Nitro Compounds: Part 1

The exploding apron was not the first example of a man-made explosive. Cellulose is only one of the very few molecules we have altered to become explosive. Some of these altered compounds can cause widespread devastation or spread great prosperity. One molecule in particular is Nitrogen Dioxide, NO2, in the right position this this combination has various explosive affects. The very first explosive is gunpowder, invented back before it's first written history. In 1000 A.D., the first recording of the ingredients was discovered. The main ingredients are Sulfur, Carbon and Potassium nitrate.  In 1067, the Chinese made Blackpowder under government control. Once gunpowder hit England, it became worldwide quickly. Everyone wanted to know what the chemical reactions of gunpowder was, because it arrived in Oxford University and the University of Paris, and was studied quite frequently around 1260. Finally, the present day formula is made up and shows the process. 

The reason gunpowder is so explosive is because of The energy released when each bond is broken. Typically the more bonds the more energy released. With the nitrogen gas being triple bonded, it releases a good amount of energy, I can be very devastating. Who knew that gunpowder was such a deep typic of study?

Cellulose: Part 2

Cellulose may be very good at storing information, but they can also be very dangerous. It is estimated that 100,000,000,000 tons of cellulose is degraded annually,  and it is not as abundant as one would think.  In the mid-1800s it was found that cellulose, when combined with nitric acid, and when poured into water became a very flammable and explosive white powder. In 1845, a discovery by Friedrich Schönbein helped with the commercialization of this compound of cellulose. Schönbein had been experimenting with sulfuric and nitric acid in his kitchen, he spilled one of the mixtures and used his wife's cotton apron to clean up the mess. He then hung the apron over the stove to let it dry, which, before long, became an explosive apron. Schönbein called this guncotton, or nitrocellulose. He saw the profit in this and establish multiple factories for nitrocellulose. Before long, too many factories exploded from nitrocellulose and he was put out of business. In the late 1860s proper methods were used to clean guncotton. Nitrocellulose was one of the very first explosive molecules made by man,  this can be seen as both good and bad. Either World Peace or Global War could arise from such simple molecules. 

Cellulose: Part 1

It's funny how all of these go hand-in-hand. Sugar leads to other crops being used economically. With the slave trade being boosted by all the sugar, it also branched out into cotton. Many people think of cotton as a fiber, but it is in fact a plant. The plant has a globular pod known as a boll, which contain oily seeds. The Industrial Revolution revolved around cotton. Lancashire became the center of the Revolution in England, his complex grew and grew. All his workers needed to manufacture the cotton were well treated. Lancashire also had a good supply of coal, which became important for steam power later on. Socially, cotton became huge in transforming Europe, many midlands were converted to fields for cotton. Cellulose is the primary component of cotton. Cellulose is a polymer of glucose, and provide support. In structural and storage polysaccharides, glucose units are joined to each other through carbon number 1 on a glucose molecule and carbon number 4 on the adjacent glucose molecule. Each molecule can repeat this process and become enormous chains. The reason cotton is such a desirable fabric is because of the unique structure of cellulose. Going back to the chains, when cellulous makes long chains, sometimes they come together and make a helix, which is better at storage. They are very good "hard drives" that store a lot of information.

Glucose: Part 2

Sugar is one of the sweetest sensations known to man. There are four sensations actually… sweetness, sourness, bitterness, and saltiness. Sweet implies that it is good to eat. Sweet usually means that fruit is ripe, whereas sour means that many acids are still present in the food. Bitter tastes tell us that the compounds of Alkaloids, which are often poisonous. We sense all these thanks to our taste buds and they can tell us what's good for us and what's bad. There are also many nonsugars that taste sweet, which makes millions for the sweetener industries. Saccharine was the first to be developed. It is a powder, has no caloric value, and tastes sweet, therefore Saccharine was exploited and became very popular around our self-image drawn society. Our lives back then, and today are shaped by sugar, they can be healthy for us, or poisonous, and are very desirable. It is a very important compound.

Glucose: Part 1

Sugar and spice makes everything nice…  or does it? Well in fact, it actually does. Sugar, like spices has a deep background and history, it was once a luxury item. Glucose is the main component of sugar, but is represented in small amounts. Glucose has 6 carbon, 6 oxygen, and 12 hydrogen atoms, the same number of atoms seen in nutmeg and cloves, but like those spices… it is the shape of the molecule that is unique. Sugar can be extracted from many plants, the most common is Saccharum officinarum, or Sugarcane. Sugarcane originated in southern India, slowly it spread though Asia, the Middle East, Northern Africa, then finally Spain. Sugar trade, like spices, sprouted out of Venice. It had erupted and was extremely avaliable and in demand… but it was still expensive. Sugar was used as multiple things thanks to its sweet taste, the most popular was being used in medicine. Now this is where it gets dissappointing… sugar was so abbundant, it needed to harvested… by who you ask?… why Black Africans of corse. Africans began being sold all throughout the new world now to harvest sugar. Hey!, remember Columbus from chapter 1? Well, he also helped spread sugar from Europe to the island of Hispaniola. Glucose is the most common of the sugars, and can be drawn as 6 carbons in a straight chain. This structure is still common today but the most accurate of glucose is actually a  cyclic structure 6-membered ring. The scientist who discovered this was Norman Haworth, who was awarded the 1937 Nobel Prize. 

Ascorbic Acid: Part 2

Vitamin, its a word used in society every day. People are always reminding somebody left and right to take there vitamins, but why?? Well vitamin comes from two words, vital and amine, the meaning of each word mean necessary, and the other is an organic compound that contains nitrogen. Therefore all vitamins are necessary for life. Vitamin C, or Ascorbic Acid is needed to survive. Almost all vertebrates produce Ascorbic Acid in the liver. Other creatures that don't need to have vitamin C in their diet. Humans lack the enzyme gulonolactone oxidase, which is the enzyme needed to synthesize Ascorbic acid from Glucose. Those creatures that need Vitamin C in their diet can get it relatively easily. Only a small amount is needed to satisfy that which is required to survive. Vitamin C is so common today that it has branched out and become more useful. Today Ascorbic acid is used as a good preservative. Many see this as bad, but thanks to it, it keeps Clostridium botulinium growing. Clostridium botulinium is the worlds "greatest" poison, and 1 ounce could kill 100 Million people. This fact alone should make people rethink their feelings toward preservatives.

Ascorbic Acid: Part 1

Now before we actually get on the topic about Ascorbic Acid, I need to first flash back to the age of discovery... the year is 1519, and Magellan is navigating the world. Now the year is 1522, in only 3 years, 90% of Magellan's crew died, primarily due to Scurvy. Scurvy is a disease easily prevented and is caused by the deficiency of Vitamin C, or Ascorbic Acid. There is a enormous list of  symptoms for Scurvy and it is very painful. Scurvy really became an issue in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, longer voyages were made possible by new ships but the crew could not maintain good health. All the sailors had to eat on the ocean was molded bread, hard cheese and salted meat, none of witch provided Vitamin C. Captain James Lancaster was in charge of four ships that was the small fleet for the East India Company. Capt. Lancaster carried a bottle of lemon juice on his ship, the Dragon. As soon as a crew member was diagnosed with Scurvy they were dosed with 3 teaspoons of lemon juice every morning. By the end of the voyage his ship was Scurvy free, that cant be said about the rest of the fleet. Nearly a quarter of his fleet died from Scurvy despite his example and NONE of the deaths were on his ship the Dragon. In 1747, James Lind, a Scottish Naval Surgeon decided to do an experiment, he chose twelve crew members suffering from Scurvy, divided them into groups of two, and gave them all different treatments. Two received a quart of Cider a day, two got vinegar, two got sulfuric acid, two drank a pint of seawater a day, two were fed a mixture of nutmeg, garlic, mustard seed, ect., and the final pair were given lemon juice. Within six days the men that received the lemon juice were able to return to work. Lind published his findings in A Treatise of Scurvy, but it took forty years before it was standard to have citrus fruits on every vessel. As easy as it was to prevent Scurvy, it barely happened. When the crew landed they headed straight for beer and meat, the captains on the other hand tried rare new fruits being sold at ports, in-turn, officers rarely got sick. James Cook was the first British Royal Naval Officer to keep his crew completely Scurvy free. His ship, the Endeavour, was tasked with charting the southern oceans. Cook, made sure that his ship was clean, food was well cooked, and everyone got fruit daily. On June 10th, 1770, the Endeavour, got a large rip in the hull and the whole crew was able to get the ship to the shore for repairs, something a Scurvy sick crew could never have done…

Peppers, Nutmeg, and Cloves: Part 3

As always, the economic values of these spices was always seen as a priority. The Portuguese dominated the Clove trade during most of the 16th century. Unfortunately, the Portuguese never made a complete monopoly out of their opportunities. They tried making treaties and agreements with the islands of Ternate and Tidore, but they never lasted. When the 17th century came around, the Dutch were extremely powerful and very harsh. The Dutch soon took over control and pushed Spain and Portugal out of their shares of the islands. Thanks to the Dutch's East India Company or Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, VOC, the Dutch became masters of the spice trade and they soon capitalized on the opportunities these islands present. Although it was not easy, it took the VOC until 1667 to take over COMPLETE control over Moluccas, the islands of all the Clove trees. The Dutch made a treaty to give all rights to the VOC for trading goods and the villages back down. The tribes did not stay loyal to the treaty and they started trading with other groups. The Dutch civilization was very angry and their response was ruthless. They began to burn down villages and tear up groves until the natives had nothing left. The English also got involved and tried to help out the natives, but the Dutch were too powerful. Through years of bloody fighting, in 1667, the Dutch and English made the treaty of Breda and the English surrendered all claims and the Dutch got Nutmeg as well. The spice economy would have surely grown and went farther, but the refrigerator had been invented. Spices are no longer needed as preservatives and the value of them went down. Today, people never hear of the toil that people went through centuries ago…

Peppers, Nutmeg, and Cloves: Part 2

So apparently, pepper wasn't the only spice important near the beginning of great civilizations… nutmeg and cloves were of high value but very rare. The nutmeg tree is only grown on the Banda Islands and the clove tree is only located on the Ternate and Tidore Islands. Large civilizations wanted to get there hands on these spices bad, so explorers where sent out to find out how to get there. By 1512, the governor of Portuguese India established a market with these spices. Soon, he far surpassed the wealth of any country at that time. Even though  Cloves and Nutmeg are separated by hundreds of miles of open sea, there differences are caused by some very similar molecules. Cloves contain Eugenol, and Nutmeg contains Isoeugenol. The only difference in the molecules is the positioning of a double bond! These chemicals and the double bond placement gives these chemicals distinct properties. Since plants cannot run away, they protect themselves with chemicals… such as Eugenol, Isoeugenol, and think back to Piperine, and Capsaicin. These chemicals protect the plants by harming creatures that digest them. Sometimes we use them to help us in, 200 B.C. the Han Dynasty had used Cloves to help relieve toothache and be used as sweetness for the Court Couriers. Now hold on to your seats… when the Black Death, Bubonic Plague, occurred in Europe in 1347. This plague took many lives and left many people deathly ill, but some people were unaffected. People wore Nutmeg around there necks and they were less likely to get the plague! This is believed today, because of the Isoeugenol in the fresh Nutmeg. The chemical is said to have warded off the fleas that caused the plague and kept those particular people safe. Now there is a downside to this as well, Nutmeg also has Myristicin and Elmicin, two chemicals that cause hallucinations, lived problems and even death. Fortunately for us it is very hard to consume too much to cause these problems. These chemicals are also found in carrots, celery, dill, and other food but in very small trace amounts. Who knew that the foods we consume regularly and use as spices could be so beneficial yet so deadly.…

Peppers, Nutmeg, and Cloves: Part 1

Pepper has always been a good spice to use for your food. Today pepper is on every table, in every household, all around the world. This wasn't always the case, starting around the 5th century B.C., pepper became important. This little spice became one of the most major economic factors in the world. Countries began looking left and right to try and get pepper. Pepper was a mystery back then, why does it have a kick to it? Well today, it is known that pepper contains the chemical piperine. Piperine gives us that bite because when we digest it, our pain nerves respond to the chemical stimulus. Through out the centuries other "Peppers" have been discovered that offer us that bite, or pain. Columbus discovered Chili Peppers from the "new world", these peppers have a similar chemical to piperine called capsaicin, and it even has a similar structure. The thing is that these peppers taste completely different. It is believed that it is something about these chemicals that make peppers so "hot".

Napoleon's Buttons

This blog will summarize each chapter of the book "Napoleon's Buttons". This will detail all the important points of the novel. Feel free to comment or asks question on every blog. Enjoy and have a great day.