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January 14 th marks the passing of Cato Guldberg. Cato and Peter Waage were Norwegian chemists who discovered the chemistry law of mass action. The law of mass action relates the rate of a reaction to the concentration of the reactants. They had an interesting journey to get their work recognized and is a lesson in getting published in the 'right' scientific journals. They initially published their findings in a Norwegian scientific journal and consequently, gained very little recognition for their research. They republished their work in a French journal which did not attract any more attention. Their work remained obscure until German chemist, Wilhelm Ostwald published an article that mentioned the law and proved their results with experiments of his own. Dutch chemist Jacobus van't Hoff derived his kinetics equations in 1888 and received credit for the discovery, they republished again in a German journal and finally got the recognition for their work. 20...

Technically, all food is slightly radioactiv e. This is because all food and other organic molecules contain carbon, which naturally exists as a mixture of isotopes, including radioactive carbon-14. That's the basis for carbon dating , used to identify the age of fossils. However, some foods emit much more radiation than others. Here's a look at 10 naturally radioactive foods and how much radiation you get from them. 1. Brazil Nuts If there was an award for "Most Radioactive Food," it would go to Brazil nuts. Brazil nuts contain high levels of two radioactive elements: radium and potassium. Potassium is good for you, used in many biochemical reactions, and one of the reasons why the human body is itself slightly radioactive. Radium occurs in the ground where the trees grow and is absorbed by the plant's root system. Brazil nuts emit over  6,600 pCi/kg of radiation. Most of that radiation passes harmlessly through the body, plus the high levels...

Some of the foods you eat are naturally radioactive. Sometimes the radiation comes from isotopes that a plant absorbs as it's growing, while other foods are radioactive because they contain high levels of elements that exist as a mixture of isotopes. Pictured here is a common food that emits radiation.   Question: What Is Radioactivity? What is Radiation?    Unstable atomic nuclei will spontaneously decompose to form nuclei with a higher stability. The decomposition process is called radioactivity. The energy and particles which are released during the decomposition process are called radiation. When unstable nuclei decompose in nature, the process is referred to as natural radioactivity. When the unstable nuclei are prepared in the laboratory, the decomposition is called induced radioactivity. Answer: There are three major types of natural radioactivity: Alpha Radiation Alpha radiation consists of a stream of positively charged particles, called a...

One of the most common calculations you'll be expected to perform on data is standard deviation. It is so important that most calculators have a button for it! However, you should be able to do this calculation by hand, plus you need to know which standard deviation formula to apply. That's right! There is more than one. Apply the population standard deviation formula when you are analyzing a complete set of data. This may be data from all the members of a class or all the trials of an experiment. Apply the sample standard deviation formula when you are analyzing a sample or set of samples from a larger population. Note that the sample standard deviation formula contains a correction factor, called Bessel's correction, that expresses increased uncertainty in how reliable your data is. Why would you do this? The correction factor helps form a more realistic prediction of what you could expect from future testing. It is helpful when you can't get data from ...

Michael de Podesta studied Physics at Sussex University, receiving his B.Sc. in 1981 and was awarded a D.Phil. in 1985. After postdoctoral work at Bristol University he was appointed a lecturer at the University of London in 1987 and joined NPL in 2000. Since then he has specialised in temperature measurements of all kinds and has recently completed the most accurate measurement of temperature in history. Michael is a chartered physicist, a member of the Institute of Physics and in 2009 he was awarded an MBE for Services to Science.   The webinar begins by asking the question “Why is the Earth’s surface the temperature it is?”. The answer to this question is not contentious but is often not fully appreciated. This understanding then forms the basis of an analysis of why scientists are concerned that human emissions of carbon dioxide are causing Global Warming.

Do you need to learn chemistry fast? Here is how you do it! Plan To Learn Chemistry Fast The first step is to determine exactly how long you have to learn chemistry. You'll need a lot more discipline to learn chemistry in a day compared with a week or a month. Also, keep in mind you won't have great retention if you cram chemistry in a day or a week. Ideally you want a month or longer to master any course. If you do end up cramming chemistry, expect to review the material if you need to apply it to a higher level chemistry course or remember it for a test further down the road. A Word About Chemistry Lab If you can do labwork, that's fantastic, because the hands-on learning will reinforce the concepts. However, labs take time, so most likely you'll miss this segment. Keep in mind labs are required for some situations. For example, you have to document labwork for AP Chemistry and many online courses. If you are doing labs, check how long they take ...

pH is a measure of hydrogen ion concentration or [H + ] in an aqueous solution. It is a useful gauge of the acidity of a solution. Yet, do you know why we use the symbol "pH" or what it stands for? Have you ever wondered what pH stands for or where the term originated? Here is the answer to the question and a look at the history of the pH scale. Question: What Does pH Stand For?     Answer: pH is the negative log of hydrogen ion concentration in a water-based solution. The term "pH" was first described by Danish biochemist Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen in 1909. pH is an abbreviation for "power of hydrogen" where "p" is short for the German word for power, potenz and H is the element symbol for hydrogen. The H is capitalized because it is standard to capitalize element symbols. The abbreviation also works in French, with pouvoir hydrogen translating as "the power of hydrogen". Logarithmic Scale The pH scale is a l...