/oss/taxonomy/term/490/all en /oss/article/history/how-dynamite-spawned-nobel-prizes <p>Alfred Nobel wasn't in the best of health but he knew he wasn't dead. Yet, there was his obituary, prominently featured in the morning newspaper. To make matters worse, not only had the newspaper killed him off prematurely, it had described him as a man who "became rich by finding a way to kill more people faster than ever before." The French press service that provided the story had made a mistake. It was actually Alfred's older brother Ludvig who had died while vacationing in Cannes but a reporter had gotten the brothers mixed up.</p> Fri, 08 Oct 2021 17:47:24 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8893 at /oss /oss/article/history-news/national-bunsen-burner-day <p>March 31st was National Bunsen Burner Day. Bunsen (1811-1899) should be remembered. After all, the “Bunsen Burner” is a typical symbol of chemistry. But there is more to Bunsen than just a burner.</p> <p>Laboratory workers had long been plagued by sooty, hard-to-control flames and Bunsen of course knew that oxygen was necessary for combustion and that soot was the product of incomplete combustion. He therefore concluded that the secret to a clean flame lay in mixing the combustible gas with air in just the right proportion.</p> Thu, 14 Apr 2016 12:46:49 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2331 at /oss /oss/article/history-you-asked/what-causes-geyser-erupt <p>The science of geyser eruptions was worked out by none other than Robert Bunsen- of burner fame. Actually Bunsen did not invent the burner but did improve upon existing equipment by showing that mixing the combustible gas with just the right amount of air led to a high temperature non-luminous flame. Such a flame was very useful in the development of Bunsen’s most famous discovery, the spectroscope. In collaboration with physicist Gustav Kirchoff, Bunsen designed an instrument that would pass the light emitted from a sample heated by his burner through a prism.</p> Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:11:20 +0000 OSS 1668 at /oss /oss/article/did-you-know/do-they-really-pump-oxygen-vegas-casinos <p>I’m sure you’ve heard the myth that oxygen is pumped into casinos to give people more energy and keep them awake. This is, in fact, the enduring Vegas myth of all time. There’s no doubt that the casinos keep the air chilly to give that same effect, but there’s no mechanism actually pumping extra oxygen into the system. If this were to be true, a major problem could ensue – since pumping oxygen into a room would increase the flammability of the air.</p> Tue, 21 Feb 2017 04:36:46 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1498 at /oss