Google dedicated its doodle on Tuesday to biochemist Søren Peder Lauritz Sørensen. Sørensen is the Danish biochemist who was born on January 9, 1868 in Havrebjerg, Denmark. He got famous because he introduced the concept of pH – a scale for measuring acidity and alkalinity of a substance. pH stands for the power of hydrogen, which is a measurement of the hydrogen ion concentration in the body.
Sørensen was head of the prestigious Carlsberg Laboratory, Copenhagen from 1901 to 1938. He studied the effect of ion concentration on proteins during his work at the Carlsberg Laboratory. And because the concentration of hydrogen ions was particularly important, he introduced the pH-scale as a simple way of expressing it in 1909.
Taking back to the chemistry lessons from school, the search giant today comprises a simple animated game as its doodle. The doodle shows a food item or other substances, which needs to be sorted according to the pH values. The doodle interestingly presents a tomato, broccoli, egg, lemon, a soapy solution and a battery among the items that are needed to be sorted according to their pH value. The users are required to click on either arrow which will sort them on either side of the pH scale.
Now a pH scale measures how acidic or alkaline a substance is. The value on a pH scales varies from 0-14. If the pH scale is less than 7, the substance is acidic, if it’s more than 7 then the substance is considered as alkaline. A pH value of 7 means the substance is neutral. Generally, water has a pH value of 7 as it’s neither acidic nor alkaline.