The Watch Glass

The Watch Glass explores chemistry's quirky history through the 90-year archives of Chemical & Engineering News.

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Take the C&EN Redesign Quiz

The same great chemistry - a brand new look. To celebrate C&EN's recent redesign, we look back at some of our top stories. Test your knowledge on these key moments in history.

How well do you know your chemistry history? We’re celebrating our brand new design (preview it here) with a quiz. You could even win a drone!

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Happy Birthday to Dmitri Mendeleev, the architect of the periodic table, born on this day in 1834. Why did Mendeleev's table prevail over other versions? In a review from our archives of Eric R. Scerri's book The Periodic Table, James L. Marshall writes: In part, Mendeleev was so successful because he was the champion of propagating the periodic system, defending its validity and devoting time to its elaboration. But Scerri goes deeper; he suggests that Mendeleev’s advantage lay in his philosophical approach that allowed him to differentiate “simple substances” (Lavoisier’s isolable elements) from “basic, or abstract, substances” (unobservable, or property-bearing entities) and thus achieve a deeper understanding of just what the periodic table represents. 

Reviewing the Periodic Table: Book traces the historic and philosophic development of an icon of science

Chemical & Engineering News, November 12, 2007

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Chemist Albert Hofmann, who first synthesized LSD, was born today in 1906. Here's his account of the first trip:

I was seized by a peculiar sensation of vertigo and restlessness," he later wrote in a memoir titled "LSD-My Problem Child." "Objects as well as the shape of my associates in the laboratory appeared to undergo optical changes," he recounted. "With my eyes closed, fantastic pictures of extraordinary plasticity and intensive colour seemed to surge towards me. After two hours, this state gradually subsided, and I was able to eat dinner with a good appetite.”

Trip of a Century: Albert Hofmann, inventor of the mind-altering drug LSD, celebrates his 100th birthday

Chemical & Engineering News, February 27, 2006

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In honor of World Antibiotic Awareness Week, here’s a bit of penicillin history:

Few strokes of science have had as spectacular and immensely practical an impact as the development of penicillin, introduced to medicine in 1940. But the wonder antibiotic also has its problems, as anyone knows who has suffered an allergy or developed a resistance to it. In practice, new forms of the drug are constantly needed to circumvent the resistance in new bacterial strains.

In London last week for the Fifth International Symposium on the Chemistry of Natural Products, Dr. Ajay K. Bose of Stevens Institute of Technology outlined a total synthesis which promises to be a versatile, inexpensive route to new forms of the drug. Dr. Bose and fellow chemists at Stevens, Dr. Maghar S. Manhas and Gerald Spiegelman, have produced new penicillin structures by a synthetic scheme which starts with common commercial chemicals.

Synthesis Yields New Penicillins

Chemical & Engineering News, July 15, 1968

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This week we’re looking back at how the Internet changed chemistry: check out the full special issue, complete with a handy timeline. The word “Internet” first appeared in our pages in August 1988, in a story excerpted below. The next mention came a few months later--and naturally, it was about a virus.

Meanwhile, the Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced that it is planning to develop a new national network for research to replace its ARPANET, first demonstrated in 1969. The new network, the Defense Research Internet (DRI), folds into the overall national research network concept.  

...Besides its use to support DARPA research, DRI is intended to replace ARPANET as a test-bed for advanced networking concepts. The Defense Department points out that DARPA is working with other federal agencies to acquire a shared Research Internet Backbone rated at 45 million bits per second, and a Research Internet Gateway that will provide high-speed packet switching and connect DRI to other networks.

-James Krieger

Computer Network for Research Gains Support

Chemical & Engineering News, August 28, 1988

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Today is the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Read our immediate coverage from August 1945 in the archives:

The most closely guarded secret of World War II—development, and ultimately the use of atomic energy to destroy the fast-crumbling Japanese empire—was dramatically announced August 6 by President Truman.

In one of the most historic statements ever to emanate from the White House, the President disclosed certain of the details of the super-super-hush-hush story of all time—the life-and-death race of American, British, and Canadian scientists on the one hand, and German scientists on the other to harness the energy of the atom.

Chemical & Engineering News, August 10, 1945

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Today's the 46th anniversary of the ‪Apollo 11‬ Moon landing. Check out our 1969 special report on the mission:

HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON JULY 1969 A.D. WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND

In the predawn hours of July 21, some 240,000 miles from home, an American—Neil Armstrong—is scheduled to crawl out of a small, spidery-looking vehicle, descend a ladder running down one of the vehicle's four spindly legs, and step gingerly onto a totally alien surface. A simple ceremony—the unveiling of a plaque attached to a leg of the craft and bearing the above inscription—will mark this, man's first visit to an extraterrestrial body.

The epic journey of the 38-year-old Armstrong and his fellow Apollo 11 astronauts, Michael Collins and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr., will be the successful culmination of the most ambitious and challenging scientific and technological venture of all time. In the eight years since the late President John F. Kennedy first committed this nation to the goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth "by the end of the decade," a staggering $24 billion has gone into the effort. The far greater taxation, however, has been on the hundreds of thousands of scientists and engineers whose genius and dedication have enabled man to stand on the threshold of this, perhaps his greatest adventure.

Apollo 11

Chemical & Engineering News, July 14, 1969

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70 years ago today, the first atomic bomb was tested in the New Mexico desert. Here is how Major Gen. Leslie Groves described it in our 1945 coverage: “The effect could well be called unprecedented, magnificent, beautiful, stupendous, and terrifying. No man-made phenomena of such tremendous power had ever occurred before. The lighting effect beggared description. The whole country was lighted by a searing light with the intensity many times that of the mid-day sun. It was golden, purple, violet, gray, and blue. It lighted every peak, crevice, and ridge of the nearby mountain ridge with a clarity and beauty that cannot be described, but must be seen to be imagined. It was that beauty the great poets dream about but describe most poorly and inadequately. Thirty seconds after the explosion, first came the air blast, pressing hard against the people and things, followed almost immediately by a strong, sustained, awesome roar. Words are an inadequate tool for the job of acquainting those not present with the physical, mental, and psychological effect. It had to be witnessed to be realized." 

Tested in New Mexico: First test of atomic bomb carried out under dramatic conditions before dawn in desolate section of the New Mexican desert. Tension among scientists and others present was tremendous as the detonation deadline approached.

Chemical & Engineering News, August 10, 1945

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Oh, my chemical friends, do you remember wading through qualitative analysis by following a so-called routine analysis? You had no idea of solubility product and of course you should not have had at that early stage of the game. Years later you wondered if the Professor had known anything about it, or even heard of it. Whoever thought of teaching qualitative analysis with quantitative limitations? Not back in those days! How those "unknowns'' thrilled and dazzled you when the instructor came out of his inner laboratory where students are strictly forbidden to tread, to hand to you the mysteriously colored solution—the "unknown." The kind and venerable Professor with much grace and charm marks into his little black book the code formula K2Fe, which informs him that another student has received an "unknown"— the solution of chosen radicals. What a pity, for does not that solution contain all the known elements? Yes, what a pity. The serious-minded young student returns to his laboratory bench to undertake the task of determining the solution of that synthetic "unknown." Could he be aware of the fact that the dear old Professor could not analyze that solution by the methods which the student must so carefully follow?

Roy S. Hanslick, from Emanations: Death to the Qualitative ‘Unknowns’’ (with apologies to all instructors of qualitative analysis)

Chemical & Engineering News, June 20, 1935

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Chemist Barbara L. Belmont (left) and her wife, Rochelle Diamond, participated in a symposium on LGBT issues in the workplace during the 2011 spring ACS national meeting in Anaheim, Calif.

As the U.S. Supreme Court rules for #marriageequality across the country, we’re revisiting Linda Wang’s 2011 feature, “Coming Out in the Chemical Sciences.”

When people notice the wedding band on Barbara L. Belmont’s ring finger and ask her about her husband, Belmont doesn’t hesitate. “My wife,” she corrects them.

Since revealing her sexual orientation as a lesbian more than 25 years ago, Belmont, who is a chemist at a small analytical company in Southern California, is used to these types of exchanges. “I pretend that it’s no big deal, and I just keep talking,” she says. “But I’m acutely aware that it is a big deal. I just revealed something to this person that might cause them to change their opinion about me.”

-Linda Wang

Coming Out In The Chemical Sciences: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender chemists encounter workplace struggles even as employers strive to be more inclusive

Chemical & Engineering News, May 23, 2011

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Scientists are on the verge of a major breakthrough in hepatitis research that could lead to isolation and characterization of the virus that causes serum hepatitis and ultimately to development of a hepatitis vaccine.

Until now, scientists have been stymied in their efforts to find an animal model, other than man, in which the hepatitis virus could be grown and studied. Traditionally, an animal model has been a vital prerequisite for vaccine development. Now, three groups of scientists working independently have succeeded in infecting nonhuman primates with serum hepatitis.  

-Madeleine Jacobs  

Hepatitis Research Nears Breakthrough: Scientists expect soon to isolate and characterize the virus that causes serum hepatitis and ultimately to develop a hepatitis vaccine  

Chemical & Engineering News, August 14, 1972

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A major breakthrough in the search for a nonaddicting narcotic antagonist came in 1960 when Dr. Mozes Judah Lewenstein synthesized naloxone (N-allyl-7,8-dihydro-14-hydroxynormorphinone). In 1961 Dr. Harold Blumberg and his associates at Endo Laboratories, now a subsidiary of Du Pont, discovered that naloxone is a potent narcotic antagonist in animals, about 10 to 20 times as active as nalorphine. Later, other scientists showed that naloxone is a potent narcotic antagonist in man.

Unlike previous antagonists, naloxone not only counteracts the effects of narcotics, but also counteracts agonist actions or side effects of narcotic antagonist analgesics. And it has little or no analgesic action of its own. It is effective in counteracting various narcotics, but is ineffective against depressants such as barbiturates. Its principal commercial use has been as an antidote for overdose of narcotics. Endo, which developed naloxone during the 1960's, sells it for this purpose as Narcan.  

Narcotic Antagonists Fight Addiction, Abuse: Research progress involves treatment of addicts, longer lasting and potent nonaddictive antagonists, long-acting dosage forms

Chemical & Engineering News, July 3, 1972

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An assembly of Corning’s iconic Pyrex lab glassware (top, courtesy of Corning). Pyrex is used to ensure railway signal lantern against failure in rain and snow (bottom, C&EN Archives, 1943).

Happy 100th birthday, Pyrex! This week, we’re celebrating with a story that chronicles the history of the iconic glassware. From our archives, here’s one account of how it all began:

The glasses now known under the trademark "Pyrex" had their origin in an effort to make impossible the failure of the glass globe in a lighted railroad signal lantern exposed to rain or snow. The glass first developed had low thermal expansion and was entirely satisfactory for the purpose. Its freak composition, however, resulted in slow but complete solubility in water and its field of application was therefore limited. Only after the traditional seven years of constant research in Corning Glass Works laboratories was a glass highly resistant both to chemical attack and to thermal shock ready for the market. Even then years of unprofitable manufacture followed, caused by difficulties incident to the high temperatures required for melting and working the new material.

Evidence is plentiful that the chief beneficiary of such a development is the average citizen of the United States. The majority of American housewives today are using clean, transparent Pyrex ware in oven and on top of stove, for coffee brewing and for baby nursing. On the basis of the National Bureau of Standards reports on its superiority the laboratory man long ago substituted it for imported glassware. Hundreds of miles of Pyrex pipe line are giving service with quantities of other Pyrex equipment in chemical manufacturing plants. 

Action on the American Chemical Front: Development of Pyrex Glassware

Chemical & Engineering News, March 10, 1943

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Polaris pop-up. Steel flasks, like the one shown above, will provide a blast of compressed air to boost the Polaris missile from its submarine launching pad to the surface of the water. There, the missile's own engine will take over to achieve the target. A battery of 16 of the 4-foot diameter spheres, built by Lukens Steel Co. to withstand pressures of 7000 p.s.i., is installed on the George Washington, ready for testing. Lower photo shows technicians working on instrument sections of the Polaris at Lockheed, Sunnyvale, Calif. Goal is to produce an operational missile later this year.

Chemical & Engineering News, March 28, 1960

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Yesterday, the American Chemical Society designated the “Keeling Curve” as a National Historic Chemical Landmark. It’s named after the late geochemist Charles D. Keeling, who started measuring atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory in 1958. The measurements have continued to this day, creating a long-term record of rising atmospheric CO2 levels. “This iconic curve has become both a tool and a symbol for studies of the human impact on global climate change,” Victoria Gilman wrote in C&EN’s 2005 obituary of Keeling.

As far as we can tell, the Keeling Curve first appeared in our pages in 1977, when it was just 19 years young:

On Oct. 4, the 20th anniversary of man's first orbital view of spaceship Earth, a press release issued by the Commerce Department's National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration went into the mails carrying the headline, "NOAA's Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Monitors Show Global Increase, Raise Questions."

NOAA reported that carbon dioxide readings taken at a measuring station at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, showed a 5% rise— from 314 ppm to 330 ppm—between 1958, when measurements began, and 1976. Readings at four other NOAA sites around the world show the same trends.  

NOAA's news is part of a drama now beginning to unfold as perhaps the fundamental science policy issue for the next decade. For if what many scientists fear is correct—that atmospheric carbon dioxide generated by the burning of fossil fuels is growing and accelerating—then the world could be in for drastic climatic shifts and thus changes not only in the balance of military and economic power but in billions of individual lives.

-Wil Lepkowski

Carbon dioxide: A Problem of Producing Usable Data: Possible effects of carbon dioxide on the weather are not only a research but an information challenge—particularly communicating meaningfully with nonscientist decision makers

Chemical & Engineering News, October 17, 1977

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Happy Earth Day! Here’s our coverage of the first Earth Day from 1970.

Chemical Firms Play Earth Day Roles

And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat its fruit, and its goodness, but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination. Jeremiah, 2:7

Millions of people were expected to participate in protests against their polluted heritage as the much heralded and politically popular environmental movement picked up steam last week and culminated Wednesday in Earth Day. Across the nation, politicians eagerly preached the perils of pollution at Earth Day rallies, environmentalists warned of impending doom, industry spokesmen informed community groups of policies, colleges and universities sponsored teach-ins on various aspects of ecology, and civic groups focused their attention on local pollution problems.

“Environment is the most beautiful issue at the dance and everyone wants to waltz with it,” says Denis Hayes, the 25-year-old national coordinator of Washington-based Environmental Action, the nearest thing to a clearinghouse for Earth Day. Early in the week, Mr. Hayes estimated that some 12,000 public schools, 2000 colleges and universities, and 2000 community groups would be involved in Earth Week activities. 

Long considered by the public to be at the top of the list of polluters, many chemical companies sought to ameliorate public opinion through participation in the week-long activities. In the Midwest the most active chemical company was Dow Chemical. Some 40 Dow people were slated to speak at college, high school, and civic teach-ins. In a prelude to Earth Week, Dow Chemical board chairman Carl Gerstacker told participants at the Pittsburgh Chemical Day dinner that he sees “the environmental imperative as a positive opportunity, not as a negative factor for the chemical industry.” Meanwhile, a protest march on Dow’s New York City offices fizzled Monday in a cold drizzling rain when only 12 people showed up.

Read more:

Chemical & Engineering News, April 27, 1970

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“Environment is the most beautiful issue at the dance and everyone wants to waltz with it,” says Denis Hayes, the 25-year-old national coordinator of Washington-based Environmental Action, the nearest thing to a clearinghouse for Earth Day. 

Looking back at the first Earth Day, 45 years ago:

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Oil floating in the ocean from the BP oil spill is captured in a plastic bag just off the coast of Louisiana (Reuters/Carlos Barria/Newscom). Five years after the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a look back at our coverage:

On April 20, less than a month after President Barack Obama announced a sweeping new federal program to promote offshore oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, the U.S. was hit with what has become the biggest oil spill in its history.

On that Tuesday night, 52 miles offshore of Louisiana in nearly 5,000 feet of water, BP’s Deepwater Horizon exploratory drilling rig was closing down its operations. After months of drilling, it had reached a reservoir 15,000 feet beneath the seafloor, found oil and gas, and was in the process of capping the borehole with cement, sealing it for later commercial production, when a massive blast rocked the rig.

The exact cause of the blowout, fire, and explosion will be determined in the months ahead, but government and industry experts speculate that a cap of cement and drilling mud—used to seal the exploratory well—gave way to the pressure of oil and gas pushing up from the reservoir. The high-pressured oil and gas then blasted to the ocean surface, ignited, set the rig ablaze, and killed 11 workers.

-Jeff Johnson and Michael Torrice

BP's Ever-Growing Oil Spill: Environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico Reveals U.S.'s inability to plan for, control, and clean up oil spills in deep waters

Chemical & Engineering News, June 14, 2010