Svante Arrhenius
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Svante August Arrhenius, born on 19 February 1859 and dying on 2 October 1927, was a Swedish scientist who became the first Swedish Nobel laureate when he received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[1] By applying physical chemistry principles, Arrhenius made the first calculations showing that rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels would increase Earth's surface temperature.[2]
Life and work
Arrhenius was born at Vik near Uppsala to Svante Gustav and Carolina Thunberg Arrhenius, and his father worked as a land surveyor for Uppsala University.[3] He learned to read at age three and showed early mathematical promise.[4] Dissatisfied with his instructors at Uppsala, he moved in 1881 to study under Erik Edlund at the Physical Institute of the Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.[5][4] His 1884 dissertation on electrolytic conductivity received a fourth-class degree, later reclassified as third-class.[6]
He sent copies to prominent scientists, and Wilhelm Ostwald traveled to Uppsala to offer him a job.[7][4] Arrhenius declined, staying near his ill father, and accepted a lectureship at Uppsala.[7][4] After his father died in 1885, a travel grant let him study with Ostwald, Kohlrausch, Boltzmann, and van 't Hoff.[8][4] Arrhenius took on the role of director at the Nobel Institute in 1905 and held that position until his death.[1]
What the cited sources add
The Magnet Academy account notes that Arrhenius's barely passing dissertation did not discourage him, and his persistence led to acceptance of his ideas on electrolytes, acids, and bases.[4] The same source reports that Arrhenius suffered from depression during his calculations, brought on by a brief unhappy marriage and divorce.[9] NNDB.com lists his religion as atheist and his cause of death as respiratory failure.[10] The Magnet Academy account says he developed the concept of activation energy and the Arrhenius equation.[4]
According to Baum's article, Arrhenius's 1896 computation of temperature rise from doubled carbon dioxide is surprisingly similar to what current models predict.[9] Baum writes that in his 1908 book Worlds in the Making, Arrhenius told readers that increasing carbon dioxide would lead to improved climates and more plentiful harvests.[9]
References
- Wikipedia, "Svante Arrhenius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Arrhenius, Svante August" in Chambers's Encyclopædia. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 1, p. 635. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Svante Arrhenius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dessler, "Introduction to Modern Climate Change", Cambridge University Press, 2021, p. 222; Baum, "Future Calculations: The first climate change believer", Distillations, 2016, p. 38–39 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Svante Arrhenius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Who's Who of Nobel Prize Winners, 1901-1995", Oryx Press, 1996 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Laboratory, "Svante Arrhenius - Magnet Academy", nationalmaglab.org. facts only, no text reused. nationalmaglab.org
- Wikipedia, "Svante Arrhenius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Laboratory, "Svante Arrhenius - Magnet Academy", nationalmaglab.org (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Svante Arrhenius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1903", www.nobelprize.org (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Svante Arrhenius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The New Columbia Encyclopedia", Columbia University, 1975, p. 155; "The New Encyclopædia Britannica", Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1992, p. 587; "Dictionary of Scientific Biography", Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970, p. 296–302 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Svante Arrhenius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Svante Arrhenius", Encyclopædia Britannica (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Baum, "Future Calculations: The first climate change believer", Distillations, 2016, p. 38–39. facts only, no text reused. sciencehistory.org
- NNDB.com, "Svante Arrhenius", Soylent Communications. facts only, no text reused. nndb.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Svante Arrhenius (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Svante Arrhenius (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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