November 11^th marks the passing of Artturi Ilmari Virtanen. Virtanen was a Finnish biochemist who invented the AIV (his initials) fodder technique to prevent spoilage in stored green silage. Storing green plant fodder during long winters was always difficult since by the end of winter, it would ferment and be rendered inedible and possibly result in starvation. Virtanen noticed the process of fermentation would cease when a particular acidity was reached. He prepared a solution of dilute hydrochloric or sulfuric acid and added it to the stored fodder. The fodder remained fresh and did not affect its nutritive value.

This discovery greatly changed the way agricultural fodder is stored. It also earned Virtanen the 1945 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.

You probably think of antimatter as the stuff of science fiction or as something being created in particle accelerators. However, antimatter might be closer and more common than you think. The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope scans the heavens for gamma rays, but it has also detected gamma ray flashes from terrestrial storms. Two of these events carried the signature associated with the decay of positrons, one form of antimatter.

The terrestrial gamma ray flashes were detected before, during, and after lightning strikes so the positron signature is believed to indicate a reversal of the normal orientation of an electric field of a lightning storm. This is not the first time gamma ray bursts have been detected associated with storms (NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory identified gamma radiation from storms in the 1990s), but it is the first evidence of antimatter in lightning. Modelers are working on an explanation for the phenomenon.

Three of my children have birthdays in November, so I've already got a jump on holiday shopping ideas. I have a few different gift lists that I use to jog my memory when I need ideas. Top Science Toys is an all-inclusive collection of fun and educational science toys and gadgets. I also have a list of gifts you can make by applying your command of chemistry.

This year I've added a new list to the collection: Chemistry Gift Ideas. These are gifts someone with a love of chemistry would especially enjoy. With the possible exception of a chemical volcano, chemistry gifts are a little harder to find in stores than other gifts. Most of the online retailers offer overnight shipping so even if you wait until the last minute for your holiday shopping, you'll still find the perfect present!

November 10^th is Andrés Manuel Del Rio's birthday. Del Rio was a Spanish mineralogist who discovered the element vanadium -- the first time. He isolated several salts from a mineral known as "brown lead" (called vanadite today) that appeared to be a new element. He noted his salts had similar colors to the salts of chromium, so he named his element panchromium. He renamed it erythronium after he discovered the salts all turned red when heated.

He sent samples of his salts back to Europe but his claim was disputed by French chemist, Collett-Desotils who claimed the element was an impure chromium sample. Del Rio decided he must have been incorrect and withdrew his claim. In another 30 years, Swedish chemist Nils Gabriel Sefström would rediscover Del Rio's erythronium. He named it vanadium, after the Norse goddess of beauty and fertility, Vanadis.

Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.