Chemical and Nuclear Reactions.
This course is a continuation of From Newton to the Neutron: Matter, Energy, and Void (Part 1, Section 1). In that course, we explored mass, force, work, energy, the gas laws, charge, states of matter, valence electrons, ions, and atomic structure. This course builds on those foundations with four lessons on chemical reactions (Part 2, Section 1) and five lectures on nuclear reactions (Part 3, Section 2).
What is the nature of matter and energy? What is physics? What is chemistry? What is the difference between a chemical and a nuclear reaction? In this course, we minimize the mathematical complexity to focus on the underlying scientific concepts and their historical development.
We begin with Isaac Newton, who formulated the concept of force, defined mass as a measure of matter using inertia, and explained how forces change the motion of objects according to their mass. These ideas eventually led to the concept of energy—the ability to perform work and overcome resistance. Work, a form of energy, was defined as a force acting on an object through a distance.
Beyond mass, scientists discovered another force-related property of matter: charge. Work and heat energy were found to be derived from gases, which led to the concept of atoms. Further discoveries revealed that atoms contain subatomic particles that carry charge, leading to a quest to understand their structure. By 1932, with the discovery of the neutron, the modern concept of the atom was largely complete.
Along the way, scientists observed that some atoms undergo spontaneous radioactive decay, emitting distinct particles with different masses and charges. These processes led to the discovery of transmutation, where a parent element transforms into a daughter element, sometimes releasing radiation in the form of electromagnetic waves.
In 1933, Leo Szilard hypothesized that atoms absorbing neutrons could split into new elements while emitting additional neutrons, creating a chain reaction. The following year, Enrico Fermi demonstrated that neutron capture could induce radioactivity. In 1938, Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner discovered the first example of nuclear fission in Germany. Alarmed by the implications, Szilard drafted a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, signed by Albert Einstein and other physicists, warning of the possibility of a fission-based atomic bomb. This marked the beginning of the race for nuclear weapons.
During the 1930s, another nuclear process—nuclear fusion—was proposed as the energy source of the Sun. In the 1950s, humans first harnessed uncontrolled nuclear fusion in the form of a thermonuclear bomb. Scientists continue to pursue controlled nuclear fusion as a potential source of abundant, clean energy with no radioactive byproducts, a solution to the global energy crisis.
Nuclear fusion in stars, known as nucleosynthesis, produces elements up to iron. Heavier elements, including those found in our bodies, form through cosmic neutron capture. As the famous lyrics say:
"We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion-year-old carbon, and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden."
Principal Geologist at Provenance Geosciences and founder of Carbon Negative Water and Energy 501 (c) (3)
Dr. Hoaglund is a geologist with more than 35 years of experience in environmental research, teaching, and consulting in the private sector, government, and academia. He received his BS (1985) and MS (1987) degrees in geology from the University of Wisconsin, worked in research and consulting in Wichita, Kansas on projects related to ground water supply and contamination, then returned to academics in 1991, receiving his doctoral degree in geological sciences from Michigan State University in 1996. As part of his dissertation, he completed the US Geological Survey (USGS) Regional Aquifer Systems Analysis (RASA) groundwater model of the Michigan Basin, a model used to calculate modern and Pleistocene groundwater and brine discharge to the Great Lakes and rivers in Michigan. He taught hydrogeology, groundwater modeling, environmental geology, and glacial / climate geology at the University of Michigan before joining the Pennsylvania State University research on regional climate-hydrologic models, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, and groundwater nitrate studies, funded by the US Department of Agriculture. In 2007, Dr. Hoaglund resumed groundwater consulting, focusing primarily on sites involving perchlorate groundwater contamination in southern California. While reviewing the reactions involved in the manufacture of perchlorate, he recognized the potential for the electrolysis reaction to consume salt waste while producing hydrogen. Later, reviewing DOW documents describing the reasons and methods for the air-tight conditions required for the storage of sodium hydroxide byproducts, he recognized the potential for the aeration reaction to sequester carbon into bicarbonate. Dr. Hoaglund founded Carbon Negative Water Solutions, LLC in 2010 to pursue the trifecta of desalination, water resource development, hydrogen production, and CO2 sequestration. In addition to continued groundwater consulting, he wrote extensively about the potential for coupling ocean desalination with carbon sequestration, and approached several water and energy companies with the idea to promote mutually beneficial cooperation. He discovered these companies operate in separate universes on projects that are planned over a decade or more, and are reluctant to adopt new technologies over the established and state-approved method for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation: offsetting. In 2015, Dr. Hoaglund relocated to Las Vegas to accept contract work with Navarro Research and Engineering for the Department of Energy, assisting with groundwater characterization and modeling of the Nevada National Security Site (formerly Nevada Test Site), work related to the legacy groundwater contamination associated with historic nuclear testing. In 2019 he transitioned the Carbon Negative Water Solutions LLC to the non-profit Carbon Negative Water and Energy. In addition to the non-profit, he maintains a private research consulting and e-learning service, Provenance Geosciences.
