Comic Chemistry: The Truth About Chemistry Kits

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal has a comic up today that bemoans the pulling of the teeth of chemistry sets. This has been commented on at length on the internet (LINK) but that does not change the betrayal of science that is captured by removing any risk from the sets.

I received my first chemistry set when I was 12. It was my gateway to DIY science and a remarkable insight for may parents to not only appreciate that I would like a chemistry set but to also purchase one for me.

The problem of course is the potential for lawsuits arising from the use of the equipment and chemicals in the set. And so the sets have been reduced to what the comic implies ... a safe irritant blocking further interest in chemistry.

It also makes me wonder about the curriculum of homeschooled students and how the lab experience of those students could possibly approach that of the experience and possibilities in a structured school lab unless the parents are science adept (and I have to say my experience is that the parents are often the ones getting the A's).

Comment added after initial post:

So, the day after this was posted a blog I follow posted on the solution to the whole problem as available in England. Perhaps soon it will come to Canada.

Comic Chemistry: Love and Preservatives

The webcomic Bug today had something positive to say about food preservatives:

While the webcomic Sheldon seemed to be having an off day with a reductionist fatalism about the reality do love and purpose.

I have to say that the idea of food preservatives acting as a preservative for us is an interesting one. the principle of Mithriditism (yes, there is a shout out to LOTR fans) is an old one and has some basis in fact for cumulative toxins like arsenic and mercury. Some very cool chemistry and biochemistry at the bottom of that idea.

As for the second comic I have to object to the word "only". Chemistry should be enough love for everybody. The comic then ends with a reference to "processed sugar" that has to make us pause when we consider the language. Sugar is a highly processed food and there is no "natural" process for making it other than personally sucking to juice out of sugar cane. That said, as an industrial process sugar and salt may come from natural sources but the food industry markets them as chemically pure reagents which I think is cool in itself. The only other foods that I can think of that are chemically pure would be home preservatives such as vinegar, alum and baking soda.

Chemistry and Culture: Chemistry as the Universal Image of Science

The website for the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression had this up on their website today.

I have argued in the past that the only scientific discipline that is visually recognizable as science is chemistry and this is another example, not only of the lab coated chemist but also the Erlenmeyer flask as universally recognizable symbols for science. It is a cute reversal of the observer being observed but also confined.

Chemistry and Culture: Images of Mixtures

It is not often that you see a humanities style magazine use chemical imagery to convey concepts but the Chronicle of Higher Education did it today (warning link behind pay wall).

To my eyes there seems to be a volume mis-match between the flasks and the beaker but I get what they are selling and appreciate the use of chemistry as a image for mixing in various proportions. I might have used graduated cylinders.

As for the mix in an ideal class, the selection is truly American with the reference to SAT marks standing in for academic ability and parents income for ability to pay. In the spirit of the liberal arts I appreciate the extracurricular like athletics in the creation of whole persons as well.

Comic Chemistry: What's that Smell

Chemistry tends to get very little mention in the popular media and as a popular culture reference chemistry is associated with explosions, bad smells and obscure information. That said, chemistry shows up from time to time either directly or indirectly referenced in popular culture including the webcomics I noticed that the current run of Foxtrot which publishes only on Sundays now made a direct reference to good practices in the lab but also fell back on the chemistry equals smell thing. Today the Foxtrot Classics (a zombiecom) also made reference to chemistry but using the obscure information theme, Sigh, at least we got mentioned.

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Monday Meditation: A Voice Not Replaced

Carl Sagan was a scientist who turned into a voice for science. He died a while ago and much of what he did as a scientist is now dated and not remembered. He did have some rather timeless thoughts about the role of science in society. We was a progessivist who believed that we can make ourselves better so some of what he said I disagree with but this meditation of his called "A Pale Blue Dot" is worthy of a Monday Meditation. I like this artist's (Zen Pencils)interpretation of the passage and that he gives links to the authentic Carl speaking the words and previous artistic interpretations.

Joy for $ 1.25 Not the Best TimeLapse

The computer had some issues and randomly stopped storing images but if you stick with it in the middle of the night it makes a creepy sideways motion that I cannot explain.

Friday Science Gleanings

The Chemistry Department of the University of Nottingham has a YouTube video channel where they have a video for each element of the periodic table narracted by the stereotypical chemistry professor Martyn Poliakoff. The vidoes work however because of their verisimiltude ... these vidoes are works of love.

LINK to YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/periodicvideos

In any event their most recent is a mash-up of the famous Lehrer "Element Song" and their narrators saying the names of the elements. It made me smile:



A preoccupation with the trivial is a universal attribute of the scientist. I found this video on light bulb filaments fascinating:



Calamaties of Nature has a series on Science and Spirituality:

And there was this as well by "The Other Coast"

While not specifically about Science I have always thought that this quote spoke to the curiousity and attitude of the Scientist:

"When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth." George Bernard Shaw

I Always Thought the Chemistry Was Wrong On this Issue

It turns out the Mafia informants have been overstating the use of barrels of sulphuric acid to dispose of human bodies. As someone who has put a lot of organic material in concentrated sulphuric acid over the years I just know that the fumes, heat and reaction residue would not be an easy clean-up. So it was good to hear that someone did the actual science on the whole "body in a barrel of Sulphuric Acid" myth. Now I have to come up with a different plans to dispose of the bodies ...

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/corpse-dissolving/

(I gotta ask though how this gets tagged as "biology" by the magazine)

Saturday Quote

"In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite."

Paul Dirac (Nobel Prize in physics, 1933)
Oh, and it snowed last night too.

Friday Science Round-up

Came across this quote in my reading this week ...

"Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths." Bertrand Russell

And I came across these cartoons referencing science ...

LINK

LINK

LINK

Stuff I Like

I like "Indexed" and this is the posting for today. Nice

Sometimes You Just Love Feeling Small

I saw this first on a physics site that I monitor [ LINK ] and it is yet another of the amazing time lapse sequences taken at observatories or in the desert. One can argue that it makes one feel small but I had to watch this three times ... first in amazement ... then humbled and finally grateful. Take a look but just don't be satisfied with the little image here go to the actual video to see it in all its' glory.

He Sees You When You're Sleeping ...

Several of you have expressed interest in the webcamera that I have mounted in the lab. As I have said, there was a time when I was concerned because I was alone in the lab with the students and would have appreciated a second set of eyes and an impartial account of what happened and when in the lab. So here we are. These are the images from the Intro Chem Lab 23 November:



And the Organic Chem Lab 25 November:

A River Runs Through It

So we are in the middle of the biggest storm of the season and I decided to make a quick visit to the culvert (click on image for video).

From 2010-11-07(stream)

The video isn't perfect (I see I forgot to reset the date in the camera when I changed the batteries)but it shows the culvert releasing water at 3 meters per second and pooling over the lower rock field which clearly was created without thinking about the water table. The lower rock field will not act as a filter, the landscape fabric hoarding has been torn out and is now not holding anything in. If you look closely you can also see the demarcation line of the muddy outflow as it mixes with the stream. I have to admit though that the dilution factor has to be a significant factor with the stream volume so high.

I think this confirms pretty much everything I suspected and feared. Now we just need to wait until the city starts salting the streets to see what impact that has on the stream. Something tells me the stream doesn't freeze over this winter.

From 2010-11-07(stream)

From 2010-11-07(stream)

From 2010-11-07(stream)

Calm Before the Whirlwind

It is weirdly quiet and calm here at CU. Sort of that ominous quiet before a big storm. I have been working on my courses for the fall and attending meetings. Oh, this morning I ran into this little fellow on the sidewalk in front of CU.


When informed that he would likely be stepped on he bobbed his head with a sense of resignation (echos of a behaviour observed by a student blogger who had the blog "ChemSucks"). In spite of his fatalism I helped him into a nice shaded bit of dewy grass where I like to think he cavorts and gambols in a salamandery way.

I liked this recent cartoon ...

I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me

So, we had a significant precipitation event and I decided to make the Friday circuit to check the stream. It turns out the flow was much higher and had turned the water a light brown. This is what it looked like on Thursday before the rain ...


And on Friday morning after the rain the same section of the stream looked like this (and according to measurements was flowing twice as fast and was twice as deep.)

I made the trip up to the upstream site and the culvert. I did not meet up with any animals this time but I did notice some changes.

The hay bale containment barrier is new and there seems to be a bit of a design flaw in the landscaping since it would appear that the local terrain is draining to the side of the storm sewer rock pit. To my eyes it would appear that the rock pit goes too low and has a conflict with the local water table. There seems to have been some work done on the rock pit as well with the part just below the outfall made of larger stones ending in a meter high rock pile that is followed by a flatter rock field made of smaller rocks down to the stream edge ending in a landscaping fabric hoarding. I think we are going to see the stream back fill into the swampy area and create a pond or stagnant overflow catchment upstream to the rock field. Maybe.

On a different note we have had a game camera sitting in the lab for some time now and I decided to unpack the camera and field test it before the semester starts. I set it up tied to a tree at site 3 just downstream from the culvert. This is where I have run into the mist wildlife but over the three days it was set up it mostly took pictures of me measuring the stream and two dudes with dogs. There is one very faint image made at two in the morning that might be a raccoon but it was not the parade of wildlife that I expected. Oh well.

Science in Cartoons

Curiosity, Childhood and the Scientific Method
(click on cartoon to embiggen)

LINK TO COMIC

Chemistry 1013 Fall 2010

There were some important changes that have been made in the course over the summer. The most important change would have to be the selection of a new textbook. The text for this course will be one by Mahaffey et al (Chemistry: Human Activity, Chemical Reactivity link to text description).

Why change? Well, the previous text was not fitting the needs of the class (to my eyes). This text is a "full service" text meaning that it is large but comprehensive. This is the first time in a long time that I have used a comprehensive text like this in first year chemistry. I have always thought that the large size of such texts would be intimidating especially to weaker students. My mind was changed however in discussions about texts with colleagues at our recent national chemistry conference in Toronto.

The negative aspects of the size of the text are compensated by the significant supports that come with the text including extensive end of chapter questions at varying levels of difficulty. By far however the greatest advantage is access to the online tutor and assignment facility called OWL (link to resource).

The text is about $ 20 more expensive than the previous text but the deciding factor in switching to this specific text is that it incorporates the entire text that I use for the second year organic chemistry course (link to previous organic text). Now this text has a suggested retail price of $ 180 which is more than the first year text that I have chosen so if I can use the Mahaffey text for all three courses (Chem 1013, Chem 1023 and Chem 2113) the students will save a lot of money.

They will have to lug around a large text though and the students that have taken chemistry using the previous text will have to make a pretty dramatic transition from the two texts.

So if you are a first year student or a returning student you will be learning chemistry from the same textbook. I am told that the texts will be available in the bookstore by the middle of August. I will let you know when they are in.

Science in Cartoons