In the final chapter of his book, Kean talks about the fact that francium is very rare. The most anyone has every acquired is ten thousand atoms and it only lasted for twenty minutes. If francium is rare, then trying to find astatine is like finding a specific car in a parking garage within a hundred million parking garages and throughout all of the garages the car you are looking for is the only one there. Besides, if you did manage to find astatine, you would die because of the exposure to the strong radiation. The author also mentions what are called "magic elements" that were found by Maria Goeppert-Mayer that include elements 2, 8, 20, 28, etc. These elements are extra stable.
The author also mentions weird fact that uranium is more stable that astatine or francium although it's heavier. Kean said that the fact that element 114 is so stable that elements 112 and 116 get calmed just from being close to element 114. Scientists called this the "island of stability" and they weren't really sure why. Kean goes on to talk about the future of the periodic table. Many people think that the periodic table will end at element 137 since alpha is 1/137 and Einstein's theory of relativity says that nothing can travel faster than light, so theoretically any elements beyond 137 will be physically impossible. There is still some doubt though since alpha could be growing because of Oklo, so you never know.
This chapter was a good way to end the book because it focuses so much on the periodic table. The book in general was very good, at times confusing, but that's because I have so much to learn in my AP journey. I really enjoyed reading about the girl power throughout the book and I didn't really like the patriarchal side of science. It was especially entertaining reading about the scandals of science. I never knew that politics could influence science so much. Peace and love, peeps!
-A
Monday, February 1, 2016
Chapter 18 Summary and Reflection
Chapter 18 is called "Tools of Ridiculous Precision" and "ridiculous precision" it is. Kean starts the chapter by talking about the precision-crazy people at the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) and the BIPM (Bureau International des Poids et Measures). These people are responsible for knowing for long a second is, etc. Then Kean goes on to talk about the International Prototype Kilogram. This kilogram is the model for every kilogram everywhere. It's a two-inch wide 90% platinum cylinder who mass is exactly 1.00000000..... kilogram. As if that weren't crazy, that kilogram has more protection than the President of the United States (slight exaggeration). The scientists in Paris and around the world are obsessed with trying to keep the kilogram from losing a single atom, although I think that's impossible.
Kean then talks about a metal rod in Paris that measures exactly 1.0000.....meter. This distance was calculated to be the distance any light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. The author also mentions that cesium atomic clocks are the world's official measurement of time. This way of telling time replaced the centuries old way of telling time by the stars and planets. We have lost our connections to the Romans and Greeks in exchange for a more precise way of telling time. I don't know which is better. Then comes the craze of the alpha. Before the alpha equaled 1/136, but apparently that was wrong and the measurement was updated to 1/137.0359. These people are almost unhealthily obsessed with precision.
This chapter was almost as interesting as it was amusing. I found it hilarious that people had actually worked the precision of the measurements. How many hours, days, months, years of your life do you have to give up in order to be the one who can successfully say that you've measured exactly how long is a second. That idea is just crazy and mind-blowing to me and it's something I will definitely tell my friends.
Kean then talks about a metal rod in Paris that measures exactly 1.0000.....meter. This distance was calculated to be the distance any light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. The author also mentions that cesium atomic clocks are the world's official measurement of time. This way of telling time replaced the centuries old way of telling time by the stars and planets. We have lost our connections to the Romans and Greeks in exchange for a more precise way of telling time. I don't know which is better. Then comes the craze of the alpha. Before the alpha equaled 1/136, but apparently that was wrong and the measurement was updated to 1/137.0359. These people are almost unhealthily obsessed with precision.
This chapter was almost as interesting as it was amusing. I found it hilarious that people had actually worked the precision of the measurements. How many hours, days, months, years of your life do you have to give up in order to be the one who can successfully say that you've measured exactly how long is a second. That idea is just crazy and mind-blowing to me and it's something I will definitely tell my friends.
Chapter 17 Summary and Reflection
In chapter 17, Kean starts by talking about every kid's favorite thing: bubbles. Donald Glaser started thinking about particle physics of all things while drinking beer and staring at the bubbles of the beer. Glaser wanted to know more about how bubbles worked and so he started building his bubble chamber. The liquid he started with to observe bubbles was beer. When that obviously didn't work out, he moved to liquid hydrogen. Donald Glaser's bubble chamber earned him a Noble Prize at the age of thirty three.
Another scientist that Kean talks about is Ernest Rutherford. He was interested in radioactivity and how radioactive substances contaminate the air around them with more radioactivity. He knew about Marie Curie's experiment to find new radioactive elements by boiling down a bunch of pitchblende, but he decided there was an easier way to get the results he wanted. He just let nature take its course and he studied the gases released by radioactive elements. By doing so he found a new element and beta particles. While receiving his Nobel Prize in 1908, Rutherford mentioned that he found that alpha particles were escaped helium particles with an early "neon" light.
This chapter was interesting at the beginning with the bubbles and all, but overall the chapter was kind of meh. The chapter at times was very confusing like I should have some special degree to understand what I was reading. I enjoyed reading about the bubble chamber and Glaser's work, but I didn't really get what the whole point of it was. Rutherford's experiment was okay as well, but the physics sometimes made it hard to understand.
*Update: Apparently, Rutherford's theory could be used as a dating device and such to find the age of the earth. That makes a bit more sense I guess.
Another scientist that Kean talks about is Ernest Rutherford. He was interested in radioactivity and how radioactive substances contaminate the air around them with more radioactivity. He knew about Marie Curie's experiment to find new radioactive elements by boiling down a bunch of pitchblende, but he decided there was an easier way to get the results he wanted. He just let nature take its course and he studied the gases released by radioactive elements. By doing so he found a new element and beta particles. While receiving his Nobel Prize in 1908, Rutherford mentioned that he found that alpha particles were escaped helium particles with an early "neon" light.
This chapter was interesting at the beginning with the bubbles and all, but overall the chapter was kind of meh. The chapter at times was very confusing like I should have some special degree to understand what I was reading. I enjoyed reading about the bubble chamber and Glaser's work, but I didn't really get what the whole point of it was. Rutherford's experiment was okay as well, but the physics sometimes made it hard to understand.
*Update: Apparently, Rutherford's theory could be used as a dating device and such to find the age of the earth. That makes a bit more sense I guess.
Chapter 16 Summary and Reflection
In chapter 16, Kean starts by talking about the journey of Englishman Robert Falcon Scott and his five companions to the South Pole. Scott and his companions wanted to be the first people in the world to get there first, but when they arrived a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen had gotten there before Scott. The travelers would have been able to get back home safely had they not been marooned on the South Pole for weeks by snow flurries. To make matters worse, the tin cans that they had filled with fuel lost all of their fuel by leaking. Then the tin cans went through something called tin leprosy where the tin can rearrange itself into two different solids because of temperature. Tin has two solids; beta and alpha. Regular tin as a solid is in its beta form and when the temperature is very low, the tin rearranges itself to its alpha state and becomes a white powder. Robert Falcon Scott and his companions eventually died on the South Pole, but it didn't go unnoticed.
Kean then goes on to mention the other elements that were put through extreme temperatures in order to find a solid sample. Xenon and krypton were put to temperatures as low as -240 F. Trying to turn xenon and krypton into solids was child's play compared to trying to get a solid sample of argon. Argon eventually had to interact with fluorine and cesium iodide at -445 F degrees to get the first and only solid sample of argon. Kean also talks about how laser beams come to be and it's all thanks to elements like yttrium and neodymium. In fact, the most powerful laser has more power than the US and it uses crystals of yttrium spiked with neodymium. While lasers produce light in visible light, masers don't as they produce it in microwaves. Masers were considered something impossible before Charles Townes began working on them and his work earned him a Nobel Prize in 1964.
This chapter was interesting but confusing. The chapter wasn't really connected with the extreme low temperatures affecting elements and the new state of matter by Einstein and Bose. That was really confusing to me. Of course I'd like to learn more about this subject, but I would have preferred the author to explain the topic a bit more clearly. Learning about the lasers was very interesting because I had no idea how they worked. I always assumed that the bulbs inside of the lasers contained neon and that's what made the beam shine so I enjoyed finding about the real truth when it comes to lasers.
Kean then goes on to mention the other elements that were put through extreme temperatures in order to find a solid sample. Xenon and krypton were put to temperatures as low as -240 F. Trying to turn xenon and krypton into solids was child's play compared to trying to get a solid sample of argon. Argon eventually had to interact with fluorine and cesium iodide at -445 F degrees to get the first and only solid sample of argon. Kean also talks about how laser beams come to be and it's all thanks to elements like yttrium and neodymium. In fact, the most powerful laser has more power than the US and it uses crystals of yttrium spiked with neodymium. While lasers produce light in visible light, masers don't as they produce it in microwaves. Masers were considered something impossible before Charles Townes began working on them and his work earned him a Nobel Prize in 1964.
This chapter was interesting but confusing. The chapter wasn't really connected with the extreme low temperatures affecting elements and the new state of matter by Einstein and Bose. That was really confusing to me. Of course I'd like to learn more about this subject, but I would have preferred the author to explain the topic a bit more clearly. Learning about the lasers was very interesting because I had no idea how they worked. I always assumed that the bulbs inside of the lasers contained neon and that's what made the beam shine so I enjoyed finding about the real truth when it comes to lasers.
Chapter 15 Summary and Reflection
In chapter 15, Kean introduces pathological science into the mix. He starts by talking about William Crookes. Crookes lost his brother Philip at sea and his life changed after that. Crookes and his family were delirious with grief. They turned to spiritualism to express their grief. The family began attending séances en masse. At first, Crookes didn't attend, but when he attended one night, his life took a turn. Crookes became a frequent attendee of the séances in order to try and communicate with his brother. His professional life took a hit when he published "Notes of an Enquiry into the Phenomena Called Spiritual" in 1874. People who he worked with thought he was crazy, but the pathological science had come in place by then. Crookes's emotions and feelings had come to affect his work and influenced his research on spiritualism. Crookes eventually left the spiritualism circles and went back to science and focused on other topics.
Another topic deriving from pathological science was that of cold fusion. According to the author B. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann were supposed to be the next Watson and Crick, but that didn't happen. Cold fusion was supposed to be the new source of energy that was efficient and without any emissions. Pons and Fleischmann discovered this new power source and ran many of the same experiments to confirm their results. Each of their tests didn't have the same results and even though they knew this, both men called for a press conference to release their new discovery. Cold fusion caught very big attention as it could mean a very big change for the sources of power. Cold fusion turned out to be a fraud and the names Pons and Fleischmann now bring attention to the failure of cold fusion.
This chapter introduced to a broader version of pathological science. I always thought that anything considered pathological science wasn't a real science. In a way it kind of is, but reading about people like Crookes, Pons, and Fleischmann helped me realize that there is some truth to pathological science and that emotions tend to rule over the hard science. It would have been cool if cold fusion had worked out, for there wouldn't be so much emissions that come from coal power sources. All in all, this chapter was an interesting read although it was sometimes confusing.
Another topic deriving from pathological science was that of cold fusion. According to the author B. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann were supposed to be the next Watson and Crick, but that didn't happen. Cold fusion was supposed to be the new source of energy that was efficient and without any emissions. Pons and Fleischmann discovered this new power source and ran many of the same experiments to confirm their results. Each of their tests didn't have the same results and even though they knew this, both men called for a press conference to release their new discovery. Cold fusion caught very big attention as it could mean a very big change for the sources of power. Cold fusion turned out to be a fraud and the names Pons and Fleischmann now bring attention to the failure of cold fusion.
This chapter introduced to a broader version of pathological science. I always thought that anything considered pathological science wasn't a real science. In a way it kind of is, but reading about people like Crookes, Pons, and Fleischmann helped me realize that there is some truth to pathological science and that emotions tend to rule over the hard science. It would have been cool if cold fusion had worked out, for there wouldn't be so much emissions that come from coal power sources. All in all, this chapter was an interesting read although it was sometimes confusing.
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Chapter 14 Summary and Reflection
In chapter 14, Kean talks about how money and science come together. As science became more and more expensive, the people who could actually do the mind blowing discoveries were the people who had the money to do it. The author then turns to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who was a writer that enjoyed making bold claims about science and politics even though he wasn't adept in either subjects. One major bold claim Goethe made was that of double replacement reactions. Goethe described the reactions like two marriages with the laws of attraction. The whole thing would work by having each person falling in love with another person in the other marriage. Although Goethe made absurd claims, he did help launch the career of another Johann, that is Johann Dobrereiner.
The last person mentioned in the chapter is Robert Lowell. Mentally, Lowell wasn't all there. Even though he suffered through episodes of madness, his best work came from them. Although people enjoyed the work of Lowell, the madness that ran in his head spilled onto his life. One episode had him stuttering in front of a friend's house that he was the Virgin Mary. Another episode had him trying to stop cars by spreading his arms like Jesus. Nothing was available back then to help with this madness until lithium came along. Lithium became the first mood stabilizer and Lowell agreed to be medicated. Lithium prevents the next episode from happening and it regulates the proteins that makes this happen. Even though lithium helped Lowell, his work changed and people noticed.
This chapter showed me the different faces of science. You think that people know what they talk about, but reading about Goethe reminds me of the way some politicians deceive people. I say deceive because Goethe published his ideas and influenced people, in a way he kind of deceived them. Reading about Lowell made me sad because he suffered through the thoughts in his mind and people enjoyed reading about it. Once he was well, people didn't enjoy his work anymore because he had changed.
The last person mentioned in the chapter is Robert Lowell. Mentally, Lowell wasn't all there. Even though he suffered through episodes of madness, his best work came from them. Although people enjoyed the work of Lowell, the madness that ran in his head spilled onto his life. One episode had him stuttering in front of a friend's house that he was the Virgin Mary. Another episode had him trying to stop cars by spreading his arms like Jesus. Nothing was available back then to help with this madness until lithium came along. Lithium became the first mood stabilizer and Lowell agreed to be medicated. Lithium prevents the next episode from happening and it regulates the proteins that makes this happen. Even though lithium helped Lowell, his work changed and people noticed.
This chapter showed me the different faces of science. You think that people know what they talk about, but reading about Goethe reminds me of the way some politicians deceive people. I say deceive because Goethe published his ideas and influenced people, in a way he kind of deceived them. Reading about Lowell made me sad because he suffered through the thoughts in his mind and people enjoyed reading about it. Once he was well, people didn't enjoy his work anymore because he had changed.
Chapter 13 Summary and Reflection
In chapter 13, Kean talks about the elements being used as currency. Today, we use paper money being made out of cotton and coins made out of zinc, copper, and nickel, but back then people used metals like gold and silver as currency. Kean talks about the story of King Midas and his "golden touch". The myth although sometimes hard to believe could have been close to the truth, but except for a small detail. Perhaps what was considered gold was actually brass. Gold and brass look pretty similar as they are very shiny metals. Archaeologists tested this theory by comparing gold and brass together and the geographic location of King Mida's kingdom can support this theory. His kingdom was very close to mines where zinc was abundant and brass could have been made and passed for gold when combining zinc and copper.
The author also mentions the craze that gold rushes bring. He mentions the humongous gold rush in the Australian outback in 1896 that started with three Irishmen whose horse lost a shoe and while walking, the horse had unknowingly collected eight pounds of gold. From there on, many prospectors came to the area to try their luck at fortune by gold. While they searched day and night, many were fooled by the always common fool's gold or iron pyrite that mimics gold in its color and shine but it's actually pretty worthless. After the initial craze, another one started by another element, tellurium. Chunks of tellurium were found where gold was found and the searchers, desperate for gold, threw the tellurium aside. Then someone realized that the tellurium could be broken down to find gold and a new craze followed. People were going through chunks of tellurium that were once considered refuse and now offered a new shot at fortune. Kean also mentions today's problem with counterfeit money and the efforts done by the European Union to find the fake money. The element europium is the hero in the mission to find counterfeit money along with fluorescence. Europium and fluorescing dye are combined to be used on the euros. By seeing the euro with the naked eye, the euro appears to be a certain color, but when put under a special laser, a charcoal sketch of Europe appears to show an authentic euro. The author also mentions aluminum, or aluminium if you're fancy, to be a very important element. This silver metal was once more valuable than gold until it began to be used for industrial purposes as a less pure alloy. It was so valuable that the pyramid onto of the Washington Monument is made out of pure aluminum.
This chapter opened my eyes to different ways of seeing the elements. I grew up fascinated with King Midas and his "golden touch". As a small child, nothing excites you more than something shiny and the "golden touch" made my imagination fly. Although King Midas did lose his daughter when he accidentally touched her as she turned to gold, the story always made me wonder if there was a source of truth to the myth. Reading about the research done made me realize that something that once seemed so fascinating could have been something so simple. One new thing I learned was that aluminum was once very valuable. This element is used in our everyday lives and learning this new information was a learning experience.
The author also mentions the craze that gold rushes bring. He mentions the humongous gold rush in the Australian outback in 1896 that started with three Irishmen whose horse lost a shoe and while walking, the horse had unknowingly collected eight pounds of gold. From there on, many prospectors came to the area to try their luck at fortune by gold. While they searched day and night, many were fooled by the always common fool's gold or iron pyrite that mimics gold in its color and shine but it's actually pretty worthless. After the initial craze, another one started by another element, tellurium. Chunks of tellurium were found where gold was found and the searchers, desperate for gold, threw the tellurium aside. Then someone realized that the tellurium could be broken down to find gold and a new craze followed. People were going through chunks of tellurium that were once considered refuse and now offered a new shot at fortune. Kean also mentions today's problem with counterfeit money and the efforts done by the European Union to find the fake money. The element europium is the hero in the mission to find counterfeit money along with fluorescence. Europium and fluorescing dye are combined to be used on the euros. By seeing the euro with the naked eye, the euro appears to be a certain color, but when put under a special laser, a charcoal sketch of Europe appears to show an authentic euro. The author also mentions aluminum, or aluminium if you're fancy, to be a very important element. This silver metal was once more valuable than gold until it began to be used for industrial purposes as a less pure alloy. It was so valuable that the pyramid onto of the Washington Monument is made out of pure aluminum.
This chapter opened my eyes to different ways of seeing the elements. I grew up fascinated with King Midas and his "golden touch". As a small child, nothing excites you more than something shiny and the "golden touch" made my imagination fly. Although King Midas did lose his daughter when he accidentally touched her as she turned to gold, the story always made me wonder if there was a source of truth to the myth. Reading about the research done made me realize that something that once seemed so fascinating could have been something so simple. One new thing I learned was that aluminum was once very valuable. This element is used in our everyday lives and learning this new information was a learning experience.
Chapter 12 Summary and Reflection
In chapter 12, Kean starts by talking about how the elements go hand in hand with politics. Kean mentions that if you were to look for Poland on any map from the past five centuries, odds were that you wouldn't find it. Poland didn't even technically exist when Marie Sklodowska was born in 1867 or better known as Marie Curie. Marie was tutored by her father as it was frowned upon to teach women back then, and then moved as an adult to Paris to pursue her science career. After receiving her PhD, she decided to stay as she had fallen in love with and married Pierre Curie. In the 1890s, the Curie's began on their most famous collaboration to find radioactive elements. When Marie found that the secret to finding radioactive elements separated the chemistry from the physics, so all scientists had to do was look only to the elements of the periodic table. This earned Marie and Pierre Curie a shared Nobel Prize in physics in 1903. The Curie's had their daughter named Irene in 1897, and shortly after their Nobel Prize, Marie and Pierre found two new radioactive elements, polonium and radium, after boiling down pitchblende. This would have resulted in another shared Nobel Prize, but Pierre was ran over by a street carriage and killed so only Marie received the Nobel Prize since only living people can receive it.
Kean then moves on to the daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie, Irene Joliot-Curie, and the work she did with her husband, Frederic Joliot-Curie. Irene found a method to convert tame elements into artificially radioactive elements by bombarding them with subatomic particles. This earned her a Nobel Prize in 1935. Then tragedy struck, as Irene relied on polonium for her atomic bombardier, in 1946 a capsule of polonium exploded in her lab so when Irene inhaled it, it later caused her to die of leukemia like her mother. Quantum mechanics hadn't had such a warm reception when it came out as it was described as ugly by many scientists. Even though it didn't have much support, quantum mechanics helped prove element 72, hafnium, by Bohr and Hevesy. The author also mentions the injustice done to Lise Meitner and her tremendous work done with Otto Hahn. Together, they found element 91 previously known as brevium, but it was later renamed as protactinium. This should have earned Meitner a Nobel Prize, but since she was a woman and because of World War II, she wasn't awarded one then or later after Otto Hahn received one and could have mentioned her.
This chapter shows that even though chemistry brings people of many countries together with their discoveries, politics can separate them as well. I liked reading about the work and discoveries of Marie and Pierre Curie, especially from their daughter Irene. They really brought a tremendous needed amount of girl power to the science community. Reading about their work really fascinated me and I wish to learn more about them. I really didn't like reading about the way Lise Meitner was never awarded a Nobel Prize even though she clearly deserved it. I was really angry at Otto Hahn when he received his Nobel Prize and he never mentioned her and all of the work she did.
Kean then moves on to the daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie, Irene Joliot-Curie, and the work she did with her husband, Frederic Joliot-Curie. Irene found a method to convert tame elements into artificially radioactive elements by bombarding them with subatomic particles. This earned her a Nobel Prize in 1935. Then tragedy struck, as Irene relied on polonium for her atomic bombardier, in 1946 a capsule of polonium exploded in her lab so when Irene inhaled it, it later caused her to die of leukemia like her mother. Quantum mechanics hadn't had such a warm reception when it came out as it was described as ugly by many scientists. Even though it didn't have much support, quantum mechanics helped prove element 72, hafnium, by Bohr and Hevesy. The author also mentions the injustice done to Lise Meitner and her tremendous work done with Otto Hahn. Together, they found element 91 previously known as brevium, but it was later renamed as protactinium. This should have earned Meitner a Nobel Prize, but since she was a woman and because of World War II, she wasn't awarded one then or later after Otto Hahn received one and could have mentioned her.
This chapter shows that even though chemistry brings people of many countries together with their discoveries, politics can separate them as well. I liked reading about the work and discoveries of Marie and Pierre Curie, especially from their daughter Irene. They really brought a tremendous needed amount of girl power to the science community. Reading about their work really fascinated me and I wish to learn more about them. I really didn't like reading about the way Lise Meitner was never awarded a Nobel Prize even though she clearly deserved it. I was really angry at Otto Hahn when he received his Nobel Prize and he never mentioned her and all of the work she did.
Chapter 11 Summary and Reflection
In chapter 11, Kean talks about how elements can be deceiving, hence the title of the chapter, "How Elements Deceive". As an example of his title, Kean starts by talking about the horrible accident of NASA technicians during a simulation. On March 19, 1981, five technicians were working on a simulation spacecraft at NASA's Cape Canaveral headquarters for a routine system check. Seconds later after going in, all five technicians slumped over. For safety measures, inert nitrogen had been put in any compartment prone to fires because of the pure oxygen they used. Anyone who had to go in those compartments had to either use masks or wait until the nitrogen was pumped out and breathable air was brought back in. On March 19, the five technicians were given the all clear to go in too soon and once they went in, they all collapsed. Once rescue workers got everyone out, only three could be revived. This incident happened after NASA hadn't had a single death in space or not, after the incident of the fire in the Apollo 1 that killed three astronauts. This accident also shined a light on the dangers of nitrogen. This element creepily kills very fast and without any pain. Once inhaled as it's odorless and colorless, nitrogen works very fast to go around the body and shuts down the brain.
Kean then talks about titanium and its uses. Titanium can be used as implants and was a welcome change to the wooden implants that were once used. Titanium is very useful as an implant as it can attach to bone without any infections and can trick the bone to grow onto the titanium. After titanium, goes into the taste buds and how elements can deceive them. Kean uses beryllium as an example. When ingested, beryllium can be sweet like sugar, but it is very toxic. Kean also mentions that up to one-tenth of the human population has something called acute beryllium disease which is kind of like a peanut allergy. If beryllium is ingested or inhaled in any way, the beryllium will scar the lungs. An example of this disease is Enrico Fermi who experimented so much with beryllium that when he died of pneumonitis at 53 with an oxygen tank, his lungs were completely shredded. Kean ends the chapter with a political note while talking about the importance of iodine in the body. While having many health benefits, India wasn't too keen to Western science even though other countries had added iodine to salt to expose their respective countries with the lifesaving element. Kean also mentions Gandhi's salt march and how people aren't to in tune of iodine because of Gandhi and what he talked about iodine.
This chapter was very surprising to me as to how easily elements can deceive us. As common knowledge, I knew about the dangers of carbon monoxide, but the dangers of nitrogen were very surprising to me. While I knew about the horrible accident of the Apollo 1, I didn't know about the five technicians who were exposed to nitrogen and that made me very sad, for the technicians could have not died had they worn masks or waited a bit longer to go in. But that sadly shows the effects of life, as no one knows what's going to happen in the next five seconds.
Kean then talks about titanium and its uses. Titanium can be used as implants and was a welcome change to the wooden implants that were once used. Titanium is very useful as an implant as it can attach to bone without any infections and can trick the bone to grow onto the titanium. After titanium, goes into the taste buds and how elements can deceive them. Kean uses beryllium as an example. When ingested, beryllium can be sweet like sugar, but it is very toxic. Kean also mentions that up to one-tenth of the human population has something called acute beryllium disease which is kind of like a peanut allergy. If beryllium is ingested or inhaled in any way, the beryllium will scar the lungs. An example of this disease is Enrico Fermi who experimented so much with beryllium that when he died of pneumonitis at 53 with an oxygen tank, his lungs were completely shredded. Kean ends the chapter with a political note while talking about the importance of iodine in the body. While having many health benefits, India wasn't too keen to Western science even though other countries had added iodine to salt to expose their respective countries with the lifesaving element. Kean also mentions Gandhi's salt march and how people aren't to in tune of iodine because of Gandhi and what he talked about iodine.
This chapter was very surprising to me as to how easily elements can deceive us. As common knowledge, I knew about the dangers of carbon monoxide, but the dangers of nitrogen were very surprising to me. While I knew about the horrible accident of the Apollo 1, I didn't know about the five technicians who were exposed to nitrogen and that made me very sad, for the technicians could have not died had they worn masks or waited a bit longer to go in. But that sadly shows the effects of life, as no one knows what's going to happen in the next five seconds.
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Chapter 10 Summary and Reflection
In chapter 10, the different uses of elements is discussed. Kean explains how Roman officers improved their health by eating from silver platters. Then early America is mentioned and how most pioneer families at least had one good silver coin to prevent the milk from spoiling during the wagon trips. The author also mentions Tycho Brahe, who lost the bridge of his nose in a drunken sword duel in 1564. According to Kean, Brahe ordered a replacement nose made out of silver that was fashionable and was able to curtail infections. The author also talks about the uses of copper. This shiny metal can be used in plumbing, ducts, and tubing in buildings. Gadolinium is also mentioned and gadolinium is and element that is the most magnetic because it has the most unpaired electrons. Gadolinium is used in modern day science by helping MRIs detect tumors. This is done by putting gadolinium on tumor-targeting agents that attach to tumors and can be detected by MRIs. Kean also mentions that gadolinium can be used to attack cancer tumors because of its array of unpaired electrons. Although Kean makes sure to say that this element is not a wonder drug, he says that gadolinium can one day allow oncologists to make surgical strikes without the need of surgery.
Louis Pasteur makes an appearance in chapter 10 with chirality. Pasteur came up with the idea that everything has a handedness to it, and that basically everything is left handed. Pasteur determined that every amino acid in every protein of the body has a left-handed twist to it. Pasteur found this as a chemist at the age of 26 when he was studying tartaric acid, the waste production of wine. Pasteur wanted to know why yeast-born tartaric acid drives a beam of light twist clockwise away from the vertical when dissolved in water and shined with a beam of light as opposed to human-made tartaric acid. That's when Pasteur found chirality. Louis Pasteur went on to develop pasteurization and save a boy's life from the rabies with a vaccine that he created.
The author goes on to talk about Gerhard Domagk. In 1935, Domagk's daughter Hildegard fell down the stairs of their home with a sewing needle in her hand. The needle punctured her and snapped off. A doctor had to extract the shard, but day after this happened Hildegard had a streptococcal infection all over her arm. Domagk had no idea what to do since there was no cure for such a bacterial infection. Although there was one possible drug that could save his daughter's life. Domagk had been testing a red industrial dye in his lab called prontosil. Domagk was unsure of what to do even though he had performed an experiment where prontosil had shown that it could cure the bacteria that was slowly killing his daughter. Gerhard Domagk eventually gave his daughter the drug that saved her life and her father had discovered the first antibacterial drug. Or so everyone thought. The Pasteur Institute set out to bust the patent on prontosil. They found out that prontosil didn't do the job of curing, but it was actually sulfonamide that did the curing. The Frenchmen also found that prontosil wasn't a bacteria killer, but a bacterial birth control.
This chapter was really interesting because of the elements can be used in medicine. I really liked reading about how silver can be used as a kind of remedy although it can turn you blue if you take too much. I found it interesting to read about the Roman officials and how they ate from silver platters. I didn't like reading about the attempt and success of the Pasteur Institute to discredit Gerhard Domagk's work because it showed that politics can also play a part in science. One new thing I learned about this chapter was that the developer of pasteurization, also discovered chirality although it's very hard to understand. I hope to learn more about chirality as I keep learning.
Louis Pasteur makes an appearance in chapter 10 with chirality. Pasteur came up with the idea that everything has a handedness to it, and that basically everything is left handed. Pasteur determined that every amino acid in every protein of the body has a left-handed twist to it. Pasteur found this as a chemist at the age of 26 when he was studying tartaric acid, the waste production of wine. Pasteur wanted to know why yeast-born tartaric acid drives a beam of light twist clockwise away from the vertical when dissolved in water and shined with a beam of light as opposed to human-made tartaric acid. That's when Pasteur found chirality. Louis Pasteur went on to develop pasteurization and save a boy's life from the rabies with a vaccine that he created.
The author goes on to talk about Gerhard Domagk. In 1935, Domagk's daughter Hildegard fell down the stairs of their home with a sewing needle in her hand. The needle punctured her and snapped off. A doctor had to extract the shard, but day after this happened Hildegard had a streptococcal infection all over her arm. Domagk had no idea what to do since there was no cure for such a bacterial infection. Although there was one possible drug that could save his daughter's life. Domagk had been testing a red industrial dye in his lab called prontosil. Domagk was unsure of what to do even though he had performed an experiment where prontosil had shown that it could cure the bacteria that was slowly killing his daughter. Gerhard Domagk eventually gave his daughter the drug that saved her life and her father had discovered the first antibacterial drug. Or so everyone thought. The Pasteur Institute set out to bust the patent on prontosil. They found out that prontosil didn't do the job of curing, but it was actually sulfonamide that did the curing. The Frenchmen also found that prontosil wasn't a bacteria killer, but a bacterial birth control.
This chapter was really interesting because of the elements can be used in medicine. I really liked reading about how silver can be used as a kind of remedy although it can turn you blue if you take too much. I found it interesting to read about the Roman officials and how they ate from silver platters. I didn't like reading about the attempt and success of the Pasteur Institute to discredit Gerhard Domagk's work because it showed that politics can also play a part in science. One new thing I learned about this chapter was that the developer of pasteurization, also discovered chirality although it's very hard to understand. I hope to learn more about chirality as I keep learning.
Chapter 9 Summary and Reflection
In chapter 9 of his book, Kean goes on to talk about the poisonous elements. This includes elements known to come from "prisoner's corridor". Those elements include thallium, lead, polonium, cadmium, and bismuth. The author then describes the horror that cadmium brought upon Japan from the Russo-Japanese War through World War II. Cadmium was deposited to water sources mostly when mining zinc, but ammunition, bombs, and planes also accounted for the poisoning. The constant dumping eventually lead to a poisoning of the rice plants, for the cadmium would soak through the rice because of the poisoned water. This, consequently, lead to the development of the itai-itai ("ouch-ouch" in Japanese) disease where people suffered tremendous pain, liver failure and extremely damaged weakened bones. It took a long for the disease to take notice where people began studying it and identifying it as a very dangerous disease.
Thallium and bismuth are talked about also. Thallium is known to be the worst of the poisons and Kean talks about how it has been used as an assassination method. Kean also talks about a plan to poison Fidel Castro with thallium in his socks in order to have the thallium make his hair fall out and have him look frail and weak. For some reason, says Kean, the plan never went through and happened. Bismuth is then talked about and how it is a whitish metal with pink hues that burns with a blue flame and emits yellow fumes. The author mentions that bismuth has a half life of 20 billion billion years, therefore being the last element that will go extinct. Bismuth is actually pretty benign compared to the other poisonous elements as it can be used in medicine. Bismuth is today one of the ingredients in Pepto-Bismol, hence the Bis- in Bismol. This use of bismuth began when people got diarrhea from cadmium-tainted lemonade and people used bismuth as an antidote.
The author talks about some very interesting people that have experimented with these poisonous elements. One particular creepy one was about a British man named Graham Frederick Young who experimented with thallium by sprinkling it in his family's teacups and stew pots in the 1960s. Young was sent to a mental institution where he was later released. After his release, Young poisoned seventy more people. Although Young poisoned many people, only 3 people died because Young tried to prolong the poisoning by giving his victims less-than-lethal doses of poison. Another particular interesting chap was David Hahn who tried to create Uranium-233 in his backyard with the lithium from batteries and thorium. He was eventually arrested after trying to create Thorium-233 and Protactinium-233.
This chapter was really informative as it informed of the poisonous elements to stay away from. It was really sad reading about the poisoned people of Japan and how they suffered so much from the poisoning they were unknowingly receiving. I enjoyed reading about how thallium could have been used to stop the ruling of Fidel Castro in Cuba, but was sad to read about how the plan was never used. One thing I learned was that bismuth is used in medicine and that it's found in Pepto-Bismol. I have a question though, can one die of bismuth poisoning if they drink too much Pepto-Bismol?
Chapter 8 Summary and Reflection
In chapter 8, the author starts by talking about Time magazine's "Men of the Year" for 1960. From the 15 US scientists mentioned in the edition, Kean goes on to focus on Emilio Segre and Linus Pauling. The author then mentions that both men are noticed for making the two biggest mistakes in science history. Kean also mentions that these mistakes could have been avoided had the two scientists paid more attention to the periodic table.
Kean then goes on to talk about the Loch Ness Monster of the elements, element 43. Element 43 is known to have been "found" multiple times by many scientists, but it was officially found in 1937 by Emilio Segre and another Italian scientist. Segre's major mistake came when he believed that there were no transuranic elemental properties about element ninety-three and he also misidentified transuranic neptunium as a fission product. Once element 43 had been found, the never ending battle of naming the first man made element followed. Element 43 was eventually named technetium, which is Greek for "artificial" hence the description of the first man made element.
The subject then turns to Linus Pauling. This man set out to find out the molecular structure of DNA and he could have been credited for that major accomplishment had he paid attention to some basic chemistry. Today, DNA is known to be a double helix, but Pauling thought that DNA was a triple helix! Pauling had seen pieces of DNA as a triple helix, but he had actually seen dead DNA and dead DNA twists more than live DNA. Pauling thought that the only way that the molecules in DNA fit where by having the nucleotides in the outside of the strands and the sugar backbone towards the inside. In 1953, Linus Pauling proudly published his paper on his version of DNA, all while ignoring the fact that like charges repel and the three inward phosphides would theoretically explode apart. The part where Pauling made one of the biggest mistakes in science history was that if Pauling had access to research by Rosalind Franklin, he could have seen that DNA was a double helix. Rosalind Franklin had come to the conclusion of a double helix DNA by extracting DNA from live squid sperm. Instead of Linus Pauling, James Watson and Francis Crick, two graduate students from Cambridge University, found the real structure of DNA. Both students went out to work on the real shape until finally, they found that it was a double helix and the nucleotides fit together like puzzle pieces, thus creating a tight ladder.
This chapter was really interesting because it really showed how sometimes small details can mean the difference between success and failure. I really enjoyed reading the experiments of Emilio Segre and Linus Pauling, for they really showed how the science community impacts the work they do. One thing I learned that I didn't know was that a woman helped discover the true structure of DNA. Science sometimes can be a bit patriarchal when it comes to women in science, especially when they do very important discoveries like Rosalind Franklin who helped find the real structure of DNA.
Kean then goes on to talk about the Loch Ness Monster of the elements, element 43. Element 43 is known to have been "found" multiple times by many scientists, but it was officially found in 1937 by Emilio Segre and another Italian scientist. Segre's major mistake came when he believed that there were no transuranic elemental properties about element ninety-three and he also misidentified transuranic neptunium as a fission product. Once element 43 had been found, the never ending battle of naming the first man made element followed. Element 43 was eventually named technetium, which is Greek for "artificial" hence the description of the first man made element.
The subject then turns to Linus Pauling. This man set out to find out the molecular structure of DNA and he could have been credited for that major accomplishment had he paid attention to some basic chemistry. Today, DNA is known to be a double helix, but Pauling thought that DNA was a triple helix! Pauling had seen pieces of DNA as a triple helix, but he had actually seen dead DNA and dead DNA twists more than live DNA. Pauling thought that the only way that the molecules in DNA fit where by having the nucleotides in the outside of the strands and the sugar backbone towards the inside. In 1953, Linus Pauling proudly published his paper on his version of DNA, all while ignoring the fact that like charges repel and the three inward phosphides would theoretically explode apart. The part where Pauling made one of the biggest mistakes in science history was that if Pauling had access to research by Rosalind Franklin, he could have seen that DNA was a double helix. Rosalind Franklin had come to the conclusion of a double helix DNA by extracting DNA from live squid sperm. Instead of Linus Pauling, James Watson and Francis Crick, two graduate students from Cambridge University, found the real structure of DNA. Both students went out to work on the real shape until finally, they found that it was a double helix and the nucleotides fit together like puzzle pieces, thus creating a tight ladder.
This chapter was really interesting because it really showed how sometimes small details can mean the difference between success and failure. I really enjoyed reading the experiments of Emilio Segre and Linus Pauling, for they really showed how the science community impacts the work they do. One thing I learned that I didn't know was that a woman helped discover the true structure of DNA. Science sometimes can be a bit patriarchal when it comes to women in science, especially when they do very important discoveries like Rosalind Franklin who helped find the real structure of DNA.
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