Spring 2011, Vol. 29, No. 1
Slip into the history of anesthesia, and come to with calorie counting’s scientific background. Look for the marks of Leonardo da Vinci in a recently discovered portrait. Continue the Italian journey with a review of the Museo Galileo in Florence. Rise to the occasion with the history of baking soda, and wonder at the intersection of chemistry and craft as artists tackle the periodic table.
A Measure of Success
The environmental consciousness of the 1970s led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but to protect the environment the EPA needed legislation – which required the ability to precisely identify pollutants and measure their concentrations. Enter an unlikely entrepreneur: ex-cold war engineer Robert E. Finnigan.
A Notorious Life
In the so-called Hamel Catastrophe of 1820, Joseph Hamel (1788–1862) led a scientific expedition in which three local guides were lost after they were swept into a crevasse following the party’s harrowing 1,200-foot fall in an avalanche. Hamel never quite lived down his association with the accident, though he did go on to become a cosmopolitan savant in the classic mold.
An Everyday Poison
Michal Meyer reviews James C. Whorton's The Arsenic Century: How Victorian Britain Was Poisoned at Home, Work, and Play.
Breaking the Code
In 1959, only two years after getting his Ph.D., future Nobel Prize winner Marshall Nirenberg proposed to probe the genetic code. The only problem? He had no experience in the two fields at the forefront of this investigation.
Charles Herty's vision of a self-reliant America kicked off the American chemical industry. He traveled the United States championing a national approach to chemistry, calling on American businesses, government, and universities.
Thin became “in” during the 1920s, and the calorie became a vital tool in the battle to lose weight. Yet before becoming a fashion necessity, the calorie had a decidedly less glamorous role in agriculture, laboratories, and factories.
Cracking Down on Crude Oil
At the end of World War I, many worried that within a few years the world’s oil supply would be depleted. In response, Eugene Jules Houdry, a French mechanical engineer with a passion for racing cars, decided to turn lignite, a low-rank, brownish-black coal, into gasoline.
Pei Koay reviews Steven Shapin's Never Pure: Historical Studies of Science as if It Was Produced by People with Bodies, Situated in Time, Space, Culture, and Society, and Struggling for Credibility and Authority.
In the 1970s The Dow Chemical Company undertook a massive campaign to raise awareness about the importance of safety both within and outside of the workplace. The campaign’s tagline, “Life Is Fragile: Handle with Care,” was stamped on hundreds of posters, stickers, and other promotional materials.
Leave a Message
On most days the answering machine in Alan MacDiarmid’s office at the University of Pennsylvania captured questions from students, notes MacDiarmid left for himself, calls from fellow chemists, and messages from his wife. But Tuesday, October 10, 2000, proved an especially busy day for MacDiarmid’s answering machine.
In the 19th century chemical oblivion replaced liquor, opiates, and bleeding as the numbing agent of choice in the surgeon’s toolkit. Anesthesia—transformed from chemical oddity and party favorite into an essential element of Civil War operating theaters—fundamentally changed patients’ psychological and physical experiences of surgery.
In Self Interest, an installation currently on display at CHF as part of the exhibit Elemental Matters: Artists Imagine Chemistry, Dove Bradshaw presents the 59 elements that make up the human body.
Wilhelm Ostwald, winner of the 1909 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on catalysis and an accomplished “Sunday painter,” conducted extensive research into the nature of color. His resulting aesthetic provided a stark contrast to the emerging artistic movements of the early 20th century.
The Da Vinci Question
Authenticating a painting believed to be the work of a master is a combination of science and art. Documentary producer Jo Ann Caplin heads to Europe to observe as experts investigate whether La Bella Principessa is in fact the work of Leonardo da Vinci.
The Periodic Table at Play
Thomas R. Tritton reviews Sam Kean's The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements.