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

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

Friday Cartoon and Quote

"Biologically speaking, if something bites you it's more likely to be female."
Desmond Morris, Biologist / Behaviourist

BI 3203 Natural Pigments

It would appear that if you search Google for your natural source material (blueberry, rose etc.) and the word "pigment" or "dye" you would find the chemical name for your pigment (you may have to choose one from a mixture). You then search for the name of your pigment and the words "extinction" or "absorbtion" and can probably find an extinction coefficient for your pigment.

RELATED LINK 1

RELATED LINK 2

RELATED LINK 3

RELATED LINK 4

RELATED LINK 5

And so on ...

Oh yeah, I will have the photo images from this morning on the course webpage soon so keep an eye out for them.

The Continuing Crisis: Demos Gone Bad

Personally I agree with the people at Boing Boing when they say that God was just giving this chemistry professor what he deserved for wearing a tie-dyed lab coat.

The demonstration is called the "whoosh bottle demo" and involves the burning of an alcohol-air mixture in a confined space. All the descriptions I have heard say that this is very dangerous in a glass bottle. This video proves it.

Link to video

Friday Afternoon Quote and Cartoon

"There are two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle;
the other is as though everything is."
A. Einstein

You Just Gotta See This

Sulphur hexafluoride is a non-polar, colourless, relatively inert gas despite its composition and high molecular mass. With a density 5.1 times that of dry air the gas naturally collects at the bottom of "empty" containers. At a German Science fair the organizers filled an aquarium with the gas and were able to suspend an aluminum boat in the gas. Makes for some amazing video.

Link to video

Welcome Back

Welcome back. I hope you all are well.

Stumbled across this article from "The Onion". I want to make it clear that I do not think that the content of "The Onion" is appropriate for everyone. This article however is so clearly an inside science joke that even some scientists might not see how this is funny.

What do you think?

Link to article

Friday Cartoon and Friday Quote

(Looks better if you click on the cartoon)

"Christmas renews our youth by stirring our wonder.
The capacity for wonder has been called our most pregnant human faculty,
for in it are born our art, our science, our religion."

Ralph Sockman

CH 1013 --> CH1023

Class, the marks have been submitted. I will see you in the new year. If you would like to get a head start on the course for the next semester you should review Organic Chemistry from your high school notes and read the lab that has been posted on the course web page.

We will spend most of January on organic chemistry and since it is the only chemistry topic directly taught at a higher level here at ABU you should be motivated to do well on this part of the course.

I hope the semester has gone well for you all. Take care.

Science Students Unite!

As I understand the timetable, this is the weekly schedule for the upper level science courses and Christianity and the Natural Sciences.



Several students have spoken with me about the mix of terror and grim fatalism that grips them when they consider this semester. Especially the students interested in Honours. Well, what do we do?

The first suggestion is that it is highly unlikely that anyone HAS to take three lab Biology courses AND RS 3853. You need to check this very carefully. The fear is that these courses may not be offered again next year. Well, BI 3203 (BioChem) and RS 3853 (Christ and NatSci) will NOT be offered again until W09. So that leaves Genetics and Botany. IF all three of these lab courses will be needed to graduate in May 2008 then the students that need them also need to make a case to us that one of the courses should also be offered again next year. Just looking at the schedule I would think that Botany is the one to defer to next year as it opens up the schedule the most.

If there is going to be a case made by the students it has to be made before you leave. Is there a problem? Do the students that face this schedule see any other solution that would bleed some of the stress out of the semester? Speak up now.

The Story of the Egg

It was my third year of my undergraduate degree. I had to take Physics, Thermodynamics and Quantum Chemistry all at the same time. I had reached the limit of my ability to think mathematically and my heart and mind were choked with fear. I sat down to the final exam in Quantum and just blanked. It was all gone. I sat and looked at the exam for half an hour and prepared to leave. The professor had seen what I was going through and at this crucial point decided to talk to me. He did not say anything to me that addressed the content of the exam but he did make it clear to me that he thought if I could just calm down and think about something else for a minute or two and then come back to the exam with "fresh eyes" that it would make a difference.

It did, and here I am writing the exams.

I have found over the years that my proximity to a student does not necessarily lower their stress level. That said, I offer the kinderegg. Students are not allowed to bring food to the exam. But I can. As I always say ... if you find yourself in a dark corner during the exam ... eat the egg ... construct and play with the toy ... then return to the exam with fresh eyes. Any way that it works out I offer the egg to you as a gift and expression of my confidence that if you can marshall your thoughts you will find that there is a lot of good stuff bumping around in your head. The egg comes literally with my blessing, my prayers and my hopes that your life will go well.

Students have different reactions to the egg. Some eat the egg and play with the toy before they write anything. I had an entire class tell me one time after the exam that they had wanted to eat their egg but did not want to be the first to "crack" and so no one ate their egg. Several students have had such an angry rage in their hearts that they took it out on the egg (one that I am thinking off crushed hers in her hands and dropped it on my desk as she left saying "give this to someone else". Then again, I have had several students tell me after an exam that they really needed two eggs to get through that exam.

Take it or leave it. I offer it to you as a gift. I hope it helps.

Merry Christmas

Chem 2113 Things to Remember

I need to add something to our discussion on the final exam. There were three majour set-piece memorization items from the text that you sort of need to have in your heads. I have decided that the first question on the final exam will be worth 10% of the exam and will be one of the following. I figured that you would all likely have these in your heads already and this will give that effort some value.

I hope all is well.

Table 2.1 Structures of Some Common Functional Groups (p. 36 - 37)
Table 7.1 Common Nucleophiles (p. 207)
Figure 10.7 Road Map for Reactions of Functional Groups

To Eat an Egg

In 1908 Jack London (follow this link to biography) wrote a soul gripping short story of a man in the freezing Alaskan dark who had to build a fire to survive. The short story was called "To Build a Fire" (follow this link to the story). It captures the heart stopping fear that knowledge of the consequences of failure can bring. It captures the hope of success that causes us to continue to move forward. It is better than Hemingway.

It may be that something as simple as an egg may be the bridge between fear and hope and I offer this analysis of a kinderegg for your consideration.

Mass of kinderegg: 34.015 g
Mass of foil wrap: 0.555 g
Mass of chocolate: 20.786 g
Mass of plastic shell: 3.460 g
Mass of paper instructions: 1.163 g
Mass of toy 8.045 g

Ability to distract when desperate for a distraction .... priceless

Saturday Science Cartoon

OK, so this isn't about Science only but it sure is an important point to make.

Friday Science Cartoon

Friday Science Quote

Especially true for this time of year ...

Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. This is the first lesson to be learned.

T. Huxley

My "Under-The-Door" Policy

Do not slide assignments, lab reports or anything you want me to mark under my office door. If you cannot find me then take it to the receptionist and she will make sure that I get it. This time of year anything that gets slid under my door usually has a big old foorprint on it by the time I realize that it is there.

By the way, I will be in a meeting today from 2:30 PM. After that time if you have something to hand it it will need to be passed to the receptionist. After 4:30 PM you will have to submit it through the Academic Committee.

CH 1013 Hey, Prof. H. What's on the Exam?

If I had limited time and could not study everything, what are the big concepts that I really should know for the final exam?

Chap. 1: nothing really, a little vocabulary a little classification

Chap. 2: Nomenclature (ionic and molecular, this subject will bite you in the butt all the time in other questions)

Chap. 3: Molecular vs Molar mass, Analysis for EF and MF

Chap. 4: Solution concentration, Solubility and precipitation prediction, Total vs Net Ionic equations, Acids and Bases, Oxidation / Reduction and the Activity Series

Chap. 5: Gas Laws applied to specific problems, Kinetic Molecular Theory

Chap. 6: Thermodynamics (E vs q vs w) Thermochemistry and the BCE, Hess's Law (direct and indirect)

Chap. 7: Story of the Bohr model, Story of the Quantum Mechanics model, Quantum numbers for orbitals and electrons in atoms and electronic configurations

Chap. 8: Effective nuclear charge and physical properties (rad., I and EA)

Chap. 9: Lewis structures, Bond Energies and Hess's Law

Chap: 10: VSEPR (Lewis Structure --> designation --> arrangement --> hybridization --> shape --> molecular polarity)

Oh, and by the way, the solution sets for the remaining chapters are up on the course webpage.

Chemistry 2113 Open Forum for Asking Questions

Same idea as for the first year course. I will keep an eye on the blog. Put your questions in the comments section and I will see what I can do for answers.

Chemistry 1013 Open Forum Questions and Answers

If you have questions between now and the exam you are welcome to post them here in the comments section and when I check in I will do what I can to answer them. You have to knwo that if you have a question that about half the class have the same question but are afraid to ask so this is your chance to be the leader. If any of the other students think that hey have an answer to a posted question just step in and take a shot.

Friday Science Cartoon

As we approach the end of semester ...











Link to cartoon strip

Friday Science Quote

"For the love of God,
I can't cry.
I'm a scientist."

Ornithologist Melanie Driscoll’s response to seeing an
ivory billed woodpecker (thought to be extinct)
as reported in National Geographic Magazine, December 2006

Link to National Geographic Article