The Chemistry Timeline

Jake
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  • Chemistry
  • Updated Weekly

How did scientists discover the atom? Where does our understanding of metals and the material world come from? And how did we get from fire and rocks to smart phones and satellites. The Chemistry Timeline casts your mind back, telling you the story of the origins of Chemistry and our understanding of the world.

Episodes

  1. 1d ago

    Episode 2: Harder, Faster, Stronger - The Dawn of the Bronze Age

    In our second episode, we look at how humans went from simple stones, to magnificent metal. How did we come to use copper? Where did we get it from? And what were the challenges of creating bronze? Find out in this latest episode. References: Kradradjee, B., & Charles, J. A. (1980). The first metallurgists: Smelting and alloying in the ancient Near East. Journal of Archaeological Science, 7(3), 211–230. Pernicka, E. (2014). Provenance determination of archaeological metal objects. In Roberts, B. W., & Thornton, C. P. (Eds.), Archaeometallurgy in Global Perspective (pp. 239–268). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9017-3_10 Radivojević, M., Rehren, T., Pernicka, E., Šljivar, D., Brauns, M., & Borić, D. (2010). On the origins of extractive metallurgy: New evidence from Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science, 37(11), 2775–2787. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2010.06.012 Roberts, B. W., Thornton, C. P., & Pigott, V. C. (2009). Development of metallurgical technologies in the ancient world. World Archaeology, 41(4), 512–522. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438240903345134 Wertime, T. A. (1973). The beginnings of metallurgy: A new look. Science, 182(4115), 875–887. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.182.4115.875 Script writing, recording and editing done by me, Jake. Sound effects and backing music from Pixabay. Noticed a mistake? Let me know at thechemistrytimelinepod@gmail.com Fancy making a shiny new cover art, or a unique theme song, reach out to me using the email above to discuss. Chapters: (00:00) Intro (02:50) Act 1 - Extraction Chemistry: The Smelting Breakthrough (07:46) Act 2 - The Crystal Lattice & The Arsenic Gamble (12:19) Act 3 - Enter Tin: The Geopolitical Atom (15:32) Act 4 - The Collapse and the Chemistry of Yesterday (17:56) Conclusion

    19 min

  2. 4d ago

    Episode 1: Sparking Civilisation - The First Chemical Reaction (Fire)

    In the first, inaugural episode of the Chemistry Timeline, we travel back to the first time hominins harnessed chemistry. How did fire come to be part of our everyday lives, and how did it change our biology, our social skills, and our understanding of the material world? References: Attila, Y. (2018). The history of fire use and its effects on human sociality. DergiPark, 4(2), 112–125. Gowlett, J. A. J. (2016). The discovery of fire by humans: a long and convoluted process. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 371(1696), 20150164. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0164 Huang, C., Li, J., & Gao, X. (2022). Evidence of fire use by Homo erectus pekinensis: An XRD study of archaeological bones from Zhoukoudian Locality 1, China. Frontiers in Earth Science, 9, Article 811319. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.811319 Marin-Monfort, M. D., Shaw, C. L., Natalio, F., Grossman, L., Andrews, P., Campos, J., & Fernández-Jalvo, Y. (2026). New evidence for Early Pleistocene use of fire at Wonderwerk Cave (South Africa). PLoS ONE, 21(6), e0347480. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0347480 Roebroeks, W., & Villa, P. (2011). On the earliest evidence for habitual use of fire in Europe. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(13), 5209–5214. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1018116108 Wiessner, P. W. (2014). Embers of society: Firelight talk among the Ju/’hoansi Bushmen. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(39), 14027–14033. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1404212111 Wrangham, R. (2009). Catching fire: How cooking made us human. Basic Books. Script writing, recording and editing done by me, Jake. Sound effects and backing music from Pixabay. Noticed a mistake? Let me know at thechemistrytimelinepod@gmail.com Fancy making a shiny new cover art, or a unique theme song, reach out to me using the email above to discuss. Chapters: (00:00) Intro (03:03) Act 1: The Microscopic Mosh Pit (The Science of Combustion) (09:05) Act 2: The Pyrophilic Primate & The Muddy Evidence (14:02) Act 3: How Cooking Rewrote the Human Anatomy (18:07) Act 4: The Fireside Social Network (21:33) Conclusion

    24 min
  • 2 Episodes

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How did scientists discover the atom? Where does our understanding of metals and the material world come from? And how did we get from fire and rocks to smart phones and satellites. The Chemistry Timeline casts your mind back, telling you the story of the origins of Chemistry and our understanding of the world.

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