Thursday, December 31, 2009

shenanigans

Somehow I need to reorient myself to the holiday of New Year's Eve, because I just am not much of a fan of it. I think it's a holiday tailor made for extroverts. As a card-carrying introvert the parties, crowds, and general noisiness causes me stress.

So for a slightly intellectual, introspective take on noisy New Year's party fun I'd like to introduce you, dear Reader, to Bassam Shakhashiri. "Dr. Fun" is so utterly fun and charming that he can make an auditorium full of chemical educators sit on the edge of their seats, waiting to see him demonstrate something they've not only seen 10 times before, but that they have probably done themselves 10 times before. THAT's how cool he is. He's a smiling sage.

I got to thinking of him as I thought forward to the fireworks that will come out tonight. You might want to look at his web page on fireworks. And if that's not your thing, help yourself to any of the other marvelous and accurate descriptions of chemicals of the week, or for that matter anything else at Science is Fun.

After all it's a new year tomorrow, and an opportunity to do something new.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

restaurant recipe hack: successes and failures

This entry would go into a category titled "trivia," if I had such categories for my posts. It also shows I've been away from the lab for a little too long.

One of my favorite menu items at a local pub is tortilla chips with artichoke-jalapeno dip. The dip is awesome but it goes over the top good because they bring the stuff out and it's all hot. I realized a while back that having warm chips was key to making this stuff special. And then I found some really good dip at the store, and decided I could easily heat everything at home.

So I hacked the recipe--or more like the presentation--by heating the chips for about 5 minutes in a 300 degree oven. It was perfect.

The next day I thought I'd repeat the experiment. But I didn't want to wait for the oven, I was hungry, and for a moment I stopped thinking and stuck the stuff in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Result? Bubbly hot dip. Cold chips.

And a reminder that microwaves work by heating water, which absorbs microwave radiation. There is virtually no water in tortilla chips. The oven is worth the wait.

Friday, December 18, 2009

read any good books lately?

I'm looking ahead to next term, when some of my Organic students will once again need to write a term paper. Last term's topic was Green Chemistry and the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge awards.

For the past few years I have had students read Carl Djerassi's autobiography, The Pill, Pygmy Chimps and Degas' Horse, but for a variety of reasons I may not assign it this year. The problem is finding another book that fits the bill: I need something that is ideally focused on organic or synthetic chemistry, I need something that is a narrative of sorts (not a text), and I want a book that brings up things that don't get brought up in class. These are reasons I have enjoyed assigning Djerassi's book. It's a great window into the life of a synthetic organic chemist.

I'm running up to the library tomorrow to pick up a copy of a book called the Carbon Age by Eric Roston, which sounds like it has some potential. But I'm looking for other possibilities. Have you read anything good? Is it about Chemistry? I'd be delighted to hear your suggestions--or warnings about books that wouldn't be suitable.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

oh, chirality!

You can scroll back to an entry from January 2009 to find the article I wrote on chirality. For those who are in my class this year, and who weren't last, this could be interesting.

For those of you who have been in the fan club for a while, go ahead and disregard this note.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

let go of the side of the pool

Thanks to my undergraduate advisor Cathy for noticing this link at Scientific American. Don't fear your mistakes! Share them with others and use them to focus your mind and attention. There are indications that you will learn better (and I promise I won't judge you for making an error in front of me).

As the ever-wise Zelda says, you can't swim until you let go of the side of the pool.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Circium Pitcheri

Many many many many years ago (it was the 90s) I spent about 1.5 years' worth of Thursday mornings in the lab at Chicago Botanic Garden, working with Kayri Havens genetically typing a number of rare plants including the Pitcher's Thistle. We usually talked about our samples using their Latin names. In this case it was Circium pitcheri.

What a great blast from the past to see them in the New York Times! As I was digging into the article I was thinking, "oh my gosh I think this is work done by people I know!" then "oh my gosh I think I know that project!" then "oh my gosh I think this is a plant I have worked on myself!"

Working with the scientists at ChiBot taught me that there is a lot more in museums, beyond displays for the public to look at. I gained a deep and persistent appreciation for plants, for their ability to adapt to specific environments and expand their territories.

I also learned that my lab skills allowed me to make contributions in areas far outside my specific field of expertise. After all, what business did I have in their lab? Was I a plant expert? Nope. But life is like this: sometimes we imagine we have less to offer than we really do have. Speaking up is the first step to being in on some great stuff.

Is the periodic table the same around the world?

I was asked this question last week. I answered incorrectly. I stand corrected. I said yes, thinking only about how the element symbols and arrangement are universal. But the names are different in different languages, even though many are derived from latin so come out very similar in different languages. But to get a taste for the variety out there, check out these different variations, many of which are produced by the same people:

In Spanish


In French

In German

In Dutch (because I have a special place in my heart for the Dutch)

In Arabic

In Swahili

In Russian, the language of Mendeleev

It is somewhat surprising that the languages that use different alphabets would use our alphabet characters for their elemental symbols. Can you imagine learning element symbols with an alphabet different than your own? It sure would seem more cryptic.

While some element names are very different (check out Sulfur, for instance), others seem quite universal (the Noble Gases). I wonder why? Perhaps those elements that have been discovered and named more recently, since communication across the world has become easy, have internationally-agreed upon names. Hydrogen appears to have its name translated literally in German and Dutch....to wasserstof. Funny!

To top it off (if you're still reading) there is always the Periodic Table of Comic Books. I know it's not a language, but it's funny and creative so I'm including it here anyhow.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Deuterium

I spent a lot of after-school time watching Hogan's Heroes as I was growing up. Sargeant Schultz was always good for a laugh, and I can remember his references to "heavy vasser" and a red bucket that was labelled so. Many years later I learned that heavy water was of some concern during the war, as the Germans appeared to be experimenting with it as a moderator for nuclear reactions. To the allies, this indicated an interest in developing nuclear weapons. Heavy water is water containing deuterium (D) the isotope of hydrogen that contains a neutron and hence that has an atomic mass of 2 rather than one. So heavy water weighs 20 amu/molecule, or 20 grams per mole: a modest 10% more than regular water.

Disrupting the development included a really dramatic destruction of a supply of heavy water, which was all produced during that time in Norway. The PBS series Nova has described both the sinking of a ferry carrying the stuff on "Hitler's Sunken Secret," as well as an attack on the plant that manufactured the stuff in the first place. The plant made use of a series of multiple distillations, if I recall correctly, to enrich samples of water, which naturally contains a small amount of D2O.

Gilbert Lewis
(of Lewis structure fame) was the first person to isolate D2O, incidentally.

Heavy water is actually a little more dense than regular water, since deuterium weighs a little more than hydrogen. But the effect is fairly modest and wouldn't be noticeable if you were carrying a little flask of the stuff.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

My dog has quite the lifestyle

Molecule of the Day points out how easy it ought to be to put our dogs on diets. Feed them less, right? So why are there diet drugs for dogs? Maybe it's about our inability to control our interactions with food, even to ask our dogs to abstain. Or maybe it's about sharing our concerns about weight with the family members that so far have been blissfully unaware of this American obsession. Or maybe there are drugs out there that could have use in people but just haven't made it through FDA approval.

Whatever the reasons may be I have to laugh as I think about these as lifestyle drugs for dogs. My dog has quite the lifestyle. No work, free food and drink, lots of affirmation and attention, and no responsibilities to anybody.

Friday, October 9, 2009

That was fun.

A helpless audience of GS199 students were subjected to 50 minutes of joy-filled rambling by me today, on the subject of Green Chemistry. Oooh I had fun! I hope that they did, too. It was an interesting experience, explaining this to a general audience. I appreciated their interest. It is a very fun story to tell, optimistic and varied and full of good characters.

Featured tales of Green Chemistry successes were the ibuprofen synthesis, TAML oxidant activators, and Non-fluorous, highly CO2-soluble materials.

Links are to the EPA summaries of the projects.

Now it's time to get out and enjoy the weekend.

What are they looking for?

Tis the season that recommendation letter-writing is beginning to wind down, just as the school year is beginning to wind up. I think this week is the first time in about 3 months that I haven't had somebody's letter request sitting on my to-do list. I'll admit it: I am relieved.

It's not that it's a job I don't like, it's just that it is a job. Crafting a letter that is honest, professional, and that gets the message right can be a difficult thing to do.

As I look out over the sea of expectant faces in my new classes I know that this coming year will bring more requests. I'm already watching for the qualities of character I hope to be able to write about later. Those would include things like flexibility, honesty, drive, and the abilities to both listen carefully and act decisively.

Students out there who know or think they know that they'll be seeking admission to medical or other professional health programs, studentdoctor.net has an article that does a good job of explaining how to think about and manage your presentation of yourself in your personal essay. Much of what is here is also relevant to how you might want to be perceived for letters of recommendation. This might be valuable reading.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Why I adore Hans Rosling....

It's not entirely explainable with words or simple graphs. It's best understood by actually watching him operate with his animated data. See his new TED talk here.

Friday, June 19, 2009

OSU pals make the Oregonian!

...this work brought to you by my favorite peeps at OSU. These folks have previously brought us wonderful research on air quality at our very own Mt. Bachelor Observatory, with help from some great students at COCC.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

glycosides in my garden


Memorial Day always has felt like an odd holiday for me. Growing up the only real memorial thing that would happen is that my mom and dad would each take their mothers to the cemetery to put flowers on the headstones of their spouses. There wasn't much for direct links to the military, it seems. But Memorial Day was always a day to work on some project outdoors. As an adult I still find myself planning for and doing work around the house during the holiday weekend.

So today I went to the nursery and bought some plants and tree bark for my yard.

I knew I wanted to get some digitalis, because there was some growing here when I moved in and I find it gorgeous in a showy kind of way. But I also love it that digitialis is the source of commonly prescribed cardiac glycoside digoxin. I didn't realize until I did a little web searching today that the plant actually is not just a little poisonous--it contains enough of the glycoside to really mess you up bad even if small amounts are ingested.

I also picked up some kinnickkinnick, which is Arctostaphylos. I bought it because it will look good and do well where it needed to go, but it turns out to be darned interesting, too. Turns out it is a relative of the familiar manzanita, and like digitalis, it contains a glycoside compound that is biologically active. In this case the glycoside is named arbutin. It inhibits the formation of melanin and has been used in herbal treatments for urinary tract problems. But these extracts have been the subject of some concern since they may be carcinogenic.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

a new blog to watch

Emily Monosson has a blog that has been recommended to me, called the Neighborhood Toxicologist. I'm linking it from here, from the list of Stuff I Like that is in the right-hand corner of my page. I haven't had a chance to give it a close inspection but I have reason to believe it'll be good.

Meanwhile, in Ochem the current topic is Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution. In an email conversation with a student, I was drawn in to a discussion about polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. There is so much descriptive chemistry I would like to include in my courses, but there just isn't much time and it is often the kind of information that is accessible to my students anyway, if I just point out to them where to look.

So with that said, I once again can plug Wikipedia, which has an excellent article on PAHs.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

biology meets chemistry meets physics meets engineering

This is one of the best cross-disciplinary stories I have seen in a while. Who'da thunk this would work? What a creative idea! Biological systems are so cool, since over time they are often optimized to utilize available materials and make the best possible use of what is in the environment.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

is your drywall off-gassing poisons?

ABC News ran a story this evening about a woman in Florida who is claiming her house has made her sick, and that Chinese drywall may be to blame. The story included no details worth mentioning--it was a classic case of little information but lots of "two sides" reporting.

CNN does a much better job, reporting that the materials have been tested and shown to contain some strontium sulfide, which potentially could lead to the production of H2S, explaining both a sulfurous smell and problems with corrosion of pipes and wires in the house, which is quite new.

You can read more here.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

mmmmmmeta

Science News reports on a group that has devised an efficient way to substitute at the normally-resistant meta position on aromatic rings. Thanks to Sean for the link.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

MSRA among the piggies

Thanks to my college advisor for posting a link to this article about drug-resistant staph in pigs. And of course, thanks also to Nicholas Kristof for researching and writing it in the first place.

Monday, March 9, 2009

SciAm on Sustainability

I was tipped off to this article today, and although I haven't read it I'd bet you a dollar it's good.
So I'm posting it without a pre-read. Meanwhile, out in the news, the conversation about changes in funding for research involving embryonic stem cells is heating up rapidly.

nuclear forensics

National Geographic News has posted an article describing the emerging field of nuclear forensics. The article appears to suggest that the nuclear decay products of an unknown sample were used to determine its origin, which happens to be the first nuclear bomb test.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

EJ Corey and Retrosynthesis

Check out this little gem of a synthesis, credited to EJ Corey, the esteemed developer of retrosynthesis: Trabectedin (from Wikipedia). Astounding.

My Synthesis professor in grad school used Corey's book as a foundation for our course and told us his (not Corey's) 9 days in jail for a BUI offense provided a stretch of uninterrupted time for reading. The book is called The Logic of Chemical Synthesis, and it's becoming a classic.

a tragic accident

It is unfortunately too easy for any of us to forget the hazards associated with some of the stuff we work with. The LA Times reports that this recent fatal accident involved tert-butyllithium, an organometallic reagent that is used as a base, but that has similarities to the organolithium reagents used for generating carbon nucleophiles in organic synthesis reactions.

Monday, March 2, 2009

10 best?

While poking around the web looking for full-text versions of Djerassi's original papers I discovered this list of the "10 best organic chemists of all time." I couldn't help but notice that many of you, Readers, will know the reasons for nomination if not the actual names.

I smile as I read these names and their contributions. They are an amazing bunch of minds. I can't comment about the drinking: I have no first hand experience with any of them.

I didn't find the Djereassi papers, by the way, but I think I have them in my office. Somewhere.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

doublets of doublets: I'm beggining to see!

Poking around in some books on nmr today I found someone who directly addresses the doublet of doublets phenomenon. You can't imagine how happy I was to see this.

I'm beginning to get it. As usual, Straumanis is right. The book explains that in most situations, nearest neighbor hydrogens are similar enough to one another that the splitting occurs in a way that follows the rules for splitting we have learned. In a few situations, though, when the neighbors are very different from one another (as expressed by something called their coupling constant), they split the signal sort of separately and generate a doublet of doublets.

The book provides an example that looks a lot like the fluorinated benze we were examining, except it has a nitro (NO2) group across from the F.

The fluorine is the reason for the different coupling constant in our molecule, but I am still sorting out the details of what role it plays. I also still don't have complete clarity about why these coupling constants could vary when the coupling has all been explained to me using the quantized spin states (as I tried to describe in my earlier post).

south Deschutes: voting on the nitrate fix

There are strong opinions on both sides of the conversation regarding the ballot initiative called the groundwater ordinance referendum. For the uninitiated, a clear and brief description of the situation can be found here.

I'd like to think I'm a well informed voter, but there are a lot of things going on behind this ballot.

  • What is the real relationship between nitrates and health problems?
  • What is the relationship between nitrates in groundwater and environmental problems?
  • Is nitrate mitigation going to protect the health of groundwater in more general ways?
  • If nitrate pollution is a real threat to health or the environment, what regulation is appropriate?
  • Why is this vote in front of us, after extended study and an ordinance passed by the county board of commissioners? Is it appropriate to have the public decide on such a technical issue?
  • What alternative solutions exist?

Any post that tried to address all of these issues would be long and probably set off a firestorm. I only want to comment on the first item on my list of questions. Unfortunately, even with a Ph.D. in biochemistry, I am confused about how to answer this one.

Nitrate can look like a real problem, if you consider the following health effects, pilfered from the EPA consumer fact sheet on nitrates/nitrites:

Short-term: Excessive levels of nitrate in drinking water have caused serious illness and sometimes death. The serious illness in infants is due to the conversion of nitrate to nitrite by the body, which can interfere with the oxygen-carrying capacity of the childs blood. This can be an acute condition in which health deteriorates rapidly over a period of days. Symptoms include shortness of breath and blueness of the skin.

Long-term: Nitrates and nitrites have the potential to cause the following effects from a lifetime exposure at levels above the MCL: diuresis, increased starchy deposits and hemorrhaging of the spleen.

Then there is this quote, pulled from a web page of the department of health and human services:

A large proportion of hemoglobin in young infants is in the form of fetal hemoglobin. Fetal hemoglobin is more readily oxidized to methemoglobin (MHg) by nitrites than is adult hemoglobin. In addition, in infants, NADH-dependent methemoglobin reductase, the enzyme responsible for reduction of induced MHg back to normal hemoglobin, has only about half the activity it has in adults.

But last week I just happened across this, from American Scientist, a publication of Sigma Xi that I respect an awful lot.

Just answering the first concern about nitrates: are they a real health concern? is proving difficult. I could vote based on the precautionary principle, but I realize the economic impact to families living in that area would be huge.

The more I have to vote on these voter initiatives, the less I like the initiative system.


Wednesday, February 25, 2009

doublets of doublets

I am still not able to resolve the doublet of doublets question that came up Tuesday. But since I promised, I am going to try to explain as well as I can what I'm thinking about it. If you are reading this, give yourself a break if you don't know how an nmr picks up signals. If you are reading this and do understand nmr, I would be delighted to have you help me improve my understanding.

Here's what I (think I) know:

Spin 1/2 nuclei, such as hydrogen, have spin that gives them magnetic moments.
The spin states in such nuclei are described as being either "up" or "down," and are quantized.
Inside the nmr, an applied magnetic field aligns spin states and then an applied radiofrequency signal can cause spin flips at particular frequencies. These spin flips cause absorbances which are converted to signals, generating the spectrum.
The chemical shift for a given set of equivalent hydrogens indicates what frequency is required to generate this absorbance, which varies depending on the environment that nucleus sits in.
Hydrogens that are nmr equivalent absorb at exactly the same frequency.

Still with me? Good. I am about to address splitting:

Absorbance peaks are split due to interactions that occur through bonds, but between nuclei of the hydrogen(s) generating a particular peak and those which are described as "nearest neighbors." We have learned how to identify nearest neighbors, so I won't go into that here.
The splitting occurs because the neighboring nuclei have a minor but real effect on chemical shift. Their spins can be in or out of phase with those that are generating the signal, adding to or subtracting from the chemical shift.
For every nucleus involved in these relationships, there is a particular number of possible spin-state alignments, which happens to equal the number of nearest neighbors plus one.
Therefore the peaks are split into that many (neighbor Hs plus 1) like we learned, and forms a set that varies in intensity like a Pascal's triangle.


Now, finally, for the confusion about the doublets of doublets:

Occasionally one hydrogen attached to a carbon is nmr inequivalent to another on the same carbon. For example, two hydrogens on an sp2-hybridized carbon could qualify, if the stuff on the other end of the alkene is distributed asymmetrically.

In this case it makes perfect sense to me that these hydrogens would each have a slightly different chemical shift, and that each one would be split by a nearest neighbor, generating an overlapping "doublet of doublets," rather than the triplet signal you would otherwise expect.

I can't understand the other example Straumanis gives, however, which involves hydrogens around an aromatic ring that has a single fluorine substituent. There are 3 groups of equivalent hydrogens on this structure: those at C1 adn C5, those at C2 and C4, and one at C3. He seems to argue that because the H at C1 exists in a different environment than the one at C4, that the signal from the H at C3 will split into a doublet of doublets.

If peak splitting is based purely on the spin-state interactions of the nuclei, what environment those nearest neighbor hydrogens are in doesn't seem to have anything at all to do with it.

Signals from hydrogens on aromatic rings do tend to get all overlappy and scrunched up, so he could be perfectly correct, but I can't sort out why. I think I need to send the question to him, or to a group of others I know are using the workbook.

Friday, February 20, 2009

who is absolutely hot?

Nova, the classic PBS program that recently rebroadcast it's awesome Absolute Zero show, publishes an "occasional column" (what a great idea!) that has recently addressed the possibility that there is an corresponding Absolute Hot. Thanks, Krokodile, for the link.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Wednesday, February 11, 2009


I don't think this requires any
description at all.


Thanks to "Million Moments"
for sharing.

JACS is not quite so fun

No similar news items from JACS, the Journal of the ACS. Oh, well. Then again, there is always Chemical and Engineering News, which has good online articles and links to other resources. ACS just is not enthusiastic about opening access to their journals to the public, except in small ways.

Somewhere in my online ramblings I tripped into this, which may be of interest to those who are interested in all the fuss about Thimerosal and autism.

ES&T: what's NOT available on line?

The ACS journal Environmental Science and Technology (ES&T) appears to have lots of great content available free on the web. Oh, joy! Now if I could only find more time and more energy, I could get around to reading this stuff.

Here is an example article: this one is on the presence of pharmaceuticals in drinking water.

And here is another, on nitrate contamination in drinking water.

Could it be that other ACS publications have similar resources available on the web? I'm a little embarrassed to admit I don't know: I'm going looking right now.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

chemistry in the news: good news!

OPB reports on a chemical that appears to repel pine bark beetles, a real scourge in the pine forests on the east side of the Cascades. It is called verbenone, and is a terpene produced by lots of plants, including those of the genus Verbena.

our local National Teach-In is tomorrow!

The National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions is going on now. Tomorrow several institutions in Central Oregon will be involved. OSU-Cascades, Central OR CC and at least one area High School are gathering from 11 am till 2 pm to talk, teach, eat, and discuss.

Everyone is of course welcome. From 1:30 until 2 the actual dialog will occur, featuring a number of students and City Counselors from Bend.

Hope to see you there!

chloraseptic=death?

This morning's news included a story suggesting that Nazi hunters at the Simon Wiesenthal Center have determined a certain war criminal, Aribert Heim, probably died and was buried in Egypt in the early '90s. He was apparently involved in "medical" experiments that sound awful--including deliberately injecting people with poison.

When I heard the story I immediately was taken back to a class yesterday, where the conversation led to the meaning of "phenol" and I casually mentioned that phenol, while rated as toxic by chemical supply houses, happens to be the ingredient in Chloraseptic throat spray. Ha ha ha, I chuckled, "How is it both medicine and poison?" and then I looked a bit deeper into this compound. It has a fascinating rap sheet.

Phenol is not only used as a topical antiseptic in Chloraseptic, it also:
  • is considered toxic and mutagenic, and carries a health warning of "3" (highest is 4) on the NFPA label
  • is the source of the odor best known as hospital smell
  • is a raw material in phenolic resins, which included the historically important polymer, Bakelite
In addition to all this, it was also used by the Nazis to kill people by injection.

So wasn't it a coincidence to learn all this yesterday, and then wake this morning to the story of the Nazi doctor who may have committed these horrific acts with, perhaps, this very compound.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Russell Marker percolates up

A few days ago an entry from In the Pipeline included the phrase "Mexican yams and their biggest fan," with the last two words linked to somewhere. oooh! Intriguing! I thought maybe I'd know who this fan was. The link takes us to a Chemical and Engineering News article about Russell Marker. So of course the article discusses the history of Syntex and mentions our man of the hour: Dr. Djerassi.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Herr Doktor Djerassi

If you know anything about him you won't be surprised to hear that Carl Djerassi has a personal/professional web site devoted to the promotion of his books, plays, art, and generally himself. He provides access to lots of interviews where he shares his opinions on all of these topics--oh, yeah, and also of science and the development of the oral contraceptive pill.

There is one interview in particular which is a nice audio file. It's nice, if you are reading his autobiography, to know what he sounds like. His demeanor in interviews also provides insight into who he is in a way that is not quite captured in the book. So if you're curious, follow this link and find the BBC audio file, and have a listen.

Stereochemistry and the Pharmaceutical Industry

I heard part of an interview with Thomas Quasthoff on the radio last weekend. I'm not into opera, but his voice and presence is amazing. I became aware of Quasthoff several years ago when he gave an interview on TV....perhaps it was 60 minutes? I don't remember for sure anymore.

His biography is compelling, and illustrates the importance of stereochemistry in drug manufacture. In recent years there has been some argument about whether the FDA is too slow to approve drugs; too careful about approvals. Maybe, but maybe not. In the case of thalidomide I think everyone would agree there are many who were spared a difficult life because the FDA hesitated. Unfortunately in many other countries it was approved without sufficient testing.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

hey, followers and students

Let's wiki!
I have been looking over the Wet Paint wikis that are constructed by my ochem students, and I am really impressed. I haven't had so much fun with something that seems like grading for a long time.

I am missing contributions from a few students, though, and I know two of them are people who watch this blog. So if you fit that description, please check your wiki site to see if I have been invited to be a member, and if I have accepted.

If you have no evidence I have looked at your blog, please invite me to join.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

what's new in green chem?

I'm headed to Portland this weekend to reconnect with some professional buddies who are also into Green Chemistry. What's new in Green Chem and in Green Chem education? I can hardly wait to find out.

If there ever was a group of cool chemists, this is it.

Dear Mr President

I know you're surrounded by well informed people with cultivated opinions. I know you are facing an unimaginably difficult task: leading this country through really difficult economic times, coping with foreign policy nightmares, and improving the function of our health care system.

As a chemistry educator many of my students are pursuing careers in health care. I teach people who want to be nurses, people who want to be physician assistants, doctors, and pharmacists. I teach in a place that is, at its roots, a rural community. We are geographically somewhat isolated, and people come from many more rural areas around here to get their health care.

Health care is increasingly becoming tough to find in those outlying communities, and our community is limited in its capacity to train nursing and other health care students because even our regional hospital is not all that large. At my college, the health programs are tremendously competitive, and the limit to producing new health care workers appears to be a lack of money to make it possible for the college and the supporting hospital to train very many people.

So I have people anxious to become nurses and doctors who love this part of the world and want to live and work in places like this. Yet the training for these people draws them into urban places, and debt after school often draws them into specialization or urban jobs so that they can not return.

If we are going to invest huge sums of money into reconstructing our economy, I would be delighted to see some of that money used to produce a system that can support the education of these people in a fashion that allows them to come back to small communities for their professional practice. This is what they want, and it is what our communities need, especially as the population of our country--most dramatically in these very same rural communities--becomes older and needs more care.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Pre-Med? Read on.

This message is from Kate.

Hello Fellow Pre- Med Students~

I hope that by this time you have heard of the MCAT. If not then you definitely need to talk to someone. If so then you have probably heard of the MCAT prep course that all recommend you take. The University of Oregon offers one over in the valley during the summer.

I have spoken with Diane Pritchard at U of O Bend about getting a course over here for we Bend-kids. She said that it is very possible, we would need about 10 to 12 students to make it go. The trouble lies in the fact that Diane has tried to do this in the past and after getting a good initial response then had everyone bail on her. So needless to say she is not super interested in doing all the leg work if no one is going to follow through.

That is where I come in. I am a Pre-Med student who doesn't want to drive to Eugene twice a week this summer to get ready for the test. Check out this link for the most up-to-date info on the course http://www.uoregon.edu/~als/services/testprep/textdocs/mcatuoprep.pdf

If enough folks are in Diane would make this happen for us. Course costs $625 I think, and well worth it I hear.
My email is kwillis@cocc.edu and let me know of your interest.

Have a great day and happy learning~ Kate

Cahn-Ingold-Prelog Rules

Ochem students: you may remember today's brief discussion of the rules for assigning priority to groups around a chiral center. I promised I'd get back to you about an issue that came up in relation to this. I was unsure of myself on an issue surrounding what I think we can call a more-complex example. Well, I am disappointed in the textbooks in my office. None of them provide an explanation that is adequate to deal with the structure we were looking at in class. But there is a straightforward (if not simple) way to solve the problem.

And, as usual, it was I who was misapplying the rules and not our esteemed author.

Guess where I found a good description, illustrated with examples, concise, accurate, etc.? My favorite web source: Wikipedia.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Chemistry and Cookery, the Column

I discovered today that Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking, has a column available to read for free at the New York Times. Being an old fan I don't know how I missed this for so long, but I am quite happy to have found it! Links to the columns can be found most easily by starting at his website, Curious Cook.

Monday, January 5, 2009

oops.

Cyanide ion (CN-) and sulfuric acid produce HCN, a highly toxic gas. When inhaled, HCN interferes with celllular respiration and can lead to what amounts to molecular-level suffocation.

I am grateful to the writer and editors at the Oregonian for giving specifics on this accident. So often I see vague references in the media to spills or accidents involving chemicals, without actually naming them. As in, "a tanker turned over and spilled a toxic chemical...." ammonia? chlorine? xylene? The consequences of such spills can vary dramatically.

Good eye for the person who noticed the foaming, too. The evolution of the gas seems to have tipped him off to the fact that something was amiss.

Anybody know what they do with cyanide in a chip factory?

Friday, January 2, 2009

what I got for Xmas

My DNA is on its way to the lab.

SciFri

Do you think radio lacks because it can not deliver video content? I must respectfully disagree.

Science Friday (from Talk of the Nation, hosted by npr) has a fantastic website that includes a library of videos that may even rival those of TED. At the moment I am particularly taken with the Hungry Scientist presenting carbonated fruit. But there is much more to explore. The Hungry Scientist blog also deserves checking out.

Suddenly winter break seems way too short.