Week 44

Week 44: Oct. 29 – Nov. 4 (Archive)

• Robert Bowie Owens, born 1870, detected thorium radiation.
• Carl Djerassi, born 1923, researcher in structure elucidation of natural products; synthesis of medicinals; application of computer artificial intelligence to chemical problems.

• Hermann F. M. Kopp, born 1817, researcher on atomic and molecular volume, crystallography, boiling points,specific heats, and dissociation; historian of physical chemistry.
• Gerhard Domagk, born 1895, discovered properties of prontosil, orange-red dye containing sulfanilamide; in 1952, reported isoniazid had antitubercular properties (opened age of chemotherapy); refused Nobel Prize in Medicine (1939) on instructions from Nazi government in Germany.
• Dickinson W. Richards, Jr., born 1895, demonstrated first clinical use of cardiac catheterization; Nobel Prize in Medicine (1956).
• Max Tishler, born 1906, industrial chemist; developed antibiotics, including actinomycin and streptomycin; synthesized vitamin A and iboflavin.

• Adolf von Baeyer, born 1835, researcher on indigo; evolved strain theory of carbon rings; prepared acetylene; discovered barbituric acid (1863); Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1905).

• Hooker-Electro-Chemical Company founded in 1909.
• Union Carbide incorporated as Union Carbide & Carbon Corp. in 1917.

• C. H. C. Willgerodt, born 1841, researcher in conversion of internal ketones to terminal thioamides (Willgerodt reaction).

• Daniel Rutherford, born 1749, first to distinguish between carbon dioxide and nitrogen; invented maximum and minimum thermometer; in 1772, discovered nitrogen (N, 7) ("noxious gas").
• American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists founded in 1921.
• Carlton E. Schwerdt crystallized poliomyelitis virus at University of California in 1955.

• Charles L. Reese, born 1862, improved manufacture of dyes and explosives.
• Boris A. Arbuzov, born 1903, discovered formation of free radicals of triarylmethane derivatives; investigated properties of terpenes and phosphorus-containing heterocyclics.