Physical Sciences

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SIR FREDERICK ABEL (1827-1902), English chemist, was born in London on the 17th of July 1827. After studying chemistry for six years under A. W. von Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry (established in London in 1845), he became professor of chemistry at the Royal Military Academy in 1851, and three years later was appointed chemist to the War Department and chemical referee to the government. During his tenure of this office, which lasted until 1888, he carried out a large amount of work in connexion with the chemistry of explosives.

Queen Elizabeth I of England ascended to the throne in 1558. The last women of sole political power had been a Greek Egyptian Pharaoh named Cleopatra in the mid-1st century B.C. She reemerged in the 16th century as Elizabeth I. Her century is marked by the break away of Protestant churches from the authority of the Pope, whose Catholic authority had been instituted by the sword of the French King, Charlemagne, in the 8th century. Elizabeth was raised during intense religious strife between the Catholics and Protestants. She began her reign with rejections of marriage alliances with Spain, France and English nobles to rule as the Virgin Queen. As Queen she managed to pass a unification act that created a single Church of England that excluded papal authority. Elizabeth, however, seemed to be more enchanted with the arts encouraging the works of Shakespeare.

Unless otherwise stated, the biographies listed below are provided and listed with the kind permission of the The Nobel Foundation. If you know of any biographies of Chemists or scientists whose work has advanced chemistry, that we do not list, please inform us via our comments form.

This is the name of the journal which contains papers presented at the annual meetings of Dyes in History and Archaeology, formerly known as the Association of Researchers into Dyes in History and Archaeology

Foundation stone laid by the Prince of Wales on June 16, 1846, for the Royal College of Chemistry, with a close-up. The original building still exists, in Oxford Street, London, but is now the home of a shoe shop.
Sample of elemental potassium in the departmental archives, still lusterous more than 100 years after it was sealed in a glass tube. Original samples of metallic Sodium and Magnesium and gaseous Chlorine made by Humphrey Davy around 1806 can be seen at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, about two miles east of Imperial College. Samples of the other alkali metals (Rb, Cs) are suspected to exist at Heidelberg, in Germany where Bunsen worked. For a diagram of the 3D atomic structure of metallic potassium, click here.

The ashes of Marie Curie and her husband Pierre have now been laid to rest under the famous dome of the Panthéon, in Paris, alongside the author Victor Hugo, the politician Jean Jaurès and the Resistance fighter Jean Moulin. Through her discovery of radium, Marie Curie paved the way for nuclear physics and cancer therapy. Born of Polish parents, she was a woman of science and courage, compassionate yet stubbornly determined. Her research work was to cost her her life.

Architects of the periodic table
How did Lavoisier classify elements known in his time?
What are some Web sites and paper references on the history of the periodic table?
Where I can find information on Julius Lother Meyer?
Can you give me some biographical tidbits about Mendeleev?