ABU Riverkeepers

So, the ABU Biology Society and their faculty sponsor Penny Humby got us all up on a rainy Saturday morning to drag other people's garbage out of a nameless brook we had never really noticed before. This professor took his camera and whenever he took a photo the students would all look sad and feign intense interest in gum wrappers.

From 2008-09-27(BI3513Riverkeepr)

So I passed the camera off to a student and suddenly the other students were posing like models for the Eatons catalogue (go figure).

From 2008-09-27(BI3513Riverkeepr)

So they took my camera and wandered off to play Riverkeeper in their own 'hood and they even formed a gang called the Keypurz .. here they are with their peeps flashing their gang signs. ]

From 2008-09-27(BI3513Riverkeepr)

Some people took Riverkeeping to a whole new level of personal participation.

From 2008-09-27(BI3513Riverkeepr)

Finally at the end of a long wet morning the students met a hillbilly and his pet snake.

From 2008-09-27(BI3513Riverkeepr)

This is a slideshow of the rest of the photos:

Thanks to all the students that participated and for the Biology Society for getting us together. And thanks to Somer for taking the photos of students with smiles.

Things that Make Me Laugh: Science Ads

Chemists get a reputation as humourless, soul-destroying trolls that hide under bridges and kill any hope that wanders by. It is therefore quite pleasing to see a thin layer chromatography firm depart from the stereotype and show a sense of humour in this clip that is in fact an extension of a famous Monty Python skit. The cinematography and acting are very good for this sort of thing so it must have been a labour of love for the owners of the company.

LINK TO VIDEO

Internet Serendipity

Came across both of these on the same day and the serendipity of it all it made me laugh ...

"The Scriptures are so chop'd and minc'd, and as they are now so Printed, stand so broken and divided, that not only the Common People take the Verses usually for distinct Aphorisms, but even Men of more advanc'd Knowledge in reading them, lose much of the strength and force of Coherence, and the Light that depends on it" John Locke

CHEM 1013 Lab 2 Penny Data

So we have been working in the penny library for a fortnight now and we have counted and measured pennies ....

And boiled pennies in acid ...

All in the name of science. So now it is time for us to collect our data as a class. Use the comments section of this post to give the densities that you measured. Give them as YEAR (Density gcm-3) [so you should report them as 1993 (7.8 gcm-3)]. This way you will be able to compare your data in your formal report with the data from the class.

Charles We Hardly Knew Ye

Science is done by human beings and we as humans share much that is mundane about our lives. There is a new book out now that explores the real, human side of scientists that loom large in our minds and imaginations. Check out this description ...



"He suffered from incessant retching or vomiting, usually brought on by fatigue; and from painful bouts of wind that churned around after meals and obliged him to sit quietly in a private room until his body behaved more politely. Reading between the lines, his guts were noisy and smelly. "I feel nearly sure that the air is generated somewhere lower down than stomach," he told one doctor plaintively in 1865, "and as soon as it regurgitates into the stomach the discomfort comes on." He was equally forthright with his cousin...: "all excitement & fatigue brings on such dreadful flatulence that in fact I can go nowhere." When he did go somewhere, he needed privacy after meals, "for, as you know, my odious stomach requires that."He also had trouble with his bowels, frequently suffering from constipation and vulnerable to the obsession with regularity that stalked most Victorians. He developed crops of boils in what he called "perfectly devilish attacks" on his backside, making it impossible to sit upright, and occasional eczema. There were headaches and giddiness. He probably had piles as well."

Sort of makes you see Charles Darwin in a whole new way don't you think?

LINK TO BOOK

Five Days to Get Your Life in Order

It would appear that they are about to switch on the Large Hadron Collider. You may remember this installation for the initial word that it would be able to find the "God particle" and later on that when the thing was turned on it would cause the existing universe to wink out of existence. It would appear that someone has corrected the math on that issue.

I especially like the calming reassurance: "As the Safety Assessment Group writes, “Each collision of a pair of protons in the LHC will release an amount of energy comparable to that of two colliding mosquitoes, so any black hole produced would be much smaller than those known to astrophysicists.” "

LINK TO ARTICLE

So if you have anyone to apologize to or to show some love you have until September 10th.

It still makes me think of this cartoon:

LINK TO LARGER IMAGE

CHEM 2113 Lab #1 Class Data

This is the post for the class to combine it's data collected in the first lab. I want everyone to log into the comments section of this post and leave any data that you have on the compounds.

for example;

Compound E: m.p. 123.5 - 125.0 oC
Compound E: TLC (CH2Cl2) Rf = 0.123
Compound E: TLC (acetone) Rf = 0.789

Welcome Back: Questions for Prof. H.

1. Why blog?

Three reasons really: ego, access and anonymity

Ego: The nature of the internet ensures that this is a public forum with a memory. People throw stuff on the internet without thinking about it much but it all gets stored somewhere. With that in mind a person has to believe that they have something to say that other people need to read.

Access: This blog will pretty much be "active" 24/7 which means that it can function as a forum for the courses anytime that a student has opportunity to work on the course. Perhaps I will not be signed on but a message can be left that another student might be able to read and help.

Anonymity: Some students just do not do the "face-to face thing" very well. They may come to my office with specific goals and questions and then let the stress of the encounter cut the meeting short or incomplete. A blog gives a student a chance to think things through and make sure that they get what they need (or at least they have the opportunity). The anonymity is important in that it is possible for the student to participate without me or their peers developing a negative opinion of them.

2. How would this blog be different from other online forums?

This could be done internal to the university computer system. I noticed that when Union University had a tornado tear apart their campus they had an off-site blog ready to go (LINK) and that reinforced in my mind the importance of having multiple lines of communication.

I see that some courses are supported by Facebook pages and that has two problems in my mind: a loss of anonymity and Facebook contact with the professor (both of which can have their problems if you tend to be a bit wild on Facebook).

3. What will you use this blog for?

If you look over the posts prior to this one you will see that there are three basic types of post:

a) Course information / discussion quick announcements especially for students that may have missed something, I might be able to emphasize here. I will also routinely post links and comments to information on the internet that relates to concepts taught in the course.

b) Course assignments: This is something that I have tried before and I don't think I have it quite right yet but would like to try again. I will post a problem and the class will work together to post a solution to the problem in the comment section of the post and only students that log in and post will share in the marks.

c) Commentary: Sometimes a professor just has to vent.