November In Chemistry

November in Chemistry
written and compiled by Anthony Hardwicke, RSC Schoolteacher Fellow
For teachers at schools and colleges with electronic daily information screens. Download this PowerPoint, then cut and paste each page into your information PowerPoint.

Today in Chemistry
Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium-210 on November 1st 2006. He later died of acute radiation syndrome. On his deathbed he accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being responsible.

Today in Chemistry
On November 2nd 1931, DuPont began mass production of the first commercially available synthetic rubber. They called it Du
Prene, but it is now known as neoprene. Neoprene is used to make divers’ wetsuits.

Today in Chemistry
C. Schwerdt announced that he had successfully
crystallised the polio virus at the University of California on November 3rd 1955. This enabled X-ray crystallographers to determine the structure of the virus and develop a vaccine.

Today in Chemistry
The analytical chemist Karl Friedrich Mohr was born on November 4th 1806. He is remembered for the Mohr scale of hardness and Mohr's salt - ferrous ammonium sulphate, Fe(NH4)2(SO4).

Today in Chemistry
On November 5th 1854, Paul Sabatier was born. He studied catalysis in organic chemistry and won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1912.

Today in Chemistry
Working on an oil rig is a difficult and dangerous job.
On November 6th 1986, 45 oil rig workers were tragically killed when their helicopter crashed off the coast of Scotland.

Today in Chemistry
One of the most famous female scientists, Marie Curie, was born on November 7th 1867. By painstakingly extracting radioactive compounds from the ore pitchblende, she discovered the elements radium, Ra and polonium, Po. She won two Nobel prizes – for physics in 1903 and chemistry in 1911. The element curium, Cm, is named after her.

Today in Chemistry
X-rays were first discovered on November 8th 1895 by Wilhelm Röntgen.

Today in Chemistry
Thomas Drummond first heated a ball of lime (calcium oxide) and observed light being given out on
November 9th 1825.
This first use of
limelight led to
improvements in
theatre lighting
and lighthouses.
This is where the phrase
‘in the limelight’ comes from.

Today in Chemistry
On November 10th 1974, two groups of American chemists simultaneously announced the discovery of a quark that they named ‘charm’. It is thought
that atoms are made of protons, neutrons and electrons and protons are made of quarks.

Glenn Seaborg announced the discovery of two new man-made elements, americium, Am and curium, Cm, on the Quiz Kids radio programme on November 11th 1945.
Today in Chemistry

Today in Chemistry
Alexander Borodin was born on November 12th 1833. He was a well-respected chemistry professor, an
expert on aldehydes and he discovered the Aldol reaction. He also happened to be a great composer in his spare time. His most famous composition is the Notturno from the second String Quartet.

Today in Chemistry
To relieve the effects of inhaling chlorine gas, Charles Jackson of Boston, USA inhaled
ether vapour, and became unconscious. He persuaded a dentist in Boston to use it while extracting teeth, with great success. On November 13th 1846 he reported his discovery to the Paris Academy of Sciences. He wrote: Unedécouvertequej’ai fait et que je crois important pour le soulagement de l’humanitesouffrante, et d’unegrandevaleur pour l’artchirurgicale.

Today in Chemistry
On November 14th 1891, Frederick. G. Banting, who first extracted insulin and identified its role in diabetes, was born. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1923.

Today in Chemistry
On November 15th 1810, Humphry Davy formally announced that chlorine was an element. Elements always have one-word-names and
compounds usually have two-word names. Chlorine had previously been thought to be a compound, and was referred to as oxymuriatic acid. Davy suggested that the name be changed to chlorine. The Greek word chloros means ‘pale green’.

Today in Chemistry
Joel Hildebrand, who first introduced helium into deep-sea diving, was born on November 16th 1881. The bends is a dangerous condition that you get if you come to the surface too quickly after a dive. Gas dissolved in your blood suddenly un-dissolves – just like when you take the lid off of a bottle of fizzy drink. If divers breathe a mixture of oxygen and helium (rather then normal air – a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen), they don’t get the bends because helium isn’t very soluble.

Today in Chemistry
On November 17th 1645, Nicolas Lemery,
author of the early chemistry book Cours de Chymie, was born.

Today in Chemistry
George Wald was born on November 18th 1906. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1967
for his research into the chemistry of vision. He made some important discoveries about how the cones and rods in the retina detect light of different colours.

The first person to discover evidence that the Earth’s magnetic field reverses every few hundred thousand years was the
British geophysicist
Stanley Keith Runcorn,
who was born on 19th
November 1922. He was
murdered in 1995, aged
73, when he disturbed a
thief in his motel room,
while giving lectures in
the US.
Today in Chemistry

Today in Chemistry
On November 20th 1807, Humphry Davy announced to the Royal Society that he had isolated two new elements, sodium and potassium.

Today in Chemistry
On November 21st 1824, Hieronymus Theodor Richter, co-discoverer of the element indium, In, was born. Indium is used to make alloys with low melting points, semiconducting electrical components and control rods in nuclear power stations.

Today in Chemistry
On November 22nd 1875, Dmitri Mendeleev announced that the recently discovered element gallium was in fact the element he had predicted (and called eka-aluminium) six years earlier using his Periodic Table. This success helped establish the Periodic Table amongst other scientists.

Today in Chemistry
Henry Moseley, born on 23rd November 1887, discovered atomic numbers. The atomic number of an element is the number of protons it has. His pioneering
research was interrupted by the First World War. Moseley went off to fight for his country and was killed in Gallipoli at the tragically young age of 27.

Today in Chemistry
Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species was published on November 24th 1859.

Today in Chemistry
On November 25th 1814, the German chemist Julius Robert von Mayer, was born. He formulated the law of conservation of energy – one of the most basic axioms of science.

Today in Chemistry
On November 26th 1898, Karl Ziegler, was born. He discovered an important catalyst for polymerisation and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1963.

Today in Chemistry
Anders Celsius was born on November 27th 1701. He set up a temperature scale that is widely used today. Zero is the freezing point of water and 100°C is the boiling point of water.

Today in Chemistry
One of the greatest chemists of all time, Antoine Lavoisier, gave himself up to the revolutionary
French Government on November 28th 1793. He was imprisoned and executed by guillotine the following year.

Today in Chemistry
The discovery of iodine was announced at the French Institute on November 29th 1813. Iodine is a non-metallic element that sublimes when heated.

Today in Chemistry
On November 30th 1773, the Royal Society awarded Joseph Priestley the Copley Medal. The diagram shows one of Priestley’s experiments looking at electricity.