Week 15

Week 15: April 9 - 15 (Archive)

April 9

  • Ignacio Tinoco, Jr. proposed simple method for estimating secondary structure of ribonucleic acid (RNA) from sequence of nucleotides in 1971.

April 10

  • Emil Fischer discovered glucose in 1891.
  • Arnold O. Beckman, born 1900, chemist; inventor; founder of Beckman Instruments (1934).
  • Robert B. Woodward, born 1917, researcher in stereoselective organic synthesis; codeveloper of Woodward-Hoffman rules; Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1965).
  • A. M. Collins synthesized polychloroprene in 1930.
  • Bernardo Alberto Houssay, born 1887, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1947).
  • Patent Office established as Patent Board (Constitution, Art. 8, Sec 1) in 1790.

April 11

  • Humphry Davy discovered nitrous oxide (laughing gas) in 1799.
  • Percy L. Julian, born 1899, isolated physostigimine (1935).
  • Reatha Clark King, born 1938, professor of chemistry and administrator.
  • R. B. Woodward and W. von Eggers Doering synthesized quinine in 1944.
  • Percy L. Julian, born 1899, cosynthesized physostigmine (1935); founded Julian Laboratories (1954); prepared intermediates for commercial production of steroid hormones.
  • Otto Erdmann, born 1804, professor of chemical technology, University of Leipzig; co-redetermined atomic weights of elements.

April 12

  • George Urbain, born 1872, discoverer of law of optimum phosphorescence of binary systems; in 1907, codiscoverer of lutetium (Lu,71).
  • Otto F. Meyerhof, born 1884, researcher on muscle metabolism; Nobel Prize in Medicine (1922).

April 13

  • Tobern Bergman confirmed Muller von Reichenstein's results that the substance isolated from a bismuth ore was a new element, tellurium (Te,52) In 1784 .

April 14

  • NASA's Nimbus III weather satellite made the first civilian use of nuclear batteries in 1969.

April 15

  • William Cullen, born 1710, first to notice heat is produced during compression of gas.
  • Ernest Solvay received his first patent entitled "Industrial Production of Sodium Carbonate by Means of Marine Salt, Ammonia, & Carbon Dioxide" in 1861
  • Albert Ghiorso, with others, announced discovery of rutherfordium (Rf,104) at University of California, Berkeley in 1969.