Svante August Arrhenius

Swedish physicist and chemist

• Born: February 19, 1859; near Uppsala, Sweden
• Died: October 2, 1927; Stockholm, Sweden

Arrhenius was a pioneer in the interdisciplinary science of physical chemistry. He also helped establish the international reputation of the Nobel Prizes, clarified the physical effects of light pressure from the sun, and developed the concept of “panspermia,” which holds that life was introduced on Earth by particles from space.

Primary fields: Chemistry; physics; astronomy

Specialty: Physical chemistry

Early Life

Svante August Arrhenius (SVAWN-teh OW-gehst ahr-RAY-nee-uhs) was born at Wik Castle, near Uppsala, Sweden. His family ancestors had been farmers and had also contributed to the intellectual or cultural atmosphere of the community: One relative had written and published hymns, an uncle was a scholar, and Arrhenius’s own father had briefly attended the University of Uppsala and was superintendent of grounds for the university.

From an early age, Arrhenius excelled in calculating, and at the Cathedral School in Uppsala, he stood out in mathematics and physics. In 1876, at the age of seventeen, Arrhenius enrolled in the highly acclaimed University of Uppsala, the oldest university in Sweden, in order to study physics. He ultimately discovered, however, that his instructors were overly committed to experimental topics and were either unaware of or opposed to the rapid developments in theoretical physics. Thus, in 1881 he moved to Stockholm to study with Swedish physicist Erik Edlund. In 1884, Arrhenius submitted his doctoral dissertation to the University of Uppsala, but his talent was largely unrecognized, and he was granted the lowest possible passing grade.

Arrhenius’s thesis, built on the work of chemists Michael Faraday and Sir Humphry Davy, described an effective experimental method for determining the electrical conductivity of compounds in extremely diluted solutions. The thesis also included a preliminary outline of a theory of electrolytic conductivity, in which Arrhenius claimed that salt was dissociated into two ions in a water solution. This ionization increased the number of particles in a given volume, allowing Arrhenius to explain the high osmotic pressures found by Dutch chemist Jacobus Henricus van’t Hoff, as well as the decreased freezing points and increased boiling points of such solutions.

Swedish chemist Per Teodor Cleve mostly ignored Arrhenius’s work, presuming that it was no more significant than other students’ theories. Fortunately, others recognized the significance of the work and its foundational nature for subsequent developments in the theory of electrolysis.

Life’s Work

Disappointed by the reception his work received at Uppsala, Arrhenius sent copies of his dissertation to several scholars throughout Europe and subsequently caught the attention of Sir William Ramsay in England and German chemist Wilhelm Ostwald. When Ostwald visited Sweden, he was able to secure a lectureship for Arrhenius at Uppsala in 1884 and a travel grant from the Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1886 so that Arrhenius could continue his studies in Europe.

From 1886 to 1891, Arrhenius worked with many of the finest European physicists, including Ostwald, Friedrich Kohlrausch in Würzburg, Germany; Ludwig Boltzmann in Graz, Austria; and van’t Hoff in Amsterdam. His ionization theory met with extensive resistance primarily because of an incomplete atomic theory that made accounting for the formation and stable existence of the ions difficult, and certain strong solutions remained irregular. Ostwald advocated for the validity of the new theory and demonstrated that it could account for a wide variety of chemical phenomena. When Ostwald joined with van’t Hoff to found the periodical Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie (Journal of Physical Chemistry) in 1887, Arrhenius took advantage of the opportunity to publish a revised version of his theory of electrolytic dissociation.

In 1891, Arrhenius refused a professorship at Giessen, Germany, to become a lecturer at the Högskola, a technical high school in Stockholm that was devoted to teaching research methodology in a free form and without degrees. Although the faculty was reportedly outstanding, the school was always under-equipped. Arrhenius became a professor of the school in 1895 and later a rector. He and other leaders sought to surpass Uppsala’s prominence, and in 1904 Högskola became the University of Stockholm. Beginning in 1898, Arrhenius was active in formulating the procedures governing the Nobel Prizes, and he served on the physics committee from 1900 to 1927.

During these years, Arrhenius continued research in electrolytic conductivity, the viscosity of solutions, the effects of temperature on reaction velocity, and atmospheric conductivity. The results of his research appeared in Lärobok i teoretisk elektrokemi (Textbook of theoretical electrochemistry, 1900); in 1903, he published Lehrbuch der kosmischen physik (Textbook on cosmic physics). Arrhenius’s interdisciplinary interests continued to expand during this period. In 1902 and 1903, he studied in Denmark and Germany, working on physiological problems in serum therapy. In 1904, he delivered lectures at the University of California on principles of physical chemistry applied to toxins and antitoxins. In 1905, Arrhenius refused a professorship and private laboratory in Berlin to become the director of the Nobel Institute for Physical Chemistry, near Stockholm, a post he held until his death twenty-two years later.

Settling in Stockholm, Arrhenius began an intense period of writing. His California lectures appeared as Theorien der chemie (Theories of chemistry, 1907) and as Immunochemistry (1907). That year, cosmologists also became aware of him through Das werden der welten (Worlds in the making, 1906) and Människan inför väldsgåtan (The life of the universe as conceived by man from earliest ages to the present time, 1907), which represented a different approach to the older plurality of worlds (life on other planets) debate. Arrhenius supported the belief that life was diffused throughout the universe from already inhabited planets that sent out spores that spread through space and reached planets that had evolved to a habitable state. Arrhenius intended this as an alternative to William Thomson’s claim that meteorites were the means of seeding planets with life. These proposals have since been given the descriptive name panspermia and have held little scientific interest since the discovery of intense ultraviolet radiation in space.

Arrhenius received a number of honors throughout his life. He was elected to the Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1901, and the widespread acceptance of his ionization theory was recognized in 1903 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 1902, Arrhenius received the Davy Medal of the Royal Society of London and became an associate of the German Chemical Society. On a visit to the United States in 1911, he received the first Willard Gibbs Medal and became an associate of the American Academy of Sciences. In addition, he became a foreign member of the Royal Society in 1911, received the Faraday Medal of the Chemical Society in 1914, and was awarded numerous honorary doctorates.

Throughout his career, Arrhenius continued to conduct and publish research. He delivered the 1911 Silliman Lectures at Yale, which were published as Theories of Solutions (1912). In 1915, he made a second contribution to biochemistry with Quantitative Laws in Biological Chemistry, and in 1918 his book, The Destinies of the Stars, appeared in English. In 1926, Arrhenius published his last major effort, Erde und weltall (Earth and space), a revision and combination of his earlier books on cosmology. He died on October 2, 1927.

Impact

Arrhenius is now most frequently cited for the idea that life originated on planets as the result of panspermia. He is less well-known for his more significant accomplishments as a founder of physical chemistry. His reach across disciplinary lines contributed to a fruitful period of research in both physics and chemistry. He strongly wished to internationalize Swedish scientific activity and saw the Nobel Prizes as a means of accomplishing this goal. His role in writing the regulations that governed the administration and awarding of the prizes contributed greatly to establishing them as the most significant international scientific award. Offering a satisfactory explanation of the aurora borealis and establishing the existence of light pressure from the sun were his enduring contributions to atmospheric physics and astronomy. His good humor and command of three languages (German, French, and English) made him popular wherever scholars gathered and won him an enduring place in the memories of those with whom he worked.

Bibliography

Coffey, Patrick. Cathedrals of Science: The Personalities and Rivalries that Made Modern Chemistry. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. Print. Discusses Arrhenius’s life and work in his scientific community as part of an introduction to the major developments in contemporary science.

Crawford, Elisabeth. The Beginnings of the Nobel Institution: The Science Prizes, 1901–15. New York: Cambridge UP, 1984. Print. Presents a comprehensive and detailed account of the early history of the science prizes and details Arrhenius’s involvement and in promotion and blocking of potential recipients.

Dardo, Mauro. Nobel Laureates and Twentieth-Century Physics. New York: Cambridge UP, 2004. Print. Chronicles major developments in physics since 1901, the year the first Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded. Includes information about the work of Arrhenius and other prize winners.

Farber, Eduard. The Evolution of Chemistry: A History of Its Ideas, Methods, and Materials. New York: Ronald, 1969. Print. Contains a brief but clear explanation of Arrhenius’s theory of dissociation, his most original work and the reason he received the Nobel Prize.

Jaffe, Bernard. Crucibles: The Story of Chemistry from Ancient Alchemy to Nuclear Fission. New York: Dover, 1976. Print. Contains a popular and dramatic account of Arrhenius’s career, depicting him as a hero who overcame great opposition from entrenched science to receive well-deserved recognition.