Kean starts off talking about a prince by the name of Midas. It goes on to share his reign and the gold and bronze age, seeing as to how the people of 3000 BC could not recognize the difference between bronze and other metals with zinc in them. This introduced the idea of counterfeiting, which was the main relation between the elements. He then goes onto talking about gold and gold rushes. There was a huge gold rush in Australia where you could literally just pick the gold off of the ground. However, once the population boomed and mining became the priority along with building to supply the growing need for housing, it became apparent that resources had huge inflation prices. Just to make the situation even worse, the rocks they were “throwing away” from mining and building with happened to contain the most gold.
Then the chapter moves onto paper money. Starting in China, Kean moves into talking about counterfeiting techniques and how troublesome it would have been in order to counterfeit an EU bill. One way counterfeiting is combatted is by using europium strips that glow under special light, making it easier to distinguish real bills from fake bills. Next, the value of aluminum is talked about. Aluminum was once a precious metal, valued over even gold. However, once a scientist was able to find a way to extract pure aluminum, the market for the metal crashed and it is now used for everyday items.
Monday, February 1, 2016
Chapter 12 Summary
Chapter 12 covered the political effects of the elements. Kean started off with Marie Curie's research on uranium and her discovery of the elements polonium (which was named after her and radium. He then mentions György Hevesy who discovered elemental tracers and element 72, hafnium, with the help or Dirk Coster. Marie Curie died, however, due to poisoning.
Next, he explains Lise Meitner's discovery of protactinium. Kean describes how Meitner's work was never rewarded with a Noble Prize, but instead got meitnerium, element 109, named in her honour. The reason why she wasn't rewarded was because her partner, who reluctantly put all the work under his name after women were banned in Germany in working in labs.
Next, he explains Lise Meitner's discovery of protactinium. Kean describes how Meitner's work was never rewarded with a Noble Prize, but instead got meitnerium, element 109, named in her honour. The reason why she wasn't rewarded was because her partner, who reluctantly put all the work under his name after women were banned in Germany in working in labs.
Chapter 11 Summary
Chapter 11 started off with a rather gloomy story of a few astronauts being poisoned with nitrogen gas while being grounded from a mission. Kean describes how they had painless deaths because the gas tricks the body into thinking nothing is wrong so it remains relaxed. Once entering a room filled with nitrogen, the people in there will faint instantly.
He then goes into the discovery of titanium prosthetic limbs. Since the body sees titanium as a bone, is is accepted rather then rejected in surgery and recovery. Next, he talks about how some elements, such as beryllium, can trick your sense of taste. Lastly, Kean jumps into the subject of iodine and it's importance in trying to help decrease birth defects.
He then goes into the discovery of titanium prosthetic limbs. Since the body sees titanium as a bone, is is accepted rather then rejected in surgery and recovery. Next, he talks about how some elements, such as beryllium, can trick your sense of taste. Lastly, Kean jumps into the subject of iodine and it's importance in trying to help decrease birth defects.
Chapter 10 Summary
The focus in chapter 10 was medical uses of elements. The first one he covered was silver by telling stories such as Tycho Brahe, who lost part of his nose and replaced it with a silver prosthetic one. Kean was able to cover the anti-bacterial properties of silver. Next, gadolinium was then introduced with huge medical contributions and a highly magnetic character. Today it is used in MRI machines, making it one of the most important elements used in medicine today.
Kean then talks about Louis Pasteur, the scientist to discover that everything is typically left handed, or at least has a "handiness" towards it. He then went on to go learn more about chirality. Afterwards, he discussed Gerhard Domagk and his discovery of prontosil's great ability to heal which sparked the use of it as a healing agent. Many patents were able to be woken up from their strange mental paralysis with the help of Pasteur's findings and William Knowles discovery with rhodium.
Chapter 9 Summary
Cadmium did the most damage in Japan after the miners would dump large amounts of it into the water supply. People started getting a disease called itai-itai which caused horrible pain, liver failure, and weakened bones. A scientist named Hagino argued that the rice being farmed had soaked up the cadmium being dumped into the water and poisoned anyone who ate it.
Kean then talked about the poison thallium and it's horrifying history of poisoning and killing many. He even talked about how there was even a plan to kill Fidel Castro, Cuba's dictator, with talc laced with thallium. He then talked about the misplacement of bismuth as a poison because it is actually used for everyday medicines such as pepto bismol. The story goes downhill yet again to tell a depressing story about a young boy scout. At a young age David Hahn found his love for chemistry. Though, after working very hard on a nuclear reactor in the backyard shed, he was then arrested after attempting to steal smoke alarms containing americium, a radioactive element.
Kean then talked about the poison thallium and it's horrifying history of poisoning and killing many. He even talked about how there was even a plan to kill Fidel Castro, Cuba's dictator, with talc laced with thallium. He then talked about the misplacement of bismuth as a poison because it is actually used for everyday medicines such as pepto bismol. The story goes downhill yet again to tell a depressing story about a young boy scout. At a young age David Hahn found his love for chemistry. Though, after working very hard on a nuclear reactor in the backyard shed, he was then arrested after attempting to steal smoke alarms containing americium, a radioactive element.
Chapter 8 Summary
Kean describes how the two scientists fame was all a mistake. Element 43 was said to be discovered by German chemists and others have claimed to have found it though is was not officially found until 1937 by two Italians, one being Segrè. Segré, despite being pressured by the University of Palermo to name is Panormium and by Naddock to name is Masurium, in the end decides to name the new element technetium, meaning "artificial". The name suits it since it was, in fact, the first man made element.
Segrè's biggest mistake was thinking that there was no transuranic properties about element 93. He also misidentified transuranic Neptunium as a fission product. Kean then begins to talk about Linus Pauling, a brilliant chemist. Although he is smart, he is also very stubborn. After being proven wrong by a colleague on his triple helix DNA theory, he then published his idea. Some college students (Watson and Crick) discovered that DNA is actually a double helix. The chapter closes with talking about Pauling and what he accomplished after the DNA mishap.
Chapter 19 Reflection
I was honestly sad because this was the last chapter. It mostly dealt with the rarest elements on earth. I learned so much about our limitations in the scientific field. I thought about how far we've came with the discoveries and how beautiful it is to know that we understand a little more about where we come from and the universe with them.
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