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Jakobus van't Hoff
1852-1911
In this podcast Mark and Jack have a conversation about the Dutch chemist Jakobus van't Hoff. His contributions toward a swath of foundational chemical principles is so noteworthy that it should be of no surprise that he received the very first Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1901. Listeners to the podcast will learn about his efforts in both the organic and inorganic chemical fields. In organic chemistry, he pioneered the branch now called stereochemistry. In inorganic chemistry, he developed significant theories shedding light on the properties of solutions. Although his name may not be as familiar as other famous scientists, his influence compares to any.
Podcast length: 45:57
Show Notes:
Selected Awards and Publications associated with Jakobus van't Hoff:
van't Hoff's Nobel Prize Diploma (1901)
Chemical Dynamics (1884)
The Arrangement of Atoms in Space (1898)
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1901 was awarded to Jakobus van't Hoff in recognition of "the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions."
You know you've made it when your picture is on both a coin and a stamp!
Discussed in the episode:
The asymmetric carbon atom.
A carbon atom bonded to 4 different atoms. When this is the case the molecule containing the asymmetric carbon cannot be superposed on its mirror image by any combination of rotations and translations
Chirality -- An example of chirality occurs in the molecule glucose. It is a molecule that rotates the plane of polarized light in opposite directions (optical isomerism)
Right-handed glucose and Left-handed glucose(optical isomers, AKA enatiomers)
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur discovered molecular chirality as a phenomenon. van't Hoff explained it with the asymmetric carbon concept.
The equation for osmotic pressure that includes the van't Hoff factor
Ludwig Boltzmann's Gravestone
Stephen Hawking's Gravestone
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