Google Doodle honours SPL Sorensen who introduced pH scale
New Delhi, May 29 : Google on Tuesday celebrated Danish chemist Soren Peder Lauritz Sorensen who introduced the pH scale to the world with an interactive Doodle.
Sorensen's method of expressing acidity -- the negative logarithm of hydrogen ion concentration (pH) -- still has a wide range of real-world uses.
For example, in agriculture, the pH value can indicate the moisture associated with a soil, which can reveal what crops are suitable for the soil and what adjustments farmers must make to adapt it for growing any other crops.
Born in Havrebjerg in 1868, Sorensen was initially interested in studying medicine at University of Copenhagen. But he eventually spent more time studying chemistry and obtained his PhD in 1899.
Sorensen did most of his research in Carlsberg Laboratories. He became the director of its chemical section in 1901. While at Carlsberg, Sorensen started to study amino acids, proteins and enzymes.
As hydrogen ion concentration played a key role in enzymatic reactions he devised a simple way of expressing it, according to EuCheMS, the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences.
He found that by taking a negative logarithm of hydrogen ion concentration a convenient scale can be established. This is the well-known pH value.
He also developed buffer solutions to maintain constant pH of solutions (Sorensen buffers), EuCheMS noted in a short biography of the scientist in its website.
The Google Doodle on Tuesday allows users to see for themselves the pH value of different food items, including tomatoes and eggs in a scale of 1 to 14.
Sorensen retired from his post at Carlsberg in 1938. He died in Copenhagen in 1939.
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Iran reimposes restrictions on Strait of Hormuz, accusing US of violating deal to reopen it
Cairo (AP): Iran swiftly reversed course on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, reimposing restrictions on the critical waterway on Saturday after the US said it would not end its blockade of Iran-linked shipping.
Iran's joint military command said on Saturday that “control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state ... under strict management and control of the armed forces.” It warned that it would continue to block transit through the strait as long as the US blockade of Iranian ports remained in effect.
The announcement came the morning after US President Donald Trump said that even after Iran announced the strait's reopening on Friday, the American blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the US, including on its nuclear programme.
The conflict over the chokepoint threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy after oil prices began to fall again on Friday on hopes the US and Iran were drawing closer to an agreement. Roughly one-fifth of the world's oil passes through the strait, and further limits would squeeze already constrained supply, driving prices higher once again.
Control over the strait has proven to be one of Iran's main points of leverage and prompted the United States to deploy forces and initiate a blockade on Iranian ports as part of an effort to force Iran to accept a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire to end almost seven weeks of war that has raged between Israel, the US and Iran.
Iran said it fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels after a 10-day truce was announced between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. But after Trump said the blockade would continue, top Iranian officials said his announcement violated last week's ceasefire agreement between Iran and the US and warned the strait would not stay open if the US blockade remained in effect.
A data firm, Kpler, said movement through the strait remained confined to corridors requiring Iran's approval.
US forces have sent 21 ships back to Iran since the blockade began on Monday, US Central Command said on X.
Truce in Lebanon could help US-Iran peace efforts
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The ceasefire in Lebanon could clear one major obstacle to an agreement. But it was unclear to what extent Hezbollah would abide by a deal it did not play a role in negotiating, and which will leave Israeli troops occupying a stretch of southern Lebanon.
Trump said in another post that Israel is “prohibited” by the US from further strikes on Lebanon and that “enough is enough” in the Israel-Hezbollah war.
The State Department said the prohibition applies only to offensive attacks and not to actions taken in self-defence.
Shortly before Trump's post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel agreed to the ceasefire in Lebanon “at the request of my friend President Trump,” but that the campaign against Hezbollah is not complete.
He claimed Israel had destroyed about 90 per cent of Hezbollah's missile and rocket stockpiles and added that Israeli forces “have not finished yet” with the dismantling of the group.
In Beirut, displaced families began moving toward southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs despite warnings by officials not to return to their homes until it became clear whether the ceasefire would hold.
The Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon reported sporadic artillery shelling in some parts of southern Lebanon in the hours after the ceasefire took effect.
An end to Israel's war with Hezbollah was a key demand of Iranian negotiators, who previously accused Israel of breaking last week's ceasefire with strikes on Lebanon. Israel had said that the deal did not cover Lebanon.
The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen US service members have also been killed.
