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

Friday Quote and Cartoon

"Remembering the cost, the tyme, and the paine,
Which I shulde have to begin againe,
with heavie heart farewell adieu said I,
I will noe more of Alkimy"

Thomas Norton, 1652

People have had the same opinion about chemistry for a long time.

Not a Breakfast Club

"What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the Church of God and humiliate those that have nothing?"

"If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home"
I Corinthians 11 : v. 22 and v. 34.

I am well aware that my courses this semester are early in the morning. I live with my wife, three teenage boys and a dog. We have one bathroom. The logistics involved in getting us all out the door to jobs and school before 8:00 AM are considerable. But every morning we get it done one way or the other.

I understand that stealing some time in the morning by eating in my class seems to be a perfect solution to the time crunch but it has become so common and, to tell the truth, so distracting because of the nature of some of the breakfasts that are coming to class that I am going to have to shut it all down. No more eating in my classes. I am tired of the rustling, crackling, masticating and non-hydrogenated diary bi-product spreading. In one class recently I looked up to see almost half the class masticating openly with dreamy far-away looks. There will be no dreamy far-away looks in my class. No, I want you startled and attentive. On the other hand you are welcome to continue to bring beverages into class. And yes, I am serious about this, students that bring breakfast to class will be asked to leave. If I was able to persuade the football players at Saint Mary's University not to eat in my early morning classes then I can do the same with you.

The Continuing Crisis: Who Wants Stupid, Ugly Kids?

Harvested from "New of the Weird"

"Jennalee Ryan of San Antonio last year began selling choice human embryos, ready for prospective mothers to implant after having chosen from Ryan's catalog describing the contributors' education, attractiveness and medical history. "We're just trying to help people have babies," she told The Washington Post in January, and at less cost than full in-vitro procedures (since she has eliminated the risk of failed fertilizations). But, said a bioethicist, "It's like you're ordering a computer from Dell." (Ryan said she does not take custom orders.) Of her emphasis on well-educated, good-looking contributors of sperm and eggs, she said, "Who wants an ugly, stupid kid?" [Washington Post, 1-6-07]"

Once again Science runs ahead of morality and ethics.

Link

Friday Quote and Cartoon

“One cannot step twice in the same river.”

Heraclitus (ca. 540 – ca. 480 BCE)

CH1023: Open Thread: Chapter 11 Chemistry in the News

This is an opportunity for the class to participate in a wider discussion about the subjects we cover in class. All you need to do is note when you come across an online article or posting that has something to do with what we have discussed in class. You can post an article or even comment on a posting by another student. I have shown below what I would like for a general posting (title or abstract followed by the URL and a paragraph making a connection with the course).

For example:

"The Alabama Supreme Court, ruling in January, told leukemia-stricken Jack Cline that state law makes it either too early or too late for him to sue the manufacturer of benzene, to which he was exposed in his factory job, and it dismissed his lawsuit. He may have known he had been exposed to a carcinogen, but he couldn't sue until the cancer was actually diagnosed, but when it finally was, years later, the state's statute of limitations had long since run out. Several justices expressed concern about the catch-22, but they were in the minority. [New York Times, 1-14-07]"

Link to online reference [http://www.newsoftheweird.com/archive/index.html]

Connection with course: Benzene (or C6H6) was the molecule used to discuss aromatic chemistry in Chapter 11 or our text. The molecule is small and stable but this report also reveals that it is a dangerous carcinogen. This property was mentioned in our textbook on page 360 in the context of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons but also seems to apply to benzene itself.

This gives the other students an opportunity to comment on this posting by making links to sites that discuss the toxicity of benzene etc.

By the way, there are some of you that due to consistent lateness or even absence from class that have taken a pretty serious hit on your subjective evaluation mark (note: that is a mark that is not dropped if you have a good final exam). This is a way that you can remedy that problem.

Time for some straight talk about climate change

The climate of our planet is changing. As members of the science community we have a unique ability and responsibility to both understand the current state of the planet and communicate that knowledge to the world that we live in.

We all need to read this report very carefully ...

Link to Climate Change Panel

If we turn our society upside down and go back to a nearly agrarian society we in Canada can possibly make a 1% difference in the global trend. What will happen in the future will be determined by 1) the United States 2) Europe and Russia and the emerging capitalist states of China, Indonesia and India. Incedentally the deforestation in South America and in Indonesia will also impact the environment but in different ways. It is also true that those regions and countries will also face the most dramatic negative impact of climate change.

That does not mean that we should not make changes (energy efficiency, water conservation etc.), it means that we have to be pragmatic. First of all, we are on a trend that will not statistically change in our lifetimes. As Bruce Willis said in Armageddon "Call Earth and tell them it's bad news". Secondly, climate change will actually benefit some countries and that is a message that simply is not getting out.

What can we expect here in Canada?

Changes: People in the world are going to have to move or die either due to rising ocean levels or drought as the deserts increase in size. The will be population shifts or deaths that number in the millions ... tens of millions ... hundreds of millions? Where will they turn?

Invasions: we will be invaded people dispossessed by climate change and by flora and fauna that would not normally be able to live in our climate (get ready for cockroaches and bedbugs in the near future).

Surprises: the Earth is a complex exercise in chemistry and physics. To my observation the climatologists have been surprised every year in the past decade by a new environmental dynamic being revealed or changing. Most of these changes have to do with homeostasis which is simply the application of LeChatalier's Principle to the environmental equilibria that govern or planet both microscopically and macroscopically. My guess? There are things about heat exchange in our planet that we are currently not aware of ... but soon will be. This will mean surprising climate swings as the planets equilibra swing back and forth. The only question in my mind is if the time period for these equilibrium changes will be short (decades) or long (centuries).

To get back to my purpose. Climate change will benefit the Northern Countries (Canada, Scandinavia and Russia). They don't talk about this much but we have these big empty countries that have been kept empty because the winters make it economically impossible to live here. That is going to change. Get ready for it. Sir Wilfred Laurier was wrong by a century. It was not the 20th century that belonged to Canada it will be the 21st. Our greatest challenge will be to deal with our neighbour to the south as their central desert gets bigger. The response of the USA will be some combination of Manifest Destiny and violations of the 9th and 10th commandments. It will be our water that they will want. They will not be willing to give up the middle third of their country to desertification and they will see our water as the key solution.

I say ... let them have our water ... but make them pay. If fact, we could nationally start making changes right now to be ready for this when it happens. We will need the money to get our country ready for the immigrants.

That gets me to my real point. The Christian Church has finally been presented with a problem worthy of its whole attention. Christ clearly said that our lives should be defined by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and comforting the homeless. If we get off our hands, settle our differences and use the window of opportunity that we now have ... we can show the love of Christ to the whole world. It will be the Christian Church in North America, Northern Europe and Russia that will have to decide if we should profit from the coming change or risk it all to welcome and comfort the bewildered and dispossessed strangers at our gates.

It will play out in this generation. We have been warned, we have been given an opportunity and we have been challenged. We cannot change what will now surely happen in our lifetimes but we can get ready. Spread the word.

Friday Quote and Cartoon

"Basically, we bring all of you here,
brim full of needs and desires and hormones,
let you loose on each other
like so many animals in a wildlife sanctuary,
and hope for the best"

Andrew Abbott, Sociology Professor,
University of Chicago during welcome speech at orientation.

It is testing time in the old chemistry courses ...

The Continuing Crisis: Chemistry this Week

This past week we completed the soap lab and in the course of the lab we used some exotic source fats and oils. It turns out that some of these exotic fats and oils can impact hormone levels in men as reported in WebMD. Now in the good old days (when men were men and smelled like men) men used commercial soaps and this would not have been a problem. But now, with a lot of personal hygiene products geared towards men containing exotic ingredients it takes a while for the long term effects to "come out", so to speak. In the words of the researchers ...

"The tests showed that lavender and tea tree oils may boost estrogen (a sex hormone that promotes female characteristics and is linked to breast development) and hamper androgens (sex hormones that promote male characteristics and inhibit breast growth)."

Link to WebMD posting about shampoos and skin creams causing men to grow breasts.

We were also talking about alcohols and the significance of the various isomers. Note that the solution to the problem of people drinking hand sanitizer seems to be using scary organic nomenclature rules.

Link to WebMD posting about people drinking hand sanitizer