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Helium

Helium

A large helium hot air balloon labelled He floats among smaller balloons, surrounded by scientific notations and data about the helium element in a stylised infographic design.

The Lighter Side of Science: Exploring the Wonders of Helium (He)

The Lighter Side of Science: Exploring the Wonders of Helium (He) Read More »

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On This Day...

: 1822
In 1822 the Rosetta Stone was successfully translated by French Scholar, Jean-Francois Champollion

During Napoleon’s Campaign of Egypt and Syria (1798-1801), Pierre-Francois Bouchard was ordered to rebuild Fort Julien in the town of Rosetta (now called Rashid) in Egypt. While rebuilding the fortifications he discovered the stone tablet and knew it was important. The “Rosetta Stone” turned out to be much more important than he could have realised.

On the 19^th of April 1801, British troops defeated the French forces and took Fort Julien. British and Ottoman forces continued to defeat the French forces in Egypt. The French Campaign of Egypt and Syria came to an end on the 30^th of August 1801 when the remaining French forces were under siege at Alexandria and surrendered. Under the French terms of surrender (the capitulation of Alexandria) France agreed to hand over all artefacts they collected and so the British took possession of several artefacts, collected by the French, including the Stone. The Rosetta stone was sent to the British Museum where it has remained since 1802.

Inscribed on the stone was a royal decree from King Ptolemy V in 196 BC. The decree was in three separate languages for the various civilisations at the time. It was written in three languages with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs in the first section, followed by Demotic (an Egyptian script) and finally Ancient Greek. As the decree was identical, and just changed in language, the Rosetta Stone proved to be the key to unlocking the language of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Until its discovery, there had been no way of unlocking the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphs as the language had remained dead for centuries.

Johan David Akerblad, a Swedish Diplomat, had worked with hieroglyphs extensively and had identified many of the symbols but believed them to be part of a 29-character alphabet. With the aid of the Rosetta Stone, and the previous work done by Akerblad, British Scientist Thomas Young worked on deciphering the symbols himself and He concluded that the symbols were not part of an alphabet at all but separate words; of which he correctly identified 86. This paved the way for the work of French Scholar, Jean-Francois Champollion and on the 27^th of September 1822, he announced that he had completed his translation of the stone.; 1905
In 1905 Albert Einstein’s paper concerning the Mass-Energy Equivalency (E=mc2) was first received by the journal ‘Annalen der Physik’.

In 1905 Albert Einstein published four papers known as the Annus mirabilis papers (Latin for extraordinary year papers). All four papers were revolutionary to science changing our understanding of the universe forever.

His most famous work was the idea that the mass of an object could be converted to energy or energy into matter. E=mc² suggests that the amount of (potential) energy is equal to the mass of matter multiplied by the speed of light squared. This is the immense power of nuclear energy including that of the sun. Every time a hydrogen atom becomes a helium atom in the plasma of the sun, a little bit of mass is ‘lost’ and converted into energy. Einstein’s discoveries revolutionised the world of “modern physics” (Relativity and Quantum Mechanics). In 1916 Einstein published his ‘General theory of Relativity’ which described gravity as a property of space and time (spacetime) and he proposed that the properties of gravity, space and even time were relative (dependent on) the speed of motion of the observer of object in question. One of the most controversial ideas of this theory is that time slows down the closer you get to the speed of light, a theory now proven many times and is a pivotal part of satellite navigational technology. He also received the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his work on the ‘Photoelectric Effect’ which helped to establish Quantum Physics. The ‘Photoelectric Effect’ regards the transfer of energy from a light beam onto a metal surface which becomes heat. The theory suggested that with enough time, however strong the beam of light, enough energy should be transmitted to the metal to liberate one of its electrons from one of the atoms. In practice, physicists found that this worked on some metals and not others and that an electron would eject with more energy depending on the colour of the beam rather than the intensity. This perplexed physicists until 1905 when Einstein applied a previous theory by Max Planck. Plank had suggested that light beams (and all Electromagnetic radiation) were not a continuous flow of energy, as previously thought, but actually packets (quanta) of energy (like the way information is sent across the internet). When Einstein applied this theory he was able to explain why it didn’t matter the length of time that the light beam shone on the metal but it the individual photons (energy packets) had enough energy within them to cause an electron to escape. It even explained why the colour affected the energy the electrons ejected by was affected by colour rather than intensity.; 1905
In 1905 Albert Einstein’s paper concerning the Mass-Energy Equivalency (E=mc2) was first received by the journal ‘Annalen der Physik’.

In 1905 Albert Einstein published four papers known as the Annus mirabilis papers (Latin for extraordinary year papers). All four papers were revolutionary to science changing our understanding of the universe forever.

His most famous work was the idea that the mass of an object could be converted to energy or energy into matter. E=mc² suggests that the amount of (potential) energy is equal to the mass of matter multiplied by the speed of light squared. This is the immense power of nuclear energy including that of the sun. Every time a hydrogen atom becomes a helium atom in the plasma of the sun, a little bit of mass is ‘lost’ and converted into energy. Einstein’s discoveries revolutionised the world of “modern physics” (Relativity and Quantum Mechanics). In 1916 Einstein published his ‘General theory of Relativity’ which described gravity as a property of space and time (spacetime) and he proposed that the properties of gravity, space and even time were relative (dependent on) the speed of motion of the observer of object in question. One of the most controversial ideas of this theory is that time slows down the closer you get to the speed of light, a theory now proven many times and is a pivotal part of satellite navigational technology. He also received the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his work on the ‘Photoelectric Effect’ which helped to establish Quantum Physics. The ‘Photoelectric Effect’ regards the transfer of energy from a light beam onto a metal surface which becomes heat. The theory suggested that with enough time, however strong the beam of light, enough energy should be transmitted to the metal to liberate one of its electrons from one of the atoms. In practice, physicists found that this worked on some metals and not others and that an electron would eject with more energy dependant on the colour of the beam rather than the intensity. This perplexed physicists until 1905 when Einstein applied a previous theory by Max Planck. Plank had suggested that light beams (and all Electromagnetic radiation) were not a continuous flow of energy, as previously thought, but actually packets (quanta) of energy (like the way information is sent across the internet). When Einstein applied this theory he was able to explain why it didn’t matter the length of time that the light beam shone on the metal but it the individual photons (energy packets) had enough energy within them to cause an electron to escape. It even explained why the colour affected the energy the electrons ejected by was affected by colour rather than intensity.

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