This Week in Chemistry: April 7 - April 13

April 07, 2008 at 01:36 AM

Analtech, Inc. is proud to provide this public service feature - This Week in Chemistry - a recap of major breakthroughs in chemistry as well as the commemoration of key individuals birthdates.

Analtech thanks Dr. Leopold May of The Catholic University of America forproviding this information - you can visit his web site by clicking here.

 

April 7

b. 1894 Louis P. Hammett developed Hammett equation for linear free-energy relationship and correlation of changes in chemical properties with chemical structures. 

b. 1914 Walter H. Stockmayer, a researcher in polymer chemistry. 

o New law instituted the metric decimal system in France & the nomenclature for the system was established 1795.

April 8

b. 1911 Melvin Calvin, Nobel Prize in Chemistry  (1961) for his research in photosynthesis. d. 1997

April 9

b. 1930 F. Albert Cotton researcher in inorganic and structural chemistry. 

o Ignacio Tinoco, Jr., proposed simple method for estimating secondary structure of ribonucleic acid (RNA) from sequence of nucleotides, 1971.

April 10

b. 1863 Paul Louis Toussaint Héroult discovered the electrolytic aluminium process in 1886, the same year that Charles Martin Hall discovered the same process for isolating aluminum, which is called the Hall-Heroult process; invented. the electric arc furnace for steel in 1900. which replaced some giant smelters for the production of a variety of steels. 

b. 1887 Bernardo Alberto Houssay, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1947 for his discovery of the part played by the hormone of the anterior pituitary lobe in the metabolism of sugar with Gerty T. Cori and Carl F. Cori for their research on the hormone of the anterior lobe and its role in the metabolism of sugar; discovered how glycogen is catalytically converted.

b. 1900 Arnold O. Beckman developed the pH meter; founded Beckman Instruments, 1934.

b. 1917 Robert B. Woodward, researcher in stereoselective organic synthesis; Woodward-Hoffman rules; Nobel Prize (1965) for his outstanding achievements in the art of organic synthesis. 

o Patent Office established (Constitution, Art. 8, Sec 1) 1790: First patent on Potash and Pearl Ash to Samuel Hopkins.  

o Emil Fischer discovered glucose, 1891.

o A. M. Collins synthesized polychloroprene, 1930.

April 11

b. 1804 Otto Erdmann, professor of chemical technology, U. Leipzig; redetermined atomic weights of elements with R. F. Marchand.  

b. 1899 Percy L. Julian cosynthesized physostigmine, 1935; founded Julian Laboratories, 1953; prepared intermediates for commercial production of steroid hormones; first black chemist member of National Academy of Sciences.

b. 1938 Reatha Clark King, professor of chemistry and administrator.

o Humphry Davy discovered nitrous oxide, laughing gas, 1799.

o Robert B. Woodward & W. von Eggers Doering synthesized quinine, 1944.

April 12

b. 1773 Thomas Thompson, invented the instrument known as Allan's saccharometer; identified a zeolite mineral named thomsonite; promoted Dalton's atomic theory & Prout's hypthosis in his journal Annals of Philosophy and his book System of Chemistry. 

b. 1872 Georges Urbain codiscovered lutetium (Lu, 71), 1907, with K. Auer von Welsbach; discovered the law of optimum phosphorescence of binary systems; researcher in isomorphism; chemical-composer. 

b. 1884 Otto F. Meyerhof, researcher on muscle metabolism; shared Nobel Prize in Medicine (1922) for his discovery of the fixed relationship between the consumption of oxygen and the metabolism of lactic acid in the muscle with Archibald Vivian Hill for his discovery relating to the production of heat in the muscle.

April 13

b. 1760 Thomas Beddoes, studied medical treatment of disease by the therapeutic inhalation of different "factitious airs" or gases and vapors; established Pneumatic Institution for Inhalation Gas Therapy, 1798.

o Tobern Bergman confirmed Müller von Reichenstein's results that the substance isolated from a bismuth ore was a new element tellurium (Te, 52), 1784.

o The paper on the discovery of crown ethers and their complexes, “Cyclic polyethers and their complexes with metal salts” by C. P. Pedersen was received on this day, 1967; Published in J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1967, 89, 7017.