The first nitrogen cache went missing, so this is a reincarnation, or isotope of that cache. Different container, different location. Enjoy!
Nitrogen, oh nitrogen. Nitrogen is the seventh element on the periodic table. In it's standard state, is a diatomic element (N2). it is a colorless, odorless gas and it is the most abundant element in Earth's atmosphere. Nitrogen was first isolated by Scottish physician Daniel Rutherford in 1772, although there is some debate that he might not have been the first to discover it. Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Henry Cavendish were also working on this new element at the same time.
Figure 1 - Liquid nitrogen being poured from a Dewar. The temperature of this liquid is 77K. (image credit: https://uscylgas.com/2017/07/13/five-every-day-uses-of-nitrogen-gases/)
In it's elemental state, nitrogen (N2) is singularly unreactive. The two nitrogen atoms are held together by three bonds, with a bond energy of almost 1000 kJ/mole. This bond energy is almost double that of oxygen (O2 has only two bonds holding the atoms together)! Because of the unreactive nature of nitrogen gas, it is often used in chemistry as an inert atmosphere when trying to do reactions that might be water or osygen sensitive.
However, nitrogen is vitally important to our daily life. Nitrogen is an essential element for the production of amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids. It is an essential element in fertilizers that make our modern agricultural system possible. Around the time of World War I, we were fast approaching a critical breaking point in our ability to feed a rapidly expanding population. Advances in medicine and manufacturing had started to lengthen lifespans and decrease infant mortality, but agricultural production wasn't able to keep up an increasing populate. A German chemist changed this. Fritz Haber, along with Carl Bosch, invented an industrial scale process that took elemental nitrogen from the atmosphere and combined it with hydrogen to make ammonia (NH3) - the principle component of fertilizers. It is thought that this discovery staved off large scale starvation that would occurred after WWI.1 For this discovery, Fritz Haber won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918.
Chemists today still work to use elemental nitrogen in a sustainable and renewable way. Professor Mitch Smith, a chemist at Michigan State University, has long been interested in making the synthesis of ammonia and other compounds more environmentally friendly and sustainable. It is estimated the synthesis of ammonia using the tradition Haber-Bosch process uses almost 2% of the yearly energy needs of the world!
CACHE INFORMATION: Cache is camoed pill bottle. Bring your own writing utensil. No night caching. Park is closed from dusk until dawn.
References:
https://www.clemson.edu/extension/peach/commercial/fertilization/importance-of-nitrogen.html
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1918/summary/
https://www.chemistry.msu.edu/faculty-research/faculty-members/milton-r-mitch-smith/
1 There is much controversy around Fritz Haber and Carl Haber and the Nobel Prize for this discovery. I highly recommend the book The Alchemy of Air for further reading.