Chemistry Blog

Consolidating Chemistry Labs

Our lab is consolidating into 2/3 of the space we once had to make room for a new faculty hire starting this fall. That means finding room for all the things that used to fit in much more space. We started by consolidating our inorganic shelves by combining duplicate containers and submitting waste for things we’ll never need.

All of which allowed the opportunity to uncover some really, um, interesting bottles of things.

Talc.  Maybe we’ll refinish our lab counter tops.

Chunk marble.  Seriously.  Quarter sized chunks of marble.  In a labeled bottle.

But the best…..

Oh… 50-75 milliletrs of elemental mercury.  Nice.

Have a great week, everyone.

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Lab DJ

Do you have music playing in lab?  I like to have some music playing, and over the years our lab has accumulated a stereo and some speakers.  So I bought a headphone-to-RCA connector and I was quickly able to play music from my computer through the lab sound system.  For a while, I would play albums from my computer through iTunes (and when Ruckus was still around, I had built up a pretty solid collection).  Fortunately, everyone in ear shot of the speakers has approximately the same taste in music, so there were rarely any disagreements about the music being played.

Lately, though, I’ve been pretty much using Pandora exclusively.  If you haven’t found Pandora.com yet, you simply must check it out.  Even if you aren’t your lab’s DJ, you’ll soon find yourself turning to Pandora as your default music player. (more below the jump) Read more »

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Shifting Constants

“]One of the first things that pops up in chemical education at the high school level is stoichiometric equations where a student is supposed to determine such things as yields, coefficients, and amounts of substance on a purely theoretical basis. This quickly becomes old hat for many students. In high school, my stoichiometric technique (if you could call it that) left a lot to be desired. I tended to “divine” my answers on tests and quizzes by playing with numbers until an answer made sense- then using it. It worked surprisingly well- and I got through classes learning very little but with decent grades. At the time, I wasn’t terribly interested in chemistry, and the class really was boring up until the end, where we got to learn about electrochemistry. I didn’t realize at the time that the subject matter wasn’t being done any justice. To me a mole was a mole was a mole. I just knew there were these numbers that I used to divine answers.

Read more »

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Welcome back, Atlantis!

This is not completely relevant to chemistry, but is definitely of interest to the scientific community. On May 11, 2009, some of us astronomy fans and zealots gathered around to watch the launch of Atlantis STS-125. For those who are unfamiliar with it, this was a servicing mission in attempt to extend the Hubble ST’s life for the one last time. After all the amazing images Hubble was able to capture, this one last stretch seemed well worth the try. The team completed 5 space walks while orbiting 350 miles (Really? Miles? We’ll talk about the unit system another day) above Earth.

The mission will entail five spacewalks and aims to increase the telescope’s capabilities by a factor of 90, according to panelist Sandra Faber, an astronomer at UC Santa Cruz. After the repairs and upgrades, “it’ll have the capability of 100 Hubbles,” said panelist and NASA Chief Scientist Alan Stern.[1]

Over the past two weeks, we followed their mission closely, whether it is at the comfort of our own home or out in the field with our makeshift telescope. We envy their opportunity to take the ride of a lifetime and amazed at their epic fine-motor skill inside a space bunny-suit (I can’t even do that in a glove box, whoops).

On Sunday, May 24, the crew of 7 touched down at the Edwards Air Force Base in California, after a 13-day mission. The astronauts, in my opinion, are heroes in every way that one would defines any other American heroes–firefighters, soldiers, teachers, etc. Their contribution to scientific advancements is clear, and the risks they take is significant and very real. Their dedication and enthusiasm are beautifully put by one of the astronauts:

When asked about the risks posed by the Hubble service mission, Astronaut Grunsfeld told Earth & Sky that, “I think the cause of science is something worth risking my life for. I’ve spent almost my entire adult life and most of my young life,” Grunsfeld added, “in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. And Hubble is almost an icon for the quest of scientific knowledge.”

Yep. We’ll toast to that. And welcome back to Earth!!

Noel

[1] Hubble worth the risk, says NASA astronaut

[2] NASA space shuttle page

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Printing

Most of the printing of our group (~30 people) is done on just one laser printer. I often find myself walking from the lab to the group library, where the printer is located, and back because of paper jams or printing orders that have misteriously vanished into the digital nirvana. This is making me crazy! Somehow I am unable to proofread a manuscript on my computer screen, so I always need a printout. Maybe I should try and get my own printer.

This leads me to my question: Do you often print papers for reading, or do you always read the PDFs directly? I try to read most things directly, but the papers I cite the most, I also keep in printed form.

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We’re done!

Today we traded in our acid-burned, grease-stained lab coats for nice looking rental gowns. It was really an ugly day–we’ve been having beautiful sunny days in the 80s all month–until now, that is. Today was a whooping 55 degree with dark grey clouds hovering over the beautiful Berkeley landscape. Just about everything was out of the ordinary.

Today the College of Chemistry @Cal held its 137th commencement ceremony.

The two hours was reasonably pleasant to sit through. The whole ceremony was rather casual and humorous. We didn’t have much of any rehearsal. People were sitting when they were supposed to stand, speakers forgot their spots during the speech, the dean returned to his seat before he handed out the last of the scrolls… but it was an intimate, light-hearted ceremony.

The most unforgettable moment for me was the reaction of the grad students. During the ceremony, Ph.D. candidates were seated on stage with the rest of the professors. After they all walked across the staged, got hooded, received a scroll and walked back to their seats, the dean officially granted them their degrees. Across rows of sleepy professors and their hoods of various colors, I saw the genuine happiness beaming from behind. They hugged each other, celebrating their accomplishments (and the 6-10 years they might have spent in this hole in the wall). It was just a really wonderful moment, since graduate students really don’t show much of any emotion.

It was also something special for the Chemistry Blog, though. Today, Mitch, Maz and I walked across the same stage. So… PARTY TIME!!! (doesn’t Mitch look legit? That’s because you haven’t seen his shoes)!!!

So, cheers and many congratulations. And peace out, Berkeley.

Noel

“That’s why we love you guys. We ask you to do the impossible, and you ask us when it’s due.” – prof

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WolframAlpha is for Chemists

This is by far the most difficult story to cover today, since the website that is the feature of this post, WolframAlpha, has been in an constant state of crashing or stalling all day. This problem will only be exasperated after the official launch on Monday. I’ll hope for the best but the links below might not work for a day or two. Lets get to the details of what WolframAlpha is and how it can help you, more than Google ever could.

WolframAlpha is not a search engine, it is a computational engine. It doesn’t get information from the internet it gets it from primary documents and databases then figures out the answer. For example, if you wanted to know how to prepare 1M sodium acetate solution just ask it. It will spit out the correct proportions to make the solution. WolframAlpha can tell you things even though no one inputed that specific information into it. It synthesizes information into a correct and unique response.

It can also be used to spit out simple knowledge like the pKa of acetone.

Since it uses its database to try to answer your questions, you can start thinking outside the box. Here is a favorite, Specific Heat Capacity of Chicken.

If you come up with any interesting WolframAlpha search queries share them in the comments. Reddit Chemistry has already been having fun with it all day.

Link to using WolframAlpha for chemistry queries. Chemistry FAQ.

Mitch

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Oxygen, the “Gilligan” of the Periodic Table [Video]

The video was made by Christopher Hendryx as his thesis for Ringling College of Art & Design.
Link: http://vimeo.com/4433312

Mitch

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