"Celebrating the 80th birth anniversary of Mexican chemist Dr. Mario Molina: A Pioneer in Saving the Ozone Layer"

Google on Sunday dedicated a doodle to honor Mexican chemist Dr. Mario Molina who did something really important for the planet, a researcher who highlighted the impact of chemicals in depletion of Earth's protective layer- Ozone. It is important because it protects us, animals, and plants from harmful rays from the sun.

Google doodle on Sunday(19 March 2023) celebrated the 80th birth anniversary of Dr. Mario Molina, a Mexican chemist who pioneered the task of convincing governments to come together to save the planet’s ozone layer. “A co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Dr. Molina was one of the researchers who exposed how chemicals deplete Earth’s ozone shield, which is vital to protecting humans, plants, and wildlife from harmful ultraviolet light,” noted Google.

So, today, Google made a special picture to celebrate Dr. Molina's birthday and to say thank you for all the great things he did for our planet.

Early Life

Mario Molina was born on March 19, 1943, in Mexico City. When he was a kid, he was so passionate about science that he turned his bathroom into a makeshift laboratory to do experiments. Nothing could compare to the joy of watching tiny organisms glide across his toy microscope, wrote Google while dedicating the doodle.

He had earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and an advanced degree from the University of Freiburg in Germany. After completing his studies, he moved to the United States to conduct postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, and later at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Study on Ozone Layer

Okay, so imagine Earth like a big ball with a layer of protection around it called the ozone layer. The ozone layer helps protect us from the sun's rays that can hurt our skin and make us sick. In early 1970s, Dr. Molina studied how different things in the air can affect the ozone layer. He found out that some man-made chemicals, called chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs for short, were actually breaking down the ozone layer and making it weaker. This meant that more of the sun's rays were able to get through and could hurt us and the planet. Dr. Molina was one of the first to figure this out, and it helped people understand that we needed to stop using these harmful chemicals to protect the Earth and ourselves.

Foundation of Montreal Treaty

He and his co-researchers found out something really important about the air we breathe and published their findings in the Nature journal, which later won them the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995. The groundbreaking research became the foundation of the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty that successfully banned the production of nearly 100 ozone-depleting chemicals. Their findings helped make a rule that says we can't make certain chemicals that are bad for the air and make a hole in a special layer that protects us from the sun's rays

Mario Molina Centre

Mario Molina worked hard to make the world a better place. Unfortunately, he passed away on October 7th, 2020 aged 77 of a heart attack in Mexico. But, even though he's not with us anymore, his ideas and work live on through the Mario Molina Center. This place is like a school for scientists, where they learn how to help the environment and make the world a nicer place to live in. So, even though Mario Molina isn't here, the Mario Molina Center is still doing important work to make the world a better and more sustainable place.