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The Bunsen burner is such a familiar fixture of chemistry labs that its reputation reaches students even before they enter the classroom. As an icon of science, it permeates popular culture. But where did the Bunsen burner come from? Who invented it? You might hope to chuckle at the absurdly obvious: "why, Bunsen, of course!" But a brief foray into history may be warranted before placing too significant a wager on the "obvious."

Robert Bunsen, whose name we associate with the burner, was a 19th-century German chemist of some renown. He worked on explosive organic arsenic compounds--leading to the loss of one eye--and, later, on gases from volcanoes, geysers and blast furnaces. With Kirchoff he contributed to our understanding of the meaning of spectra lines. (He also gained note for not bathing--one woman of polite society remarked that Bunsen was so charming that she would like to kiss him, but she would have to wash him first.) Bunsen invented many bits of laboratory apparatus: the spectroscope, the carbon-pole battery, an ice calorimeter and vapor calorimeter, the thermopile, and the filter pump--but not, as one might imagine, the gas burner that bears his name. Rather, the "Bunsen" burner was developed by Bunsen's laboratory assistant, Peter Desdega. Desdega himself likely borrowed from earlier designs by Aimé Argand and Michael Faraday. So why does Bunsen get the implicit credit? --And why do we know so little about Desdega that we cannot add much to his story?

"Bunsen's" burner illustrates an important dimension of science frequently omitted in teaching about science: professional credit. Eponymous laws and labels--whose names reflect their discoverers--appear throughout science: Snell's law of refraction, Gay-Lussac's law of gases, the Hardy-Weinberg model of population genetics, the volt (named for Alexander Volta), etc. The naming of laws for their discoverers seems appropriate for honoring the scientists--and the human names are handy for reminding students that science is done by real persons. But in this system, one person and only one person gets all the credit. Focusing on great individuals can hide the collective nature of science, especially the role of technicians such as Desdega. How do we distribute the credit where appropriate?

The great Isaac newton is frequently quoted for expressing the humbling effect of the collective effort in science: "If I have seen further," he once professed, "it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Newton's claim, we now know, betrayed a false modesty. Newton's bitter priority dispute with Leibniz over the invention of the calculus, in particular, bears witness to his ambition and obsession with prestige--and his political maneuvers in trying to achieve it. In that case, at least, Newton tried to further his own stature "by standing on the claims of competitors." In similar ways, perhaps, the contributions of technical workers often get buried when we allow theoretical discoveries of the work of their masters to overshadow them. Bunsen's burner--or perhaps the Desdega burner--is a notable example.

The story of the Petri dish is an interesting exception--while at the same time underscoring the general pattern of invisible technicians. Julius Richard Petri (1852-1921) worked for the master of "germ theory" in Germany in the late 1800s, Robert Koch (1843-1910; pronounced as a gutteral "coke"). Initially, bacteria were cultured in liquid broth--a practice captured in our famous images of experiments on spontaneous generation. But Koch saw the advantage of growing bacteria on a solid medium instead. By spreading out mixtures of microorganisms on a solid surface, he could separate individual types in isolated colonies. With pure colonies, he could investigate the effects of each bacterium. The method allowed Koch to identify the specific organisms that cause tuberculosis, cholera, diptheria, among many other diseases--and then to develop vaccines.

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11y ago
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12y ago

Robert Bunsen lived in a cottage with his dog barley. Then one day he became a famous scientist when he created the bunsen burner named after him. From that day on his life changed. I hope my answer has been useful to you! :)

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12y ago

it was invented my German scientist Robert Bunsen in 1855

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13y ago

If u put ur face up to it, you'll know what will happen, idiot!.~.!

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