Friday, February 17, 2017

Suffering Scientist


suffering scientists

Sir Humphry Davy, The British Chemist and inventor, had a very bumpy start to his science career .He was fired from from his job as an apothecary because he caused too many explosions .When he eventually took up chemistry he had a habit of inhaling the various gases he was dealing with .Fortunately , this bad habit led to his discovery of the anaesthetic properties of nitrous oxide .But then  , the same habit led him to nearly kill himself .He also damaged his eyes .


Alexander bogdanov was a Russian physician , philosopher ,economist, science fiction writer and revolutionary .He began experiments with blood transfusion.After 11 transfusion , he declared that he had stopped going bald and had improved his eyesight.He took a tranfusion of blood infected with malaria and tuberculosis and died soon after .


Thomas Midgley was an American chemist who helped to develop leaded petrol .General Motors commercialized Midgley's discovery.But there were several deaths from lead poisoning where the additive was producec.Midgley took part in a press conference to demostrate the safety of his product and he inhaled its vapour for a munite .It took him a year to recover from the harmful effects. He contracted polio at the age of 51 which led him disabled .He invented a system of ropes and pulleys so that he could pull himself out of bed ...but this invention caused his death .The negative impact on the envivorment of leaded petrol seriously damaged his reputation and he has been described as ' a human responsible for most deaths in history' 

Louis Slotin is a canadian physicist , worked on the Manhattan project . During an experiment which plutonium , he accidentally dropped a container causing a critical reaction .Other scientists in the room witnessed a blue glow and felt a heat wave .Slotin had been exposed to a Lethal dose of radiation.He rushed outside and was sick and then he was taken to hospital .Although volunteers donated blood for transfusions , he died .