Haircolor Changes After You Die

If you've ever seen a mummy in a museum, you might have thought the ancients went a little overboard with henna and other red dyes. While people have colored their hair practically forever, it's more likely what you're seeing is the change in haircolor that occurs after a person dies. The color of hair comes from the mixture of two melanin pigments: eumelanin (yellow-brown-black) and pheomelanin (red). Pheomelanin is more stable, so over time the eumelanin oxidizes while most of the pheomelanin remains. This is reason most Egypian mummies appear to have reddish hair. The change occurs more slowly under dry oxidizing conditions, such as burials in ice or sand, than under wet reducing conditions, such as burials in wooden coffins or damp caves. Therefore, you would expect to see a more faster or more dramatic haircolor change in a body from the jungle, for example, than a corpse from the desert.

Branches of Chemistry

These were some of the different branches of chemistry. Chemistry is a very vast subject as it delves into the enormity of the universe. While dealing with the study of the structure and behavior of matter, it makes an attempt to encompass the study of the fundamental units that make up the universe. Here are some examples:

Biochemistry - Biochemistry is the branch of chemistry concerned with the chemical reactions that occur inside living organisms.

Biochemistry includes molecular, cellular, and organismal chemical activities. Metabolic pathways and enzymology, biochemical structures and sequences, and genome databases.

General Chemistry - General chemistry examines the structure of matter and the reaction between matter and energy. It is the basis for the other branches of chemistry.

Inorganic Chemistry It is the branch of chemistry that relates to the structure, composition and behavior of inorganic compounds. All the substances other than the carbon-hydrogen compounds are classified under the group of inorganic substances. Oxides, sulphides and carbonates form the important classes of inorganic compounds. Industrial inorganic chemistry deals with the branch of applied science such as the manufacture of fertilizers, while the descriptive inorganic chemistry deals with the classification of compounds based on their properties.

Organic Chemistry The substances that primarily consist of carbon and hydrogen are termed as organic. The discipline that deals with the study of the structure, composition and the chemical properties of organic compounds is known as organic chemistry. This branch also deals with the chemical reactions that are used in the preparation of organic chemical compounds.

Analytical Chemistry: This is a very important branch of chemistry that deals with the analysis of the chemical properties of natural and man-made materials. The study does not restrict itself to any particular type of chemical compounds. Instrumental analysis is a prominent part of modern analytical chemistry. Analytical chemistry primarily deals with the study of the chemicals present in a substance, in what quantity they are, and how they define the chemical properties of the substance.

Physical Chemistry: This branch of chemistry applies the theories of physics to atoms and subatomic particles. When physical chemistry is applied to the chemical interaction between atoms and subatomic particles, the study is known by the name, quantum mechanics. It is a relatively vast field that deals with intermolecular forces, rates of chemical reactions as well the conductivity of different materials.

General Chronological Categories of Chemistry

Due to the amount of time chemistry takes up on the timeline, the science is split into four general chronological categories. The four categories are: prehistoric times -, (alchemy), (traditional chemistry) and (modern chemistry).

PRE-HISTORIC TIME  (beginning of the Christian era):

-Known metals were recorded and listed in conjunction with heavenly bodies.

-Democritus proclaims the atom to be the simplest unit of matter. All matter was composed of atoms

-Aristotle declares the existence of only four elements: fire, air, water and earth. All matter is made up of these four elements and matter had four properties: hot, cold, dry and wet.

ALCHEMY (beginning of the Christian era - end of 17th century)

-Influenced greatly by Aristotle's ideas, alchemists attempted to transmute cheap metals to gold. The substance used for this conversion was called the Philosopher's Stone.

- Alchemists not only wanted to convert metals to gold, but they also wanted to find a chemical concoction that would enable people to live longer and cure all ailments. This elixir of life never happened either.

TRADITIONAL CHEMISTRY (end of 17th century - mid 19th century)

-John Dalton publishes his Atomic Theory which states that all matter is composed of atoms, which are small and indivisible.

-Joseph Priestley heated calx of mercury, collected the colorless gas and burned different substances in this colorless gas. Priestley called the gas "dephlogisticated air", but it was actually oxygen. It was Antoine Lavoisier who disproved the Phlogiston Theory. He renamed the "dephlogisticated air" oxygen when he realized that the oxygen was the part of air that combines with substances as they burn. Because of Lavoisier's work, Lavoisier is now called the "Father of Modern Chemistry"

MODERNY CHEMISTRY (mid 19th century – present)

-Was created the first vacuum tube by Heinrich Geissler

- Eugene Goldstein discovered positive particles by using a tube filled with hydrogen gas (this tube was similar to Thomson's tube...see 1897). The positive particle had a charge equal and opposite to the electron. It also had a mass of 1.66E-24 grams or one atomic mass unit. The positive particle was named the proton.

- Robert Millikan discovered the mass of an electron by introducing charged oil droplets into an electrically charged field. The charge of the electron was found to be 1.602E-19 coulombs. Using Thomson's mass ration, Millikan found the mass of one electron to be 9.11E-28 grams. Millikan received the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery.

- The neutron was founded by James Chadwick

CHEMISTRY

The chemistry studies the composition, structure, properties, and reactions of matter, especially of atomic and molecular systems.

 A knowledge of basic chemistry is important for understanding just about any area of biology from the function of cells to the behavior of organisms and the ecological relationships between organisms and their environment.

Chemistry is a branch of science that has been around for a long time. In fact, chemistry is known to date back to as far as the prehistoric times.