Alfred Nobel Essays (718 words) - Chemical Elements,

Alfred Nobel Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm on October 21, 1833. By the age of 17 he was fluent in Swedish, Russian, French, English and German. Early in his life he had a huge interest in English literature and poetry as well as in chemistry and physics. Alfred's father disliked his interest in poetry and found his son rather introverted. In order to widen Alfred's horizons his father sent him to different institutions for further training in chemical engineering. During a two-year period he visited Sweden, Germany, France and the United States. He came to enjoy Paris the best. There he worked in the private laboratory of Professor T. J. Pelouze, a famous chemist. He also met the young Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero who, three years earlier, had invented nitroglycerine. Now nitroglycerine was considered too dangerous to be of any practical use. Although its explosive power greatly exceeded that of gunpowder, the liquid would explode in a very unpredictable manner if subjected to heat and pressure. Alfred Nobel became very interested in nitroglycerine and how it could be put to practical use in construction work. He also realized that the safety problems had to be solved and a method had to be developed for the controlled detonation of nitroglycerine. Together with his father he performed experiments to develop nitroglycerine as a commercially and technically useful explosive. They did have a few accidents where several explosions did happen, including one in which his brother Emil and several other persons were killed. This convinced the authorities of the city that nitroglycerine production was just too dangerous. So they forbade further experimentation with nitroglycerine in the Stockholm city limits and he had to move his experimentation to a barge anchored on a lake. But of course Alfred was not discouraged and in 1864 he was able to start mass production of nitroglycerine. To make the handling of nitroglycerine safer he experimented with different additives. He soon found that mixing nitroglycerine with silica would turn the liquid into a paste, which could be shaped into rods, which could be dropped into drilled holes in rocks. In 1867 he patented this material under the name of dynamite. By the time of his death in 1896 he had 355 patents. In 1934 the American scientist Harold Clayton Urey won the Nobel Prize for chemistry for his discovery of the heavy form of hydrogen known as deuterium. He was also a key figure in the development of the atomic bomb and made fundamental contributions to a theory of the origin of the Earth and other planets that is now widely accepted. Urey's deuterium research began in the 1920s when he distilled some liquid hydrogen, concentrating its deuterium form. In 1931 he and his associates announced their discovery of heavy water, composed of an atom of oxygen and two atoms of deuterium. He also separated radioactive isotopes of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur, and examined their properties. During World War II he directed a research program at Columbia that became a vital part of the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic energy program in the United States. Urey's group provided the fundamental information for the separation of the isotope uranium-235 from the more abundant isotope uranium-238 and investigated methods for concentrating heavy hydrogen and separating boron isotopes. After the war his work with the heavy isotope oxygen-18 led him to devise methods for determining ocean temperatures as long as 180 million years ago. This led him to study the relative abundances of the elements on Earth and to develop a theory of the origin of the elements and of their abundances in the sun and other stars. Urey theorized that the early atmosphere of the Earth was probably like the atmosphere now present on Jupiter, which is rich in ammonia, methane, and hydrogen. One of his students working in his laboratory at the University of Chicago demonstrated that when exposed to an energy source, such as ultraviolet radiation, these compounds and water might react to produce compounds essential for the formation of living matter. In 1960 Urey made recommendations in support of space exploration to determine the origin of the solar system and the possibility of life on other planets.

A Brief Look at Italian History

A Brief Look at Italian History The history of Italy is characterized by two periods of unity- the Roman Empire (27 BCE–476 CE) and the modern democratic republic formed after the end of World War II. Between those two periods may have been a millennium and a half of division and disruption, but that disruption saw one of the worlds great flowering of art, the Renaissance (circa 1400–1600 CE). Italy, sitting in southwestern Europe, is comprised largely of a boot-shaped peninsula that extends out into the Mediterranean, as well as a region on the core landmass of the continent. It is bordered by Switzerland and Austria to the north, Slovenia and the Adriatic Sea to the east, France and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west, and the Ionian Sea and the Mediterranean to the south. Italy also includes the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. Roman Empire Between the sixth to third centuries BCE, the Italian city of Rome conquered Peninsular Italy; over the next few centuries, this empire spread to dominate the Mediterranean and Western Europe. The Roman Empire would go on to define much of Europes history, leaving a mark on culture and society that outlasted the military and political machinations of its leadership. After the Italian part of the Roman Empire declined and â€Å"fell† in the fifth century (an event no one at the time realized was so significant), Italy was the target of several invasions. The previously united region broke apart into several smaller bodies, including the Papal States, governed by the Catholic Pope. Renaissance and the Kingdom of Italy By the eighth and ninth centuries, a number of powerful and trading-oriented city-states emerged, including Florence, Venice, and Genoa; these were the forces that incubated the Renaissance. Italy and its smaller states also went through stages of foreign domination. These smaller states were the fertile grounds of the Renaissance, which changed Europe massively once more and owed a lot to the competing states trying to outspend each other on glorious art and architecture. Unification and independence movements throughout Italy developed ever stronger voices in the 19th century after Napoleon created the short-lived Kingdom of Italy. A war between Austria and France in 1859 allowed several small states to merge with Piedmont; a tipping point had been reached and the Kingdom of Italy was formed in 1861, growing by 1870- when the Papal States joined- to cover almost all of what we now call Italy. Mussolini and Modern Italy The Kingdom of Italy was subverted when Mussolini took power as a fascist dictator, and although he was initially skeptical of German dictator Adolf Hitler, Mussolini took Italy into World War II rather than risk losing out on what he perceived as a land grab. That choice caused his downfall. Modern Italy is now a democratic republic and has been since the modern constitution came into effect in 1948. This followed a referendum in 1946, which voted to abolish the previous monarchy by 12.7 million to 10.7 million votes. Key Rulers Julius Caesar c. 100 BCE–44 BCE A great general and statesman, Julius Caesar won a civil war to become both sole ruler of the extensive Roman domains and dictator for life, setting in motion a process of transformation that led to the creation of the Roman Empire. He was assassinated by enemies and is arguably the most famous ancient Roman. Giuseppe Garibaldi 1807–1882 After exile in South America, forced upon him because of his role in an attempted republican revolution, Guiseppi Garibaldi commanded forces in several Italian conflicts of the 19th century. He played an important role in Italian unification when he and his volunteer army of â€Å"Redshirts† captured Sicily and Naples and allowed them to join the Kingdom of Italy. Although Garibaldi fell out with the new king, in 1862, he was offered a command in the U.S. Civil War by President Abraham Lincoln. That never occurred because Lincoln wouldnt agree to abolish slavery at that early date. Benito Mussolini 1883–1945 Mussolini became the youngest-ever prime minister of Italy in 1922, using his fascist organization of â€Å"Blackshirts† to propel him to power. He transformed the office into a dictatorship and allied with Hitler’s Germany, but was forced to flee when World War II turned Italy against him. He was captured and executed.

Narritive about a short story Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Narritive about a short story - Essay Example al Scout had come to Farquhar’s house for a drink of water and he informed him that anyone who was found causing problems would be caught and hanged. When Farquhar inquires if there was any force on the other side of the creek, the soldier answers him saying, - â€Å"Only a picket post half a mile out, on the rail road and a single sentinel at this end of the bridge.† â€Å"All is fair in love and war† is a very famous saying and unfortunately Farquhar finds himself with a noose around his neck, at the gallows, surrounded by officers with their rifles in hand. Under the plank on which he stood, he could see the water rushing wildly in a frenzy. As the noose was put around his neck, he had a sense of foreboding as his mind raced back to his loving family at home. He felt a sense of helplessness as the noose tightened about his neck and his body dropped into the racing water. As Peyton plummeted to the depths with pulsating speed, he felt he was almost dead. He oscillated like a pendulum between life and death, as he struggled for breath. The light which had grown dimmer as he went down, now seemed brighter as he found himself rising towards the surface and thought, -"To be hanged and drowned, is not so bad; ; but I do not wish to be shot. No; I will not be shot; that is not fair." What seemed like superhuman strength he managed to relieve himself of the ropes that bound him. Undoing the noose around his neck, he gasped for breath. He was ecstatic to be alive. He reveled in the beauty of his surroundings – the trees the stream, the insects, the dewdrops on the glass and the prismatic colors that floated all around him. Suddenly, all at once, he found bullets whizzing past and hitting the water and saw the sentinels aiming their rifles straight at him from across the bridge. He heard the lieutenant’s dreaded, cruel and aspirated chant ordering, -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   "Company! . . . Attention! . . . Shoulder arms! . . . Ready! . . . Aim! . . . Fire!" he was being hunted