On This Day in Science History - November 14 - Nicolas-Louis Vauquelin

November 14^th marks the passing of Nicolas-Louis Vauquelin. Vauquelin was a French chemist and apothecary who is credited with the discovery of the elements beryllium and chromium. He was working with the mineral crocolite when he isolated a new element that had salts of many different colors that he named chromium. Later that same year, he isolated beryllium from the mineral beryl (also known as emerald). He originally named this element glucinum because of the compounds tasted sweet, but the name beryllium was later adopted.

He also isolated the first amino acid from asparagine while working with asparagus. He discovered quinic, malic and camphoric acids and isolated pectin from apples.

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