Re: Half life
Updated: 2010-05-31 18:26:50
So follow a similar approach to the reaction order you have.
Re: Oxidation of Ethanol
Updated: 2010-05-31 18:17:09This is redox. But if you look just at ethanol, this is oxidation.Similarly when we talk about corrosion we usually say "corrosion is oxidation of metal", even if obviously something gets reduced...Oxidation of Ethanol
Updated: 2010-05-31 17:41:12When we oxidise ethanol with Sulphuric acid and Potasium Dichrmate solution, we get ethanoic acid.Why is this reaction oxidation and NOT redox?The ethanol is oxidisedthe Dichromate is reducedso what's going on?BP oil spill. What are the merits of using dispersants?
Updated: 2010-05-30 19:16:48Eventually, BP will find a way to block the discharge of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico. And, eventually, the effectiveness of how the relevant parties responded to the incident will be analyzed and findings posted. I hope that some effort will be put into an analysis of the merits of using dispersants in general [...]Field Trip Report. Finding Faults.
Updated: 2010-05-29 06:10:32
Th’ Gaussling, traveling with a 3-van convoy of local geologists, participated in a field trip on May 22, 2010. The purpose of the trip was to get an appreciation of the kinds of faults to be found in and around the IRSZ and get some insight into the phenomena of faulting. The trip was organized [...]Google Doodle Chemistry
Updated: 2010-05-27 19:32:39
Google unveiled today the 2010 winner of the Doodle 4 Google contest held for K-12 students. Chemistry may not have inspired the winner, but it did inspire one of the 40 regional finalists, Emily Caudill. The 15-year old mixed her enthusiasm for chemistry with artistic license to create Google’s logo by way of chemical structures.
She [...]Gadolinium - a hero of the periodic table
Updated: 2010-05-27 09:25:52In this week’s chemistry in its element podcast, Simon Cotton, from Uppingham School in the UK, tells us how gadolinium could save the environment, and even your life! FWhither Diethyl Ether?
Updated: 2010-05-26 22:51:16Diethyl ether seems to be in short supply in North America these days. Suppliers have customers under allocation constraints. Yes Virginia, people still use Et2O in certain kinds of chemical processing. Sometimes Et2O is prized for its solvent effects and sometimes for its volatility. Sometimes the only way to solubilize some inorganic compounds is as the [...]Nature Has a Graphical Abstracts Problem
Updated: 2010-05-26 06:53:21Or I should say, it had a problem. The most annoying thing about Nature journals, not including Nature Chemistry, is they do not have a graphical abstract associated with their rss feed or even in their Table of Contents. However, I made a hack to view Nature with an associated graphical abstract over at ChemFeeds. link: [...]Rand, Ron, and Ludwig
Updated: 2010-05-23 17:12:15Disclaimer: I’m neither an expert on or an enthusiast of orthodox libertarianism. I think it is yet one more narrow utopian social philosophy that a band of economic puritans want to impose on society. To their credit, it is a scholarly economic theory. But it seeks to validate and legitimize the most selfish and materialistic impulses of our [...]Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mine Tour
Updated: 2010-05-23 06:25:32
A vanload of members of the ACS, Colorado Section, were treated to an extensive tour of the Cripple Creek and Victor (CC&V) mine last Friday. The photo below shows a view of the mine from the abandoned American Eagle Mine above the CC&V pit operations. The mountains in the background are the Sangre de Cristo range. A [...]Chemistry Field Trip!
Updated: 2010-05-20 01:06:35So I decided to kick up my interest in the local metalliferous deposits and get more folks involved. As a member of the executive cmte of the ACS local section I’ve organized a seminar at a local university and arranged to have the lead exploration geologist from CC&V come to talk about the their gold mine [...]Federal regulations. Death by 1000 cuts.
Updated: 2010-05-17 00:33:16Tea baggers whose lily white faces flare deep red when discussing government regulations should put down their Hitler signs, unstrap their firearms in the garage, and tune into C-Span. What they will witness is a real time picture of how the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) got so thick. The House of Representatives has been calling [...]Force Majeure
Updated: 2010-05-14 21:51:29If you are in the business of buying or selling chemicals under contract, you probably understand the merit of a force majeure clause in the contract. Literally meaning “greater force”, force majeure is essentially a declaration that a term, usually delivery, is not going to be met in an agreement owing to an “act of god” [...]Winter Trip to North Anna Nuclear Power Plant
Updated: 2010-05-14 07:17:40
Last December I had an opportunity to tour the North Anna Nuclear Power Plant with a few friends, thanks to the generosity of Michael Stuart, a nuclear training instructor at Dominion. He took the day off to show the four of us around. I brought along a sensitive BGO scintillation detector to check for gamma [...]Deepdoodoo Horizon
Updated: 2010-05-14 00:02:00It has transpired that Transocean, Ltd., owner of the Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible drilling rig that recently sank off the coast of Lousiana, has petitioned in federal court to limit the damages relating to the incident to $27 MM in total damages. According to an interview on NPR today, the company is interested in limiting the [...]A Few of My Favorite (Chemistry) Things
Updated: 2010-05-07 16:41:18To carry on with Chemjobber’s Favorite Things list (thanks, btw. Now I can’t get that silly Dove commercial out of my head), here’s my list of some of my favorite things about chemistry Clickable Sharpies Vanillin TLC stain Pericyclic reactions Dump-and-Stir reactions A set of nested beakers (my set goes from 600 mL down to 10 mL) Review articles PhD comics Short paths [...]Calvin and Hobbes on Chemistry
Updated: 2010-05-05 16:36:56
Ok, so maybe they were originally talking about his math homework… but the joke’s still funny