stackyFACTSLord Rayleigh spent years obsessing over why nitrogen extracted from the air was always marginally heavier than nitrogen derived from chemical compounds.
Lord Rayleigh spent years obsessing over why nitrogen extracted from the air was always marginally heavier than nitrogen derived from chemical compounds. Most scientists would just blame sloppy lab tech and move on. Rayleigh stubbornly insisted the air was hiding something. He was right: a completely lazy, unreactive noble gas making up nearly 1% of the atmosphere. That’s how weaponized pedantry discovered argon and secured a Nobel Prize.
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