Who is a Jew? familiar with and willing to vouch for the Jewishness of their maternal lineage or the validity of their conversion. There have been several attempts to convene representatives of the three major movements to formulate a practical solution to this issue. To date, these have failed, though all parties concede the importance of the issue is greater than any sense of rivalry among them. Ethnic Jew is a term generally used to describe a person of Jewish parentage and background who does not necessarily actively practice Judaism, but still identifies with Judaism or other Jews culturally or fraternally, or both. The
Chemistry: A Volatile History Just 92 elements combine to form all the compounds on Earth. Iron, when combined with chromium, carbon and nickel makes stainless steel. Glass is made of silicon and oxygen. Since prehistoric times, people have been engaging in ‘bucket chemistry’ – adding all sorts of chemicals together, just to see what would happen. As a result, many early discoveries in chemistry were accidental. In 18th century Prussia, Heinrich Diesbach was trying to produce a synthetic red paint. He started by heating potash (potassium carbonate), with no idea that his potash had been contaminated with blood. When heated, the proteins in blood