Carbon footprint

 Carbon footprint

The carbon footprint shows how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases a person produces in everyday life.  It measures the amount of fossil fuels and electricity someone uses up as well as the carbon footprint of the products they buy.

When we use our cars or heat our homes with oil or natural gas, carbon dioxide and various other gases are set free.  These emissions lead to a denser atmosphere and global warming.

You can measure your carbon footprint by using a calculator that you can find on various websites. It shows you in which way your living habits damage the environment. The carbon footprint usually measured in tons of CO2 per year. In America for example, every citizen produces about 28 tons of carbon dioxide and other dangerous gases a year, in Great Britain the amount is about 10 tons.

 How to reduce your carbon footprint

There are many actions you can take to reduce your carbon footprint.

The way we travel, for example, has a major impact on our environment. Use your bike or walk for short distances. Public transport is a way of getting to places without putting a burden on the environment. If you use your car see to it that it is maintained correctly and that it does not burn more fuel than it should.

Buying local food is also a way of curbing emissions into the atmosphere. Many environmental experts, however, argue that it often saves energy to buy food that is produced naturally in faraway places than consuming food grown locally in greenhouses.

In your home you can contribute to saving energy by turning off lights if you don’t need them or by avoiding the use of air conditioners, which contribute a lot to global warming and emit CFCs that destroy the ozone layer. Electrical appliances can save energy if you set them to standby mode.

Recycling plastic, glass and paper can also reduce your carbon footprint drastically.

It is also vital to persuade others to take the same steps that you do. Only if we concentrate on reducing carbon emissions together can we hope to make our environment better.

 

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Carbon Dioxide

 

Carbon Dioxide

Carbon dioxide is a compound in which two oxygen atoms are connected to a carbon atom. At normal temperatures it is a colourless gas that exists naturally in the Earth’s atmosphere. The air that we breathe has about 0.03% of carbon dioxide in it.

Carbon dioxide is an important part of the carbon cycle and essential for life on Earth.  Without it temperatures on our planet would be very low.

Plants use the sunlight and take up the CO2 in the atmosphere to produce energy and oxygen. This process is called photosynthesis.

The gas is also produced when fossil fuels are burned. Carbon dioxide that has been stored for millions of years in coal, oil and natural gas is set free. Living creatures produce carbon dioxide when they breathe out. It is emitted from volcanoes and hot springs. Deforestation sets carbon that is stored in trees free.

Carbon dioxide is an important greenhouse gas. Light that enters the atmosphere it is converted to heat. Higher amounts of CO2 make the atmosphere denser and keep it from getting out. CO2 is a gas that is highly responsible for global warming. Since the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere has risen by 40%.

Throughout the centuries carbon dioxide has been in balance. Now more carbon dioxide is being produced than can be absorbed by nature.

Uses of Carbon Dioxide

Carbon dioxide is used in various industries to produce food, chemicals and oil products. It is especially common as a food additive and is added to beverages to give fizz to sparkling wine and water. It is also responsible for a beer’s foam.

As a pressurized gas carbon dioxide is used in fire extinguishers because it does not burn. Put in cartridges it can be used to inflate bike tires. In its solid form CO2 is called dry ice. It is used for cooling fresh food or ice cream. Liquid carbon dioxide is needed to remove caffeine from coffee

Carbon dioxide in oceans

Oceans are carbon sinks. They absorb more than 25% of all the carbon dioxide that people emit into the atmosphere. As a result, the ocean’s water is becoming more acidic. This change affects the food chain and all sea organisms.

Carbon dioxide poisoning

Although carbon dioxide is not poisonous in normal amounts it can kill you if there is more than 10% in the air. High concentrations can lead to dizziness, bad sight, breathing problems as well as a high blood pressure and an increased heart beat. High levels of CO2 occur when there is not enough fresh air in a room.

Important Elements

 Important Elements

Hydrogen

The hydrogen atom is the smallest that we know and it has a very simple structure: one proton with a positive charge and one electron with a negative charge.

Hydrogen occurs as a gas that you can’t see and can’t smell. It is about 14 times lighter than air. When you combine two atoms of hydrogen with one atom of oxygen you get a water molecule H 2O. Like nitrogen, hydrogen can also be condensed to a liquid that freezes at – 259°C (-434°F) and boils at -252°C (-423°F)

Hydrogen is one of the most common elements in our universe. The sun and many stars are made of hydrogen. It can also be found in the earth’s crust. Hydrogen is in many compounds of animals and plants.

Hydrocarbons are compounds that only have hydrogen and carbon in them, like petroleum, natural gas or plastic.

Hydrogen has many uses. When two hydrogen atoms get together they form a molecule and give off a lot of heat. That’s why, together with oxygen, hydrogen makes a good fuel. It, for example, powers the engines of space rockets. Power plants use hydrogen to produce energy. There are even cars that run on hydrogen fuel. When you add hydrogen to coal you can make petrol.

Helium

Helium is a light, colourless gas that you can’t smell. It belongs to the group of noble gases because you cannot combine it with other elements. It has two protons and two neutrons.

Like hydrogen, we can find helium everywhere in our universe. On Earth, helium can be found in natural gas and in the atmosphere. It is so light that it rises and escapes into the atmosphere.

Helium is used to fill balloons. They can rise very high because helium is lighter than air. It is also safer than hydrogen because it does not burn.

People who suffer from asthma sometime inhale helium and oxygen because helium can enter the lungs more easily.

Nitrogen

Nitrogen is a colourless gas that you can’t smell. It makes up about 78 % of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Nitrogen’s chemical symbol is N. Its atomic number is 7 and its mass is 14. Nitrogen gas has two atoms bonded together to form a molecule. The gas can be made into a liquid that freezes at -209° and boils at 195 ° C.

All plants and animals must have nitrogen to live. It is part of all amino acids. Plants produce these acids themselves, animals only produce some of them and get the rest by eating other animals and plants,

Nitrogen is also used as a fertilizer, which plants need to grow.

Iron

Iron is a silvery, white metal that you can find in rocks. Its chemical symbol is Fe, for ferrum. It has 26 protons and a mass of 56.

The industry gets pure iron out of ore that is melted at a high temperature about 1,500 ° C.

All plants, animals and human beings need iron. Most iron in our body is in the red blood cells where it helps to form haemoglobin. Haemoglobin carries oxygen to all parts of our body. We also need iron in your muscles. So it’s important to eat enough food with iron in it, or else you might get tired and weak

Carbon

Carbon is one of the most important elements. All living creatures have carbon in them and the industry uses carbon in many ways.

Carbon’s chemical symbol is C. Its atomic number is 6 and it has a mass of 12, but there are other isotopes of carbon too.

Carbon atoms like to form bonds with other atoms. They can link together with other elements and form very long chains.

A lot of carbon on Earth is found together with other elements. Carbon dioxideis in the air that we breathe out. Minerals, like limestone have carbon in them. Mixtures of carbon and hydrogen are in petroleum and natural gas.

Pure carbon does not occur very often on Earth. The best known forms of pure carbon are diamonds and graphite.

Diamonds are the hardest objects on Earth. They are in the Earth’s crust, formed under high temperatures and pressure. Diamonds are very valuable. Most of them are used in industry—to cut or polish other objects or as drilling heads in oil fields.

Graphite is a soft grey or black mineral. Like diamonds, graphite is formed under the surface of the Earth. It is used in pencils and, because it is lightweight, you can find it in spaceships, tennis rackets and bicycles.

Chlorine

Chlorine is a poisonous greenish-yellow gas with a strong, bad smell. In nature, it can only be found together with other elements, especially in minerals. Together with sodium it forms salt (NaCl).

Chlorine is used to make water clearer and purer. In swimming pools it kills bacteria. We also use chlorine to clean metal. The industry uses chlorine compounds to produce paper, plastic, medicine and paint.

Chlorine often combines with other elements because it easily accepts free electrons from them. It has 17 protons and an atomic mass of 35.

 

Irène Joliot-Curie

        Irene Joliot-Curie was a French scientist who along with her husband, Frédéric Joliot, was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 “in recognition of their synthesis of new radioactive elements.” She was born as Irene Curie to scientist parents, Pierre and Marie Curie. A child prodigy, her parents discovered her knack for mathematical abilities and skills when Irene turned ten and started her formal education. Irene’s abilities earned her a seat at the Faculty of Science at the Sorbonne. Though World War I disrupted her studies, she did not squander her time and instead worked as a nurse radiographer along with her mother. Following her doctorate degree and marriage to fellow researcher Frederic Joliot, Irene Joliot-Curie immersed herself completely into scientific research. In 1934, the magnum opus of her career came as she discovered artificial radioactivity along with her husband. The two initiated the start of a new legacy in scientific studies. The artificially created radioactive isotopes, though short-lived, were applied in medicine. They were cheap and could be quickly created in plentiful numbers. For their discovery of artificial radioactivity, the Joliot-Curie couple was awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Following this, she continued her research on the action of neutrons on the heavy elements. Scientific career apart, Joliot-Curie was active politically. She worked for improving the social standard of women and also took up administrative position at several governmental institutes.

Irene Joliot Curie was born as Irene Curie to Pierre and Marie Curie on September 12, 1897, in Paris, France.

        Academically brilliant, young Curie began her formal education at the age of 10. Within a year, her mathematical skills brought her to prominence. Wanting to put little Curie in a challenging environment so as to make the best use of her academic capabilities, her parents joined ‘The Cooperative’ a private gathering that included some of the most distinguished names in academics in France.

For two years, she studied at the Cooperative, getting trained by some of the most distinguished French scholars. Interestingly, the curriculum of Cooperative did not limit itself to scientific studies alone. In fact, children were taught diverse subjects, right from language to sculpture and even self-expression and play.

       Following her training at the Cooperative, Curie enrolled at an orthodox school environment at Collège Sévigné in central Paris. She studied therein for two years, from 1912 to 1914 before enrolling at the Faculty of Science at Sorbonne.

       While she was studying for her bachelor’s degree at the Faculty of Science, World War I commenced. Her studies were stalled by the war. During the war, she collaborated with her mother, Marie Curie, who was running 20 mobile field hospitals. Both mother and daughter worked as nurse radiographers, working on the then newly conceived X-Ray equipment.

        Post War, Irene returned to Paris. She studied at her parent’s institute, Radium Institute. Alongside, she also served as her mother’s assistant at the institute. In 1925, she completed her doctoral thesis on the alpha rays of polonium, an element found by her parents.

        Year 1925 was a satisfying year for Irene Curie, professionally and personally. While she became Doctor of Science that year, at the same time she met her future husband, Frederic Joliot, who interned with her mother at the Radium Institute.

        After her wedding with fellow researcher Frederic Joliot, the duo adopted the surname Joliot-Curie. Since 1928, Joliot-Curie and her husband Frederic combined their research efforts on the study of atomic nuclei.

        During the initial years of research, though the husband-wife duo identified positron and neutron, they failed to interpret the same into their results. Later on Carl David Anderson and James Chadwick were credited with the discovery of positron and neutron respectively. In 1932, she was appointed lecturer at the Faculty of Science.

       In 1934, Joliot-Curie along with her husband Frederic struck gold with the discovery of artificial radioactivity. They were primarily building on Pierre and Marie Curie’s work, when they finally created isolated naturally occurring radioactive elements. The discovery was a milestone in science.

       Joliot-Curies bombarded boron, aluminium, and magnesium with alpha particles. On bombardment, they obtained radioactive isotopes of elements not ordinarily radioactive, namely, 13 of nitrogen, 30 of phosphorus, 27 of silicon and 28 of aluminium. Since these elements are not found naturally, they would decompose easily emitting positive and negative electrons.

       The discovery of artificial radioactivity was revolutionary in the field of science. Both Joliot-Curie and her husband sealed their place in scientific history with their finding as creation of artificial radioactive materials assisted in filling up for the huge demand for radioactive element that were then used in medicines.

       Her most significant contribution to science came with the discovery of artificial radioactivity, which was a milestone in the field of science. The discovery allowed for the creation of short-lived, but easy to create radioactive isotopes from elements such as aluminium, boron, sulphur and phosphorous. These artificially created radioactive isotopes were used in medicine. Also, the production of these unstable atomic nuclei afforded further means for the observation of changes in the atom as these nuclei broke down.

       In 1935, Irene Joliot-Curie was bestowed with the coveted Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of artificial radioactivity along with her husband and researcher Frederic Joliot-Curie.

       In 1940, she was a fellow recipient of the Barnard College Gold Medal for Meritorious Service to Science, along with her husband Frederic Joliot-Curie.

       Throughout her life, Joliot-Curie served as a member of several foreign academies and scientific societies.

        Irene Curie met her future husband, Frederic Joliot while working as an assistant to her mother at Radium Institute. He shared her interest in science, sports, humanism and arts.

         Irene married Frederic in 1926. The duo adopted a hyphenated surname after marriage and were known as Joliot-Curies’. The couple was blessed with two children, a daughter Helena who became a noted physicist and a son Pierre who was a biologist.

        During World War II, Joliot-Curie contracted tuberculosis. She was forced to spend several years convalescing in Switzerland. Though she made frequent trips back to France, they were dangerous as she served several detentions.

        Years of being exposed to radioactive materials impacted the life of Irene Joliot-Curie. During the last days, she suffered from leukemia, which was a direct result of the accidental exposure to polonium in 1946 when a sealed capsule containing the element exploded. Though a series of operation temporarily relieved her, she failed to make it up.

       She breathed her last on March 17, 1956, at the age of 58, in Paris, France.

 

Marie Curie

Marie Curie was the first truly famous woman scientist in the modern world. She was known as the "Mother of Modern Physics" for her pioneer work in research about radioactivity, a word she coined. She was the first woman awarded a Ph.D. in research science in Europe and the first woman professor at the Sorbonne.

Curie discovered and isolated polonium and radium, and established the nature of radiation and beta rays. She won Nobel Prizes in 1903 (Physics) and 1911 (Chemistry) and was the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize, and the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two different scientific disciplines.

Fast Facts: Marie Curie

• Known For: Research in radioactivity and discovery of polonium and radium. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize (Physics in 1903), and the first person to win a second Nobel Prize (Chemistry in 1911)
• Also Known As: Maria Sklodowska
• Born: November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland
• Died: July 4, 1934 in Passy, France
• Spouse: Pierre Curie (m. 1896-1906)
• Children: Irène and Ève
• Interesting Fact: Marie Curie's daughter, Irène, also won a Nobel Prize (Chemistry in 1935)

• Early Life and Education

  Marie Curie was born in Warsaw, the youngest of five children. Her father was a physics teacher, her mother, who died when Curie was 11, was also an educator.

  After graduating with high honors in her early schooling, Marie Curie found herself, as a woman, without options in Poland for higher education. She spent some time as a governess, and in 1891 followed her sister, already a gynecologist, to Paris.

  In Paris, Marie Curie enrolled at the Sorbonne. She graduated in first place in physics (1893), then, on a scholarship, returned for a degree in mathematics in which she took second place (1894). Her plan was to return to teach in Poland.

  Research and Marriage

  She began to work as a researcher in Paris. Through her work, she met a French scientist, Pierre Curie, in 1894 when he was 35. They were married on July 26, 1895, in a civil marriage.

  Their first child, Irène, was born in 1897. Marie Curie continued to work on her research and began work as a physics lecturer at a girls' school.

  Radioactivity

  Inspired by work on radioactivity in uranium by Henri Becquerel, Marie Curie began research on "Becquerel rays" to see if other elements also had this quality. First, she discovered radioactivity in thorium, then demonstrated that the radioactivity is not a property of an interaction between elements but is an atomic property, a property of the interior of the atom rather than how it is arranged in a molecule.

  On April 12, 1898, she published her hypothesis of a still-unknown radioactive element, and worked with pitchblende and chalcocite, both uranium ores, to isolate this element. Pierre joined her in this research.

  Marie Curie and Pierre Curie thus discovered first polonium (named for her native Poland) and then radium. They announced these elements in 1898. Polonium and radium were present in very small amounts in pitchblende, along with larger quantities of uranium. Isolating the very small amounts of the new elements took years of work.

  On January 12, 1902, Marie Curie isolated pure radium, and her 1903 dissertation resulted in the first advanced scientific research degree to be awarded to a woman in France—the first doctorate in science awarded to a woman in all of Europe.

  In 1903, for their work, Marie Curie, her husband Pierre, and Henry Becquerel, were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. The Nobel Prize committee reportedly first considered giving the award to Pierre Curie and Henry Becquerel, and Pierre worked behind the scenes to ensure that Marie Curie won appropriate recognition by being included.

  It was also in 1903 that Marie and Pierre lost a child, born prematurely.

  Radiation poisoning from working with radioactive substances had begun to take a toll, though the Curies did not know it or were in denial of that. They were both too sickly to attend the 1903 Nobel ceremony in Stockholm.

  In 1904, Pierre was given a professorship at the Sorbonne for his work. The professorship established more financial security for the Curie family—Pierre's father had moved in to help care for the children. Marie was given a small salary and a title as Chief of the Laboratory.

  That same year, the Curies established the use of radiation therapy for cancer and lupus, and their second daughter, Ève, was born. Ève would later write a biography of her mother.

  In 1905, the Curies finally traveled to Stockholm, and Pierre gave the Nobel Lecture. Marie was annoyed by the attention to their romance rather than to their scientific work.

  From Wife to Professor

  But security was short-lived, as Pierre was killed suddenly in 1906 when he was run over by a horse-drawn carriage on a Paris street. This left Marie Curie a widow with responsibility for raising her two young daughters.

  Marie Curie was offered a national pension, but turned it down. A month after Pierre's death, she was offered his chair at the Sorbonne, and she accepted. Two years later she was elected a full professor—the first woman to hold a chair at the Sorbonne.

  Further Work

  Marie Curie spent the next years organizing her research, supervising the research of others, and raising funds. Her Treatise on Radioactivity was published in 1910.

  Early in 1911, Marie Curie was denied election to the French Academy of Sciences by one vote. Emile Hilaire Amagat said of the vote, "Women cannot be part of the Institute of France." Marie Curie refused to have her name resubmitted for nomination and refused to allow the Academy to publish any of her work for ten years. The press attacked her for her candidacy.

  Nevertheless, that same year she was appointed director of the Marie Curie Laboratory, part of the Radium Institute of the University of Paris, and of the Institute for Radioactivity in Warsaw, and she was awarded a second Nobel Prize.

  Tempering her successes that year was a scandal: a newspaper editor alleged an affair between Marie Curie and a married scientist. He denied the charges, and the controversy ended when the editor and scientist arranged a duel, but neither fired. Years later, Marie and Pierre's granddaughter married the grandson of the scientist which whom she may have had the affair.

  During World War I, Marie Curie chose to support the French war effort actively. She put her prize winnings into war bonds and fitted ambulances with portable x-ray equipment for medical purposes, driving the vehicles to the front lines. She established two hundred permanent x-ray installations in France and Belgium.

  After the war, her daughter Irene joined Marie Curie as an assistant at the laboratory. The Curie Foundation was established in 1920 to work on medical applications for radium. Marie Curie took an important trip to the United States in 1921 to accept the generous gift of a gram of pure radium for research. In 1924, she published her biography of her husband.

  Illness and Death

  The work of Marie Curie, her husband, and colleagues with radioactivity was done in ignorance of its effect on human health. Marie Curie and her daughter Irene contracted leukemia, apparently induced by exposure to high levels of radioactivity. The notebooks of Marie Curie are still so radioactive that they cannot be handled. Marie Curie's health was declining seriously by the end of the 1920s. Cataracts contributed to failing vision. Marie Curie retired to a sanatorium, with her daughter Eve as her companion. She died of pernicious anemia, also most likely an effect of the radioactivity in her work, in 1934.

12 Famous Female Chemists in History

 Here are a dozen famous pioneering female chemists to help mark International Women’s Day. There accomplishments include pioneering research on radioactivity, the idea of nuclear fission, treatment for leprosy, development of the polymer Kevlar and the first immunosuppresive drug used for organ transplants.

The list includes five Nobel Price winners and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. Unfortunately, you’ll notice a lot of their accomplishments were not recognized until after their death. The world keep evolving.

Gerty Theresa Cori – Born 1896, Died 1957

Cori helped establish how glycogen is broken down in muscles then remade and stored as an energy source (the Cori Cycle). She jointly won a Nobel Prize for her work.

Kathleen Lonsdale – Born 1903, Died 1971

Lonsdale pioneered use of X-rays to study crystals, and also used the technique to confirm that a benzene ring is flat. A form of carbon, Lonsdaleite, is named after her.

Rosalind Franklin – Born 1920, Died 1958

Franklin made X-ray diffraction images of DNA, crucial in allowing DNA’s structure to be discerned. This contribution wasn’t fully acknowledged until after her death.

Marie Sklodowska Curie – Born 1867, Died 1934

Curie carried out pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences.

Ida Eve Noddack – Born 1896, Died 1978

Noddack was the first person to propose the idea of nuclear fission, which she suggested in 1934. She was also the co-discoverer of rhenium, in 1925.

Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier – Born 1758, Died 1836

Paulze married chemist Antoine Lavoisier and received training in chemistry. She worked with Lavoiser editing and drawing his methods so they could be understood.

Dorothy Mary Hodgkin – Born 1910, Died 1994

Hodgkin used X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of vitamin B12, for which she won a Nobel Prize. She went on to decipher the structure of insulin

Marie Maynard Daly – Born 1921, Died 2003

Daly, thought to have been the first Black American woman to earn a PhD in chemistry, in 1947. She later researched effects of cigarette smoke on the lungs.

Alice Augusta Ball – Born 1892, Died 1916

Ball developed an injectable oil which was the most effective treatment for leprosy until the 1940s. She died before the results of her work were published.

Irene Joliot-Curie – Born 1897, Died 1956

Irene was the daughter of Marie Curie. A joint Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner in 1935 with Frédéric Joliot-Curie for their discovery of and work on artificial radioactivity.

Gertrude Belle Elion – Born 1918, Died 1999

Elian developed numerous drugs, including the first immunosuppresive drug used for organ transplants. She jointly won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology.

Stephanie Kwolek – Born 1923, Died 2014

Kwolek developed the polymer Kevlar and won many awards for her work on polymer chemistry. She also developed the ‘nylon rope trick’ chemistry demonstration.