Category: On This Day

During the mid-1800s, chemists knew the atomic composition of many organic compounds but struggled to understand their arrangement. Carbon in particular was present in an astonishing variety of substances but nobody could explain why. August Kukele, who passed away on July 13, 1896, helped solve this problem by proposing that carbons atoms could bond to one another to form long chains. This idea became a cornerstone of organic chemistry, leading to the rapid growth in knowledge in organic chemistry in the following century.

Kukele’s most famous contribution to organic chemistry came in 1865, when he proposed the molecule benzene consisted of six carbon atoms linked together in a ring. The nature of his discovery also contains one of the most famous anecdotes in the history of science. Kukele claimed, nearly 25 years after proposing the structure of benzene, that the idea came to him after a dream where a snake seized its own tail. He awoke with a revelation: what if the carbon atoms in benzene from a closed ring rather than an open chain?

Kekule’s work underpins much of today’s modern organic chemistry. His vision (or dream?) of carbon atoms linked into rings provided chemists with an entirely new framework for understanding the molecular world. Our plastics, medicines, agricultural chemicals, synthetic fibers and various other industrial materials all rely on principles that trace back to his insights.

Another day, another discovery. Browse the On This Day Archive.

The James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and the world’s most powerful telescope, was launched on Christmas Day of 2021. For months, astronomers knew the telescope was working, but nobody outside a small group of scientists had seen what it was capable of. On July 12, 2022, the first full-color images from the James Webb Space Telescope were finally released by NASA, to the delight of millions of people worldwide.

The images revealed stunning views of the Carina Nebula, the Southern Ring Nebula surrounding a dying star, Stephans Quintet of interacting galaxies, and the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-96b. The JWST observes the universe in infrared light, allowing it to penetrate clouds of cosmic dust, revealing parts of the universe that were previously invisible. Its primary mirror allows for more than six times the light collecting area than the Hubble telescope.

The JWST has to ability to transform our understanding of nearly every area of astronomy. It is currently being used to learn more about the formation of early galaxies and black holes, the birth of stars and planetary systems, and the atmospheres of distant worlds that may one day reveal life on another planet.

Another day, another discovery. Browse the On This Day Archive.