Back in the day, in 11th grade chemistry, we were chilling in the lab using a Bunsen Burner and almost set the lab on fire, but hey that’s a story for another day. Back to the topic at hand. Today, March 31, is Robert Bunsen’s birthday and he is known for a lot more than the Bunsen Burner.
Bunsen, the subject of today’s Google Doodle, was born in 1811 and died in 1899, after discovering cesium and rubidium. And while, we merely just caused a small fire in our high school lab, Bunsen actually lost one of his eyes in a laboratory explosion during his quest.
The German chemist also invented the Bunsen cell. The coolest thing about this guy? He never had a patent–he refused to patent his work–and didn’t make the profits he could have off his discoveries.