Brooklyn College
City University of New York

Science at a Distance

topic

Biological Energy

This Bio-Module requires the use of the text book "Exploring Life" by Professor John Blamire.

The Words of Science

Chlorine

A chemical element with the atomic number 17 and an atomic mass of 35.435; symbol Cl.
From the Greek word chloros,.meaning green.

In 1774, Karl Wilhelm Scheele poured hydrochloric acid on manganese dioxide and almost choked from the greenish gas the fumed off the mixture. He didn't realize what he had discovered, and called the gas an oxide.
It was not until the British chemist Sir Humphry Davy worked with the gas in 1810, that he realized that the new gas did not in fact contain oxygen. Defying current thinking, he boldly proposed that the choking green gas was in fact a new element, and named it after its color.


Words of Science