Have You Heard of This Lesser-Known Chemist? Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. One half of the first married couple to receive a Nobel prize, who was the French chemist known for his study of the properties of crystals, even before he discovered the phenomenon of piezoelectricity?

Answer: Pierre Curie

Curie headed the �cole de Physique et de Chimie Industrielle in Paris, and it was there that he met his future wife, Marie. Together they won the Nobel Prize for physics, along with Henri Becquerel, as the result of their study of radiation.

Other discoveries of Pierre's include a law which explains magnetic susceptibility of paramagnetic materials and the critical temperature above which magnetic properties disappear.

2. Who was the English chemist who identified no less than 212 naturally occurring isotopes through his invention of the mass spectrograph? He also has a 'Dark Space' named after him, but that's for his work in physics.

Answer: Francis Aston

Aston shared the 1922 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Sir Joseph John Thomson for the invention of the mass spectrograph, and their use of this tool to discover naturally occurring isotopes and formulate the 'Whole Number Rule'.

The 'Aston Dark Space' refers to the thin dark space right next to a cathode when analysing a glow discharge in a vacuum tube. The electrons leaving the cathode don't have enough energy to excite the atoms in the space nearest to the cathode, leaving a dark space. Aston discovered this phenomenon in 1903.

3. Which American chemist was responsible for discovering a way to plasticise polyvinyl chloride (PVC), to make it more workable, and, therefore, more useful? Although not hidden (like his name might suggest), he did pass away in 1999 at the age of 100.

Answer: Waldo Semon

Semon is also well known for his work with synthetic rubber. Of particular note was his work developing Ameripol - a relatively inexpensive type of synthetic rubber which has been mostly used in the production of vehicle tyres.

On a more whimsical note, Semon also invented (and was particularly proud of) a synthetic type of chewing gum which allowed the chewer to blow especially large bubbles. Unfortunately this innovation never got widespread acclaim, since his employer at the time didn't see any commercial potential.

4. Which French chemist disproved the scientific theory of vitalism by proving that organic compounds can be formed by using ordinary methods of chemical manipulation, and that they behave in the same way as inorganic substances?

Answer: Marcellin Berthelot

Berthelot lived from 1827-1907, and, although famous during his lifetime, he's not well known today by those outside the field of chemistry. Other accomplishments of Berthelot include the synthesis of methane, formic acid, and acetylene chemicals. Later in life, his interests diversified and he even served as the French Minister of Foreign Affairs for a short time.

All three of the incorrect options supported (or proposed their own) vitalist theories.

5. Which Belgian chemist was instrumental in accurately determining atomic weights and establishing oxygen as the universal atomic weight standard?

Answer: Jean Stas

Stas also was one of the first chemists to perform forensic toxicology, assisting in a murder case of 1850 involving family discontent, a Belgian count, and nicotine poisoning.

Beyond chemistry, Stas was also interested in art (and humanities more generally), giving lectures on the artistic applications of the daguerreotype in particular.

6. Who was the English chemist who received the 1956 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research into how hydrogen and oxygen react, particularly the reaction rates and mechanisms, when combining to form water?

Answer: Cyril Hinshelwood

In addition to his work with water, Hinshelwood also looked at molecular kinetics within bacterial cells. From this work, he concluded that more-or-less permanent changes in a cell's resistance to a drug could be achieved. This finding was significant in the later development of antibiotics.

Hinshelwood also was one of the first to come close to understanding DNA. Francis Crick later said that Hinshelwood's proposal was the first serious suggestion of how DNA might work.

7. Which chemist, who shares the first name with a well-known French author of the 19th century, discovered the value of using magnesium as a catalyst in organic synthesis? For this breakthrough he won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1912.

Answer: Victor Grignard

Grignard's breakthrough came while he was studying at the University of Lyon and the use of magnesium as a catalyst in organic synthesis was the basis of his 1901 doctoral thesis. Catalysts like these are now referred to as "Grignard reagants".
Grignard shared the 1912 Nobel Prize with Paul Sabatier.

The French author referred to was Victor Hugo ('Les Miserables' and 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' amongst others).

8. Who was the lesser-known German chemist who also developed a periodic table in the same decade as, but independent from, Mendeleyev?

Answer: Lothar Meyer

Meyer's periodic table and findings were published in his 1864 book titled "Modern Chemical Theory". His table contained 28 elements and they increased in atomic weight with valence electron changes - the first time this had been proposed.

Although both periodic tables were recognised, Mendeleyev had left gaps for elements not discovered at the time and what their atomic mass would be relative to other already discovered elements. Meyer had only predicted one as-yet-undiscovered element which may explain why Meyer's work on Periodic Law and his periodic tables haven't been as well remembered over time.

9. Which English chemist worked with Sir William Ramsay in 1898 to discover three of the inert gases - neon, krypton, and xenon - in just forty-two days?

Answer: Morris Travers

Whilst working at the University College, London (UCL), Travers and Ramsay discovered the gases by passing electrical currents through tubes and measuring the frequencies at which the gases within emitted light. A few years after these discoveries, Travers traveled to India to help establish the Indian Institute of Science in 1906 before returning to England in 1915 to aid in the World War I effort.

Some time after leaving the UCL, Travers donated his Ph.D. gown to the school where it remains in their archives with a note attached that reads "the silk needs renewing".

10. Who is the Norwegian chemist with a 'strange' name who received the 1969 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in establishing conformational analysis?

Answer: Odd Hassel

Conformation analysis is the study of a molecule's physical and chemical properties in terms of the spatial arrangements in a single bond. Hassel shared the 1969 Nobel Prize in chemistry with British chemist Derek H. R. Barton, who had also been working on conformational analysis, but independently from Hassel.

In 1943, Hassel was arrested by Norwegian Nazis for being a member of the Resistance and held at the Grini concentration camp until November 1944.

Source: Author NickMc

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ponycargirl before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

This quiz is about some of the lesser-known chemists from history. It was adopted from GWU_Boy, and was originally called "Chemists Through the Ages II".
This is a renovated/adopted version of an old quiz by author GWU_Boy

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Have You Heard of This Lesser-Known Chemist? Quiz

This quiz is about some of the lesser-known chemists from history. It was adopted from GWU_Boy, and was originally called "Chemists Through the Ages II". This is a renovated/adopted version of an old quiz by author GWU_Boy

This quiz is about some of the lesser-known chemists from history. It was adopted from GWU_Boy, and was originally called "Chemists Through the Ages II".
This is a renovated/adopted version of an old quiz by author GWU_Boy