The invention:Adevice that provided the first direct evidence that the Sun runs on thermonuclear power and challenged existing models of the Sun. The people behind the invention: Raymond Davis, Jr. (1914- ), an American chemist John Norris Bahcall (1934- ), an American astrophysicist Missing Energy In 1871, Hermann von Helmholtz, the German physicist, anatomist, and physiologist, suggested that no ordinary chemical reaction could be responsible for the enormous energy output of the Sun. By the 1920’s, astrophysicists had realized that the energy radiated by the Sun must come from nuclear fusion, in which protons or nuclei combine to form larger nuclei and release energy.
The invention: The first commercially practical synthetic rubber, Neoprene gave a boost to polymer chemistry and the search for new materials. The people behind the invention: Wallace Hume Carothers (1896-1937), an American chemist Arnold Miller Collins (1899- ), an American chemist Elmer Keiser Bolton (1886-1968), an American chemist Julius Arthur Nieuwland (1879-1936), a Belgian American priest, botanist, and chemist Synthetic Rubber: A Mirage? The growing dependence of the industrialized nations upon elastomers (elastic substances) and the shortcomings of natural rubber motivated the twentieth century quest for rubber substitutes. By 1914
The invention: System of high-speed cooking that uses microwave radition to agitate liquid molecules to raise temperatures by friction. The people behind the invention: Percy L. Spencer (1894-1970), an American engineer Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894), a German physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879), a Scottish physicist The Nature of Microwaves Microwaves are electromagnetic waves, as are radio waves, X rays, and visible light. Water waves
Memory metal The invention: Known as nitinol, a metal alloy that returns to its original shape, after being deformed, when it is heated to the proper temperature. The person behind the invention: William Buehler (1923- ), an American metallurgist The Alloy with a Memory In 1960,William Buehler developed an alloy that consisted of 53 to 57 percent nickel (by weight) and the balance titanium. This alloy, which is called nitinol, turned out to have remarkable properties. Nitinol is a “memory metal,” which means that, given the proper conditions, objects made of nitinol can be restored to their original shapes even after they have been radically deformed. The return to the original shape
The invention: The first device used to measure the mass of atoms, which was found to be the result of the combination of isotopes. The people behind the invention: Francis William Aston (1877-1945), an English physicist who was awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Sir Joseph John Thomson (1856-1940), an English physicist William Prout (1785-1850), an English biochemist Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), an English physicist Same Element, Different Weights Isotopes are different forms of a chemical element that act similarly in chemical or physical reactions. Isotopes differ in two ways: They possess different atomic weights and different radioactive transformations. In 1803, John Dalton proposed a new atomic theory of chemistry that claimed that chemical elements in a compound combine by weight in whole number proportions to one another. By 1815, William Prout had taken Dalton’s hypothesis one step further and claimed that the atomic weights of elements were integral (the integers are the positive and negative whole numbers and zero) multiples
The invention: Early digital calculator designed to solve differential equations that was a forerunner of modern computers. The people behind the invention: Howard H. Aiken (1900-1973), Harvard University professor and architect of the Mark I Clair D. Lake (1888-1958), a senior engineer at IBM Francis E. Hamilton (1898-1972), an IBM engineer Benjamin M. Durfee (1897-1980), an IBM engineer The Human Computer The physical world can be described by means of mathematics. In principle, one can accurately describe nature down to the smallest detail.