The History of Chemistry

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...

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...

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...

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 Inter...

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, K...

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 a...

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 b...

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...

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...

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 s...

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 t...

This episode covers the developments in inorganic LEDS in the 1980s and 1990s, including higher-brightness LEDs suitable for car brake lights and traffic signals, and especially practical blue LEDs. We discuss the first white LEDs as well.  Support the show Support my podcast at  https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at steve@historyofc...

For this episode I discuss my doctoral dissertation as an example of real research into surface chemistry in the early 1990s. We examine the structure of a germanium surface, and then see what happens when we add small molecules to that surface. I talk about the special apparatus required to observe a clean germanium surface, as well as what it means to get a Ph. D. in chemistry. Download a supple...

Richard Feynman gave a lecture in 1959 on atomic ultraminiaturization.  We learn about Donald Eigler and Erhard Schweizer's work in 1989 to make that dream come true: moving individual atoms in a deliberate way on a surface. Then we hear of Eigler, Michael Crommie, and Christopher Lutz's continuation of this process to show quantum effects. Wilson Ho went even further and was able to det...

We hear of the evolution of chemical communications, how chemists tell other chemists of their research, starting with Henry Oldenburg in 1665, who published summaries of Royal Society meetings. We learn of the first truly chemical journals in the 1780s, the splitting into chemical subdivisions, private chemical journals, and then journals published by chemical societies. Finally, we also talk abo...

New polymers were still being invented or commercialized in the 1980s, so we mention some of the most important 1980s polymers: biaxially-oriented polypropylene; high-modulus polyethylene (trade name Dyneema); microfiber (Ultrasuede or Alcantara); poly(p-phenylene-2,6-benzobisoxazole) (Zylon); Technora; Vectran; and Zenite. We discuss some of the properties that make these polymers so attractive....

We hear about the chemistry behind winemaking, especially the discovery that a fungus generates the alcohol. Then there are the other residues from the grapes that help to shape a wine's special flavor. The final component we talk about is the sugar that feeds the yeast, but also adds a sweetness to the wine. We also hear about two serious European scandals that rocked wineries in Austria and...

We hear of events from the early 19th century onward that led to the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in the 1980s. Surprisingly, it all started with Humphry Davy and his assistant, Michael Faraday, and continued with a competition between Kamerlingh Onnes and James Dewar over who could liquefy hydrogen first. After that, Onnes turned to the idea of finding evidence for condensation...

Recycling became common in the 1980s, and we learn why. We also learn of the seven different types of plastic in the recycling world, why they need to be sorted by type for recycling, and how (and even if) they can be recycled.  Support the show Support my podcast at  https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at steve@historyofchem.com Get...

Atmospheric environmental chemistry in the 1980s is today's topic. First is Jonathan Shanklin and his discovery of the ozone hole, which led in a very short time to the Montreal Protocol, perhaps the most successful international treaty ever. Second we hear about Guy Callendar's and Charles Keeling's research showing how carbon dioxide we put into the atmosphere causes global warmin...

This episode focuses on the entry of computers into the chemical laboratory, which began in tiny doses in 1948, but expanded in the 1960s with the LINC at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a forerunner of the PC. We talk also of the growth of computers used to calculate and model molecular structures, from the 1950s use with x ray crystallography and some ab initio calculations, through semi-...

This episode is all about chemical examples of "pathological science," as Irving Langmuir called it, "the science of things that aren't so." We hear of the six symptoms of pathological science, then we learn of three examples of pathological chemistry: polywater, promoted by Boris Deryagin, from the 1960s and early 1970s; memory water, promoted by Jacques Benveniste, from...

We continue on the path of environmental chemistry, with several egregious examples of pollution in the 1980s. First is the story of Times Beach, Missouri, USA, its contamination, discovery, and evacuation. Second is the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, which had structural weaknesses leading to an explosion blanketing the city with toxic gas. Third is the explosion of the nuclear reactor in...

We hear of an unusual idea that appeared in the 1970s: that metals can become anions and gain electrons! These are the alkalide compounds, first discovered in 1974. Such compounds are anions of the alkaline metals, often combined with crown ethers. The second, related topic in this episode is that of solvated electrons, where electrons sit in the spaces between molecules. These compounds are the e...

We turn to an oddity in the world of chemistry that became more widely known in the 1980s: non-equilibrium thermodynamics, and especially oscillating reactions. A couple of examples were known in the 19th century, but the first model for how such reactions might go was created by Alfred Lotka and Vito Volterra early in the 20th century. We hear about Liebhafsky and Bray's oscillating reaction...