Big Bang Chemistry

Resources

The resources here can be used in the context of nitrogen compounds, the Haber process or organic chemistry.

Big bang chemistry gives students some information on the history of the role of alchemists and chemists in the development of explosives. It includes details of several of the scientists concerned, including Christian Schönbein, Ascanio Sobrero and Alfred Nobel. It also considers the role of Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch in the mass production of dynamite and TNT. This can be used with students simply as a story, as the basis of a timeline, to find out about Alfred Nobel and the development of dynamite or in conjunction with the questions provided in the activities.

This raises the ethical issues of chemists who discover explosives accidentally - as usually happened in the past - and chemists who deliberately work on developing explosives, as happens today. There are a number of questions which range from extracting information from Big Bang Chemistry through to considering the ethics of Nobel and Haber and writing an e-mail explaining to a friend why they have accepted or rejected a post researching a new explosive.

Information about the following explosives is provided :

Gunpowder; Nitrocellulose; Nitroglycerine; Dynamite; TNT.

Students are directed to a the "History of explosives" web site. This gives a fairly light hearted but quite detailed look at the history of explosives through to the end of the dominance of gunpowder to help them answer some of the questions in the activities.

Activities