It’s Valentine’s Day this weekend, and love is in the air. We won’t even bother trying to understand the laws of human attraction. Instead let’s learn how atoms find each other with an examination of chemical bonds. We chat with Alan Rocke, Henry Eldridge Bourne Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University. Rocke enlightens us on past scientific theories on the ways that materials joined in molecular union. And we examine ozone. Until recently, humans did not fully understand our own powers of destruction when it came to this important molecule made up of three oxygen atoms. Chemical Agent: Free Radicals.

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Show Clock

00:00 Opening Credits
00:32 Introduction
01:05 Chemical Agent: Free Radicals
02:56 A conversation with Alan Rocke
08:19 Mystery Solved: The Ozone Hole
11:19 Closing Credits

Resources and References

Visit NASA’s website for information on its Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer.

Learn more about free radicals and how they affect your health here.

For a detailed examination of the political and scientific controversy on the ozone hole, read Stephen C. Zehr’s article, “Accounting for the Ozone Hole: Scientific Representations of an Anomaly and Prior Incorrect Claims in a Public Setting,” in the Sociological Quarterly, August 7, 2008

Credits

This show was written and researched by Hilary Domush and Eleanor Goldberg.

Our theme music is composed by Dave Kaufman. Additional music from the PodSafe Music Network. Additional music is: ”snowfall,” by rada, and  ”Sense of Snow,” by Andrew Gaskins.

This week’s image is from istock.com, provided by Nicole Cioe.

Happy holidays to all our listeners!

Thanks to J. J. Thomson’s plum pudding model of the atom, chemistry will be forever associated with 19th-century British Christmas traditions. His model was soon discarded, but it remains a staple of high school chemistry textbooks. On today’s episode, we introduce a new segment, “Tools of the Trade,” that looks at the  models, instruments, and artifacts—whether still in use or long discarded—that help scientists do their jobs. We also visit with Emilio Mignucci, one of the owners of Philadelphia’s famous DiBruno Brothers gourmet foods shop, to find out the story behind ham, that favorite holiday food. Element of the Week: Tin.

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Show Clock

00:00 Opening Credits
00:32 Introduction
01:10 Element of the Week: Tin
02:47 Tools of the Trade: Plum Pudding
05:41 Feature: Ham
10:47 Closing Credits

Resources and References

Learn more about J. J. Thomson and other atomic theorists at the Chemical Heritage Foundation’s Chemical Achievers site.
Explore historic recipes, like this one for plum pudding, at Michigan State University’s Feeding America online cookbook project.
We found about the history of toys from this charming site from the Hampshire County Council.
The ever-useful Web Elements site has basic information on all the elements, including tin.

Credits

Special thanks go to Hilary Domush, Anke Timmermann, and Eleanor Goldberg for researching the show.

Our theme music is composed by Dave Kaufman. Additional music from the PodSafe Music Network. Additional music is “Little Drummer Dude,” by Charlie Crowe, “Carol of the Bells,” by Doug Astrop, and  ”Joy-Kinda Holiday-ish,” by Charlie Crowe.

The illustration is a stylized model of J. J. Thomson’s plum pudding model. John Woodcock© Dorling Kindersley. (Please note this image will be removed in 30 days.)

Breaking through the glass ceiling can be tough, especially when you are a woman in a traditionally male-dominated field. This week’s episode takes a look at women in chemistry. First, we learn about the brave physicist after whom meitnerium is named. Then we talk with Donna Nelson, a chemistry professor and spokeswoman for women in the sciences. Finally, producer Catherine Girardeau shares an interview with her grandmother, a dietary researcher credited with changing the eating habits of Americans in the mid-20th century. Element of the Week: Meitnerium.

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Show Clock

00:00 Opening Credits
00:30 Introduction
01:19 Element of the Week: Meitnerium
03:21 A Conversation with Donna Nelson
07:30 Feature: The Career of Helen B. Brown
11:31 Quote: Abigail Adams
11:43 Closing Credits

Resources and References

Interested in learning more about women in the sciences? Check out Margaret Rossiter’s books on women scientists in America before and after 1940.
For more about meitnerium, visit Periodic-table.org.uk.
Check out Nelson’s diversity studies on women and minorities in the field of chemistry.

Credits

Special thanks go to Hilary Domush for researching the show.

Our theme music is composed by Dave Kaufman. Additional music from the PodSafe Music Network. Additional music is “Chopin is Dead,” by Adhesion, “The Shadow of Time,” by Little Red King, and “Bogalusa Strut,” by Sam Morgans Jazz Band.

This week’s image is of Dr. Helen Brown and Dr. Irvine Page of the Cleveland Clinic, 1962. Courtesy of the Cleveland Press Collection.

There are four fundamental qualities: time, length, mass, and temperature. All other units can be derived from them, but these four can’t be broken down any further. This week we focus on time—the measurement that orders our lives. Catalysts are something chemists use to speed up time; in other words, to make chemical reactions work faster. Ruthenium is an element that has recently become an important catalyst in organic chemistry. This week Chemistry in Your Cupboard explores the wonders of the pressure cooker. And finally, producer Eric Mack visits the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, to check out the world’s most accurate atomic clock (shown on the left). Element of the Week: Ruthenium.

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Show Clock

00:00     Opening Credits
00:32     Introduction
01:30     Element of the Week: Ruthenium
03:59     Chemistry in Your Cupboard: Pressure Cooker
06:20     The Atomic Clock
10:37     Quote: William Faulkner
10:51     Closing Credits

Resources and References

Check out the summer issue of Chemical Heritage for more information about green chemistry.
The 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded to Robert H. Grubbs, Yves Chauvin, and Richard R. Schrock.
Learn more about pressure cookers and their history.
More information about the NIST-F1 Cesium Fountain Atomic Clock.

Credits

This show was researched by Audra Wolfe.

Our theme music is composed by Dave Kaufman. Additional music was provided by the Podsafe Music Network. The music for the Element of the Week is “1 o’clock Martini Intro,” by Podcast Troubadour. After Chemistry in Your Cupboard is “The Wonder Clock,” by The Psycho Daisies. The music after the feature and under the quotation is “Tick Tock,” by Podcast Troubadour.

This week’s image is the NIST-F1 clock, which uses a fountain-like movement of cesium atoms to determine the length of the second so accurately that—if it were to run continuously—it would neither lose nor gain one second in 80 million years. Image copyright Geoffrey Wheeler Photography.