Lavoisier5's Blog

Chemistry can be a dull subject at times and very complex to young minds. The reason this subject can tend to be boring is that it has terms that can be hard to break down. Children also have short attention spans so the information needs to be presented in a way that would be quick and fun to them. For example, many children love to do hands-on experiments or to at least see “something cool”. I believe that the best way to teach chemistry is through experiments. The experiments should consist of something that relates to them that they may use each day, such as how fast chocolate powder mixes into the milk based on temperatures. This way the kids not only know what can happen when you mix two items, but learn the relationship of when temperature increases the rate of solubility also increases.

In schools science can be forgotten when reading and writing is the main concern, because many schools do not spend as much time teaching chemistry, or science in general, as they should. If schools do not have the time to spend on much needed subjects during the regular day, after-school programs should incorporate them to allow the children who are interested have the opportunity to learn more. Also, school assembly programs are good to address larger audiences of children. In this scenario, kids could take turns or volunteer in helping with the experiment. Chemistry can be a hard topic, but if a small amount of time is dedicated to teaching a student basic principles it is well worth the time and effort.

Two elements that are worth mentioning are einsteinium (Es) and tin (Sn).

Albert Einstein

Einsteinium, the name speaks for itself. It is a silver metallic synthetic elementwith the atomic number 99 and named after Albert Einstein. It has chemical and physical properties similar to other metals and like all synthetic elements, isotopes of einsteinium are extremely radioactive, and is considered highly toxic. Einsteinium was first identified in December 1952 by Albert Ghiorso along with co-workers at the University of California, Berkeley. He was examining debris from the first hydrogen bomb test of November 1952 where he discovered the isotope ²⁵³Es, which has a half-life of 20.5 days. Isotopes of einsteinium were produced shortly afterward at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in a nuclear fusion reaction between ¹⁴N and ²³⁸U and later by intense neutron irradiation of plutonium in the Materials Testing Reactor. Not much einsteinium had been produced, until the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope Reactor in Tennessee by bombarding ²³⁹Pu and with neutrons. There are 19 isotopes with varying half-lives with the longest half life being 471.7 days. Einsteinium can be a byproduct of creating other elements or a step in the production of other elements. Although this element has been studied, there are no known uses other than radioactivity.

Tin Man

Tin may be most commonly known as what the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz is made of. This isn’t the only application of tin so let’s look more into the element. Tin is one of the oldest metals known and has been used since the late stone age and on throughout history. It was first used by putting a small amount of it with copper to create an alloy called bronze. Bronze was found to be much harder than copper and was then used to make weapons and tools. Now onto its chemistry, Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. This element is malleable, ductile, and a highly crystalline white metal. Tin forms the dioxide SnO2 (casserite) when it is heated in the presence of air. Tin does not occur naturally and must be extracted from casserite. Tin is not easily oxidized in air, and is used to coat other metals to prevent corrosion. It is used in many alloys, such as bronze. It has 10 stable isotopes, making it the element with the most stable isotopes. No wonder the Tin Man was created, Dorothy needed a stable friend to “follow the yellow brick road”.

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Einsteinium

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Tin

Dr. Joe Caruso

Dr. Joe Caruso has two main research interests. One involves separation techniques for speciation studies and the other is involved in the analysis of chemical trace elements. Trace elements may be both toxic and essential to life at the same time. This study looks into analyzing an element’s chemical form, oxidation state, organometallic nature, etc. leading to a new approach referred to as metallomics. This approach involves a total metal analysis plus speciation to characterize the different species of forms. As of this year, Caruso is the chair of the editorial board on a new journal especially dedicated to metallomics.

Graham Baldwin, an associate professor in Australia is researching, “Gastrins, iron and colorectal cancer”. He has focused on the role of peptide hormone gastrin as a growth factor in gastrointestinal cancer. His research was concentrated on the interactions between gastrins and metal ions, and on the ways of utilizing those interactions to develop therapies for colorectal cancer. This article relates to the metallomics approach and was published in the journal in which Caruso sits as chair of the editorial board.

Metallomics Journal Cover

I found this research interesting, because I like understanding how new steps to therapies are discovered. Cancer in many forms is a big problem and the proposal of some cancers being linked to metal intake balance is not far-stretched since our bodies cannot function properly without the aid of many trace elements.

Link to article:

http://www.rsc.org/delivery/_ArticleLinking/DisplayHTMLArticleforfree.cfm?JournalCode=MT&Year=2009&ManuscriptID=b909112m&Iss=5

In my biochemistry class we recently started a new topic about proteins. We were first learning the basics of protein structure, which was a review from general biology, but now we are going farther in depth. The most interesting thing about this topic is learning how proteins are sequenced. This is interesting, because we know that everything in today’s science is coming down to genes, but do not know by what means they are coded.

Proteins are composed of many amino acids; this sequence is considered the primary structure of a protein. Also, we have learned that when a protein forms into a helix it is specific to what is included in the amino acid sequence. For example, proline and glycine are typically not found in a helix, because of their structures. Proline cannot conform its ring to adapt to the required bond angles required in a helix, which can then create a kink.

 

 

 

Proline

 

Glycine

 

 Glycine is very stable because of its R-group, thus allowing other structures to do whatever they want since their would not be any steric hindrance. It is very interesting how specific helices can be and what characteristics have been found. I look forward to learning more.

Conservators devote their lives to restoring priceless works of art and over the years new methods have evolved with great reasons. For many years paintings have been coated with a natural resin varnish, because it could make a painting look darker, glossier, and the colors more saturated. However, over time the natural resin became deteriorated by becoming yellowed and cracked. When this occurs a conservator’s main goal is to replenish the painting to its original state. Natural resin varnish makes this goal difficult, because of oxidation and other chemical reactions that can make the resin more insoluble and harder to remove. Over the years many synthetic resins have been developed, but all had worse disadvantages that made it not worth changing from using the natural resin. This held true until the 1980’s when conservation scientist E. René de la Rie developed a new synthetic resin- Arkon P90, a hydrogenated hydrocarbon resin, having a low viscosity and a low molecular weight with similar optical properties of natural resins. This new resin had no disadvantages and produced similar results to the natural resin. Also, it remained soluble in less toxic, low aromatic hydrocarbon solvents, which would make it easier for conservators to remove over time.

De la Rie’s synthetic resin allowed conservators to be able to recreate and extend a paintings original beauty for many years to come. Also, this synthesized product has the ability to provide an artwork a long life ahead.  If natural resins were continually used overtime, the yellowing layers could have had dramatic affects and lessen its value since the colors would be dim and some artworks main features could be altered. The art world should hold a celebration in honor of de la Rie each year.

Chemistry and Art

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/7931/7931art.html

Richard Ernst- Science meets art-- and dharma

Richard Ernst, an analytical chemist and the winner of the Nobel Prize in 1991 “for his contributions to the development of the methodology of high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy”, has developed an interest in using chemistry in order to further understand art. Based on the article he seems to have a great passion for understanding the basis of the art and the work that went into the masterpieces by using near-IR filler for his digital camera, one of the methods used by museums to screen for forgery or restoration quality. Instead of looking at the pigment shown on the surface, this method uses wavelengths that can reveal the drawing on the canvas underneath the pigment. Some colors were transparent, while other colors such as yellow showed that it was composed of arsenic sulfide, As₂S₃. By taking a look behind the paint, he also noticed tiny symbols, which would have been left by the master as notes for apprentices as codes for which colors to pick. Ernst notes that this method can be dangerous to the artworks since it could burn micro-sized holes into the canvas.

Ernst has other hobbies, but what was mentioned above is what I found most interesting in the whole article. You can definitely tell that he has an inquisitive mind that wonders, because I wouldn’t be taking any paintings off the wall to see what was under them anytime soon. However, I do think that his findings are interesting and could lead to many places in the archeology world. For example, the markings under the paint contribute as concrete evidence to techniques used at the time and possibly how beginning artists could have been taught to paint. Also, in finding what chemicals were used to make the yellow colored paint could also pin-point what earthen materials were available in the artist’s surroundings. Whatever the case, he has a some-what interesting hobby.

Science meets art– and dharma

http://learnonline.nku.edu/@@CB6AFD0BDD83618F030B9A7B5004B384/courses/1/CHE-391W-001-2010-010/content/_1121609_1/Art_NobelPrize_Dharma.pdf

Rum, an alcoholic drink notoriously associated with pirates, helped revolutionize the seas and the new world throughout its long history. In its beginnings, there was a main challenge of providing adequate amounts of fluid for long journeys to crews. The British Royal Navy would find the most readily sources available to use, such as water and beer. These sources however would not last the extent of the trip since they would develop algae or become sour. Once the journeys expanded into the Caribbean regions, a new drink was discovered called “kil devil”. This drink was very cheap and made as a by-product from sugar cane processing and later known as rum. The Naval ships used this new found drink for many years and later had to dilute it, because of crew drunkenness. Many members of the crew grew tired of small rum rations and poor pay and were recruited to become pirates with infinite freedom and better income.

During the “Golden Era” of pirating (1650- 1740) was also the period of time that the slave trade began booming between New England, Africa, and the Caribbean with rum being used as currency. For example, molasses would be collected in the Caribbean and delivered to New England in order to be distilled into rum. Once large amounts of rum were collected it was shipped to Africa in exchange for slaves. The purchased slaves would then be delivered to the Caribbean to tend to the sugar cane plantations where sugar cane is turned into molasses and continue the cycle.

http://www.articlealley.com/article_65845_26.html

How did life begin? This is the question we all wonder as we think of the question, “what came first the chicken or the egg?” Many of us ponder this question as do biophysicist Harold Morowitz and chemist Eric Smith. These scientists believe that they may be close to finding the answer.

Comparing life to lightning bolts and hurricanes, they claim that energy imbalance forced biochemistry, and then life, into existence. These claims are based on the 2^nd law of thermodynamics, which states: as time moves forward, and as particles move around randomly, disorder, called entropy, increases. According to the scientists, earth had a build-up of the molecules H₂ and CO₂. This build-up increased entropy and in return needed to find a way to lower the potential energy produced, thus the creation of the beginning stages of ‘the cell’ and the start of Darwin’s theory of natural selection.

This article can open your mind, if only for an instance, but it at least makes you think. There is not a true cut and dry answer to this question, which allows their claims to be just as probable as any other.  Although we may never find out the actual answer to this question, we can believe or find interesting the reasoning behind the proposals as they come. But, until then we can keep wondering which was first, “the chicken or the egg”.

Far from Improbable

http://www.2facts.com.proxy1.nku.edu/article/s1400277

The Kindle, an electronic book to revolutionize the publishing world, has found its way into many readers hands including students. The Kindle is believed to be environmentally friendly since it could save on carbon emissions produced from the U.S. book and newspaper industries equivalent to 22.5 books on average. Also, many schools and businesses like the idea of electronic documents since it will save many sheets of paper. Although, the e-book movement has recently begun and as of right now there haven’t been many people to purchase one yet, it hasn’t had a positive impact on the environment at this time. This is just like purchasing solar panels for your house. They will be more environmentally friendly since not as much electricity is needed, but there isn’t much profit after installation until many years pass. I believe that the Kindle will become more environmentally friendly once more people buy into the idea and once more products become available. Only having essentially one book to carry around will make many students and their backs happy as well. The only downfall is that it is made of plastic and other chemical compounds that can accumulate over time in dumps, which would be made worse by more people purchasing the product. Some of these chemicals used in the product have the potential of being poisonous. Thus, no matter how environmentally friendly it may be versus books, both will end up polluting the environment. Between the two risks, whichever one is the most environmentally friendly over time is the one that should be chosen.

Links to articles/blogs:

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/universities-turn-to-kindle-sometimes-to-save-paper/?scp=3&sq=ebooks&st=cse

http://cleantech.com/news/4867/cleantech-group-finds-positive-envi

I found two different articles related to ethics in science. Both articles were about pharmaceutical manufacturers, Pfizer Inc. and Able Laboratories, Inc. Recently, Pfizer has made a settlement to pay $2.3 billion over unlawful drug promotions according to Devlin Barrett of the Associated Press. Pfizer promoted four prescription drugs for medical conditions that were not approved by the FDA. Bextra, a painkiller, was promoted unlawfully in this way and later found to raise the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death. It was later pulled in 2005 because of this evidence. Pfizer had many corrupt practices such as wining and dining health professionals in order to persuade them to promote their products to patients. Pfizer is now known not only as the largest drug maker, but also as company to pay the largest criminal fine in U.S. history — $1.2 billion. The second article was about the generic drug manufacturer, Able Laboratories and how they falsified and manipulated their testing data. According to U.S. Attorney, Christopher J. Christie, four managers of this company would change their testing parameters and forge data in chemist laboratory notebooks and binders in order to fall into the requirements needed by the FDA to be approved. In this release, one manager admitted that he participated in stock trading while knowing of the ongoing corruptive behavior of the laboratory and netted an excess of $900,000 in profit. This company has since dissolved due to bankruptcy.
These two articles are examples of companies who have put consumers at risk for their own personal gain. Their behaviors were not ethical and are great reasons to why the public’s trust toward science could be easily diminished. No data should ever be falsified or manipulated, since it is to be facts of which people depend on with their lives. Science is conducted in order to find the truth; it is not done in order to tell us what we want to hear. It affects each and every person in the quality of their day to day life and is the sole reason we have advanced through time. If people do not have trust in science, its progression would come to a halt.

Links to articles/blogs:
Pfizer Settlement
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090902/health/health_us_pfizer_settlement_1
Able Laboratories
http://newark.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/2007/nk030807.pdf
http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2005_07_01_archive.html