Happy Birthday Linus Pauling

Linus Pauling, born February 28, 1901, was an American chemist known, for among other things, his work on the nature of the chemical bond which won him the 1954 Nobel Prize in chemistry (and the namesake of this blog).  He also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 for his campaign against above ground nuclear testing.

Happy Birthday Johannes Brønsted

Johannes Brønsted, born February 22, 1879, was a Danish chemist who, in 1923, introduced the protonic theory of acid-base reactions.

Happy Birthday Henry Eyring

A Mexican-American theoretical chemist, born 1901, whose primary contribution was in the study of chemical reaction rates and intermediates. A prolific writer, he authored more than 600 scientific articles, 10 scientific books, and a few books on the subject of science and religion. The Eyring equation in chemical kinetics relates the reaction rate to temperature.



This equation follows from his transition state theory and is theoretically derived. Previous understanding of reaction rates and temperature came from Arrhenius’s empirically derived equation.

Test Tube Science: Sip Sip

This one is for younger kids.

Materials:
   -One clean test tube
   -Stuff to drink (juice, colored water [see Test Tube Science: Mouse Paint], and milk)
Background:
Encourage pouring skills by letting them drink everything they can pour into a test tube.

Directions:.
Lay a towel out on a low table or child’s play surface.  Fill a small pitcher or clean child’s toy teapot with water. Pour into the test tube and drink it down. Juice, colored water, and milk were some of our favorites.

Oxidation State and Phone Number

Man: Could you tell me the oxidation state of this atom, and your phone number?
Woman:  +3 and No.

Happy Birthday Dmitri Mendeleev

Russian chemist, born 1834, credited as being the primary creator of the first version of the periodic table of elements. Unlike other contributors to the table, Mendeleev predicted the properties of elements yet to be discovered.

Happy Birthday Robert Boyle

Known for Boyle's Law which says for a fixed mass of ideal gas at fixed temperature, the product of pressure and volume is a constant.

Test Tube Science: Window Garden

Materials:
   -One test tube for each seed
   -Seeds (try peas, beans, or carrots)
   -Potting soil.

Background:
This is fun because you can see the seed growing “underground.”

Directions:.
Fill test tubes with potting soil and plant seeds.  Place in a sunny window.  Water carefully.  Because the “pots” are so small, transplant soon or simply start again when plants get too big for the test tubes.

Test Tube Science: Mouse Paint

Materials:
   -Five test tubes
   -Food coloring
   -One pipette

Background:
We got this idea from the book called Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. My son had a test tube rack with all the primary and secondary colors on it and would talk about them and to them almost everyday between the age of 18-36 months.  He learned his colors really well and has been able to tell what will happen if you mix different colors because he practiced so many times

Directions:
 Fill four test tubes with water.  Into each, put one drop of food coloring (use red, yellow, and blue).  Stir carefully by tapping your finger on the test tube.  Pour half of one color into one of the empty test tubes.  Pour half of another color in on top of it.  Stir carefully.

What makes purple?  _________________+____________________

What makes green?
 _________________ +____________________

What makes orange?
_________________+_____________________

Chemistry is Hot

16,000,000 Scovilles strong.