In this chapter, Kean starts describing the story of Glenn Seaborg. He was a Nobel Prize winner in the field of chemistry, he co-founded the Pac-10 sports league, the team leader of the Manhattan project, and much more. He and his friend, Edwin McMillan, created the first transuranic element (or elements with a greater atomic number than 92), neptunium. However, Seaborg realized element 93 was unstable and could become element 94. So he and a colleague took a microscopic sample of element 93 and put it through a radioactive sample that dissolved away the extra neptunium and the remaining neptunium was element 94, plutonium. Seaborg was then summoned to Chicago and took students with him, including Al Ghiorso. Although Ghiorso was the complete opposite of Seaborg, only earned a bachelors degree, and was put to work wiring detectors; the two became great friends and together they returned to Berkley to make heavy elements. The two discovered more elements than anyone in history. They started off by striking plutonium with radioactive particles, but instead of using neutrons they used alpha particles which were much faster and easier to use. With this they developed elements 96 and 95. They named element 95 americium (America) and element 96 curium ( Marie Curie). However people were skeptical and in 1949 they discovered berkelium and californium, but still people hardly paid attention. Later they discovered elements 99, einsteinium, and element 100, fermium. However, creating element 101would prove to be a lot more difficult but they managed by putting very small pits of einsteinium onto a gold foil and struck it with alpha particles. So to detect it they would take what remained to another lab as fast as possible where Ghiorso connected his newest radiation detector to the fire alarm system, and that night it rung 16 times which meant the creation of a new element, element 101, mendelevium (Dimitri Mendeleev). The group then discovered element 102, nobelium, and then element 103, lawrencium.
Kean then describes the leadership of Lenin and Stalin and how Russia was very scientifically behind the rest of the world and how scientist were treated there. He then introduces a nuclear scientist named Georgy Flyorov who discovered that scientific journals had stopped publishing about uranium fission research. He figured out that these were state secrets, so he wrote a letter to Stalin warning him about his suspicions. In 1949 they developed their first nuclear bob and, for his loyalty, Flyorov was awarded his own lab in the city of Dubna. After studying hard and coping techniques from the Berkley lab, Fyorov and his team discovered element 104. Kean then describes that back in Berkley their pride was wounded when the Soviets claimed to have discovered element 104 and even discredited them. So they set out to make their own element 104 in 1969 but by then Dubna had created element 105 and in 1974 they both created element 106 around the same time. Then a group in West Germany claimed to have discovered thee elements but by then the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) stepped in. They sent 9 men to all labs and studied their data until they all met for weeks to comprise the final names of the elements. In 1996 the official list was seaborium (106), dubnium (105), bohrium (107), hassium (108), and meitrium (109). Kean then describes a picture of Seaborg standing next to the periodic table while pointing at seabogium, but soon died three years later.
Later Kean describes that the Germans created element 110 (darmstadtium), element 111 (roentegenium), and then element 112 (copernium). In order to catch up to the Germans, the Berkley lab hired Victor Ninov who was important to the discovery of element 110 and 112. He claimed to have discovered element 118 by smashing krypton and lead together, when he did it soon decayed into element 116 which were 2 news elements claimed to be discovered. However, when the Germans and Russians attempted to make element 118 by the same method they did not produce element 118. When the Berkley lab tried the same experiment they produced nothing. They then found out that Ninov inserted false positives into his data. So the Berkley lab had to retract their discovery and fired Ninov. Later Kean describes that the Russians created 3 atoms of element 118 and to be called flyorium.
Like all the other chapters, I enjoyed this chapter and the stories Kean describes. I especially liked how scientist raced to find new elements on the periodic table and how egoistical scientist would get when one lab finds a new element before the other. The only thing I did not like about it was that I got a bit confused when the author talked about Stalin and Lenin, but overall I enjoyed it. The one thing I would share to a friend is how scientist raced to find so many elements in just a short period of time.
Monday, August 8, 2016
Sunday, August 7, 2016
The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Chapter 6 Summary/Reflextion
In the beginning of this chapter, Kean starts by describing how scientist eventually began to fill in the gaps on the periodic table. He then introduces Ernest Rutherford and, his student, Henry Mosely from the University of Manchester in England. Mosely became very interested in working with elements by blasting them with electron beams and examining every element up to gold. The striking of an atom takes out one of the atom's electrons and since electrons are attracted to an atom's nucleus it becomes a very violent reaction. When electrons come in to fill the gap, x-rays are released. Mosley figured out the relation between the x-rays, the protons in the nucleus, and the elements atomic number. Mosely figured out the link between the elements place on the periodic table to its atomic number. This solved the problem to why cobalt came before nickel. With the help from his electron gun it help sort out the confusion of the table. He also figured out elements 43, 61, 72, and 75. He was also challenged by many chemist including, Georges Urbain. But later when World War 1 broke out, he enlisted in the king's army. He died in the year 1915 at Gallipoli. To honor Mosely's memory scientist hunted down all the missing elements he pointed out but only one remained, element 61. A team led by Emilio Segre tried to create an artificial sample but gave up until later when scientist from Oak Ridge National Laboratory discovered element 61 from a uranium ore. However, there was little excitement for this discovery but decided to name the element promethium. Scientist began to focus on nuclear science especially after the atomic bomb. However, some parts were confusing since Mosely proved that both lead-204 and lead-205 can have the same positive energy but different atomic weights. For this Kean express a new tool that scientist needed, quantum mechanics.
Kean then describes how scientist began to concentrate on radioactivity. Earnest Rutherford helped name the atomic matter that was discovered into alpha, beta, or gamma decay. Gamma being the most deadliest, emits x-rays. However, this was still confusing for some scientist until, in 1932, James Chadwick discovered the neutral neutrons. Neutrons add weight but have no charge; hence, they are neutral, and this suddenly made sense. Beta decay became the conversion of neutrons to protons, beta decay converts the atom into a different element, and alpha decay also converts the element but tears off 2 neutrons and 2 protons. Later Kean explains the model of atomic innards and that elements remained undiscovered because they were just too unstable that they would deteriorate.
Kean then introduces Leo Szilard who produced the idea of a chain reaction but this required billions of neutrons to travel in one direction. Since plutonium and uranium were dangerous and expensive scientist on the Manhattan Project had to figure out how much they needed to create the bomb. They had to calculate how the neutron collided with the plutonium atom. So they gathered up a bunch of random measurements and assigned these calculations to a bunch of young women, mostly the wives of the scientist. So basically the scientist gathered virtual data for the uranium and plutonium bomb.
Kean then introduces Stanislaw Ulam and John von Neumann discovered the Monte Carlo method after Ulam began writing equations in a journal and connecting them the calculations done in the Manhattan Project. Monte Carlo system sped up the early development of computers and pushed through the next generation of weapons, specifically nuclear. With this method Von Neumann and Ulam created "supers" which were powerful bombs that fused extra-heavy liquid hydrogen.
Kean then concludes with a bomb even bigger than a uranium bomb, a colbalt-60 dirty bomb. The whole purpose of this bomb is to emit gamma rays. The gamma rays would reach the bone marrow and even alter the chromosomes of humans, resulting in cancer and deformities. What's even worse is that Colbalt-60 would settle into the earth and stay there fully armed and would take almost a life time for the ground to recover. So although Colbalt-60 bombs are un-suited for war since they pollute the lands the conquerors would want to live on, "a mad man", as Kean puts it, can wipe out the whole world without caring. Luckily, to the publics knowledge, no such bomb has ever been made and Leo Szilard made sure that the countries stopped their pursuit on nukes when he purposed that idea of a "doomsday device".
This chapter was also interesting; however, I'd sometimes get confused in all the information. But overall I liked the chapter and the interesting stories. The one thing that I would share with a friend is the Colbalt-60 bomb and how powerful its destruction would be.
Kean then describes how scientist began to concentrate on radioactivity. Earnest Rutherford helped name the atomic matter that was discovered into alpha, beta, or gamma decay. Gamma being the most deadliest, emits x-rays. However, this was still confusing for some scientist until, in 1932, James Chadwick discovered the neutral neutrons. Neutrons add weight but have no charge; hence, they are neutral, and this suddenly made sense. Beta decay became the conversion of neutrons to protons, beta decay converts the atom into a different element, and alpha decay also converts the element but tears off 2 neutrons and 2 protons. Later Kean explains the model of atomic innards and that elements remained undiscovered because they were just too unstable that they would deteriorate.
Kean then introduces Leo Szilard who produced the idea of a chain reaction but this required billions of neutrons to travel in one direction. Since plutonium and uranium were dangerous and expensive scientist on the Manhattan Project had to figure out how much they needed to create the bomb. They had to calculate how the neutron collided with the plutonium atom. So they gathered up a bunch of random measurements and assigned these calculations to a bunch of young women, mostly the wives of the scientist. So basically the scientist gathered virtual data for the uranium and plutonium bomb.
Kean then introduces Stanislaw Ulam and John von Neumann discovered the Monte Carlo method after Ulam began writing equations in a journal and connecting them the calculations done in the Manhattan Project. Monte Carlo system sped up the early development of computers and pushed through the next generation of weapons, specifically nuclear. With this method Von Neumann and Ulam created "supers" which were powerful bombs that fused extra-heavy liquid hydrogen.
Kean then concludes with a bomb even bigger than a uranium bomb, a colbalt-60 dirty bomb. The whole purpose of this bomb is to emit gamma rays. The gamma rays would reach the bone marrow and even alter the chromosomes of humans, resulting in cancer and deformities. What's even worse is that Colbalt-60 would settle into the earth and stay there fully armed and would take almost a life time for the ground to recover. So although Colbalt-60 bombs are un-suited for war since they pollute the lands the conquerors would want to live on, "a mad man", as Kean puts it, can wipe out the whole world without caring. Luckily, to the publics knowledge, no such bomb has ever been made and Leo Szilard made sure that the countries stopped their pursuit on nukes when he purposed that idea of a "doomsday device".
This chapter was also interesting; however, I'd sometimes get confused in all the information. But overall I liked the chapter and the interesting stories. The one thing that I would share with a friend is the Colbalt-60 bomb and how powerful its destruction would be.
The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Chapter 5 Summary/Reflexion
In this chapter, Kean discuss the effects of chemical warfare throughout history such as in WW1 where we begin to see chemical advancements on the battle field. He then talks about how bromine was experimented secretly on. Bromine, being a halogen, has 7 electrons in its outer energy level but is always trying to complete it with 8. Bromine is known for irritating the eyes and nose and in 1910 they created a very potent bromine-based lacrimator. The Parisians first used it against their own people in 1912 and then against German troops in 1914. The Germans didn't realized they were being attacked until later and when they did they issued German gas research units to catch up on the chemical warfare technology. This is where Kean introduces Fritz Haber who became famous by making nitrogen into an industrial product. He heated nitrogen, raised the air pressure, and added osmium, creating ammonia, NH3. This was used as a fertilizer for farming which ended up feeding most of the worlds population. However, it was also used against humans when Haber went with the German army to help build nitrogen explosives. As a Jewish convert to Lutheranism he worked for the German gas division. However, his personal family and friends did not like it. Kean then explains how the Germans manipulated the Hague Pact into allowing them to create shells that delivered shrapnel and gas. They then created a xylyl bromide filled shell that they called the weisskreuz, or "white cross". However, it was a failure, so he decided to work with chlorine, the cousin of bromine. It is a lot more aggressive and with it they developed gelbkruez also known as mustard gas. They used it against the French but still lost the war and after, Haber won the Nobel Prize in chemistry but, ironically, he was later charged as an international war criminal. Later a German chemical company started experimenting with Zyklon A, which was created by Haber before the war. However when the Nazi's took over they threw him out and began to gas Jews with the later Zyklon B. He died in 1934, while seeking refuge.
In the next part of this chapter talks about the need and use of molybdenum and tungsten. The Germans needed molybdenum for their weapons since it was stronger that iron and would melt at a much higher temperature. They would mix molybdenum with iron to prevent the steel from falling apart. The Germans wanted it so much they would torture the owner of the mine on the Bartlett Mountain of Colorado, Otis King, to give it to them. They sent a man named Max Schott to buy the mine for $40,000. At the time, the United states hadn't entered the war until 1917, but by then it was too late and Schott would ship moly (molybdenum) to Germany until it became bankrupt in 1919. Moly became obsolete by WW2 but the Germans sought a new metal even stronger than moly, tungsten. However, the only source to get tungsten was in "neutral" Portugal. The dictator, Antonio Salazar, had nearly monopolized on the metal by 90%. So Germany made it certain that tungsten was taken from Portugal to Germany. However, the United States wanted Britain to do something about this so they persuaded Britain to drop their neutrality. By then Salazar had played both sides very well and became rich in the process. He increased his price for tungsten from $1,100 per ton to $20,000, making $170 million. He then issued a full embargo against the Nazi's once he saw they were loosing the war.
The author then concludes by introducing 2 important elements, tantalum and niobium. Named after Tantalus and Niobe in Greek mythology, they played a huge factor in the war in the Congo. Nine countries and 200 tribes warred against each other over unsettled grudges, the mining of theses mettles for cellular companies prolonged the fight. At that point cell phone makers began to tantalum and niobium from Australia and although there was an official truce in 2003 the fighting never really stopped. Kean then ends this chapter by expressing how although the periodic table can inspire great moments it can also play on human's worst flaws.
I thought this chapter was interesting since it talked about was and how the periodic table plays into it. Its also interesting to me personally, since I am studying World War 2 in academic decathlon and in the subject of science it talks about the creation of mustard gas and other chemicals during the war. There's is hardly anything I didn't like about this chapter and I would definitely tell some of my friends in academic decathlon about my findings in this book.
In the next part of this chapter talks about the need and use of molybdenum and tungsten. The Germans needed molybdenum for their weapons since it was stronger that iron and would melt at a much higher temperature. They would mix molybdenum with iron to prevent the steel from falling apart. The Germans wanted it so much they would torture the owner of the mine on the Bartlett Mountain of Colorado, Otis King, to give it to them. They sent a man named Max Schott to buy the mine for $40,000. At the time, the United states hadn't entered the war until 1917, but by then it was too late and Schott would ship moly (molybdenum) to Germany until it became bankrupt in 1919. Moly became obsolete by WW2 but the Germans sought a new metal even stronger than moly, tungsten. However, the only source to get tungsten was in "neutral" Portugal. The dictator, Antonio Salazar, had nearly monopolized on the metal by 90%. So Germany made it certain that tungsten was taken from Portugal to Germany. However, the United States wanted Britain to do something about this so they persuaded Britain to drop their neutrality. By then Salazar had played both sides very well and became rich in the process. He increased his price for tungsten from $1,100 per ton to $20,000, making $170 million. He then issued a full embargo against the Nazi's once he saw they were loosing the war.
The author then concludes by introducing 2 important elements, tantalum and niobium. Named after Tantalus and Niobe in Greek mythology, they played a huge factor in the war in the Congo. Nine countries and 200 tribes warred against each other over unsettled grudges, the mining of theses mettles for cellular companies prolonged the fight. At that point cell phone makers began to tantalum and niobium from Australia and although there was an official truce in 2003 the fighting never really stopped. Kean then ends this chapter by expressing how although the periodic table can inspire great moments it can also play on human's worst flaws.
I thought this chapter was interesting since it talked about was and how the periodic table plays into it. Its also interesting to me personally, since I am studying World War 2 in academic decathlon and in the subject of science it talks about the creation of mustard gas and other chemicals during the war. There's is hardly anything I didn't like about this chapter and I would definitely tell some of my friends in academic decathlon about my findings in this book.
Saturday, August 6, 2016
The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Chapter 4 Summary/Reflexion
In this chapter, Kean starts off with a basic but important question; "Where do elements come from?". For a long time it was thought that elements are just are and that they can not be created or destroyed. Later in the 1930s, the first theory was that all the matter in the universe came from a small speck that created a massive explosion that we call the big bang theory. However, this did not prove the reason why some stars only contain hydrogen and helium while others contained a lot more elements. Later, in the mid-1950's scientist explained the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis in a paper they named, B2FH. B2FH purposed that the universe was once mainly made up of hydrogen with a bit of helium and lithium. Then hydrogen will clump together to make a star, helium will then form by the gravitational pull which will power the star, or sun in the case of our solar system. However some stars die out when they run out of helium to fuse in their cores, hence white dwarfs. Some stronger and hotter stars will burn elements only up to iron. The reason for this is that fusing iron costs energy. The star will eventually implode and explode into a supernova that can last to about a month.
Kean then describes of the gas giant in our solar system, Jupitar, that was created when eruptions from the sun blew lighter elements to the "fringes". What makes it so interesting, according to Kean, is that a quarter of the helium that is normally found on a planet is missing from Jupitar along 90% of the neon. It's oceans of black liquid metallic hydrogen also make it very interesting because it can explain its weird magnetic field. Kean describes Jupitar as a failed planet which is why elements are so weird inside of Jupitar.
Kean then introduces Clair Patterson who also worked on the Manhattan Project. He knew the rate at which uranium breaks down and the 3 types of lead and he also knew that uranium only breaks down two of those types. He figured out that if he could find the difference between the ratio that is now to that of what it was originally then he could use uranium decay to find year zero. Luckily iron and uranium don't mix, even though iron and lead do. Meteors contained the same ratio of lead as they originally did and no uranium was around at the time. However his only problem when obtaining a meteor was, industrialization. A lot of lead came from paint, pipes, and even food that it contaminated Patterson's work. So after a thorough clean of his laboratory he came up with the best estimated for the age of the earth, 4.55 billion years. Kean then concludes with the idea that "we are all star stuff" and that unfortunately the discovery of new minerals can inspire greed in war and commerce.
What I liked most about this chapter was that I learned a lot more on how the stars and basically how the whole universe is made, or how we thing it is made. The only thing I didn't like about this chapter was that I was a bit confused on how supernova's are formed but I still thought it was interesting. I learned that that the big red dot on Jupitar's surface is actually a big storm that never stops which is also one thing I'd tell a friend. Overall, like the rest of the chapters, I really liked it.
Kean then describes of the gas giant in our solar system, Jupitar, that was created when eruptions from the sun blew lighter elements to the "fringes". What makes it so interesting, according to Kean, is that a quarter of the helium that is normally found on a planet is missing from Jupitar along 90% of the neon. It's oceans of black liquid metallic hydrogen also make it very interesting because it can explain its weird magnetic field. Kean describes Jupitar as a failed planet which is why elements are so weird inside of Jupitar.
Kean then introduces Clair Patterson who also worked on the Manhattan Project. He knew the rate at which uranium breaks down and the 3 types of lead and he also knew that uranium only breaks down two of those types. He figured out that if he could find the difference between the ratio that is now to that of what it was originally then he could use uranium decay to find year zero. Luckily iron and uranium don't mix, even though iron and lead do. Meteors contained the same ratio of lead as they originally did and no uranium was around at the time. However his only problem when obtaining a meteor was, industrialization. A lot of lead came from paint, pipes, and even food that it contaminated Patterson's work. So after a thorough clean of his laboratory he came up with the best estimated for the age of the earth, 4.55 billion years. Kean then concludes with the idea that "we are all star stuff" and that unfortunately the discovery of new minerals can inspire greed in war and commerce.
What I liked most about this chapter was that I learned a lot more on how the stars and basically how the whole universe is made, or how we thing it is made. The only thing I didn't like about this chapter was that I was a bit confused on how supernova's are formed but I still thought it was interesting. I learned that that the big red dot on Jupitar's surface is actually a big storm that never stops which is also one thing I'd tell a friend. Overall, like the rest of the chapters, I really liked it.
Thursday, August 4, 2016
The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Chapter 3 Summary/Reflextion
In this chapter, Sam Kean first introduces the German chemist Robert Bunsen who didn't actually invent the burner but improved upon it. He later developed the best antidote to arsenic even to this day, iron oxide hydrate, a chemical that's similar to rust that drags the arsenic out of the blood stream. He later stepped away from arsenic and went back to the University of Heidelberg in the 1850s where he invented the spectroscope. The spectroscope uses light to study the elements without boiling the compounds. This was a marvelous discovery; however, his only problem was that he couldn't get the flames hot enough to react with the elements. So he solved this by taking a regular gas burner and added a valve to the adjust the oxygen flow creating a sharp blue flame. This helped scientist better understand matter on a deeper level and find new and rarer elements. However, with all the discoveries of new elements they needed a way to sort them out.
Kean then describes of Dimitri Mendeleev; the man who we tend to associate the discovery of the periodic table with. However, he was only one of six people who contributed to the later and complete periodic table, but Mendeleev is known for contributing the most and even obsessing over it. His most serious rival was Julius Lothar Meyer, a German chemist who worked under Bunsen. He is credited for figuring out that oxygen is being transported by red blood cells by binding it to hemoglobin. He also published his own table at around the same time as Mendeleev did and split a pre- Nobel Prize, the Davy Medal, with each other. Mendeleev would even predict and name new elements which angered many scientist. Kean then introduces Paul Emile Francois Lecoq de Boisbaudran who discovered the element gallium through a spectroscope. However, when Mendeleev scanned de Boisbaurdran's data he told experimentalist that he had measured something wrong because the data did not match Mendeleev's predictions. Lecoq de Boisbaudran later retracted his data proving Mendeleev's predictions right. However, Mendeleev made some wrong predictions as well, such as the prediction that there are elements before hydrogen, but people still tend to only remember Mendeleev's accomplishments.
What was even more puzzling when creating the table was the lanthanides that sit at the bottom of the periodic table; even Mendeleev believed they were to "vexed" to make predictions about. Unfortunately, Mendeleev could have relieved his frustrations if he traveled just a bit more west to the village of Ytterby. This is where Kean introduces Johann Friedrich Bottger who became a famous magician by turning silver into gold. His fame spread to the king of Poland who imprisoned him until he could create gold. Since he could not deliver with this assignment, he later claimed that he could make porcelain. He was put to work with Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus who invented a special oven that reached over 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. With its helped they discovered the secret ingredients to porcelain, white clay called kaolin and a feldspar rock. Later Kean describes the geological advantages Ytterby has when finding elements such as lanthanides. He also introduces Johan Gadolin who earned his reputation as a geochemist and is responsible for the discovery of many new elements near the Ytterby mines such as yttria. Seven other elements were discovered there such as ytterbium, yttrium, terbium, and erbium. Later it was holmium, thulium, and then gadolinium named after Gadolin. Six were Mendeleev's missing elements and with out these mines scientist would have never found these lanthanides.
What I really liked about this chapter was the interesting stories it portrayed, I especially liked the story of the making of porcelain. Throughout these three chapters I have not found anything I dislike in particular. I also didn't know what porcelains was made up until now, and I also didn't fully know who and how the periodic table was discovered. I had some knowledge about Mendeleev but I did not know about other scientist who contributed to the periodic table's creation. If there was one thing that I would tell a friend about this chapter is the story of Ytterby which I found very interesting.
Kean then describes of Dimitri Mendeleev; the man who we tend to associate the discovery of the periodic table with. However, he was only one of six people who contributed to the later and complete periodic table, but Mendeleev is known for contributing the most and even obsessing over it. His most serious rival was Julius Lothar Meyer, a German chemist who worked under Bunsen. He is credited for figuring out that oxygen is being transported by red blood cells by binding it to hemoglobin. He also published his own table at around the same time as Mendeleev did and split a pre- Nobel Prize, the Davy Medal, with each other. Mendeleev would even predict and name new elements which angered many scientist. Kean then introduces Paul Emile Francois Lecoq de Boisbaudran who discovered the element gallium through a spectroscope. However, when Mendeleev scanned de Boisbaurdran's data he told experimentalist that he had measured something wrong because the data did not match Mendeleev's predictions. Lecoq de Boisbaudran later retracted his data proving Mendeleev's predictions right. However, Mendeleev made some wrong predictions as well, such as the prediction that there are elements before hydrogen, but people still tend to only remember Mendeleev's accomplishments.
What was even more puzzling when creating the table was the lanthanides that sit at the bottom of the periodic table; even Mendeleev believed they were to "vexed" to make predictions about. Unfortunately, Mendeleev could have relieved his frustrations if he traveled just a bit more west to the village of Ytterby. This is where Kean introduces Johann Friedrich Bottger who became a famous magician by turning silver into gold. His fame spread to the king of Poland who imprisoned him until he could create gold. Since he could not deliver with this assignment, he later claimed that he could make porcelain. He was put to work with Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus who invented a special oven that reached over 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. With its helped they discovered the secret ingredients to porcelain, white clay called kaolin and a feldspar rock. Later Kean describes the geological advantages Ytterby has when finding elements such as lanthanides. He also introduces Johan Gadolin who earned his reputation as a geochemist and is responsible for the discovery of many new elements near the Ytterby mines such as yttria. Seven other elements were discovered there such as ytterbium, yttrium, terbium, and erbium. Later it was holmium, thulium, and then gadolinium named after Gadolin. Six were Mendeleev's missing elements and with out these mines scientist would have never found these lanthanides.
What I really liked about this chapter was the interesting stories it portrayed, I especially liked the story of the making of porcelain. Throughout these three chapters I have not found anything I dislike in particular. I also didn't know what porcelains was made up until now, and I also didn't fully know who and how the periodic table was discovered. I had some knowledge about Mendeleev but I did not know about other scientist who contributed to the periodic table's creation. If there was one thing that I would tell a friend about this chapter is the story of Ytterby which I found very interesting.
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Summary/Reflection Chapter 2
In chapter 2, Kean firsts talks about the longest words in the English language, one being the tobacco mosaic virus, with 1,185 letters. The long word describes a protein from the most versatile element on the periodic table, carbon. Carbon forms the backbone of amino acids which are put together to make proteins. He then begins to explain how carbon is always trying to fill its outer energy level with eight electrons, the octet rule. Each amino acid contains oxygen and nitrogen on opposite ends and 2 carbon atoms in the middle. All these atoms are looking to complete its 8 electrons on its outer energy level, but for some its harder than others. For carbon it is much more easier since it can bounds atoms in whatever direction it can. But Kean later describes of an element that is similar to carbon or sometimes referred to as an alternative to carbon-based life in other galaxies which is the element silicon. Carbon is six on the periodic table while Silicon is fourteen which is an 8 element gap between them, or another octet, so naturally they'd be similar. However, it is much more challenging when building life forms with silicon rather than carbon because silicon is a solid. So when it comes down to cellular respiration it just wouldn't work. Another reason is that silicon does not dissolve in water so the creatures would not be able to be made up of any liquid or blood for that matter. However, silicon can be used as an outer shell for some creatures.
Kean later describes of an element under silicon on the periodic table, germanium. Like carbon and silicon, silicon and germanium have similarities. Most importantly they are both semi-conductors and are used for technology, specifically computers. This is where he introduces William Shockley, an electrical engineer who tried building a silicon vacuum tube but became frustrated when it failed to work. He passed the project down to John Bardeen and Walter Brattain whom invented the worlds first transistor out of germanium. However, Shockley tried to gain most of the credit and eventually did but along with Bardeen and Brattain. Shockley was the least deserving of the Nobel Prize. Unfortunately, germanium conductors began to decline when Gordon Teal introduced a silicon transistor. Finally, Kean tells the story of Jack Kilby. He was a tall Kansan who worked for Texas Instruments and was hired to solve a problem known as the tyranny of numbers. The problem was that cheap silicon transistors had to be soldered together in large amounts by many workers which was difficult and costly. Kilby came up with the idea of an integrated circuit by carving up all the components of the circuit from one block of the semiconductor. He later won the Nobel Prize in 2000. To conclude, Kean expresses the fact that some elements of the periodic table become unknown while other become widely famous such as silicon and carbon.
What I liked about this chapter was that I learned a lot about the elements if not I understood more fully and in depth. I also really like how the authors personality can be seen throughout the reading which makes it a little more interesting. If there was one thing that I'd tell to a friend is that one of the longest words in the English language is actually a protein along with other super long words that relate to science.
Kean later describes of an element under silicon on the periodic table, germanium. Like carbon and silicon, silicon and germanium have similarities. Most importantly they are both semi-conductors and are used for technology, specifically computers. This is where he introduces William Shockley, an electrical engineer who tried building a silicon vacuum tube but became frustrated when it failed to work. He passed the project down to John Bardeen and Walter Brattain whom invented the worlds first transistor out of germanium. However, Shockley tried to gain most of the credit and eventually did but along with Bardeen and Brattain. Shockley was the least deserving of the Nobel Prize. Unfortunately, germanium conductors began to decline when Gordon Teal introduced a silicon transistor. Finally, Kean tells the story of Jack Kilby. He was a tall Kansan who worked for Texas Instruments and was hired to solve a problem known as the tyranny of numbers. The problem was that cheap silicon transistors had to be soldered together in large amounts by many workers which was difficult and costly. Kilby came up with the idea of an integrated circuit by carving up all the components of the circuit from one block of the semiconductor. He later won the Nobel Prize in 2000. To conclude, Kean expresses the fact that some elements of the periodic table become unknown while other become widely famous such as silicon and carbon.
What I liked about this chapter was that I learned a lot about the elements if not I understood more fully and in depth. I also really like how the authors personality can be seen throughout the reading which makes it a little more interesting. If there was one thing that I'd tell to a friend is that one of the longest words in the English language is actually a protein along with other super long words that relate to science.
The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Chapter 1 Summary/Reflection
In chapter 1, Sam Kean expresses the frustrations of many students when it comes to the periodic table but proposed that every teach, when introducing the periodic table, should look at it blank. He then portrays the periodic table as a map that helps you not only understand it but guide you. He introduces the first of the 18 columns as noble gases whose birth place is in Greece. He then illustrates the history of Plato and his love for geometry and everything concerning the theory of "form": ideal forms. This is where Helium becomes important because it is the best known element with an ideal form or best form of "element-ness". As a substance that cannot be broken down or altered by other elements it is put under the group of noble gases along with neon, argon, and krypton. He then expresses how all elements have electrons on the energy levels of each element and they must have the right amount if not they will share or steal electrons until they are satisfied making them ions.
Kean later transitions to introduce Gilbert Lewis who attended school in Massachusetts and studied under German chemist Walther Nernst. He change the definition of acids as electron thiefs instead of proton donors. Bases such as bleach are then the electron donors. This better helps us understand the behavior of electrons but was unfortunately not enough for Lewis to win the Nobel Prize for his research was broad rather than deep. He then begins to talk about the acids and how they are measured on the pH scale which is similar to the Richter scale when measuring the strength of earthquakes. The scale reaches from 1 being the most acidic, HCL stomach acid, to 7 ,being neutral water, then to a base being 14. Going from 4 to 3 boosts the acid strength by 10 times. So when the acid, carborane, was discovered to be -18 on the pH scale you can only imagine the strength. He then concludes with Maria Goeppert- Mayer. Geoppert- Mayer was born in Germany and earned her doctorate at the University of Hannover and then married Joseph Mayer an American Chemist. As a women in the early 1900s it was hard for her to practice her love for science when no one would hire her or even pay her for jobs she would do. She asked a very important question; why was there an abundance of a specific element such as oxygen rather than lithium which should be the third most abundant element? She later discovered through many unlinked experiments that nuclei have shell who she called magic nuclei which was the key to understanding that some elements with atomic numbers 2,8,25, and so on are much more stable and abundant. This goes back to Plato's belief of perfect forms; the more perfect the nuclei the more stable it is and the less likely they are able to disintegrate. She was later finally recognized for her achievements by winning the Nobel Prize.
Personally, I really liked this chapter and was very intrigued by it. Although, I did know a lot of information Kean said, this gave me a much better understanding on the elements and how I should look at them. I do like the analogies he uses in explaining this chapter. There was hardly anything that I didn't like. The most interesting thing that I learned was Plato's theory of form and Maria Geoppert- Mayer's story that really inspired me. One interesting thing that I would tell my "bae" would probably be why there is a lot of oxygen in the world rather than lithium, which sounds like a useless fact, but I think it's interesting.
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