Chemistry: What's Hot Now: July 31 Science History

Chemistry: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week

July 31 Science History Aug 3rd 2011, 10:02 Learn about the history of science by reading about the significant scientific events that took place on this day in history. 1999 - NASA Lunar Prospector mission ends. NASA NASA's Lunar Prospector mission was a return to exploring the Moon. The spacecraft spent 19 months orbiting and surveying the Moon looking for ice and measuring gravitational and magnetic fields. The mission was ended when the spacecraft was deliberately crashed into the surface near the South Pole to check for the presence of water. It did not find any water, but did deposit 28 grams of the remains of planetary scientist Eugene Shoemaker. This made Shoemaker the first person buried on the Moon. 1964 - Ranger 7 spacecraft transmits pictures of the Moon. NASA The first successful U.S. probe to the Moon, Ranger 7 returned the first pictures of the surface of the Moon. The probe sent back over 4300 highly detailed photographs before impacting the surface that would aid engineers to build a spacecraft that could land on the Moon. 1923 - Stephanie Louise Kwolek was born. Kwolek is an American polymer chemist who discovered the polymer known as Kevlar. She was working on a project to find a strong, lightweight fiber to use in tires. The liquid crystal solutions she was working with were thick and milky looking and she had difficulty convincing the person in charge of the spinning equipment that the solution would not clog the tiny holes in the equipment. Once they started to spin the solution, the Kevlar fibers easily came out of the machine and were very strong and stiff. 1918 - Paul Delos Boyer was born. wikimedia commons Boyer is an American biochemist who shares half the 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with John E. Walker for discovering the enzymatic mechanism behind the production of adenosine triphosphate or ATP. ATP is the nucleotide that transfers energy during metabolic processes in cells. 1859 - Theobald Smith was born. US Dept. of Defense Smith was an American pathologist and microbiologist who discovered the causes of several infectious parasitic diseases. One of the most important discoveries was the cause of Texas Cattle Fever was linked to a protozoan spread by ticks. This was one of the first cases that definitely showed an insect as an important vector in infection. This line of investigation would be important for other diseases such as yellow fever or malaria. 1800 - Friedrich Wöhler was born. Wikimedia Commons Wöhler was a German chemist who first synthesized the organic compound urea from inorganic components. This was one of the first processes that invalidated the popular vitalism theory, in which biochemical reactions need biological catalysts or a 'vital' spark. He also isolated the element aluminum and discovered a method to create acetylene from calcium carbide.

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