuss the philosophy of chemistry, which underwent a revival in the 1980s and 1990s. We talk about the "ultimate units" of chemistry, what exactly does chemistry study, how chemistry is different from other sciences, what is a chemical bond, and what is a reaction mechanism. All of these topics are argued about by chemical philosophers--even as chemists go blithely on, doing whatever it is chemists do. Support the Show. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook

We examine the history of carbon nanotubes, starting with Sumio Iijima in 1990. Or maybe Howard Tennett. Or maybe A.M. Nesterenko, N.F. Kolesnik, Yu.S. Akhmatov, V.I. Suhomlin, and O.V. Prilutskii, or maybe John Abrahamson, Peter Wiles, and Brian Rhoades. Or maybe others. Whoever it was, we then look at what mechanical, electrical, and optical properties are so interesting about nanotubes, then some practical applications for them. Support the Show. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook

To celebrate our 100th episode, we have an extended discussion on the history of lithium batteries, which power so many of our portable electronic devices today. Our story starts in 1800, when Jozé Bonifácio de Andralda e Silva found a new mineral near Stockholm, which he called petalite. Lithium batteries, however only began with the great American chemist, Gilbert Lewis, in 1913. We follow the trail through the 1960s and 1970s in Japan, Britain, Germany, and the United States, and the multiple inventors, each devising a piece of the modern lithium battery. Become a Patreon supporter, and download a supplemental sheet with several diagrams for your edification. Hiss & Tell: Cat Behavior and Beyond Welcome to "Hiss and Tell", a podcast about cat behavior and more! Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify Support the Show. https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryO Mg! How Chemistry Came to Behttps://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook