Editing Svante Arrhenius (section)

==Biography==

===Early years===
Arrhenius was born on 19 February 1859 at [[Vik Castle|Vik]] (which can also be spelled as Wik or Wijk), near [[Uppsala]], [[Kingdom of Sweden]], the son of Svante Gustav and Carolina Thunberg Arrhenius, who were Lutheran.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0c4PgFznyMC&q=%22Christina+Thunberg+Arrhenius%22+%22lutheran%22|isbn = 9780897748995|title = The Who's Who of Nobel Prize Winners, 1901-1995|year = 1996|publisher = Oryx Press}}</ref> His father had been a [[surveying|land surveyor]] for [[Uppsala University]], moving up to a supervisory position. At the age of three, Arrhenius taught himself to read without the encouragement of his parents and, by watching his father's addition of numbers in his account books, became an [[arithmetic]]al [[child prodigy|prodigy]]. In later life, Arrhenius was profoundly passionate about mathematical concepts, data analysis and discovering their relationships and laws.{{fact|date=June 2023}}

At age eight, he entered the [[Katedralskolan, Uppsala|local cathedral school]], starting in the fifth grade, distinguishing himself in [[physics]] and [[mathematics]], and graduating as the youngest and most able student in 1876.{{fact|date=June 2023}}

===Ionic disassociation===
At the University of Uppsala, he was dissatisfied with the chief instructor of physics and the only faculty member who could have supervised him in chemistry, [[Per Teodor Cleve]], so he left to study at the Physical Institute of the Swedish Academy of Sciences in [[Stockholm]] under the physicist [[Erik Edlund]] in 1881.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Laboratory |first=National High Magnetic Field |title=Svante Arrhenius - Magnet Academy |url=https://nationalmaglab.org/magnet-academy/history-of-electricity-magnetism/pioneers/svante-arrhenius/ |access-date=2024-04-15 |website=nationalmaglab.org |language=en}}</ref>

His work focused on the [[Conductivity (electrolytic)|conductivities]] of [[electrolyte]]s. In 1884, based on this work, he submitted a 150-page dissertation on electrolytic conductivity to Uppsala for the [[Doctor of Philosophy|doctorate]]. It did not impress the professors, who included Cleve, and he received a fourth-class degree, but upon his defense it was reclassified as third-class. Later, extensions of this very work would earn him the [[List of Nobel laureates in Chemistry|1903 Nobel Prize in Chemistry]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1903/index.html|title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1903|website=www.nobelprize.org|access-date=18 March 2018}}</ref>

Arrhenius put forth 56 [[theses]] in his 1884 dissertation, most of which would still be accepted today unchanged or with minor modifications. The most important idea in the dissertation was his explanation of the fact that solid crystalline salts disassociate into paired charged particles when dissolved, for which he would win the 1903 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Arrhenius's explanation was that in forming a [[Solution (chemistry)|solution]], the salt disassociates into charged particles that [[Michael Faraday]] had given the name [[ion]]s many years earlier. Faraday's belief had been that ions were produced in the process of [[electrolysis]], that is, an external direct current source of electricity was necessary to form ions. Arrhenius proposed that, even in the absence of an electric current, [[aqueous solution]]s of salts contained ions. He thus proposed that chemical reactions in solution were reactions between ions.<ref name="columbia">{{cite book|editor1-last=Harris|editor1-first=William|editor2-last=Levey|editor2-first=Judith|title=The New Columbia Encyclopedia|date=1975|publisher=Columbia University|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-231035-729|page=[https://archive.org/details/newcolumbiaencyc00harr/page/155 155]|edition=4th|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/newcolumbiaencyc00harr/page/155}}</ref><ref name="EncBrit">{{cite book|editor1-last=McHenry|editor1-first=Charles|title=The New Encyclopædia Britannica|date=1992|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.|location=Chicago|isbn=978-085-229553-3|page=587|volume=1|edition=15}}</ref><ref name="SciBio">{{cite book|editor1-last=Cillispie|editor1-first=Charles|title=Dictionary of Scientific Biography|date=1970|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-684101-125|pages=296–302|edition=1}}</ref>

The dissertation did not impress the professors at Uppsala, but Arrhenius sent it to a number of scientists in Europe who were developing the new science of [[physical chemistry]], such as [[Rudolf Clausius]], [[Wilhelm Ostwald]], and [[Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff]]. 
They were far more impressed, and Ostwald even came to Uppsala to persuade Arrhenius to join his research team in Riga. Arrhenius declined, however, as he preferred to stay in Sweden-Norway for a while (his father was very ill and would die in 1885) and had received an appointment at Uppsala.<ref name="columbia"/><ref name="EncBrit"/><ref name="SciBio"/>

In an extension of his [[ion|ionic theory]] Arrhenius proposed definitions for [[acid]]s and [[Base (chemistry)|bases]], in 1884. He believed that acids were substances that produce [[hydrogen ions]] in solution and that bases were substances that produce [[hydroxide]] ions in solution.

===Middle period===
[[File:Arrhenius, Svante August – Lehrbuch der kosmischen Physik, 1903 – BEIC 6781113.jpg|thumb|''Lehrbuch der kosmischen Physik'', 1903]]

In 1885, Arrhenius next received a travel grant from the Swedish Academy of Sciences, which enabled him to study with Ostwald in [[Riga]] (now in [[Latvia]]), with [[Friedrich Kohlrausch (physicist)|Friedrich Kohlrausch]] in [[Würzburg]], [[Germany]], with [[Ludwig Boltzmann]] in [[Graz, Austria]], and with [[Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff]] in [[Amsterdam]].

In 1889, Arrhenius explained the fact that most reactions require added heat energy to proceed by formulating the concept of [[activation energy]], an energy barrier that must be overcome before two molecules will react. The [[Arrhenius equation]] gives the quantitative basis of the relationship between the activation energy and the rate at which a reaction proceeds.

In 1891, he became a lecturer at the Stockholm University College (''Stockholms Högskola'', now [[Stockholm University]]), being promoted to professor of physics (with much opposition) in 1895, and [[Rector (academia)|rector]] in 1896.

===Nobel Prizes===
About 1900, Arrhenius became involved in setting up the Nobel Institutes and the [[Nobel Prize]]s. He was elected a member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]] in 1901. For the rest of his life, he would be a member of the [[Nobel Committee]] on Physics and a de facto member of the Nobel Committee on Chemistry.  He used his positions to arrange prizes for his friends ([[Jacobus van 't Hoff]], [[Wilhelm Ostwald]], [[Theodore William Richards |Theodore Richards]]) and to attempt to deny them to his enemies ([[Paul Ehrlich]], [[Walther Nernst]], [[Dmitri Mendeleev]]).<ref>Patrick Coffey, Cathedrals of Science: ''The Personalities and Rivalries That Made Modern Chemistry'', Oxford University Press, 2008,</ref> In 1901 Arrhenius was elected to the Swedish Academy of Sciences, against strong opposition. In 1903 he became the first Swede to be awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]]. 
In 1905, upon the founding of the Nobel Institute for Physical Research at Stockholm, he was appointed [[Rector (academia)|rector]] of the institute, the position where he remained until retirement in 1927.

In 1911, he won the first Willard Gibbs Award.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://chicagoacs.org/content.php?page=Willard_Gibbs_Award|title=Willard Gibbs Award |website=chicagoacs.org |access-date=18 March 2018}}</ref>

===Society memberships===
He was elected an International Member of the United States [[National Academy of Sciences]] in 1908.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Svante A. Arrhenius |url=https://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/20001930.html |access-date=2023-11-27 |website=www.nasonline.org}}</ref>

He was elected an Honorary Member of the [[Royal Netherlands Chemical Society|Netherlands Chemical Society]] in 1909.<ref>[https://en.kncv.nl/kncv/honorary-members Honorary members] - website of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society</ref>

He became a Foreign Member of the [[List of Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1910|Royal Society]] (ForMemRS) in 1910.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://royalsociety.org/about-us/fellowship/fellows/|title=Fellows of the Royal Society|author=Royal Society}}</ref>

He was elected an International Member of the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1911.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Svante+A.+Arrhenius&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-11-27 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

In 1912, he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A|url=http://amacad.org:80/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf#page=14&zoom=auto,-76,792|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060618085753/http://amacad.org:80/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf#page=14&zoom=auto,-76,792|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 June 2006|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=25 April 2011}} Page 14, third column, on the right.</ref>

In 1919, he became foreign member of the [[Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00004828 |title=Svante August Arrhenius (1859–1927) |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=19 July 2015}}</ref>

===Later years===
[[File:Arrhenius family grave.jpg|thumb|Arrhenius family grave in [[Uppsala]]]]
Eventually, Arrhenius's theories became generally accepted and he turned to other scientific topics. In 1902, he began to investigate [[physiology|physiological]] problems in terms of chemical theory. He determined that reactions in living organisms and in the test tube followed the same laws.

In 1904, he delivered at the [[University of California]] a course of lectures, the object of which was to illustrate the application of the methods of physical chemistry to the study of the theory of [[toxins]] and [[antitoxins]], and which were published in 1907 under the title ''Immunochemistry''.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924000273718|title=Immunochemistry; the application of the principles of physical chemistry to the study of the biological antibodies|date=1907|author=Svante Arrhenius|publisher=The Macmillan Company}}</ref>
He also turned his attention to [[geology]] (the origin of [[ice age]]s), [[astronomy]], [[physical cosmology]], and [[astrophysics]], accounting for the birth of the [[Solar System]] by interstellar collision. 
He considered [[radiation pressure]] as accounting for [[comet]]s, the [[solar corona]], the [[aurora borealis]], and [[zodiacal light]].

He thought life might have been carried from planet to planet by the transport of [[spore]]s, the theory now known as [[panspermia]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref>Arrhenius, S., ''Worlds in the Making: The Evolution of the Universe''. New York, Harper & Row, 1908,</ref> He thought of the idea of a [[universal language]], proposing a modification of the [[English language]].

He was a board member for the ''Swedish Society for Racial Hygiene'' (founded 1909), which endorsed [[mendelism]] at the time, and contributed to the topic of contraceptives around 1910. However, until 1938 information and sale of contraceptives was prohibited in the Kingdom of Sweden. [[Gordon Stein]] wrote that Svante Arrhenius was an atheist.<ref>{{cite book|title=The encyclopedia of unbelief|volume=1|date=1988|publisher=Prometheus Books|isbn=9780879753078|author=Gordon Stein|page=594|quote=Svante Arrhenius (I859-I927), recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry (I903), was a declared atheist and the author of The Evolution of the Worlds and other works on cosmic physics.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Svante Arrhenius|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/875/000092599/|publisher=Soylent Communications|access-date=11 September 2012|author=NNDB.com}}</ref> In his last years he wrote both textbooks and popular books, trying to emphasize the need for further work on the topics he discussed. In September 1927, he came down with an attack of acute [[intestine|intestinal]] [[catarrh]] and died on 2 October. He was buried in Uppsala.