Who is Jöns Jakob Berzelius?
Q: Who is Jöns Jakob Berzelius?
A: Jöns Jakob Berzelius was a Swedish chemist who invented the modern chemical notation. He is considered one of the fathers of modern chemistry.
Q: Where did he study?
A: Berzelius graduated from Uppsala University as a physician and later became a professor of medicine and surgery at the Stockholm School of Surgery in 1807.
Q: What did he create?
A: Berzelius created a table of relative atomic weights, with oxygen set to 100, which gave evidence for the atomic hypothesis that chemical compounds are made up of atoms combined in whole number amounts. He also created a system of chemical notation where elements were given simple written labels and proportions were shown by numbers - this is still used today but with subscript numbers instead of superscripts as used by Berzelius.
Q: What elements did he discover?
A: Berzelius discovered silicon, selenium, thorium, and cerium while students working in his laboratory found lithium and vanadium.
Q: What was his contribution to organic chemistry?
A: Berzelius showed the difference between organic compounds (those made with carbon) and inorganic compounds. He helped Gerhardus Johannes Mulder analyze organic compounds such as coffee, tea and proteins - coining the term 'protein' himself after Mulder noticed they all had similar formulas.
Q: How did he help other scientists?
A: Berzelius wrote extensively on chemistry topics which helped many leading scientists like Claude Louis Berthollet, Humphry Davy, Friedrich Wöhler and Eilhard Mitscherlich as well as many lesser-known scientists further their research.
