Found on the Web

This cartoon is interesting because it seems to argue that the original study was flawed but a truely objective statistical analysis is independent of history it simply measures the current situation. There is a dangerous and somewhat shrill message of danger here for social scientists.

LINK TO CARTOON

How Things Have Changed

I came across a Flicker site that has scans of the pages from the 1962 Sears Christmas catalogue. It is interesting to read just for the fun of it (remember the inflation conversion is about one 1962 $ = ~ seven 2007 $).

Link to Flicker album of Sears catalogue scans

However, it was of course this page that caught my eye:

With this detail:You gotta love a chemistry set that allows you to work with "harmless radioactive" chemicals. Ah, the 1960's you had to live then to understand.

Gotta See This (New and Expanded)

Any student of physical science just gotta see this:

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/video/82-dangerous_science.html

There are a number of messages in the video, some I agree with and some I disagree with.

The whole idea that fear of litigation has gutted the "fun" from the typical chemistry set is, in my opinion, true. I agree that what we are left with is hardly the kind of self-taught chemistry that allows a young person to walk the teaching line between wonder and peril.

On the other hand, the video spends a lot of time with it's focus on a guerrilla science supply company that does not even follow the most rudimentary, let alone common sense, safety rules. That I do not agree with.

I got my first chemistry set back in the early 1970's over the objections of my mother and I was assigned a "lab space" under the basement steps. The chemistry set was pretty much like the set shown above but with about 35 chemicals in one ounce bottles (yes, children ounce or approximately 25.4 grams I was part of the transition generation from British to metric measure).

The line at the end is one that I have difficulty agreeing with as well. The point that science teachers need to be brave enough to teach. The law is just not in favour of the teacher when students get hurt. The point about the football team and injuries is one that Science teachers have made over the years but the reality is that society expects a certain acceptable number and kind of injury for sports teams but not science labs.

That said, I really liked this video and I am going to look through the site library for more.

Sheldon Gets It Right: Wikipedia

As I said, I like the cut of this guys jib ... at least this is a more academic topic and drives directly to the "research" that most students do for their papers.

Now, if only this last panel were true ...

Sheldon Gets It Right: Lord of the Rings

I have been reading Sheldon for a couple of years now and while it seems to be a "nerd niche" cartoon I really like the points that the artist Dave Kellet makes now and then.

Link to Cartoon

He recently took on "The Lord of the Rings"
(Click on the cartoon to see full size)

Now, I love "The Lord of the Rings" I read the entire cycle from "The Hobbit" through to the "Simarillion" every other year. If there is one character that makes my teeth ache more than Tom Bombadil it would have to be the generically smug elves.

Too True

Quote of the Day

“How can resourcefulness be acquired? Do it by pumping into man information? No, not at all. There is only one thing that will really train the human mind, and that is the voluntary use of the mind by the man himself. You may aid him, you may guide him, you may suggest to him, and, above all, you may inspire him; but the only thing that is worth having is that he gets by his own exertions, and what he gets is proportional to the effort he puts into it. It is the voluntary exercise of his own mind and I care very little about what he exercises it upon…”

A. Lawrence Lowell (1939)

Old, But I liked these when I read them

Found on the internet:
www.calvin.edu/~lhaarsma/parables.html

Parables for Modern Academia
By Deborah and Loren Haarsma December, 1996

The kingdom of heaven is like a professor who went off on a long sabbatical. Before he left, he called together his graduate students and gave each of them projects to work on; to one he gave five projects, to another two, and to another one, each according to their ability. The one who received five projects immediately went to work, designing experiments, building equipment, and analyzing data. She worked long and hard, and eventually she achieved good results on each project. Likewise, the one who received two projects immediately went to work, and eventually got results as well. But the student who received one project was easily discouraged, got distracted by her coursework, and eventually gave up.
After a very long time, the professor returned to settle accounts with his students. The first student said, "Professor, you gave me these projects to work on, and see, here are the results." And the professor answered, "Well done, good and faithful graduate student. You have been faithful over five projects. You shall be co-author on five publications and receive a Ph.D! (And you can expect a good letter of recommendation, too!)" Likewise the second student showed his results, and the professor said, "Well done, good and faithful student. You have been faithful over two projects. You will be co-author on two publications, and receive a Master's degree."
But the third student came and said, "Professor, I know that you are a harsh man, publishing where you did not labor, and claiming credit where you did not contribute, and I was afraid. So I kept the lab locked up and I didn't let anyone borrow any equipment. See, everything is just the way you left it." Then the professor answered, "You wicked and slothful graduate student! I will judge you by your own words. So, you knew that I was a harsh man, publishing where I did not labor, and claiming credit where I did not contribute; well then, you should have at least gotten a teaching fellowship so that I wouldn't have had to pay your salary out of my research grants! Now depart from me and from this institution ... out into the REAL world, and try to find a job. There you will have weeping and gnashing of teeth."
For to everyone who has, more will be given. But to him who has not, even what little he has will be taken away. (Matthew 25:14-30)

The kingdom of heaven is like an original manuscript in a used book store. When a historian found it, she sold all her other books to buy the manuscript. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a scientist looking for new projects. When he found one theory of great promise, he joyfully gave up all his other projects to focus on it. (Matt 13:44-46)

Suppose one of you wants to start a research project. Will he not first sit down and estimate if his grant is large enough to cover the cost of equipment, salaries, and overhead? For if his grant runs out halfway through, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, "This fellow began a project and was not able to finish." In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be Jesus' disciple. (Luke 14:28-29, 33)

The dean was speaking at a faculty meeting. One of the professors stood up and asked, "What must I do to get tenure?" The dean replied, "What does the faculty manual say?" The professor answered, "Do good research, teach well, and mentor students." "You have answered correctly," the dean replied. "Do this and you will get tenure."
But the professor wanted to justify himself, so he asked the dean, "What does it mean to mentor students?" In reply the dean said: "One term there was a student who was struggling in his courses. He went to talk about it to the professor of one of his classes, but the professor brushed him off with, "If you can't handle the work, you should drop the course." The student then went to his academic advisor, but she was on her way out the door to the airport and didn't have time to talk. A custodian overheard the conversation, and, seeing the discouragement of the student, invited him out for a cup of coffee. It turned out the student was dealing with the death of a family member, and the stress was affecting his personal life as much as his studies. The custodian walked him to the counseling center and arranged an appointment for him. He called the student several times in the next few weeks to see how things were going, and helped him think through whether to drop the courses or not. Now, which one of these was the true mentor to the student?" The professor replied, "The one who had mercy on him." The dean told him, "Go and do likewise." (Luke 10:25-37)

When you are writing a paper about exciting new data, do not overstate the impact of your result. Someone else may come along later with better data and prove you wrong, and then you will be humiliated and your colleagues will not respect your work. But when you have an exciting new result, be modest about its implications. Then when the review paper comes out, it will say, "This is an important piece of work," and you will be honored in the presence of all your colleagues. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke 14:7-11)

Obedience:There was a professor who had two grad students. She went to the first and said, "Take care of this project for me." "I will not," he answered, but later he changed his mind and did it. Then the advisor went to the other grad student and said the same thing. She answered, "I will do it," but she did not. Which of the two did what the advisor wanted? (Matt 21:28-31)
Appropriate religious observance:No one runs untested code on a network server, for the code may crash and take down the server. Likewise, no one puts old format data files into new databases. The new database will be corrupted, and the data will be lost. No, you put new-format data into new databases. (Matt 9:14-17)

Responses to the gospel: A researcher published an exciting new theory. Some readers didn't understand it, and quickly forgot it. Other readers were too busy with their own work to test the new theory. Others immediately went to work and got preliminary results, but the difficulties of performing the proper controls and testing for systematic errors discouraged them. Still others tested the theory and produced not only confirming data, but also new data and new theories to test. (Matt 13:3-8, 18-23)

The kingdom of heaven is like a department chair checking on the progress of the graduate students. She came to a graduate student who was supposed to turn in his thesis that week, but had procrastinated and hadn't started to analyze data yet. The department chair reminded him that there was no more funding for him after this term. The grad student pleaded with her. "Be patient with me," he begged, "and I will finish the thesis by the deadline." The department chair took pity on him, and told him she would let him re-enroll and would find money somewhere for another term. But when the graduate student went out, he ran into one of the undergraduates in the course he was grading. He yelled at the student, "Where is your homework? It's a day late!" The undergraduate begged him, "Be patient with me, and I will turn it in tomorrow." But the grad student refused and said, "No. I'm giving you a zero and you're failing the course!" When the other students saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told the department chair everything that had happened. Then the chair called the graduate student in. "You wicked student," she said, "I forgave you for procrastinating on your thesis because you begged me. Shouldn't you have had mercy on the undergraduate just as I had on you?" In anger the chair expelled him from the department, to find a job until he could finish his thesis. This is how the heavenly Father will treat each of us unless we forgive our brothers from the heart. (Matt 18:23-35)

In a certain department there was a chairman who neither feared God nor cared about students. There was a student in that department who kept coming to him with the plea, "Grant me justice in my petition." For some time he refused, but finally he said to himself, "Even though I don't fear God or care about students, yet because this student keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!" Listen to what the unjust department chair says. Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you he will see that they get justice, and quickly. (Luke 18:2-8)

The kingdom of heaven is like a student who left one research group to work in another. His former advisor was demanding and manipulative; she coerced the student to continue to work on her projects without pay, threatening not to acknowledge his work in the publication. The student's new advisor called a group meeting, but the student was too ashamed to come. He had no new results to report, for he had spent all his time on the old advisor's projects. When the professor asked where he was, the other students explained. The professor was frustrated and said, "This has been going on for months! He'll never be able to pull away on his own. Tell him that if he has any trouble with the other professor, I will handle it. I'm paying his salary and I want him to spend his time working for me." (based on a true story)
There was a biology professor whose graduate student was accused of wasting time. So she called him in and asked him, "What is this I hear about you? Give an account of what you have done because you cannot be my student any longer."
The student said to himself, "What shall I do now? My professor is taking away my funding. I don't have good enough work habits to get a real job, and I'm too proud to move back in with my parents. I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, other research groups will hire me as a technician."
So he called each of his professor's competitors. He asked the first, "How much of that gene have you cloned so far?" "Only about 40 percent," she replied. The student answered, "I'll tell you the parts that you're missing." Then he asked the second, "Have you decided what experiments you're going to do next?" "We're still deciding that," the second replied. The student answered, "I'll tell you what ideas we've discussed in our lab."
The professor commended the dishonest student because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of light should be just as shrewd in doing good as the people of this world are in doing evil. (Luke 16:1-8, Matt 10:16)

The grant proposals of a certain professor were all approved. She thought to herself, "What shall I do? My lab space isn't big enough for all these projects." Then she said, "This is what I'll do. I'll get brand new lab space and hire many new post-docs and graduate students. And I'll say to myself, 'You have tenure and many research projects which will produce papers for years to come. Take life easy; go to conferences and take sabbaticals.'"
But God said to her, "You fool! This very night your life will be demanded of you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God. (Luke 12:16-21)

The kingdom of heaven is like an array of sensors left to monitor an experiment. When the experiment was over, the scientists downloaded the data. They saved the data from the good sensors for further analysis, and threw away the data from the bad sensors. This is how it will be at the end of the age. (Matt 13:47-50)

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a programmer who started many processes on her computer. While everyone was sleeping, a hacker broke in and started some counterfeit jobs, which began using some of the CPU time. The programmer's assistants said, "Didn't you start useful jobs on the computer? Where then did these counterfeits come from?" "A hacker did this, " she replied. The assistants asked her, "Do you want us to kill the jobs?" "No," she answered, "because while you are killing them, some good processes might be interrupted by accident. Let them all go to completion. Then we will purge every counterfeit process from the disk and memory, and save the results of every good process onto permanent tape." (Matt 13:24-30)
The kingdom of heaven is like a professor who had many papers to grade. She asked her teaching assistants to start helping her early in the morning, and agreed to take them all out to dinner when the grading was finished. About mid-morning she realized she would need more help, so when she saw other graduate students standing in the hallway doing nothing, she asked them to help her, and agreed to reward them appropriately. Again at noon she found other graduate students eating lunch, and got them to help her, and again at mid-afternoon. About 5 p.m. she found still others and asked, "Why are you standing around doing nothing? Come and help me grade my papers."
When they were finished grading, the professor took them all to a restaurant. When she paid for the dinners of those who had started work at 5 o'clock, those who started early in the morning expected to receive more. But when she only paid for their dinner too, they began to grumble, "These others who only worked one hour got just as much as we did, who slaved all day over those papers." But the professor answered, "I am not being unfair to you. You got what we agreed upon. I want to give the students who only graded one hour as much as I gave you. Don't I have that right? Or are you envious because I am generous?"
So the last will be first and the first will be last. (Matt 20:1-16)

The kingdom of heaven is like a college president who was hosting a banquet for an important donor. He sent announcements to all the important administrators and faculty, but they all began to make excuses. The first said, "I just received some new lab equipment, and I want to try it out, so I cannot come." Another said, "My book just got published, and I must make sure the bookstores and libraries have copies, so I cannot come." Still another said, "I'm on sabbatical, so I cannot come."
When the RSVP's came back, the president was angry and told his assistant, "Go quickly into the classrooms, dorms, and offices and bring in the graduate students, undergraduates, and staff." "Sir," said the assistant, "what you ordered has been done, but the banquet hall still isn't full." Then the president said, "Go to other colleges down the road, and invite them to come! The banquet hall must be filled! I tell you, not one of those who were invited first will be let in the door." (Luke 14:16-24)

How can a student, whom her professor put in charge of his research projects, be faithful and wise? It will be good if the professor finds the research assistant working hard when he returns; surely, he will give her an excellent recommendation. But suppose that research assistant is wicked and says to herself, "My professor is staying away a long time," and she begins to misuse the equipment and spend her time surfing the web. The professor will walk into the lab on a day she does not expect and at an hour when she is not aware. He will reprimand and humiliate the student and take away her funding; then there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matt 24:45-51)

At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten students waiting for a professor to return to his office. They needed his signature to add his course, and the forms were due early the next day. Five were wise and five were foolish. The wise ones brought something to eat while they waited, but the foolish ones did not. The professor was a long time in coming, and as they waited all afternoon, they got very hungry. The foolish ones said, "Give us some of your food." But the wise ones answered, "No, we only brought enough for ourselves, and there isn't enough to share. Go to the cafeteria and buy something." But while they were on their way to the cafeteria, the professor arrived. He signed the forms of those who were waiting, then locked his office and went home. Later that evening, the others telephoned him at home and said, "Sir! Sir! Come back and sign our forms." But he replied, "I tell you the truth, you are not my students." Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. (Matt 25:1-13)

Therefore, whoever hears these teachings and puts them into practice is like a wise scholar who built his theory upon data. The criticisms came down, the controversies rose, and the counter-arguments blew and beat against the theory, but it did not fall apart, because it had its foundation in data. But whoever hears these teachings and does not put them into practice is like a foolish scholar who built his theory upon conjecture. The criticisms came down, the controversies rose, and the counter-arguments blew and beat against the theory, and it failed spectacularly. (Matt 7:24-27)

(Added June, 2000)
There was a professor who was mentoring two post-docs for whom she had high hopes. One day the younger one said, "Professor, give me my share of the research grants." So she divided her grants and projects between them. Not long after that, the younger post-doc packed up his equipment and left for another institution. He squandered his resources pursuing trendy pseudoscience, going on talk shows and publishing outlandish theories. After his funds ran out, the media lost interest in him and he couldn't get another grant. He took a job doing public relations for a self-proclaimed psychic. He longed to do even a single controlled study, but he wasn't allowed. When he came to his senses, he said, "My old professor's technicians do lots of interesting work, while I hate my job. I will return and say, 'I blew it. I am no longer worthy to be your post-doc. Please hire me as a technician.'"
So he returned to his old institution. But while he was still walking up the sidewalk, the professor saw him and ran to meet him. "Professor," he said, "I blew it. I am no longer worthy to be your post-doc." But she said to her workers, "Quick, clean out the corner office for him to use. Get him an I.D. card and a computer account. Call the institute's caterers and order their best spread and champagne. For my post-doc was lost, but has returned." So they began to celebrate.
Meanwhile, the older post-doc was working down the hall. When he came near the main office, he heard laughter and music. He stopped one of the technicians in the hall and asked him what was happening. "Your younger colleague has returned," he replied, "and the professor is throwing a party." The older post-doc went sulking back to his office. So the professor went to him and pleaded with him. But he answered, "Look, all these years I've been slaving for you, always second author on your papers, and you've never even sent out for pizza for me. But this other guy squanders your grants and reputation on junk science, and you throw a big party for him!"
The professor said, "You've always been my partner, and all of my projects are your projects. But we have to celebrate and be glad, because your colleague was ruined, and has been restored; he was lost to us, but has been found."

((Copyright reserved by Deborah and Loren Haarsma. May be freely distributed electronically in whole or in part, but please keep this notice attached and do not alter the text.))

And This is Your Brain on Religion

Recent advances in the field of neuro-theology

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa013&articleID=434D7C62-E7F2-99DF-37CC9814533B90D7&pageNumber=1&catID=2

Too True

Cute ... Disturbing but Cute

Check this out, the LOL Cats are now singing about chemistry!

http://rathergood.com/soluble/

Fundamental Constants

You know, I like the definition of a kilogram as being the mass of one liter of pure water but there are the problems related to exactly reproducing the physical conditions so the genuises at the heart of the metric system had to have physical artifacts to which all samples would be referenced. This article is an amazing admission of the limitations of having physical reference objects.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/09/12/shrinking.kilogram.ap/index.html

Coins and Metal Prices ... The Story Continues

Link to Globe and Mail Story : Soaring metals prices mean making money costs U.S. a mint (Thursday, August 16, 2007)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070816.IBPENNY16/TPStory/

"Because of a surge in the price of copper, the U.S. Mint decided 25 years ago to manufacture the coins almost entirely with zinc, save for the coating on which Abraham Lincoln's profile is engraved.
Now, the fate of the penny is up in the air once again. With the price of zinc soaring amid a worldwide commodities boom, it costs the government almost 2 cents to make each 1-cent coin - a pretty penny considering roughly eight billion new ones are placed into circulation annually.
While it is unlikely the penny will be pulled from circulation, there are some lawmakers who would like to ditch zinc as a raw material and instead use steel or some other less expensive metal."

...

"Francois Velde, a senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said the federal government should rid the U.S. currency of pennies, or at the very least find a cheaper way to make them.
Mr. Velde noted that equivalent coins in Canada, Britain and Europe are made from steel, which is roughly five times less expensive than zinc.
Mr. Weller said Jarden, which produces coin blanks for more than two dozen countries, is "agnostic" about the penny's metal content.
"Should Congress or the Mint suggest a different metal composition, like copper-plated steel or copper-plated aluminum, I'm sure Jarden would be interested in talking to the Mint about their capabilities," he said."

Internet Gleanings

Perspective

http://comics.com/wash/opus/archive/opus-20070805.html

Match Chemistry In the News

Video link to group effort to collect 30,000 match heads in one bucket.
Almost like a collection at church.

Link to match head video

Wikipedia link to match chemistry

Strike anywhere matches:
Phosphorus sesquisulphide [P4S3],
Potassium chlorate [KClO3]

Link to chemistry of related explosive mixtures

The Brutally Honest Personality Test

Your Score: Crackpot - INTJ

33% Extraversion,
80% Intuition,
73% Thinking,
53% Judging

People hate you.

Paris Hilton hates Nicole Richie. Lex Luther hates Superman. Garfield hates Mondays.But none these even rates against the insurmountable hate, people have for you.

I mean, you're pretty damn clever and you know it. You love to flaunt your potential. Heard the word "arrogant" lately? How about "jerk?" Or perhaps they only say that behind your back.

That's right. I know I can say this cause you're not going to cry. You're not exactly the most emotional person. You'd rather spend time with your theoretical questions and abstract theories than with other people.

Ever been kissed? Ever even been on a date? Trust me, your inflated ego is a complete turnoff with the opposite sex and I am telling you, you're not that great with relationships as it is. You're never going to be a dude or chick magnet, purely because you're more concerned with yourself than others. Meh. They all hate you already anyway.

How about this- "stubborn?" Hrm? Heard that lately? All those facts which don't fit your theories must just be wrong, right? I mean, really, the vast amounts of time you spend with your head in the clouds...you're just plain strange.

*****************
If you want to learn more about your personality type in a slightly less negative way, check out this.
*****************

Link: The Brutally Honest Personality Test written by UltimateMaster on OkCupid,

True at all levels of Education

Click on cartoon for a larger image.

LINK

Dumping General Chem Link

I am not formally back since I am on sabbatical but as I come across links that are related to general or organic chemistry I will dump them here.

These two are related and deal with the same topic:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1772978922

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCfDRvDWid0

I have to say that both are derivative of the famous novella titled "He Who Shrank" written a long time ago when the Bohr model of the atom was just becoming commonly understood.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Hasse

A Time to Begin A Time to End

I started this blog to help me teach my courses. The experiment was not successful in any way that I had intended it. The stats indicate a fairly constant number of people monitoring the blog but the use of the blog as a means for students to comment, ask questions or offer supplementary material was, for the most part, an unused opportunity. I had mis-read why some students were silent or apathetic in my courses and it was not for lack of an anonymous opportunity to participate at their own time and in their own way.

I made a commitment to keep the blog going for the whole academic year and that is what I did. My sabbatical will take me away from teaching for a year and so I will leave this blog up for a while and then decide if I should delete the whole blog.

To those of you that dropped in ... thanks for looking (and in some cases commenting). The companion blog to this Eppur Si Muove I set aside for Christianity and the Natural Sciences and that blog will also fall silent now. Again I will let it be for a while and then decide if it should be deleted. If I decide to continue to offer anything up for blogging over the next year or so it will be on the research blog "A Pale Blue Gas". We will see.

Take Care.

Professor Honeydew

BI3203 I Am a Rock, I Am an Island

At a molar mass of 14,400 g/mol getting a single crystal this big, this clean and this symmetric has got to be worth some praise.

Link to details on lysozyme

The final exam is "in the can". There are the predictable sections on memory work, short answer, long answer and explain the significance of the following diagrams. If you have any questions let me know.

The notes from the remaining chapters that we covered have been deposited on the course webpage.

CH1023 W07 Not all Tears are Evil

So here we are at the parting of our ways. We had 38 hours of lectures, 12 hours of tutorials, 36 hours of laboratory instruction plus whatever time you put into the course on your own. You were tested/marked/quizzed and examined 30 times in this course. Thank-you for sticking with the course to the very end.

I will be in touch early next week about lab report and lab binder marks.

I know you have filled out student evaluations but if you still have something to say, I keep an eye on the RateMyProfessor.com site and you are welcome to leave a comment there.

Link to RateMyProfessor

If you were just here for the year then I hope the year has gone well and I pray that you have found ABU to be a good school to attend. If you are returning next year, I am going on sabbatical so I will not be around (well, I will still be round just maybe not around). I hope your next year goes well.

Whatever happens, you will all continue in my prayers as you head out for whatever the summer will bring you. Take care ... be well.

By the way, don't you people write your names on anything? Two students left stuff in the examination room and neither has their name written on them anywhere. One is just a textbook and some looseleaf but the other is a knapsack with a text and clipboard. The only thing that I could find that was even loosely identifiable were some notes that some students were passing each other in math class. The notes were about how hot someone's sister was and how another student was "working on not lusting this semester". Good luck with that.

ABU Science in the News

Link to Today's Times and Transcript Article

Photo Caption: Mad scientist?
Forest Glen School in Moncton held a science enrichment day yesterday with invited guests from many scientific fields. Student Logan Quinn has carbon dioxide vapour poured on his head by ‘mad scientist' Trevor Nason of Atlantic Baptist University.

Way to fight the stereotype! I prefer "misunderstood" to "mad" but I guess it is all the same. Actually, we are all proud of you. Well done.

CH1023 W07 Pre-exam Tutorial

I will offer a pre-exam tutorial in room 240 from 1:30 PM until there are no more questions (or supper time ... you do not want to be between me and food).

All are welcome, bring a friend.

CH1023 W07 Prof. H What's on the Exam?

We all know that the final exam covers the whole course. We also know that:

a) it is highly unlikely that any significant part of the final exam will be drawn from some minor point. In general if I have spent a lecture or more on a topic (or there was a lab on the topic) you can expect it to make a significant part of the final exam.

b) I can't ask you everything. That means that when it comes down to exam design I cannot really ask you to answer more than six big questions. Naturally that means that there will be at least three chapters that you will be able to avoid ONLY IF I GIVE YOU CHOICE FOR ALL CHAPTERS. As it stands now you will have limited choice meaning that I have chosen not to ask questions on all the chapters.

c) exam design is largely that of the tests, if you were ready for the tests you are ready for the exams. In general, the form you can expect will be the following:

Part A: Short answer (no choice)
Part B: Short calculations (limited choice)
Part C: Short explanations (limited choice)
Part D: Long answer questions (limited choice)
(I reserve the right to make changes to this structure)


Material from the text that will be covered on the final exam:

C11: Organic Chemistry [full chapter including skeletal structures]
Key to xm: structure / nomenclature, classes of reaction

C12: Intermolecular Forces [full chapter]
Key to xm: kinetic molecular theory, structure – density, phase changes

C13: Colligative Properties [full chapter]
Key to xm: concentration conversion, colligative properties

C14: Kinetics [full chapter and 21.3]
Key to xm: rate constant / rate laws, integrated first order, Arrhenius

C15: Equilibrium [full chapter]
Key to xm: calc K, calc concentration, LeChatalier’s

C16: Acid / Base Equilibria [full chapter]
Key to xm: pH / pOH / pKa , calc concentration, salt solutions

C17: Acid / Base and Solubility Equilibria [17.1-17.6 only]
Key to xm: buffers, Henderson – Haselbach, solubility and molar solubility

C18: Thermodynamics [18.1 – 18.5 only]
Key to xm: calc entropy rxn, explain entropy rxn, calc free energy , explain free energy, H/S = T
Review Questions:18.12, 18.14, 18.18, 18.20

C19: Redox and Electrochem [19.1 – 19.4 only and only referenced to lecture notes]
Key to xm: Balance half reactions, calc Ecell, draw cell
Review Questions: 19.2, 19.12, 19.16

This made me laugh

A science professor posted some of the answers on tests and exams that he has had to mark over the years. I laughed. I cried. It is unfortunately true that the answers that I have marked over the years that are like these typically the student does not know that what they have written is funny.

Link to post

I would note that some of the comments are vile but that is the nature of the internet.

Monday Cartoon and Quote

"Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. I have read and heard many attempts at a systematic account of it, from materialism and theosophy to the Christian system or that of Kant, and I have always felt that they were much too simple. I suspect that there are more things in heaven and earth that are dreamed of, or can be dreamed of, in any philosophy. That is the reason why I have no philosophy myself, and must be my excuse for dreaming."
John Burden Sanderson Haldane (1892-1964) English geneticist.

This is how the world ends ... Or a Great SF Plot

From the Associated Press News Service:

"PHOENIX (AP) - Behind the county hospital’s tall cinderblock walls, a 27-year-old tuberculosis patient sits in a jail cell equipped with a ventilation system that keeps germs from escaping. Robert Daniels has been locked up indefinitely, perhaps for the rest of his life, since last July. But he has not been charged with a crime. Instead, he suffers from an extensively drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis, or XDR-TB. It is considered virtually untreatable."

It will be the diseases that killed thousands of people in the early 20th century. It will be the very diseases that a triumphant modernist worldview proclaimed conquered. It will be diseases that we thought we had a cure for that will turn on us and end our world as we know it. A truly infectious, communicable disease where only true isolation can slow the spread. The military knows that you never leave a viable enemy behind your lines and we have known for generations that where prolific organisms have a survival rate that is not equal to zero that tolerant populations arise. That is what has happened.

So what do you do when a person shows up whose actual existence is a threat to humanity? SF has worked this plot over and over but it would appear that we are rapidly approaching the point where here and now, in a society defined by its cult of the individual and the rights of the individual over the majority, that we will have to start making: a) decisions to isolate people indefinitely for the sole reason that we cannot cure the chronic infectious disease that they carry or b) even worse (think "Outbreak").

What would Jesus do indeed.

CH1023 Class Assignment

OK, we have just finished T3 and we pretty much have a straight run to the final exam (FXM). There will be a bit of solubility and a short chapter on thermodynamics. If time allows we will will get some electro chemistry. So all-in-all we should have a good feeling for the course now.

This class assignment is to nominate and vote for equations that you would like to be given on the final exam. You may nominate as many as you like but only one at a time and you must give a reason for your nomination. I will put UP TO TEN equations on the final exam depending on the class participation and vote. If no one participates and no one votes for an equation then I guess there will be no equations given but if twenty equations are nominated and all get equal votes then I will choose by lottery.

Just as at the end of last semester there will be two marks assigned for this assignment: a mark out of 10 for the final list (based on my assessment of the importance / utility / difficulty in remembering) and a mark out of 10 for the students individual participation.

So it is up to you. Start nominating and voting. This assignment will close at 12 midnight Sunday, April 15.

Warmed Over Thoughts about Global Warming

There have been some articles that have popped up recently that have given me pause. The tone of the articles is a blend of fatalism and pragmatism. What I like about the new tone however is the lack of blame.

It seems that the most inflammatory aspects of global warming, what causes the most screaming, is assigning cause and effect blame. I am not going to engage in that debate, there seems to be plenty of rhetoric about what is the cause of global warming that obscures the more important question "What should be our response to global warming?" In my opinion, informed by my general reading of both the scientific and popular press, global warming is happening.

It is true that I have never seen reports that properly accounted for the vast carbon dioxide and methane reserves in the oceans which are intimately linked to trivial changes in salinity and temperature. Forget the atmosphere, if the oceans ever decide that they don't like us they can turn the Earth into Venus in less than a century.

In my opinion, people that claim that global warming is not occuring can also claim a position with the earth centered Aristotlians that opposed Galileo and would not look through his telescope.




All in all, my position is:

If we did it ... we cannot fix it in our lifetimes so we have to figure out a way to survive.
If we didn't do it ... then we have to figure out a way to survive.

Yes, there is a strong political agenda at play

No, it is not clear that we are totally to blame ... but does that matter?

So what is a Christian, facing a warmer future with a responsible attitude towards the environment to do?

I do not think turning our lives inside out will do much good. And allowing people to cause panic just gives them a power they should not have.

My response is in two phases the first theological and second pragmatic.

First, if we consider instead a more simple question ... "How would God expect me to respond to a blessing?" we might be able to find wisdom.

God blesses us so that we might enjoy the blessing, that we might be encouraged in our service to Him, that we might show our love to Him by using the blessing to bless and encourage others.

Second, if we consider this good Earth to be a blessing from God then it seems straightforward:

Enjoy this good Earth as a blessing.
Find aspects of this good Earth that encourage us ... look up the stars or down at molecules ... either way we will find that God has not hidden his hand.
Respond to the blessing by making a simple ecological and environmental covenant:

Just as this good Earth has blessed me I must not allow my actions and my life to prevent it from doing the same for other that live with me or will come after me.

In my opinion, what happens next is just good stewardship.

TIME magazine has a remarkable article out now on simple, non-crazy things we can do personally or encourage regionally / nationally that show good stewardship as opposed to panic. It seems to make sense to me.

LINK TO THE TIME MAGAZINE ARTICLE

Really, what responsible, calm response could we have?

BUY LAND / PLANT TREES. Probably the one most important thing you can do is make sure that at the end of your life you are responsible for more trees than less trees.

Live small ... reduce, re-use, recycle.

Eat local food. If God had wanted us to have fresh spinich in the winter he wouldn't have created e. coli.

Drive a small car that is well maintained.

CHANGE YOUR LIGHTBULBS NOW. You know, I just do not understand people. We knew the truth as children. The whole concept of the Easy Bake oven is that incandescent lightbulbs give off huge amounts of excess heat. Connect the dots for Pete's sake.

Use public transportation.

If you live in the country ... minimize your water use (domestic sewage in rural environments is a ticking timebomb that no one talks about)

If you live in the city ... turn on the taps. There are a number of reasons but most importantly is that the most clean and aggressively protected wild areas near cities are the protected watersheds for municiple water systems. Secondly water is a renewable resource and lack of clean water elsewhere in the world is a stupid reason for those that have lots limit its use ... it is clean water habitat that we need to conserve as aggresively as possible.

Stop treating flushes and drain as magic holes that transport everything you don't want to someplace you don't care about.


Panic Bad.
Crazy Bad.
Blessing Good.

Tuesday Quote and Cartoon

“Science does not rest on solid bedrock. The bold structure of its theories rises, as it were, above a swamp. It is like a building erected on piles. The piles are driven down from above into the swamp, but not down to any natural or ‘given’ base; and if we stop driving the piles deeper, it is not because we have reached firm ground. We simply stop when we are satisfied that the piles are firm enough to carry the structure, at least for the time being.”

Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, (New York, Routledge Classics, 1959, reprint of first English edition, 2002), 94.

Friday Quote and Cartoon

"You mean that in a room full of industrial solvents you figured that the best thing to use to clean your laboratory glassware was your own spit?"

Professor Honeydew to Rowlf, this morning.

Friday Cartoon and Quote

(Click on cartoon for better view)

"I attempted mathematics [at Cambridge University ], and even went during the summer of 1828 with a private tutor (a very dull man) to Barmouth, but I got on very slowly. The work was repugnant to me, chiefly from my not being able to see any meaning in the early steps of algebra. This impatience was foolish, and in after years I have deeply regretted that I did not proceed far enough at least to understand something of the great leading principles of mathematics; for men thus endowed seem to have an extra sense. But I do not believe that I should ever have succeeded beyond a very low grade."

Charles Darwin (A biologist of some sort) in his Autobiography

Friday Cartoon and Quote

Sometimes I am a little unkind to all my many friends in education ... by
saying that from the time it learns to talk every child makes a dreadfull
nuisance of itself by asking "Why?". To stop this nuisance society has
invented a marvelous system called education which, for the majority of
people, brings to an end their desire to ask that question. The few
failures are known as scientists.
-- Hermann Bondi (Austrian/British mathematician/cosmologist,
1919-) in "Review of Cosmology", Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society, 1948 108,107.

Hey ... That's What I Said!

Not that I should be boasting but the weekend Globe and Mail had an article that supported much of what I had said earlier about climate change. In particular the graph at the right shows that the expected increase in CO2 and global temperature should make things alot worse for growing grain in the developing world but a lot better in Canada, Northern Europe and Russia. If the trend hold the article predicts "devastating" levels of environmental refugee's




Link to article in Globe and Mail

Lab Conversations

How many times have I been wandering the lab and a student holds up a test tube with a clear colourless solution in it and asks "Does this look right?" and we will have a conversation just like this one that is making the rounds on the internet now ...

(By the way TA = teaching assistant)

TA: What went on in this lab?
Student: What do you mean?
TA: What did you do in this lab?
Student: Lab 3.
TA: And what did you do in lab 3?
Student: We measured the result.
TA: Assume I’ve never seen this lab before, and you’re going to explain it to me. What would you say?
Student: (pause) Well, it was all about getting the slope.
TA: The slope of what?
Student: The slope of the plot.
TA: I know that, but you have to assume I’ve never heard of this lab, ok? How would you explain what you did?
Student: We got the wires and measured at each point.
TA: Measured what?
Student: What the meter said.
TA: (pause) Look. Your report tells me nothing; this could be an experiment about baking cakes. What’s this number here?
Student: 5.
TA: Yes I KNOW it’s 5. What did it measure?
Student: The slope. Of the line.
TA: What line?
Student: The line. On the plot. We measured the points and plotted them.
TA: Why?
Student: (knowing smile) Because that’s what the lab said.
TA: If I was a total stranger, how would you explain this to me?
Student: You just connect it up–
TA: Connect WHAT up?
Student: The circuit.
TA: Why?
Student: I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re asking.
TA: I’m asking: what is this lab all about?
Student: Well, we put in the wires and got 5.
TA: 5 what?
Student: The slope.
TA: WHAT was it’s slope?
Student: 5.
TA: I KNOW that, but what was it a measurement of?
Student: The meter.
TA: (sigh) One more time — consider me a total stranger. How would you explain this to me?
Student: You just put on the wires and vary the dial until you get the readings.
TA: What dial?
Student: On the power supply.
TA: Why was there a power supply?
Student: Well, for the circuit.
TA: And what readings are you talking about?
Student: The readings in the plot.
TA: They gave you a plot in the lab manual?
Student: I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re asking.
TA: Where did the plot come from?
Student: We drew it.
TA: From what?
Student: From the experiment.
TA: The experiment about what?
Student: About lab 3.
TA:….

Me, You and Wikipedia

I have been asked in a couple of my courses about my classification of the information that comes from Wikipedia. This is not an issue limited to my personal response to a tertiary reference source if you read the link below.

I respect Wikipedia for its accessibility, open community concept and GENERAL reliability but IT IS NOT AN APPROPRIATE ACADEMIC REFERENCE FOR UNIVERSITY work. It usually does give a good broad overview of a topic and more usefully provides links to more appropriate online sources. Therefore, in reports and papers in my courses wikipedia should not be in your reference list but it can appear in your bibliography.

Link to New York Times article on Wikipedia as an academic reference

This link was brought to my attention in a chemsitry blog that I monitor named "The Chem Blog".

Friday Cartoon, Quote and Link

"It is not enough to have a good mind:
One must use it as well"

Rene Descartes



It does not seem to matter how long in advance students are warned about tests, term papers or exams. I am convinced that the translation of the latin motto for ABU must be "The last minute is the best minute".

The following link is a flash back to when I was younger and the Ontario government sponsored an after school TV puppet program to encourage kids to stay away from drugs. The scientist character in the program was always fascinating to me in terms of his mannerisms and hair style. This video was produced by some american amateur film makers who somehow got ahold of the original tape and made some changes. Warning: there are some disturbing images in this video beyond the hair style of the scientist.

Link to video

The Continuing Crisis: Toxic Squirrels

The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services issued a warning in January to residents of the city of Ringwood that they should limit their intake of squirrel to no more than twice a week (children once a month). (A toxic waste dump is nearby.) [New York Daily News-AP, 1-25-07]

Half Way Home

When we have our lecture tomorrow (Wednesday, February 21) in both Chemistry and Biochemistry we will have passed the academic halfway point in the semester. That means that there will be fewer classes remaining in the course than we have had so far. In both courses we are a week or more behind where we should be in terms of material covered and labs submitted (based on previous years). To my mind that means that we may have to use some lab time to cover material so we can make sure that we at least have the same content in the course as previous years. We shall see after the mid-term break.

Math Anxiety ... Who Knew?

Check out this link that describes a study of the relationship between math anxiety and test marks. It seems that the fear of the math questions is so high in some people that the fear itself will cause the student to have a lower mark than they should.

"While the causes of math anxiety are unknown, Ashcroft said people who manage to overcome math anxiety have completely normal math proficiency."

Link to article