One of the most remarkable letters in the history of science. You can almost feel Wöhler’s tingling excitement as he wrote to Berzelius and started the world down the road to the death of vitalism and the dissolution of the boundary between the animate and the inanimate:
“February 22, 1828: I hope that my letter of January 12th has reached you and although I have been living in a daily or even hourly hope of a reply I will not wait any longer but write to you now because I can no longer, as it were, hold back my chemical urine, and I hope to let out that I can make urea without needing a kidney, whether of man or dog; the ammonium salt of cyanic acid is urea. . . .
The supposed ammonium cyanate was easily obtained by reacting lead cyanate with ammonium solution. Silver cyanate and ammonium chloride solution are just as good. Four-sided right-angled prisms, beautifully crystalline, were obtained; when these were treated with acids no cyanic acids were liberated and with alkali no trace of ammonia. But with nitric acid lustrous flakes of an easily crystallized compound, strongly acid in character, were formed; I was disposed to accept this as a new acid for when it was heated neither nitric nor nitrous acid was evolved but a great deal of ammonia. Then I found that if it were saturated with alkali the so-called ammonium cyanate re-appeared and this could be extracted with alcohol.
Now, quite suddenly, I had it! All that was needed was to compare urea from urine with this urea from a cyanate.“
@MoleculesGoHard No, I did not. If we ever meet in person I show you the video.
I made a typo earlier btw, chromyl chloride or the acid chloride of chromic acid is CrO2Cl2.
Reminder that the FDA classifies MSG under the same safety category as table salt and the 80s panic over it was purely motivated by the belief Chinese restaurants were serving poisoned food.
@HaWalterBishop @agraybee The claim is accurate. FDA classifies MSG as GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe), same as table salt. The panic, starting in the 1960s and persisting into the 1980s, was largely driven by xenophobic fears of "poisoned" Chinese restaurant food, per historical analyses@HaWalterBishop @agraybee The claim is accurate. FDA classifies MSG as GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe), same as table salt. The panic, starting in the 1960s and persisting into the 1980s, was largely driven by xenophobic fears of "poisoned" Chinese restaurant food, per historical analyses.
Over the last 20 years, insect populations have quietly declined by up to 75% in some areas. Many haven't noticed because it's gradual—fewer bugs on windshields or fireflies at night slip under the radar. Habitat loss, pesticides, and climate change are the main culprits. This matters since insects pollinate 75% of crops, worth nearly $600 billion, and feed countless animals. It's a subtle shift with big ripples for ecosystems and food systems.
With profound sadness, we announce the passing of Sir Fraser Stoddart, Nobel Laureate and cherished member of @NorthwesternU. His groundbreaking contributions transformed the field of #chemistry and inspired countless scientists worldwide.
➡️ https://t.co/S7e0nwfruD