Jacobus Henricus "Henry" van't Hoff, Jr. was a Dutch physical chemist. A influential theoretical chemist of his time, van't Hoff was the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, his pioneering work helped found the modern theory of chemical affinity, chemical equilibrium, chemical kinetics, chemical thermodynamics. In his 1874 pamphlet van't Hoff formulated the theory of the tetrahedral carbon atom and laid the foundations of stereochemistry. In 1875, he predicted the correct structures of allenes and cumulenes as well as their axial chirality, he is widely considered one of the founders of physical chemistry as the discipline is known today. The third of seven children, van ’t Hoff was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, 30 August 1852, his father was Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff, Sr. a physician, his mother was Alida Kolff van't Hoff. From a young age, he was interested in science and nature, took part in botanical excursions. In his early school years, he showed a strong interest in philosophy.
He considered Lord Byron to be his idol. Against the wishes of his father, van't Hoff chose to study chemistry. First, he enrolled at Delft University of Technology in September 1869, studied until 1871, when he passed his final exam on 8 July and obtained a degree of chemical technologist, he passed all his courses in two years. He enrolled at University of Leiden to study chemistry, he studied in Bonn, with Friedrich Kekulé and in Paris with C. A. Wurtz, he received his doctorate under Eduard Mulder at the University of Utrecht in 1874. In 1878, van't Hoff married Johanna Francina Mees, they had two daughters, Johanna Francina and Aleida Jacoba, two sons, Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff III and Govert Jacob. Van't Hoff died on 1 March 1911, at Steglitz, near Berlin, of tuberculosis. Van't Hoff earned his earliest reputation in the field of organic chemistry. In 1874, he accounted for the phenomenon of optical activity by assuming that the chemical bonds between carbon atoms and their neighbors were directed towards the corners of a regular tetrahedron.
This three-dimensional structure accounted for the isomers found in nature. He shares credit for this with the French chemist Joseph Le Bel, who independently came up with the same idea. Three months before his doctoral degree was awarded, van't Hoff published this theory, which today is regarded as the foundation of stereochemistry, first in a Dutch pamphlet in the fall of 1874, in the following May in a small French book entitled La chimie dans l'espace. A German translation appeared in 1877, at a time when the only job van't Hoff could find was at the Veterinary School in Utrecht. In these early years his theory was ignored by the scientific community, was criticized by one prominent chemist, Hermann Kolbe. Kolbe wrote: "A Dr. J. H. van ’t Hoff of the Veterinary School at Utrecht has no liking for exact chemical investigation. He has considered it more convenient to mount Pegasus and to proclaim in his ‘La chimie dans l’espace’ how, in his bold flight to the top of the chemical Parnassus, the atoms appeared to him to be arranged in cosmic space."
However, by about 1880 support for van't Hoff's theory by such important chemists as Johannes Wislicenus and Viktor Meyer brought recognition. In 1884, van't Hoff published his research on chemical kinetics, titled Études de Dynamique chimique, in which he described a new method for determining the order of a reaction using graphics and applied the laws of thermodynamics to chemical equilibria, he introduced the modern concept of chemical affinity. In 1886, he showed a similarity between the behaviour of dilute gases. In 1887, he and German chemist Wilhelm Ostwald founded an influential scientific magazine named Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie, he worked on Svante Arrhenius's theory of the dissociation of electrolytes and in 1889 provided physical justification for the Arrhenius equation. In 1896, he became a professor at the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin, his studies of the salt deposits at Stassfurt were an important contribution to Prussia's chemical industry. Van't Hoff became a lecturer in physics at the Veterinary College in Utrecht.
He worked as a professor of chemistry and geology at the University of Amsterdam for 18 years before becoming the chairman of the chemistry department. In 1896, van't Hoff moved to Germany, where he finished his career at the University of Berlin in 1911. In 1901, he received the first Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work with solutions, his work showed that dilute solutions follow mathematical laws that resemble the laws describing the behavior of gases. In 1885, van't Hoff was appointed as a Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. Other distinctions include honorary doctorates from Harvard and Yale, Victoria University, the University of Manchester, University of Heidelberg, he was awarded the Davy Medal of the Royal Society in 1893, elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1897. He was awarded the Helmholtz Medal of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, appointed Knight of the French Legion of Honour and Senator in the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft. Van't Hoff became an Honorary Member of the British Chemical Society in London, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Chemical Society, the Académie des Sciences in Pa
William Bridges-Adams was an English theatre director and designer, associated with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, from 1919 until 1934. William Bridges-Adams was born in Harrow, the only son of Walter Bridges Adams and his wife, Mary Jane née Daltry and grandson of the author and inventor William Bridges Adams, he was educated at Worcester College, Oxford. At Oxford, Bridges-Adams joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society and played the leading roles of Leontes in The Winter's Tale and Prospero in The Tempest, but his talent for direction and design was leading him from acting to a backstage role, he staged two operas for Sir Hugh Allen, directed the Oxford millenary pageant. His design was influenced by the Post-Impressionists and by personal contacts with Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon. After Oxford, Bridges-Adams began working in the professional theatre in 1911 under the managements of Laurence Irving, William Poel, Harley Granville-Barker and George Alexander.
During this period Bridges-Adams worked as an actor, but more as a director and as a designer for other directors' productions. His first London production was in 1912, he became producer for the Bristol Old Vic repertory seasons, 1914–1915, the Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool, 1916–1917, his designs for stage scenery included The Loving Heart at the New Theatre in 1918 and no fewer than nine Gilbert and Sullivan operas for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, beginning with Iolanthe in 1915, followed by Patience, The Sorcerer, The Pirates of Penzance, Princess Ida, The Mikado, The Yeomen of the Guard, The Gondoliers, all in 1919, Ruddigore. In 1919, Bridges-Adams was appointed director of the Stratford-on-Avon Festival in succession to Sir Frank Benson. There were doubts about the continuing viability of the festival, Bridges-Adams realised that changes and new ideas would be necessary, he threw himself into the task with great enthusiasm. His ambition was to win for Stratford an international status on a par with that of the Salzburg Festival.
He secured the services of Theodore Komisarjevsky to direct The Merchant of Venice and Macbeth, he himself produced 29 of Shakespeare's plays between 1919 and his retirement in 1934. Unusually for the times, he presented Shakespeare's plays without cuts in the text, thereby earning the nickname'Mr Unabridges-Adams'; the original Memorial Theatre at Stratford was gutted by a disastrous fire in March 1926. Bridges-Adams' design for the stage layout of the replacement theatre was followed by architect Elisabeth Scott when the new theatre was built in 1932. In 1934 he resigned as director of the festival; the Times, in its obituary notice states tactfully, that he felt new blood was needed, but the Dictionary of National Biography states that he was frustrated by the governors' failure to back him in his attempts to gain an international status for the theatre with more guest directors of international repute. In 1936 Bridges-Adams directed Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex at Covent Garden, he was appointed to the council of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and to the building advisory committee for the National Theatre.
From 1937 to 1944 he worked as dramatic adviser to the British Council, promoting foreign tours of British works by British stage companies. His publications include: The Shakespeare Country, 1932. William Bridges-Adams died at his home in Bantry, aged 76, was buried in the Abbey cemetery at Bantry. Sally Beauman: The Royal Shakespeare Company: A History of Ten Decades, Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-212209-6 Marian Pringle: The Theatres of Stratford-upon-Avon 1875 – 1992: An Architectural History, Stratford upon Avon Society ISBN 0-9514178-1-9
Diplolaemus is a genus of lizards in the family Leiosauridae. The genus is endemic to southern South America. Diplolaemus contains the following four species: Diplolaemus bibronii Bell, 1843 – Bibron's iguanaRange: Argentina, ChileDiplolaemus darwinii Bell, 1843 – Darwin's iguanaRange: Argentina, ChileDiplolaemus leopardinus – leopard iguanaRange: Argentina Diplolaemus sexcinctus Cei, Scolaro & Videla, 2003Range: Argentina, Chile Bell T. In: Darwin C; the Zoology of the Voyage of the H. M. S. Beagle, Under the Command of Captain Fitzroy, R. N. During the Years 1832 to 1836. Part V. Reptiles. London: Smith, Elder and Co. vi + 50 pp. + Plates 1-20.. Boulenger GA. Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum. Second Edition. Volume II. Iguanidæ... London: Trustees of the British Museum.. Xiii + 497 pp. + Plates I-XXIV