Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (born 281 years ago / died 230 years ago) discovered oxygen (246 years ago) and hydrogen (241 years ago), making it the beginning of modern chemistry.
He was an aristocrat and member of the Ferme générale — an operation that collected tax and duties for the king, and hefty bonus fees for themselves — which made it among the most hated of pre-French Revolution organisations.
Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier played a starring role in the story of chemistry, the story of biology, and the story of chemical nomenclature, helped construct the metric system, wrote the first extensive list of elements, predicted the existence of silicon (237 years ago), and discovered that although matter may change its form or shape, its mass always remains the same.
His wife, Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier, was a renowned chemist in her own right.
Revolution
The French Revolution (from 235 to 225 years ago) changed all that because when it ended, it had achieved…
- The abolition of feudalism.
- State control over the catholicists.
- The declaration of the rights of man and citizen.
With the French Revolution still a work in progress, Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier got charged with tax fraud and selling adulterated tobacco. Despite appeals to spare his life in recognition of his contributions to science, they guillotined him.
A year and a half later, he was exonerated by the French government.
TAKEAWAY
The guillotine was abolished (in France) 43 years ago, but word-users continue to die for talking or singing peace while “there is a war between the rich and poor, between the man and the woman, between the left and right. between the black and white, between the odd and the even, and between the ones that say there is a war and the ones that say there isn’t” (Leonard Cohen), for seeing the sky, the bird, nothing shining up there, angels zero, for the wrong color of skin, for the right color of your bones and blood — imagine your bones black, your blood blue.
Come on, join the fun.
One day, sooner or later, we’ll return to being water (in case you forgot, you’re like me, 70% water now).
Do you think when it reaches the sea, your water will not be identical to mine?
Talking of water
The wordless, not only water, but everything except the word-users — the energy, fire, air, earth, plants, and wordless animals — don’t have wars about religion, nationality, race, and gender.
Because the wordless are void of words.
#creativity #education #EndTheDivide #personaldevelopment #word
