THE CONTRIBUTION OF GREAT CHEMISTS TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHEMISTRY, MEDICINE AND PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCE

THE CONTRIBUTION OF GREAT CHEMISTS TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHEMISTRY, MEDICINE AND PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCE

Seth omari Mensah, group 7. Scientific adviser is Evgenia Grabovetskaya.

Daniel Rutherford a great and famous chemist who spent his early years as a student in Edinburgh University. He discovered Nitrogen; Nitrogen is an element which is gaseous in state, In the field of medicine for the cryopreservation: the long-term preservation of blood, blood components, other cells, body fluids or tissue samples and as a coolant for carbon dioxide surgical lasers.

In Pharmaceutical science: Gaseous nitrogen is commonly used for purging, pressure transferring, mixing and blanketing-protecting a process from moisture intrusion, oxidation, degradation and contamination.

Robert Boyle Born in Ireland.Studied at Eton College in England. He is also a great and famous chemist whose discovery was the litmus test. Litmus is an indicator for testing whether a substance is acidic or alkaline: acidic medium turns blue litmus red whiles alkaline or basic medium turns red litmus paper blue. This test has contributed greatly in medicine, pharmaceutical science and in modern chemistry even though it is the oldest indicator. In medicine it is used in nasogastric tube positioning though it is not effective enough and in pharmaceutical science it is used in testing of acidity or alkalinity of a substance so as modern chemistry.

Joseph Priestley is another famous and great chemist who discovered soda water and oxygen; Priestly studied at Nantwich Cheshire. Today everyone knows oxygen is essential for us to breathe. People, animals and plants all need this gas to live. Joseph Priestley was the first person to discover oxygen. He also invented soda water, the substance that makes soft drinks so fizzy. His discovery is called the electrifying discovery. In medicine provide a basis for virtually all modern anesthetic techniques restore tissue oxygen tension by improving oxygen availability in a wide range of conditions such as COPD, cyanosis, shock, severe hemorrhage, carbon monoxide poisoning, major trauma, cardiac/respiratory arrest.

LOUIS PASTEUR

Frieda Tangi Silvanus, group 9. Scientific adviser is Tatyana Tishakova.

Pasteur did a most important experiment disapproving the theory of spontaneous generation which demonstrated that fermentation is caused by the growth of micro organism and the emergent growth of bacteria in nutrient broths is due not to spontaneous generation but rather to biogenesis. His research showed that the growth of micro organisms was responsible for spoiling beverage such as beer, wine and milk, where he invented a process called pasteurization.This beverage contamination led him to an idea that micro organisms infecting animals and human caused disease.

His work on disease include that on chicken cholera where he noted that the weakened bacteria caused the chicken to be immune to disease, which was later applied to anthrax which affect cattle. He used other people rival method to create the anthrax vaccines which used an oxidizing agent potassium dichromate. Pasteur gave the artificially weakened disease a generic name “vaccines”. The first vaccine developed was for rabies by growing the virus in rabbit and then weakening it by drying the affected nerve tissue.

ALEXANDER FLEMING

Elifra P. Muchengwa, group 9. Scientific adviser is Tatyana Tishakova.

His greatest works pertaining to the above mentioned topic include the discovery of penicillin and the enzyme lysozyme.

He qualified with distinction in 1906 and began research at St. Mary's under Sir Almroth Wright, a pioneer in vaccine therapy.

In 1922 he described the antibacterial properties of lysozyme, a substance found in egg whites, mucus, and tears, which lysed, or dissolved, certain bacteria. Fleming found that lysozyme could turn a thick, milky white suspension of bacteria into a clear solution in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, lysozyme failed to destroy bacteria that caused human diseases and was never used as a medicine.

1928, Fleming was investigating the properties of staphylococci, ; he often forgot cultures that he worked on, and his lab in general was usually in chaos. After returning from a long holiday, Fleming noticed that many of his culture dishes were contaminated with a fungus, and he threw the dishes in disinfectant. But subsequently, he had to show a visitor what he had been researching, and so he retrieved some of the unsubmerged dishes that he would have otherwise discarded. He then noticed a zone around an invading fungus where the bacteria could not seem to grow. Fleming proceeded to isolate an extract from the mould, correctly identified it as being from the "Penicillium" genus, and therefore named the agent penicillin.

He investigated its positive anti-bacterial effect on many organisms, and noticed that it affected bacteria such as staphylococci, and indeed all Gram-positive pathogens (scarlet fever, pneumonia, meningitis, diphtheria) but unfortunately not typhoid or paratyphoid, for which he was seeking a cure at the time. It also affected gonorrhea, although this condition is caused by a Gram-negative pathogen.