The Most Famous Chemists Ten People who Changed Chemistry and the Way we Live

The Most Famous Chemists Ten People who Changed Chemistry and the Way we Live We Owe a lot to These Incredible Chemists ChaptersThe Founders of Modern Chemistry: Famous Chemists from the Eighteenth CenturyPerhaps the most Famous Chemist of all: Dmitri MendeleevRenowned Chemical Scientists: the Nineteenth CenturyTwentieth-Century Chemists You Should KnowOver the last two thousand years, we’ve come a long way in science. We no longer think that everything is made of water or fire, for example, or that the human body is composed of only four things. From this subject â€" one you might sigh about in the classroom, or get frustrated at before exams â€" came some of the most important developments of the human race.The field of chemistry has contributed to this development, and this discipline has given us some of our basic knowledge of the world. All these things we might now take for granted: that the world is made of tiny little particles, that you can burn things like coal to get heat. Not only that, but chemistry has revolutionised the way we live our lives â€" offering us technologies from radiation to solar panels to the dye in jeans. If a lot of people think that chemistry is for the academic, the professor, or the weirdo scientist in his big round glasses and white lab coat, it is important to remember that it is so much more than that. And those weirdo chemists changed your life in more ways than you probably realise.In this article, we’ll look at ten of the most important scientists in the history of chemistry. You can decide just how crucial their discoveries have been.chemistry tutor guide your learning!Alfred NobelYou know this name too. This chemist and businessman, Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), is known in all fields, due to the Nobel Prize â€" the award for excellence in literature, the sciences, and economics.But this man’s biography is not as nice as you might expect. His professional life was in selling weapons â€" explosives, mainly â€" and to chemistry, his contributions were generally in inventing the explosives that he sold.Nobel’s main achievement was the invention of dynamite. Intended as a tool for construction â€" for roads, industry, and canals â€" this chemical discovery was to have a sordid history, as we know.In his later years, as the story goes, he felt a little guilty about producing one of the most destructive chemical substances ever devised. He donated his massive fortune to inaugurating the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Physics, Medicine, and Peace.Find out what the essential equipment you need in your chemistry set is.Twentieth-Century Chemists You Should KnowIn the twentieth century, the subject of chemistry blossoms even further, branching out into different sub-disciplines and becoming the subject we know today.Linus PaulingLinus Carl Pauling (1901-1994) has often been hailed as one of the most important scientists ever to have lived â€" and if you haven’t heard of him, now is your opportunity.Pauling essentially invented, single-handedly, what we now know as molecular biology â€" the study of things like proteins and acids in the body â€" and quantum chemistry, or the study of the relationships between the smallest things in the atom. And if, at school, you’ve heard of covalent or ionic bonds â€" you have Pauling to thank for understanding them too. Learn more about chemical bonds in our piece on basic chemistry concepts.As a lifelong activist for nuclear disarmament, Pauling was not only a Nobel Laureate in chemistry, but he won the Nobel Peace Prize too. Finally, his research into proteins also inspired the work of Francis Crick and James Watson, who, without Pauling, would never have discovered the structure of DNA.Dorothy HodgkinNow time for a chemist that is often overlooked in the histories of famous scientists: Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994). Another Nobel Laureate, Hodgkin is the only British woman to have ever won a Nobel Prize in a science. Hodgkin’s main discoveries were in the structure of molecules and proteins in the body, and her research had a massive impact on biochemistry and medicine. She and her team worked on the structure of penicillin, vitamin B12, and, importantly, insulin. Her career was notable for her advocating for the importance of knowledge of insulin, too â€" for its central role in diabetes.My online chemistry tutor introduced me to her work; she is a truly admirable scientist!Kathleen LonsdaleAnd another twentieth-century chemist that deserves to be more famous than she is: Kathleen Lonsdale (1903-1971). As a scientist, she was one of the first women to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and was awarded numerous titles for her important work in crystallography, or the study of the arrangement of atoms in crystals.Alongside her work on diamonds, and her profoundly influential research into the structure of benzene, she was an advocate for pacifism and an inspiration for women scientists across the world.Still hungry for chemistry? We have an all you need to know about chemistry piece just for you!