The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
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The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
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Charles Pedersen is credited with the discovery of crown ethers. He won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this discovery but not for eighteen years after he first published his research. Pedersen was born in Korea in 1904 to a Norwegian engineer and a Japanese woman. His father was working in a gold mine and his mother's family had a business near the mine. Pedersen attended college in the United States. After he earned his master's degree, he found a position as industrial chemist at the Du Pont Company. He chose to continue with research, although it was not essential to his position. Pedersen was working on the problem of removing contaminants from gasoline when he recognized the carbon to oxygen to carbon bond of an ether in an unusual compound. What was unusual was the model of the ether was the zigzag of a crown and it tended to surround metal ions. This discovery was soon applied in the synthetic research to manipulate reactions, particularly in organic compounds. Pedersen died in 1990.