What is the World Made out of?

Since the beginning men have been asking the questions what is out there, how did we get here, and what is the world made of?

Out of all of the human endeavors Science has had the greatest impact on our lives, it’s our ideas, our achievements, and our results that surround us today. Moments we many call “Eureka” moments are the history of science these moments were not only made inside of a sterile laboratory but out in the world as well. The ideas that derived from these moments changed the world we live on today.

The history of us is a magnificent tale of power, proof, and passion.

Did you know that appearances are deceiving? You might look at our world today and think there is so much solid matter however this is not the case. Almost everything around us is empty space, if you took out all the empty space in the world the mass of the Earth would fit inside a single sugar cube.

As our thirst for knowledge continues to grow, people had tried to understand and alter the world in the middle ages; these people were called alchemists. These “alchemists” protected their secrets through codes and ciphers along with astonishing practical abilities.

Where did the middle ages scientists base their understanding of the matter? The answer is the Greeks, the Greeks that everything in the world was a combination of the four elements: Water, Fire, Earth, Air.

A brilliant alchemist brand thought that he was close to finishing the Philosophers stone, which was a mythical object that could turn any element into gold.

Alchemists thought everything on earth is living, even metals which can then be transformed, mutated, and purified.

Through many trials brand discovered something unexpected, which was phosphorus.

Brand, through a complex process, extracted a white stone from urea in human urine. This white stone is white phosphorus which is phosphorus in its most natural form. The name phosphorus means giver of light, which was an important for the later invention of the match stick. 

A scientist in Yorkshire, England going by the name of Joseph Priestley was looking for God not just in the Bible but also in the natural world he was one of the leading air experimenters in the world. He went to study air by heating substances including an alchemist favorite red calcx which is another name for mercury oxide. He found out that this red powder turned into liquid mercury when heated at high temperatures. The gases emanating from this included an element called oxygen. Priestly described this new air as “Good Air” which turned out to be the most important of the new airs discovered.

Priestly went to meet with a family called the Lavoisier's’ to tell them about the air he had discovered with fiery properties. The Lavoisier's for those who don’t know own the best equipped laboratory in Europe. Lavoisier called this “Good Air” Oxygen, the air off life. Lavoisier reversed the process and the gas and metals recombined to from red calx. An astonishing discovery was made the Lavoisier found out that this red calx weighed exactly the same as before. Antoine Lavoisier was considered the father of modern chemistry. 

The Lavoisiers' wanted to find out how to produce this flammable air in mass quantities . An apparatus was made to test of a water molecule can split two gases oxygen and the inflammable air which was later termed to be oxygen. This process of splitting molecules was called electrolysis. As a lighted splint was extinguished through hydrogen gas, a loud popping sound occurred. This inflammable gas actually inspired Napoleon to make a balloon military core.

One thing you might not have known about is that the Lavoisiers' was vulnerable because he collected taxes to make a living. Antoine Lavoisier however was not scared of this, and by doing this, he was put to death.

A scientist called Humphrey Davy heated potash ran electricity through it and found that by doing this the electricity broke apart the potash and a brand new element was discovered, Potassium.

One of the most famous authors in history, Mary Shelly was disturbed by Davy’s work, this influenced her to write her novel, Frankenstein.

Elsewhere up at the northern slits of the blue mountains stands a remarkable tree, this Cinchona tree was the best defense against malaria.

Cinchona  plantations were created all over the tropics. However, this could not satisfy the growing need for the bark. So Scientists turned to chemists for a synthetic version of the bark they succeeded by isolating quinine which was the active ingredient in the bark that combated malaria.

Electrons were first subatomic particles to be discovered.

A valve was used to amplify electrical signals or to switch binary signals.

The story of us what is the world made up was a comprehensive episode that showed the development of our understanding of science. I was actually amazed that they fit that much information in just under 2 hours. I never knew the alchemists played a pivotal role in science. I always thought they were the crazy people trying to turn lead into gold. It was amazing how many of the elements we have today were discovered by accident. Discovery is truly an astonishing thing.