Tag: chemistry
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Excited State
In atomic theory, an electron can be in one of several states. For this, I’m thinking about two… the ground state, and the excited state. When the electron is struck by a bit of light, it gets knocked out of it’s usual low-energy orbit, and goes as far from it’s center as it can…
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Quantum Mechanics
From Derek Lowe’s excellent blog, we see this fascinating bit of the intersectionality of math, chemistry, and biology. Now what, you are asking yourself, does all this have to do with chemistry or biology? Well. . .if Grover-algorithmic processing is some sort of fundamental property of nature, then you might expect the genetic material to…
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New Release: Lab Gremlins
At long last! It lives, it liiiiveess! Muahahahaaaa…. Ahem. Ladies and gentlemen, readers of all ages: if you enjoy a story with a little scary, a little silly, and some very funny moments mingled with the serious, may I present to you the novella Lab Gremlins? Some of you might have read the serialization of…
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Blinking in the Dark
I have been listening, for my own amusement, to a history of chemistry as audiobook. It wasn’t a history when it was written – it was intended to be a non-technical take on what chemistry could do for mankind to inspire and reduce the fears of the time that surrounded the science. It’s a fascinating…
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Faces Turned to the Past
I have been listening to audiobooks and podcasts at work to pass the time, and have discovered that while I thought that audiobooks were far too slow, and narrator’s voices annoying, with further exploration I found some that work for me, by accelerating playback speed and choosing non-fiction. I do have one fiction I’m listening…
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The Scent of Rain
Do you know what the connection is between the scent of a rose, and a summer rain shower? The answer is in the volatile organic compounds. Plants emit tiny light-weight compounds for many purposes, and from nearly all their parts. Root to bloom, the plant is in communication using chemicals. With these compounds they can…
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One Small Step for Cyborgs
One giant step for Mankind. Or at least, for holding it all together while we figure it out. This article on hydrogel bonding has so many fascinating applications I find it hard to start. It’s not just the adhesive properties, but it’s also conductive, too. In the article, they discuss how they could utilize those…
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Caffeine in Coffee
Abstract: This report focused on the determination of the caffeine in coffee brewed at home, as analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography and calibrated against a known caffeine standard calibration curve. The coffee was determined to be 45.37 ppm, with a standard deviation of 2.493 and an RSD of 5.49 %, the ppm in…
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There was a delay
Yes, yes, this is slightly more than a mere delay. It was an interesting day. And then I was in class for eight hours. Which was more interesting toward the end while we were dissolving limestone in acid. I do have pictures, but until sometime tomorrow, I also have computer issues (ok, might be longer…
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Inorganic Food
Chemistry is everywhere. Some of you may know this, but for a long time I lived with my Dad on a small New England farm, where we grew veggies and chickens and dabbled with other things. Most of it was his ideas, I was just grunt labor helping him keep up with chores. Dad’s been…