Steve Cohen

A joke about Watson and Crick has not escaped my notice, and suggests a possible humorous mechanism.

Maskim.

That’s more or less the view of my 20-something daughter, who’s been getting active in Democratic functions in SoCal: She rolls her eyes at the old ladies doing tea.

Davisson and Germer published their work "Diffraction of Electrons by a Crystal of Nickel" 98 years ago this month in Phys. Rev. 30(6), Dec 1927, p 705, proof that electrons had wavelike attributes (and started LEED in surface chemistry). #ChemSky 🧪 Read here at journals.aps.org/pr/pdf/10.11...

(S)-cargot (R)-cargot

The History of Chemistry Chemistry is everywhere, and involves everything. But how did chemistry get to be what it is? I'm Steve Cohen, a chemist and writer, bringing you The History of Chemistry. This podcast explores the de...

Don’t forget that you can still listen to my podcast, “The History of Chemistry”, on your favorite podcast app. #ChemSky 🧪 thehistoryofchemistry.buzzsprout.com

Probably because everyone knows that Maduro’s regime is a corrupt mess anyway

I know. Apparently staking your claim “in the name of the King of Spain” was a thing back then.

Note that radical theory was active in chemistry many decades earlier, before molecular structure was recognized as a thing. Here we mean unpaired electrons in a molecule.

125 years ago this month, Moses Gomberg announced the discovery of the first chemical radical, triphenylmethyl, in JACS, 22(11) 757-771 (Nov 1900). He ended the paper with "I wish to reserve the field for myself." #ChemSky 🧪 Read it here: ia800805.us.archive.org/view_archive...

Yep

November 9 was the 138th anniversary of Svante Arrhenius’s “On the Dissociation of Substances Dissolved in Water,” Z. Phys. Chem., I, 637 (1887), describing how electrolytes break up into ions in aqueous solution. #ChemSky 🧪 Read the short paper here: www.chemteam.info/Chem-History...

Found this quote last
Night in Jack McDevitt’s sci-fi novel “Infinity Beach” (1997). Posting it for, um, no reason.

Doing my best

60 years ago this month, Woodward and Hoffmann published their famous letter to the Editor of JACS on “Orbital Symmetries and Orientational Effects in a Sigmatropic Reaction.” #ChemSky 🧪 roaldhoffmann.com/sites/defaul...

It’s not my page; it’s a website that contains Stoney’s paper. So best to contact whomever posted the page.

131 years ago this month, George Stoney proposed the "atom of electricity," or "electron," linking it to the production of electromagnetic waves. The paper appeared in Phil. Mag. in Oct 1894. #ChemSky 🧪 (Note his use of "chemical atom".) Read it here: todayinsci.com/S/Stoney_Geo...

That happened back in the 1920s. Hence our ancestors couldn’t enter the US as the Nazis rose to power

On the equilibrium of heterogeneous substances : first [-second] part

151 years ago this month, J Willard Gibbs published part I of his famous thermodynamic treatment of chemistry in the obscure “Trans Conn Acad Arts Sci”. #ChemSky 🧪Read it here: library.si.edu/digital-libr...

101 years ago this month, Edmund Stoner published "The Distribution of Electrons among Atomic Levels" in Phil. Mag., the first decent description of the Bohr model atom with quantum numbers--soon leading to the postulation of electron spin. #ChemSky 🧪 Read it here: www.chemteam.info/Chem-History...

My latest calligraphic work, the Birkat HaZan: gouache on watercolor paper, scheduled for installation in my dining room. #art #calligraphy #Jewish

On this date in 1861, Alexander Butlerov gave a talk “Einiges über die chemische Structur der Körper,” printed in Zeit. Chem. Phys., perhaps the first time “chemical structure” was used. #ChemSky 🧪 Read a translation here: web.lemoyne.edu/giunta/butle...

Commentary: A defense of science communication It’s easy to believe that the US scientific community is in crisis. The daily news is full of stories about cuts in funding and oppressive visa restrictions. Or

Given I know a little about science communication, I am happy to share this commentary by my grad-school housemate. pubs.aip.org/physicstoday...

In Sept 1874, Jacobus van 't Hoff published his article on how molecules are 3D. "A suggestion looking to the extension into space of the structural formulas at present used in chemistry..." which you can read here: #ChemSky 🧪 www.chemteam.info/Chem-History...

This month (September) in 1829, Robert Brown published ”Additional Remarks on Active Molecules” in Philosophical Magazine, Series 2, pp 161-6: the discovery of what is now called Brownian Motion. 🧪 #ChemSky www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/gold/pd...

Folx, I have posted the final episode of my podcast, “The History of Chemistry.” Please continue to support it financially on Buzzsprout & Patreon, otherwise it goes away. (Hosting costs money.) 🧪 #ChemSky

“Let them eat cake”

25 seated people arranged in a semicircle around a choir director

Last night was my choir, Sharim v’Sharot’s first rehearsal of the season.

The latest episode of “The History of Chemistry” is up, on chemically detecting life in other star systems.🧪 #Chemsky

Newest episode of "The History of Chemistry" podcast: Finding life chemically in our solar system. 🧪