Great Discoveries of Chemistry

The most important discovery, to me, is the discovery of the periodic table. Dmitry Mendeleyev was the founder of the periodic table, he discovered the 63 elements that were necessary to be on it. The periodic table was categorized by the weight in each row. In each row, the elements have something in common. The periodic table has lead to many recent discoveries. It helped create many different formulas for drugs and medications, and just the understanding of the subject of chemistry. It has helped create many new elements, by combining the original elements. Oxygen was also another important discovery. It has helped with industrial field, with the making of cell phones, machines, and there is still an endless list of items that have been created just because of oxygen. Joseph Priestly was the discoverer. Radioactivity was discovered by Marie Curie. Radioactivity was the start of something huge. Cancer and other diseases can be cured by it. This lead to the discovery of radium and polonium. Plastic was probably the most used thing in the world, but many people probably don't know how it came to be. John Wesley Hyatt was the creator. "...formulates celluloid plastic for use as a substitute for ivory in the manufacture of billiard balls. Celluloid is the first important synthetic plastic and is used as a substitute for expensive substances such as ivory, amber, horn and tortoiseshell. Later, Leo Baekeland invents hardened plastics, specifically Bakelite, a synthetic substitute for the shellac used in electronic insulation."

*Completed with Hannah LaBreque

Science of Addiction

Drugs are chemicals that tap into the brain's communication system and interfere with the way nerve cells normally send and receive information. Different drugs affect the body differently. Some drugs can even change the brain permanently.

Drugs like marijuana and heroin work by turning on neurons because their properties work like a neurotransmitter, they can even trick receptors and work as nerve cells. The problem with this is that they send out abnormal messages "messing up" the body.

Drugs like amphetamine cause cells to produce an abnormal amount of neurotransmitters as well as preventing the recycling of brain chemicals. This causes an over exaggerated message sent out to the body which greatly wears the communication channels down. It could be compared to the difference between someone whispering in your ear and screaming into the microphone.

The one thing that all drugs have in common, be it nicotine, cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine, is that they all reward the brains limbic system. When the brain responds to feelings of pleasure it releases dopamine into the blood system. Drugs cause dopamine to flood the system. The flood of domamine produces the "high" and is highly addictive.