Week 6
Week 6: Feb 5 – 11 (Archive)
February 5
- John Boyd Dunlop, who was born on this date in 1840, is credited with the invention of the pneumatic rubber tire.
- Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine (1963) with Sir J. C. Eccles and A. F. Huxley "for their discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane", was born on this date in 1914.
February 6
- Nikolai D. Zelinsky, a researcher on the catalysis of disproportionation reactions of hydrocarbons and the bromination of fatty acids (Heil-Volhard-Zelinsky reaction), was born on this date in 1861.
- William P. Murphy, who was born on this date in 1892, researched diabetes and diseases of the blood, especially pernicious anemia. In 1934, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with G.R. Minot and G. H. Whipple.
February 7
- John B. F. Herreshoff, who was born on this date in 1850, developed a method for the manufacturing of sulfuric acid.
- John A. R. Newlands published his first paper in 1864 on the law of octaves, showing that in order of increasing atomic weights the properties repeated with every eighth element.
February 8
- Bernard Courtois, who was born on this date in 1777, discovered iodine (I,53) in the liquor from the lixiviation of kelp in 1811.
- Friedlieb F. Runge, who discovered carbolic acid (phenol) and aniline in coal tar in 1834 and investigated the dry distillation and composition of matter, was born on this date in 1795.
- Dimitri I. Mendeleev, born on this date in 1834, discovered the periodic law (table).
- Francis R. Japp, a researcher on benzil, benzoin and phenathraquinone, was born on this date in 1848.
- Moses Gomberg, a researcher on triphenylmethyl (first stable free radical) and tautomerism, was born on this date in 1866.
February 9
- Edward C. C. Baly, who was born on this date in 1871, showed that sugars and other organic compounds are formed from water, carbon dioxide, and ammonia under the influence of light.
- Lloyd N. Ferguson, chemical educator and author, was born on this date in 1918.
- Californium (Cf, 98) was discovered by ion-exchange chromatography at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1950.
February 10
- Ira Remsem, researcher in organic chemistry, founder of the American Chemical Journal in 1897, and codiscoverer of saccharin, was born on this date in 1846.
- John F. Enders, who was born on this date in 1897, proved that poliovirus was not only neurotropic and won the Nobel Prize in Medicine (1954) with T. H. Weller and F. C. Robbins "for their discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in cultures of various types of tissue".
February 11
- Josiah W. Gibbs, a researcher on thermodynamics and phase rule (Gibbs phase rule), was born on this date in 1839.
- Thomas A. Edison, who was born on this date in 1847, was the inventor of the phonograph, incandescent light bulb, mimeograph, and many other devices.
- Izaak M. Kolthoff—a researcher in analytical chemistry; polarography, voltammetry, amperometric titrations, and synthetic rubber chemistry—was born on this date in 1894.
- Alwin Mittasch and Christian Schneider filed an application in 1914 that resulted in US Patent 1,201,850. This patent describes the catalytic production of methanol from carbon monoxide and hydrogen.