a chemistry history question?

Question

I've just been watching a fascinating documentary about the history of the discovery of the elements which mentioned that alchemists and chemists in the 17th century spent about 50 years searching for a mystery element which they named flodgellum. This turned out to be a dead end and a mistaken identity which lead to the discovery of oxygen......have there been any other 'great mistakes' in the world of chemistry since and apart from artificial elements (eg from nuclear research etc) have there been any new elements discovered in more recent times? (ie the last 100 years or so)?

John · Accepted Answer

Here is a timeline of the discovery of the elements, and the synthesis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_chemical_elements_discoveries

Here is phlogiston theory:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlogiston_theory

I would say that there were many misunderstandings in chemistry until atomic theory got nailed down.  Those weren't mistakes, just lack of knowlege.  Maybe the biggest real blunder that caused chemistry to actually stall for a bit (though also through ignorance) was the concept of "The Ether"  Even Einstein was uncertain about that, for a time.  That you can look up.  The ether is vaguely related to phlogiston theory - let's say they supported each other, in a way.

Anonymous · Answer

background is the King of matters. think of roughly it: there's a background of math, a background of physics, a background of chemisty, a background of English... yet there is not any 'math' of background.

Trending News

a chemistry history question?

2 Answers