Antoine Lavoisier : The Father Of Modern Chemistry

His first life accomplishment was about a book. At age twenty-seven, he released a five hundred page textbook called Organic Chemistry. The book won Demidov prize and put him in front of Russian chemical education. In 1867, at age thirty three, he was awarded Chair of General Chemistry. Everybody admired that he changed a difficult branch of chemistry into a logical science. His nomination for the 1906 Nobel Prize failed by one vote. In 1876, he was officially named Professor of General Chemistry at the University of St. Perersburg. After resigning in 1890, he was officially named Director of Bureau of Weights where he stayed until his death in 1907. In 1905, the British Royal Society gave him the Copley Medal, its highest honor! Also in 1905, he was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Mendeleev’s law was soon discovered after those three elements were found. Not surprisingly, he was remembered as a brilliant scholar, an inspiring teacher, and an amazing writer. He next began a book for organic chemistry. His books, Principles of Chemistry, with two volumes, became standard until the early 20th

Lisa Jardine’s Ingenious Pursuits: Building the Scientific Revolution provides a comprehensive breakdown of the discoveries that defined the Scientific Revolution and the history behind them. The story of the scientific revolution truly begins with a separation between the Catholic Church and the denizens of Europe brought on by the Protestant Reformation. This separation led directly to the questioning of the church and what they deemed to be true. The growing suspicion of the church applied not only to the politics and religious views but the scientific “facts” the church was built upon. The suspicion of these scientific facts quickly grew to an open challenging of these facts, The Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution is something we have all studied in our grade school years and the discoveries of people such as Isaac Newton and Galileo Galilei are well documented and arguably common knowledge but Jardine’s book Ingenious Pursuits encapsulates the scientific revolution in a new light. Jardine accomplishes this by telling the stories of some of the greatest achievements of the Scientific Revolution. These stories reveal the collaborations of some of histories most brilliant minds as well as the secrecy amongst them and uncover the motives that fueled many of these accomplishments.

Louis Pasteur was born in 1822 and he was the only son out of three sisters. As a child he lived in Dole near the Swiss border. His father served in the Peninsular War, but returned to a family owned tanning business. “Louis did quite well in school growing up, which was uncommon during this era (Miller, 2002).” Upon his graduation he went to Paris where he studied chemistry with 700 other students.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the work of many scientists was affected by political bodies. For example, Louis XIV supported the building of new academies as a sign of

Throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Europeans’ world view was affected by several scientific breakthroughs. This period of achievement is referred to as the Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution was not a single event, rather a series of events with contributions from many people. Some of its main causes include individuals, the book written by Nicolaus Copernicus, and the loss of power by the Catholic church. During this period, scholars made lasting contributions that continue to affect the modern world.

Johannes Kepler was a famous mathematician, best known for his works on the planetary laws of motion. During his lifetime he faced many oppositions to his work, Kepler was known to be a very quiet tempered man with little interest but his research, which was often impeded. Kepler’s personal religious beliefs were what caused him the most trouble in his professional and personal life. He was denied positions and friendships due to his Protestant beliefs; finding enemies in the Catholic church and in the Lutheran for his sympathy towards Calvinists. In addition, Kepler’s family life was increasingly problematic. His first wife often prevented him from getting work done, and two of his sons died. Finally, Kepler’s mother was accused of being a witch, this greatly affected Kepler, as he had to take time out of his research to help prove her innocence on the matter.

Here I focus on his life as a scientist and inventor, touching briefly on his other

John Dalton was a British chemist born in 1766 in England to a Quaker family. His family was poor and he was homeschooled until at age 15. He and his brother ran a school. He had the biggest effect on the atom. He was the first to bring back the idea of an atom and prove it. One reason Dalton’s discovery is important is without it

One of the most prolific eras in our world’s history is the Scientific Revolution. During this time men began to think outside the realm of possibility and delved themselves deep into the exciting unknown world of science. The innovative minds of these people churned out inventions like gunpowder and the printing press, as well as, inventive new ways of thinking like the scientific method. Aside from the inventors and innovators, there were also the publicists and writers without whom no one would know or understand the new ideas of the time. One such person was Margaret Cavendish who was born and raised in England. She received the same education that a lady during her time did. However, due to her husband, Sir Charles Cavendish, she was exposed to the world of science. The subject intrigued her so much that she ended up publishing her own theory on atoms. Though her atomic theory contains many scientific Renaissance ideals, it is still seen as a major contribution of thought during the Scientific Revolution.

For example, Galileo, an Italian scientist made one of the first telescopes. He observed the sky and rightly believed that he was able to confirm Copernicus’s theory(Alchin); he turned the telescope to the Heavenly bodies and observed that the sun moves on its axis, Venus shows phases according to her position with the sun. He also believed that Jupiter had revolving moons or satellites that moved around it, and the Milky Way was composed of a multitude of separate stars(Alchin). Another scientist was Kepler; he worked out the mathematical laws that govern movements of planets, and made it clear that the planets revolve around the sun in an elliptical orbit instead of circular orbits. His investigations later led to the discovery of the principle of gravity(Alchin). Vesalius was a scientist, who gave the world the first careful description of the Human Body based on actual dissections and was the founder of human anatomy, which has become an important part of health in today’s society(Alchin). Additionally, Harvey was an Englishman who observed living animals and announced the discovery of circulation of blood in the body. He founded Human Physiology, which greatly impacts us even today(Alchin). Furthermore, magnetism was a large discovery that had a big impact during the Elizabethan Era and times to

Oxygen is a highly reactive nonmetal element that is a colorless, odorless and tasteless gas. It is the third most abundant element in the universe by mass, makes up 2/3 of the mass of a human body and about one-fifth of Earth’s atmosphere (Helmenstine, 2016). The discovery of this magnificence element can not credited to solely one individual. Both Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier should receive credit for proposing new ideology and experimental findings that lead to the discovery of oxygen.

Marie Sophie Germain was born in Rue Saint-Denis, Paris, France, on April 1, 1776, in a wealthy Persian family. Ambroise-Francois, her father, was a rich man who was assumed to be a wealthy silk merchant, or a goldsmith. Ambroise was elected as the representative of the bourgeoisie to Etats-Généraux en 1789, which had involved his daughter to witness many discussions with her father and his peers. When she was 13, The French Revolution broke out. Enforcing her to remain indoors,as she turned to her father’s library to take away her boredom where she became interested in mathematics. Pouring her time into each book as she had taught herself Latin and Greek, allowing her to read other famous mathematicians work such as Isaac Newton.

Henri Becquerel was a Physicist, while doing some research, he found radioactivity. Henri was born in Paris in 1853, he was born into a family of scientists. Alexander Becquerel, Aurelie Quenard, and Antoine Céasar were his family. His father and grandfather were scientists as well. His father was an expert on solar radiation and his grandfather had invented an electrolytic method for extracting metals from their ores. He learned about physics and chemistry through his university and joined the government department in 1874.

Alchemy is considered the precursor to modern chemistry. When you think of chemistry, usually you think of an exact science; something very meticulous. Truthfully, it is. To be accurate and to obtain precise and desired results, it must be accurate. Alchemy, however, was not an exact science, it was a primitive approach to the elements and usually they looked to a deity to actually initiate chemical reactions. Thus we separated them, but for good reason. In today's time we us instruments to give us exactness and precision that mankind had formerly ignored. Throughout time you will see that mankind has used chemistry to solve its most complex of problems and build a world that 7 billion people have come to know as home.

Dalton was the son of a Quaker weaver. When only 12 he took charge of