Chemistry experiments

3 Chemistry Experiments That Changed the World



Chemistry is the study of matter – stuff, and how it interacts with other stuff. Even though chemistry doesn’t make a lot of news these days, chemists are making discoveries that change lives all the time. If Hank had to narrow down all of chemistry’s flashes of brilliance into the most awesome experiments in history, he would narrow it down to these three.

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References for this episode can be found in the Google document here: http://dft.ba/-2-Xi

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Comments

24 responses to “3 Chemistry Experiments That Changed the World”

  1. Zes Avatar
    Zes

    wrg

    Reply
  2. SaCeuran Avatar
    SaCeuran

    Salicylic acid (the active ingredient in many acme treatments today) is what is found in willow bark and has been proved to be damaging to stomach tissues; acteylsalicylic acid is what we use as aspirin since it has fewer damaging effects in healthy people. People knew of and tried to use synthetic salicylic acid for pain relief before Gerhardt, but the complications were too severe. His invention was to create a form that minimized the consequences while maximizing benefits.

    Reply
  3. Justin Gries Avatar
    Justin Gries

    "What's this new gas that I have here? Don't know! I should breathe it in and see what happens!": I don't expect that Chemistry was known for the long lifespans of its students at this point in history.

    Reply
  4. tarjei99 Avatar
    tarjei99

    Fire and how to make it appears to be a bunch of useless inventions.

    Reply
  5. uma sankar Avatar
    uma sankar

    In India, we have Vedas and Siva Agamas, wherein it has been clearly and logically proved that all the things in the Universe are included in three categories; first The super being with wholesome knowledge, second living beings (all life forms) which can know when informed and third innanimate things (visible forms originated from the invisible matter known as "Mayai"). All the three being boundless, cannot be proved by science, since science with all its inanimate tools can help to analyse inanimate things only ever and ever, and cannot go beyond. Yet I love scientific developments, as it helps to establish what we have been taught.

    Reply
  6. Max Pan Avatar
    Max Pan

    Before the discovery of oxygen what were people breathing?

    Reply
  7. Gabriel Silva Avatar
    Gabriel Silva

    Fire is not an element ? O.o

    Reply
  8. Furbloke Avatar
    Furbloke

    http://puu.sh/x6XCo/29a9270416.jpg Hank you're uh.. Lookin a little old.. grey..

    Reply
  9. Sarah Hogg Avatar
    Sarah Hogg

    So oooooo penicillin…… Is that still a thing

    Reply
  10. Kate Sutton Avatar
    Kate Sutton

    When he talked about Joseph Priestley puffing the oxygen and breathing easy it made me think of an inhaler (but I've never used one, nor do I know what is in them or how they work or anything about the history of inhales, just that they help people with asthma breath when it gets particularly difficult, so please do forgive any ignorance I might have toward the subject) and that's kind of how I'd imagined an inhaler might make one feel after using it, so maybe he was ahead of his time?

    Reply
  11. Chris C Avatar
    Chris C

    A clergyman named Priestley… I'll go with that sure.

    Reply
  12. HazaQuiroz Avatar
    HazaQuiroz

    The references link is broken…

    Reply
  13. HeyWhoStoleMyCookie Avatar
    HeyWhoStoleMyCookie

    The references link is just a link to a 'buy instagram followers' website… Not cool :/

    Reply
  14. james Cardin Avatar
    james Cardin

    When you describe our bodies as "Just a bunch of chemical reactions that can be set straight", the olden times medical theory of "A balance of humours" actually really makes a lot of sense. Or, at least, you can TOTALLY forgive them for these misled notions. In a strange way, it makes total sense, and when they DID have some positive results, they had no reason to doubt their methods.

    Reply
  15. Jeroen Metselaar Avatar
    Jeroen Metselaar

    I would add the Wöhler synthesis as the first proof that " living" and " dead" chemistry are the same thing and the beginning of the end for vitalism.

    Reply
  16. Johnny ontheSpot Avatar
    Johnny ontheSpot

    There isn't very much that I watch online anymore that actually makes me say "Wow" out loud …
    You guys succeed at that surprisingly often.
    Thanks for all that you people do to make us non-nerds a little bit smarter.

    Reply
  17. Evelynn Whitebridge Avatar
    Evelynn Whitebridge

    Physics spawned the study of chemistry, no? I think it would be more apt to say that one needs physics to even be able to do chemistry

    I've always visualized it this way anyway: Physics -> Chemistry, (Geology, Astronomy) -> Biology

    Reply
  18. AnimationArts! Avatar
    AnimationArts!

    Man, with that bigger budget your audio quality got way better.

    Reply
  19. the bobo Avatar
    the bobo

    what about LSD

    Reply
  20. Alex Wang Avatar
    Alex Wang

    milk and vinegar

    Reply
  21. christopher Rossman Avatar
    christopher Rossman

    that was good

    Reply
  22. Giacomo Catanzaro Avatar
    Giacomo Catanzaro

    Dude…Hank looks like a ghost in this video.  Maybe is ectoplasmic overexposure is a chemistry experiment that changed the world.  In a good way.

    Reply
  23. Magnus Hansson Avatar
    Magnus Hansson

    How about the Haber-Bosch process?

    It allowed Germany to produce synthetic gunpowder/explosives (domnestic supply at onset of WWI would only have lasted for a year). Also, it's a prerequisite for synthetic fertilizer, thus responsible for feedling like 50% of the planet.

    Important discovery, no?

    Reply
  24. Helen Rowlett-Barbu Avatar
    Helen Rowlett-Barbu

    Really no Fritz Haber? Inventor of synthetic fertilizer (which allowed crop production to increase and the human population to increase exponentially, and still hasn't stopped increasing to this day.

    Reply

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