Chasing the Why

How William Ramsay Found the Noble Gases "In recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air, and his determination of their place in the periodic system." The fourth Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Scottish chemist Sir William Ramsay. After working as an apprentice in shipbuilding plants, Ramsay enrolled at the University of Glasgow to study chemistry. So...

Why Japan Values Falling Cherry Blossoms Have you ever noticed the transience of life and the importance of staying in the moment by watching a flower? The details in its petals, the way it sways freely in the air, the meaning of its falling to the ground... It seems that the Japanese have noticed and cared about this a long time ago and have even turned it into a tradition. Come on, let's meet th...

Why 400 people danced to death In the summer of 1518, a mother in Strasbourg throws her baby in her arms into the river. She thinks she is doing a favor to herself and her baby while doing this, because the other options for the baby are to starve to death or to be eaten. The mother, who is in such conditions, has no other option; she drops her baby from the top of a bridge into the river and retu...

How an artist invented modern medicine Louis Pasteur, a microbiologist and chemist known for discovering the rabies vaccine, was born in Dole, France, in 1822. Both his parents dreamed of making their only son a scientist, but Louis was not in a position to meet these expectations. Young Louis was a diligent student at school, but he was a bit shy. Louis had only one interest in drawing, which eve...

How Agile methods prevent business collapse As we know, business life is generally an order consisting of strict rules and clear roles. At least, it has continued this way until now. Especially between 1960 and 1990, this order experienced its most rigid period. This order, which started with aspects such as dress code and work hours, even showed itself in the language of communication. Of course,...

How Salt and Spite Won a Nobel "due to the electrolytic theory of decomposition" Born in 1859 in Sweden, Svante August Arrhenius was connected to the Nobel Committee long before he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1903. In 1900, he was part of the team preparing for the establishment of the Nobel Institute and the Prize Committee. Since he started his career as a physicist, he was a full m...

How learning an instrument rewires your brain Many of us have had an interest in art at some point in our lives. Some of us have continued this interest, while others have given up on it for various reasons. Music is just one of the branches of art, and those who are involved in music know that walking on that path, although enjoyable, is a bit of a struggle. Yazının tamamı: https://www.okbutwhy.o...

Why Forced Breaks Make You Faster In these days when everything is moving much faster, our efforts to catch up with time can make us feel like we have to race against time. So, is it possible to be a winner in such a race? It is possible if we change our perspective! What if we do not race against time and make peace with it? Because as we chase time, we become weak and unmotivated, and as we beco...

Hitler's Kingmaker and the Axis Collapse The history of world wars has witnessed many bloody wars, crimes against humanity, and interesting events, but there is nothing like World War II. Moreover, 25 years before this war, the whole world was saying the same thing about World War I. Up until that point, the bloodiest war the whole world had ever seen was neither the war between France and England...

How Turkish Warriors Became Academic Scholars We may have seen Turkish tribes and states briefly in middle school, high school, or university history classes. Asian Huns, European Huns, Karakhanids, Ghaznavids, Ottoman Empire… We remember all these states with more than one important title due to their specific characteristics. Therefore, they are all very important in terms of Turkish history. Ya...

How past failure rewires your brain Have you ever heard of the Seligman experiment? For those of you who haven't heard of it, the Seligman experiment is not the first chemistry-related experiment we think of. It's much more abstract and psychological! Let's expand a bit more on this. Do you try again to do things you couldn't do before or do you give up? For example, "I can't paint. I've never got...

Why coffee and DNA share a shape "for his work on sugar and purine synthesis" The second Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1902. The prize in the field of chemistry was awarded to Hermann Emil Fischer. The German chemist was 50 years old when he received the prize. Until then, he had worked on many pioneering topics in his field. However, the work that led Fischer to the Nobel was on the synthesis of s...

How a Failed Heart Drug Became Viagra Today, we are going to learn the story of the accidental discovery of the well-known blue pill that is always taken "for a friend "! Let's get to know a medicine that can make you choose the "blue pill" without even thinking about Morpheus' offer, even if you really want to know the truth! "If you take the blue pill, the story ends. If you take the red pill, y...

Why Descartes Doubted His Own Existence "I think, therefore I am," or in Latin, "cogito ergo sum," is perhaps the most famous saying in the history of philosophy, told by Descartes. But what if we tell you that many people actually misunderstand this saying? The real meaning of this saying is much different than what is first understood. At first glance, we perceive it as a statement about the imp...

How Atatürk Built Turkey From Scratch World history has seen many great leaders. Napoleon, Tsar Ivan of Russia, Frederick the German monarch, Mehmet the Conqueror, and many more. All of these leaders, in one way or another, have influenced both the world and their countries. Some of them won great wars; others became famous for domestic issues. Some have ruled their people ruthlessly; some have sh...

How Wilhelm II ruined Bismarck's peace World War I was a war of such magnitude that it caused a global catastrophe. There have been many bloody wars throughout history. This was the case even before states. Even when living in tribes or small groups, people considered other groups as enemies and did everything they could to destroy them. After states were established, ancient wars that are the sub...

Oppenheimer's poisoned apple and the atomic bomb Oppenheimer is a name we come across wherever we look these days. We have always remembered him as the "Father/Inventor of the Atomic Bomb", but Oppenheimer was someone who had an important place in the world of science before his work on this project. In this article, we will take a closer look at Oppenheimer and get to know him much better. A Geni...

Why dissolved particles behave like gases The 1901 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was the first Nobel Prize in chemistry in history, and it was awarded for the following work: "for distinguished services in the discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions." The winner of the first Nobel Prize in Chemistry was Dutch chemist Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff. Van't Hoff, who stud...

How P.T. Barnum Built American Show Business When talking about PT Barnum, we need to forget the word mediocrity. Barnum, we can say, by refusing to act in accordance with the dictionary meaning of the word "normal", created a frightening and strange circus. Having devoted his life to surprising, entertaining and even scaring people, Barnum has built a dark entertainment empire. Yazının tamamı: ht...

Why We Abandon Our Own Reality I'm sure many of us have had to conform to the majority in some situations in our social circle, keeping our own wishes and thoughts in the background. This can be interpreted as small sacrifices made in order to adapt; It can also be seen as lying in order to not be judged or excluded by the environment. In fact, sometimes we question our own opinions and behavior b...

Why Aristotle Says Unhappiness Is Immoral If you are unhappy, you are immoral: Ethics of Virtue You think the title sounds surprising and pointless, don't you? Why would being unhappy be immoral? It's like we're giving the fallen one another a kick, right? Interestingly, a name you know well, albeit indirectly, claims this: Aristotle! In fact, we shouldn't put all the blame on him. The claim in th...

Why your brain only laughs when safe You may have noticed that we have entered a subject that may seem strange to many people. We are talking about a question that seems to have a very simple answer but has a rather tricky explanation. Maybe when we read this question, “Because we find something funny. ” or “ When we are tickled, our nerves are activated . (or break down) ” came to our minds. But...

How the Hindenburg killed the airship Flying airships or zeppelins, which we see only in commercials or old movies today, were quite popular for a while. Especially in the early 1900s, many zeppelins circled in the sky, and most of the transportation was provided by these zeppelins. So why isn't it anymore? Let's look at a tragic story together! What is Airship? Zeppelins are flying vehicles with...

How your internal clock dictates health Let's say we went on a world tour and went through many different time zones quickly. Our perceptions are confused, we do not know whether it is day or night or whether we are hungry. Or, we are in finals week, and we stay awake until the morning because we think we work more efficiently at night. These are, of course, our own choices, but if we choose to li...

The 3200 Year Threat Of Sulfur Hexafluoride Have you ever heard the sulfur hexafluoride? You must have seen videos of people thinning their voices by inhaling helium. Today, we will examine a gas with the opposite effect of helium. Also known as anti-helium, the name of this gas in the chemical world is sulfur hexafluoride. So, what is this gas, and how does it thicken our voice? SF6 (Sulfur Hexaf...