Bill Nye 100 Greatest Discoveries in Chemistry
1.
John Priestley discovered oxygen. He took a powder compound and heated it until it
became mercury and a gas or "new air". Antoine Lavoisier also studied gases. He is
said to have invented oxygen. He used equipment that was able to weigh the emitted air,
and he called it oxygen. He also developed a list of many of the elements which we still
use today.
2.
John Dalton showed that elements combine in constant proportions, therefore that must
be made up of smaller invisible pieces of matter with distinctive weights, which he later called
atomic weights. The pieces of matter he called atoms. This atomic theory defined
relationships between elements and atoms.
3.
Joseph Gay Lassac found that equal volumes of gases combined would produce two
times the volume he predicted. Amedeo Avogadro studied Lassac's finding. He concluded
that gases were made up of multiple atoms or molecules. Now scientists could
systematically make new compounds.
4.
Fredrich Wohler made urea crystals using two inorganic chemicals. He found them to
be identical to crystal he had seen when working with urine. This discovery broke the wall
between organic and inorganic chemistry. The building blocks of all matter, whether organic
or inorganic, are the same - atoms.
5.
August Keckule developed a system for visualizing the chemical structures of various
molecules. He was able to draw structures because he knew atoms combined in fixed
ratios. He discovered the benzene ring, which began the modern era of organic chemistry.
6.
Dimitri Mendeleyev made out cards which the name, weight, and physical properties of
the 63 known elements. While placing them in an organized fashion, he developed the
periodic table. He even predicted 3 elements that had not been discovered yet. Element
101, mendolevium, is named for him.
7.
Scientist were just beginning to discover the anatomy of an atom. They wanted to
understand its behavior, particularly the mechanism that allowed atoms of certain elements to
combine with atoms of other elements and form new substances. In the early 1900's Gilbert
Lewis developed a model of an atom. It explained that the electrons of atoms went in shells
around the nuclei. Two chemical elements combine and form a compound when one of them
gives up or accepts an electron from an outer shell. The discovery allowed scientists to
create chemical compounds.
8.
In the 1890's Henri Becquerel tried to find minerals that emitted radiation to use for x-
rays. So using a coin and black photography paper, he found that uranium had radioactive
activity. Madam and Pierre Curie then studied tons of the uranium ore and discovered two
new elements, Polonium and Radium. Radium alone was a million times more radioactive
than uranium. Radioactivity has given us medical imaging, treatment for tumors, helped
determine the age of earth, and is used as a power source.
9.
In the 1860's John Hyatt found a way to make plastic after studying strands of
cellulose from plants. Leo Baekeland actually made a fully synthetic fiber, called plastic. He
made a polymer called Baekelite, from 2 chemicals derived from coal. Plastics are polymers,
which are long chain molecules. Plastic was pliable, strong, and surpassed natural fibers.
10.
In 1985, Richard Smalley, Robert Curl and Harold Kroto studied chemical conditions
in outer space, trying to find chemical relations between interstellar matter. They found one
cluster of carbon atoms with exactly 60 atoms. They called it a nanotube, or fullerene. They
tried to add another carbon to it, but it wouldn't take it. The fullerene is stiffer than steel and a
diamond. It is the strongest fiber ever.