tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352780572011-08-31T09:21:03.222-04:00<A HREF="http://www.coronene.com/blog">You should click me</A>Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.comBlogger1801100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-53846543369320744102007-10-26T02:27:00.000-04:002007-10-26T02:38:17.554-04:00

Hey Coroneneketeers,That didn't have a very good ring to it, did it? Oh well. We're moving to our own domain! Check out the new CBC here!The Blogger blog will stay here as an archive for all these old posts, but we're going to start posting over at the new site from now on... unless we decide to move all the posts over there (read: fat chance).Enjoy! Feedback is encouraged!

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-51309011301491705402007-10-23T19:45:00.000-04:002007-10-23T20:45:52.068-04:00

You've seen a lot of the perylene diimides I've made. (In case you missed them, here they are.) To this point, they've all looked the same--red to violet in the solid state. This one is different. It's so tangerine it hurts a little. Also, it isn't a fibrous pancake--all the others give me long, flexible needles, if they crystallize at all (perylenes are infamous for gellating). This one

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-77826609309536497832007-10-22T20:37:00.000-04:002007-10-22T23:22:35.361-04:00

Well, these have been collecting for a while, and tonight happens to be excellent for a fluff post, so instead of chemistry you get...weird Google searches that ended up at CBC. Chemistry can wait for tomorrow, yes?We have a few people who apparently don't think much of us authors:dumb people in grad schoolgrad school for undergrad fuck upsthe internet is full of assholesThe third search was

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-43562981926572967722007-10-19T21:59:00.000-04:002007-10-20T16:32:01.692-04:00

Just a few things to sate your appetite for the ol' CBC this weekend:James Watson, as it turns out, is a complete prick. Shocking. Given his treatment of Rosalind Franklin in The Double Helix, frankly nothing that comes out of this man's mouth surprises me- he's always had a lack of tact. The concept of "race" is a purely socioeconomic one, which has a long, sordid, awful history in this country.

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-38920747292663734372007-10-18T23:21:00.000-04:002007-10-18T23:29:37.772-04:00

I was planning to post some beautiful red crystals that finished growing after two weeks of resisting the temptation to look at them every five minutes. You would have liked them--they were fibrous and tangled and somewhat reminiscent of hair. Some are shorter and more blocky, and look like they will diffract very well. Unfortunately, I don't have them anymore, and unless some nice people at

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-72289848040727053742007-10-15T13:37:00.000-04:002007-10-15T16:49:49.354-04:00

You couldn't pay me enough money to work with polyazides- that's pretty much the bottom line for me. For some reason, though, these potential molecular bombs have attracted a lot of interest lately. The total synthesis of tetraazidomethane* was finally completed earlier this year, and the synthesis of the complex Ti[N3]4, among other metal-polyazides, was completed a few years back. Fresh off the

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-79035884102040929282007-10-13T20:20:00.000-04:002007-10-13T22:51:51.395-04:00

If you're into molecular machines (and who isn't?) then you might get a kick out of this recent JACS paper. The rest of you who could care less will at least like their graphical abstract:Cuuuute! Look at that happy sun! And that content moon! And... what the hell is that red thing? And blue thing with the blue tail? And it's... going.. in... what? Now vigilant CBC readers are probably thinking "

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-88077037921113543772007-10-11T22:10:00.000-04:002007-10-11T22:14:24.583-04:00

This is discarded junk from a successful reaction.  One of the postdocs was looking over my shoulder while I worked it up, and asked why it looked a little green--the product, after all, is red as a solid and orange in solution.  I grabbed the TLC lamp to check for fluorescence, and...BAM!  Aqua.  Cool!

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-22196109167590502102007-10-10T00:06:00.000-04:002007-10-09T20:27:07.951-04:00

I will never really understand why people bother to buy tetrakis(triphenylphosphine) palladium(0). On any given day, it's definitely the easiest reaction I do, and it always works. On a bad day, the bright yellow crystals are enough to make me feel a little better. (Also, palladium catalysis is MAGIC.) Apparently, it doesn't ship well and might show up in funny colors (unless maybe you get it

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-1469666074479562422007-10-08T10:13:00.000-04:002007-10-10T18:11:53.961-04:00

EDIT: Gerhard Ertl won the Prize for Chemsitry this year. Well-deserved on his part, and I'm glad surface chemistry is being recognized this year, but the fact that Somorjai and Whitesides didn't win is, in my professional opinion, 'tarded. Oh well. Like Kyle said, the Nobel is a silly thing anyway.First off, suck it Bush. Suck it long and suck it hard. I say that a lot, but why this time?

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com32tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-76006865252859785842007-10-06T22:11:00.000-04:002007-10-07T16:12:54.386-04:00

Fucking. Fierce.Every year here, a few groups, including White's, make posters for their open houses for the incoming first-years. White probably got the idea from David Liu, who's been doing it for years at Harvard (I dunno how widespread the practice is at Harvard, but Liu's posters are, um, magical, to say the least). Christina White is truly an auteur open house poster-maker, clearly. Look at

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-41088564576436083162007-10-04T23:17:00.000-04:002007-10-05T00:14:31.500-04:00

For a limited time (ie. right up until the first cease-and-desist letter), I'll make my seminar presentation available as a, I dunno, service to the chemical community? The names, as well as some of the layouts (for those of you who were there) are different, to protect the innocent (and guilty) and because I had a bunch of very tasteful animations that needed to be deconvoluted for this handout.

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-21623200155218036092007-10-03T21:48:00.000-04:002007-10-03T21:57:39.895-04:00

I'll make this quick--I have a million things to do this week--but here's a nifty little news item and a video. Looks like there's a lot of optimism out there for the super-awesome new displays. I'm guilty of this too, of course...maybe in my next cell phone?

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-82149477072679092642007-09-30T12:43:00.000-04:002007-09-30T12:51:16.470-04:00

...to CBC. We started on September 30, 2006--well, I started, Excimer wasn't around until November or so--and somewhat miraculously, a year and 170 posts later, people actually read this. If you want, you can go back to teh archive and look at the beginnings...but I'd rather you not because this "writing" thing didn't go so smoothly until CBC picked up a coauthor. Is a year too early to ask for

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-6807111789972261542007-09-29T00:50:00.000-04:002007-09-29T01:14:27.220-04:00

I've had a fantastic distraction at work this week: a soxhlet extractor. Since not everyone gets to see these used on a regular basis, I thought I'd take a little video. (Hopefully it's faster for you than it was for me to upload!) Unfortunately, it's...sideways. I don't know why it's sideways. The camerahands are mine, so they're shaky. (The little piece that holds the camera on the tripod broke

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-88582731080952417382007-09-26T11:56:00.000-04:002007-09-26T12:12:07.318-04:00

Hilarious picture in this week's C&EN:My grandma has sunglasses just like those.Pic is from some article (subscription only) about Oxford University and money or something. I didn't read it. I didn't need to. That is a picture of Queen Elizabeth II at the opening of one of Oxford's new chem labs in 2004. Not shown: Her Majesty donning a labcoat and running a Ley oxidation (made in England, of

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-25051315399667581602007-09-24T23:06:00.000-04:002007-09-24T23:18:30.296-04:00

...so here's a picture. Yes, it's a rather boring yellow-brown color, which means, in my lab, it must be a synthetic intermediate of some sort and not a final product. I've never seen anything that gave the little swirlies like you see here, though, which is why it deserved a picture. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly what this IS yet, but it should hopefully get shot into the GC/MS tomorrow.

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-52311036751855490812007-09-20T23:51:00.000-04:002007-09-21T00:10:13.135-04:00

...is over. My seminar was tonight and it went over very well, both profs and students were complimentary. I'll do a post on cruciform pi-systems (my seminar topic) later, but just to give you an idea of what my seminar was on... remember this pic?Yeah, that thing in front of the lolcats? That's a cruciform pi-system developed by Mike Haley's group. They do some interesting things- high optical

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-65432693513471458652007-09-18T00:01:00.000-04:002007-09-18T01:05:58.844-04:00

Fair enough, disclaimer first: I don't have anything to do with ETS or its testing centers. But standardized tests are my one saving grace amidst the many things I fuck up on a daily basis. (Left or right? I don't know! Triangle geometry? All good!) Since I only took the (insert expletive of choice) computer-based general test--my chemistry subject isn't scheduled until November--my advice is

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-78235812077454258882007-09-17T00:01:00.000-04:002007-09-16T23:13:41.301-04:00

This week I learned that fume hoods are not invincible. The way the ones in my lab are made, there are little steel cables in the sides. If one of those cables should happen to snap...the sash will do one of two things. When this bit of misfortune befell one of my labmates, he found that his sash would move (with some effort) and then stick in whatever position he left it in if he tilted it to

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-64516032256990385462007-09-14T15:57:00.000-04:002007-09-14T16:07:58.700-04:00

...or a visual representation of smectic-like Langmuir-Blodgett films? We report, you decide.Taken from the liquid-crystal group at Universität-Hamburg. They have a little feature called "LC in Daily Life" where they show real-world, artistic representations of various liquid-crystal phases. Some are really clever (chiral doping in smectic phases), some are weird (discotic CT complex), some are

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-74011138256160445422007-09-13T10:24:00.000-04:002007-09-13T10:27:37.065-04:00

A while ago, I was trying to collect pictures of chemistry tattoos. I wasn't very successful, but Carl Zimmer (ScienceBlogs' The Loom) has amassed quite a few. He was even mentioned in C&EN. If you're interested, go check them out!

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-10644378497832219392007-09-09T22:34:00.000-04:002007-09-09T22:38:34.631-04:00

ψ*ψ won't post it, so I will:A new functionalization strategy for pentaceneEnjoy. Do pay close attention to the authors. ;)(so the score is now: ψ*ψ 1, Excimer 0. I'd like to say I'm working on that, but... seminar... *gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag*)

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-56436812372356824302007-09-09T00:00:00.000-04:002007-09-10T12:37:52.928-04:00

Following one of our last posts, one of the commenters (thanks, Russ!) had an idea. We're stealing it! CBC is hosting a lolnano-themed Chemdraw (or ISIS, or whatever you use) contest.Rules:1. All entries must be the original work of the person who submits them. (On the honor system, of course.)2. Structures must be reasonable. (If we see five bonds to carbon, we'll send the ninjas after you.)

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-78496489221207172832007-09-07T00:00:00.000-04:002007-09-07T00:10:35.852-04:00

I know perylene diimides are nothing new for CBC.[1] I can't give you something new every week, you know, because I can only work on so many projects at once. But they're still pretty, no matter how often I see them.[2] (Or how much I hate trying to crystallize them, either, for that matter.) Which is why the entire point of this post is to put up yet another picture...[3] So here's another

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-39635303433662124712007-09-05T20:10:00.000-04:002007-09-05T20:35:59.865-04:00

It's been blogged about before elsewhere but I can't help but show the following in keeping with this week's theme of nanowtf. It's the graphical abstract from a paper that came out in Inorganic Chemistry a few years ago.The, uh... thing... on the left is some Ru(bpy) complex and the, uh... thing... on the right is cyclodextrin. (I'm tempted to start calling cyclodextrin "nanovag," but I'm a

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-4625078127151082092007-09-02T23:11:00.000-04:002007-09-04T12:00:54.021-04:00

So a few years back Jim Tour, simultaneous nanogenius and nanopsycho, developed Nanoputians- molecules that look like people- and subsequently made himself the punchline of the organic chemistry community. Tour's done some really good stuff and has been a great innovator in molecular electronics... then he had to go to some crazy-ass shit like make molecules that look like people and get it

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-61312832352751818152007-08-31T00:22:00.000-04:002007-08-31T00:28:12.294-04:00

I AM NANOBOTNANOBOT IS PROGRAMMED TO KILL NANOPUTIANSKILL THE NANOPUTIANSKILLKILLKILLNANOBOT KNOWS NO MERCY

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-79004030899009307692007-08-29T20:33:00.000-04:002007-08-29T21:37:07.469-04:00

I'll admit I don't have much to do with green chemistry. Sure, whatever, I'll use it if it'll do what I want done, but I'm not actively involved in green research. I've become a fan of it lately, though.So this is the first ionic liquid I've ever had occasion to use. I also had to make it. (First time I've ever had to synthesize a solvent. Guess there's a first time for everything, eh?) Didn't

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-70427848197155651802007-08-27T16:18:00.001-04:002007-08-27T22:40:04.751-04:00

Our Mass Spec lab (undoubtedly one of the best in the country) has a pretty cheeky sense of humor. You have to check in your samples with a form you fill out online. Looks completely normal, except...Awesome.

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-51375218901384167762007-08-22T21:51:00.001-04:002007-08-22T22:10:54.710-04:00

I'm terribly unlucky with growing crystals, as I think I mentioned before. That is to say...I can grow them, I just can't do it on demand. When I took off for the summer, I left a few vials full of solvent and other goodies sitting around under the bench, and when I came back, the structures were solved.[1] Along with the "accidental" method of crystal growth, there is also the "

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-46305399732470827112007-08-21T21:12:00.000-04:002007-08-21T21:22:26.516-04:00

If you need more carbon in your life, there are some cool animated mechanisms linked in a post over at Making Graphite Work.Pictures tomorrow, I promise. It's been too long since I posted something colorful, hasn't it? Well, after a week back at the bench, I have something colorful to post (and, surprisingly, some crystals left in an old NMR tube...don't know how well the camera can catch them,

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-78617722569276007212007-08-18T22:43:00.000-04:002007-08-18T22:47:34.901-04:00

Somewhere in the front of March's is a list of chemical abbreviations. Most of them make sense. I found an exception, though: Is it used for certain reactions that only work in New York? I have no idea.

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-25449028315394632102007-08-16T00:13:00.000-04:002007-08-16T01:15:02.707-04:00

I've decided to chronicle my adventures in the clean room, since to many, a clean room is a thing of mystery. The layperson's only real experience with a clean room is those old Intel commercials with the bunny people. Yes, people who work in microprocessor clean rooms have to wear those things, although not the flashy technicolor ones. So, without further ado, I give you a tour of a clean

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-58473164766709157852007-08-14T23:25:00.000-04:002007-08-15T01:32:29.490-04:00

Check out Kutti's screencast on playing with chemdraw structures with Photoshop. With his easy instructions, how to turn a regular, boring old lolcat picture into an exciting one with a glowing molecule, like I did here:I can has cruciform? LOLZ!!!11oneone11!1!11eleven(real post coming tomorrow...)

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-11777575870843512592007-08-13T22:59:00.000-04:002007-08-13T23:06:52.911-04:00

Apologies for the hiatus--I've been busy packing and flying home.[1] I have no pictures and no content for this post, but since I'm back in the land of brightly colored aromatic things, you can expect a nice picture within the next few days. There's something I'm working on that glows a bright green colour (oops, the green glow is from a byproduct, but it's still pretty when it's crude). If I am

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-81215720224365093432007-08-09T17:03:00.000-04:002007-08-09T17:13:27.099-04:00

UmI, uh... what? Last time I checked, something that's 102% pure... isn't pure. Rookie mistake, guys. (Yes, I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this, but c'mon. Citric acid doesn't have 102% of itself anywhere. Ever.)Also, we hit (half of a tenth of) A MILLION visitors this week! Thanks for reading our blog, guys.

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-52618256456146558212007-08-07T01:26:00.000-04:002007-08-08T18:56:48.119-04:00

On nearly every toy[1] in the (totally sweet) UCSB clean room, there is a red button like this one:Some speculation has arisen among the interns as to the function of the mysterious EMO button. Is it something you press to alert the lab to the presence of an emo kid? Is it the button you reach for after a day of processing has gone horribly wrong and you want to slit your wrists?Nah, it's just an

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-15078759419965810142007-08-06T23:35:00.000-04:002007-08-07T01:46:42.125-04:00

There, I've said it. I am, however, surrounded by physicists and engineers this summer. They are making me remember everything I used to like about physics.[1] You can blame this on their influence.ArXiv has something interesting on left-handed metamaterials and the possibility of quantum levitation. It isn't chemistry (yet?), but it's kinda cool. Some background is available here. I'll refrain

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-1653550771519260972007-08-03T00:00:00.000-04:002007-08-04T00:49:49.583-04:00

Found this in this week's PostSecret.I'm no total synthetic chemist, and I recognize Taxol, but not the others offhand. Gotta wonder who this guy/gal works for... and who "they" are. Mysterious!I do wonder where the breaking point of total synthesis grad students is. It's far from the easiest branch of chemistry, and almost certainly the most time-consuming. (The practical value of total

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-32797906571732946892007-08-02T12:01:00.000-04:002007-08-01T23:44:51.345-04:00

Excimer and I both have many things to do in a short amount of time, so it's unlikely that you'll get a serious post out of either of us anytime terribly soon. In the meantime, though, it's been a while since you saw any of the search terms that got people to CBC...We had some strange confessions:i got bromine in ch2cl2 on my skinkittens are blinded by camera flashA few quasi-scientific-sounding

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-50483241822861237912007-07-30T02:56:00.001-04:002007-07-30T03:05:32.844-04:00

The average CBC reader probably has something more than I do in terms of attention span, but I've been getting bored with writing lit posts.[1] I haven't had much occasion to take pictures this summer, but I was mesmerized by the iridescent colors on these SEM samples. I could tell you what they are, but...trust me, they're not really that exciting.[2] Enjoy![1] The average squirrel probably

Ψ*Ψhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15089754859676425655noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-36546765631086685282007-07-26T19:47:00.000-04:002007-07-26T20:58:49.222-04:00

First, I apologize for my blogging infrequency- I have been busy, stressed out, dejected, pissed off and making significant progress all at the same time. Seminar season is almost upon me, and you damn well better know you'll be hearing about it. I haven't posted anything recently with the F-word in it, too, so... I need to change that.I've been working with triethoxysilane recently. It is a

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-68360640116636647492007-07-23T15:01:00.000-04:002007-07-23T18:01:18.287-04:00

In the early (and not-so-awesome) days, a lot of tattoo chemistry (and a few chemical tattoos) appeared on CBC. It's been a while (mostly due to a lack of interest), but I'm still interested, so here's something on fake henna that came up recently on Drugs & Poisons.

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-80733124316457576852007-07-22T17:12:00.000-04:002007-07-23T01:57:49.835-04:00

This isn't another post about metal bands, it's a celebration of my closet platinum acetylide fetish.[1] If you've been following CBC for a while, you already know that Excimer is much more friendly with organometallics and polymers than I am, but as with anything else, I'll make exceptions. Clearly I'm already OK with platinum. And apparently I'll read damn near anything on solar cells...So this

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-19324050721118674852007-07-19T00:43:00.000-04:002007-07-19T10:27:03.801-04:00

Someone published an Org. Lett. paper on analyzing rotting fish guts. Yeah.So let's say you're a hungry shark. You want some fish, and you want to make sure it's delicious and fresh and whatnot. How does a hungry shark go about quantifying the following analysis?I mean, to a shark, it's all good, probably. Dead and rotting? Dory? A hungry shark will eat them all. But those rotting fishies can

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-84480897758862090422007-07-16T12:13:00.001-04:002007-07-23T16:39:16.650-04:00

Not to tread on Milkshake's territory, which he rules over with the iron fist so becoming of a former citizen of the Soviet bloc, but I feel it necessary to post a lil' addendum on acetylene zippers- namely, when they don't work. Conjugated alkynes don't readily undergo acetylene zipper reactions, most likely due to, uh, conjugation. I tried it with a few different aromatics and couldn't get any

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-17980200482598467152007-07-13T04:59:00.000-04:002007-07-13T05:06:56.733-04:00

I'm not in the mood to write a lit post, possibly because I'm headed off to San Francisco this weekend. (Readers in the area, if you're free on Saturday and comment with a place and a time before we head out, my friend and I will try to meet you there for coffee.) So, in lieu of anything serious (something serious is planned, incidentally), you get a picture instead.This is from an SEM image

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-29116612359609044362007-07-11T02:21:00.000-04:002007-07-12T09:11:53.182-04:00

I've gushed about Paul Docherty's Totally Synthetic blog before, and the gushing is well-deserved: every week or so he summarizes the latest and greatest in total synthesis so I don't have to read those papers (and so I can read the ones pertinent to my own research). After reading his synopsis on Dave Evans' latest JACS on the synthesis of Salvinorin A, I fell in love with a particular step that

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-13561043814282907602007-07-10T03:47:00.001-04:002007-07-10T03:53:18.579-04:00

After an uneventful first few weeks here, I almost started two fires today. While it isn't very difficult to do that in an organic lab, it is not an easy task when working on the physical-chem side of materials.It will definitely be the highlight of my entire summer.

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-34654017897354299272007-07-08T17:02:00.000-04:002007-07-08T17:24:35.648-04:00

The wonders of the Internet never cease to amaze me. Just Friday, while reading the Nano Letters ASAP list, I gazed in wonder upon the coolest graphical abstract I've seen yet:This is a TEM video of a carbon nanotube being born. But not just any carbon nanotube- a bamboo nanotube! I am including a picture of a panda for this reason. Here is a picture of a panda:Pandas do not eat bamboo-like

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-52071777475310342007-07-07T04:13:00.000-04:002007-07-07T04:22:34.281-04:00

Paul's recent post on nerdy periodic table songs has inspired me to talk about music, so I thought I'd mention two fun bands I recently encountered. Backmask and Stomprocket both put on good live shows.Both bands also have a chemist-musician.As far as I know, Milo may be the only reader(?) who appreciates metal, but...it was worth a shot. I thought it was cool, anyway, so you have to read about

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-46898186552450882762007-07-03T17:56:00.000-04:002007-07-03T18:13:01.678-04:00

Excimer is on the Nature Chemistry Podcast!!! You know you want to listen...The part about chemistry blogging starts about five minutes in, and also features the sultry voices of Kyle from The Chem Blog, and Josh Finkelstein, senior editor of Nature.This might be the only post where the pic is bigger than the post. That's ok though.

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-5178070192758207352007-07-02T03:07:00.000-04:002007-10-03T22:00:16.278-04:00

First, I have to say that I'm actually kind of amazed that people read device posts now. Effectively, this means that the CBC authors can now write about whatever we want and you will read it.[1] Part one of my little foray into OLETs can be found here. This is part two. I'll admit that I'm partially doing this because these are nifty little devices and I wouldn't mind a side project on them at

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-77703774685117654642007-06-29T20:48:00.000-04:002007-06-29T21:49:09.352-04:00

I think I have the hottest hot tap water ever in my lab. I have to double-glove to wash anything in it because anything less scalds me. It's insane. I must be right next to the furnace, or maybe my water is heated in the fires of Hell itself. Turning on the hot water tap full blast turns the sink into a a foggy sauna and is rather pleasant as long as you avoid the superheated deluge. It's great

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-29740014013363414612007-06-25T23:59:00.000-04:002007-10-03T22:01:48.922-04:00

Since people actually seemed interested when I posted about photoelectrochemical cells a few days ago, I'm going to test the waters again with another device post. The inspiriation for this is a recent paper that caught my eye. I thought it was kinda cool, so I'm going to ramble about it.In order to get excited about the subject of this post, a little background on displays is needed.[1] If

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-70510841564958284432007-06-22T01:34:00.001-04:002007-06-26T23:43:43.431-04:00

Chances are good that unless you do a lot of surface chemistry, or read Langmuir extensively, that you don't know who Wenzel and Cassie are, nor are familiar with their work. I wasn't myself, so it was quite a surprise to me that someone would publish a paper in Langmuir entitled "How Wenzel and Cassie Were Wrong." To the novice surface chemist, the title certainly begs the question: who the hell

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-380802029836215802007-06-20T18:35:00.000-04:002007-06-20T19:02:10.690-04:00

Time to switch roles: usually Ψ*Ψ posts pretty colors and I write the long posts, but I think a lil' change is in order. Temporarily, anyway. (I have a serious lit post coming up, in any case. Plus, people were bitching about the lack of pictures on the last post.) Nono, it's not often I run pretty columns, but I did today. It's wonderful when you're running columns on things that fluoresce under

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-1585106502720843772007-06-19T23:24:00.000-04:002007-06-20T02:56:03.899-04:00

Alright, already. I wasn't planning on it, but there were enough curious comments on the last post that I'm actually going to tell you guys what that little device was.[1] However, I'm not in the lab now (else, I would be working and not writing, duh) so I'm short on notes and lit references (which are currently lying on my desk, in the lab...where I am not). Soooo...this is the quickie version

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-70284952949385672782007-06-15T03:53:00.000-04:002007-06-15T14:25:06.254-04:00

Well, I mentioned in my last post that I wasn't doing synthesis, but that doesn't mean I'm not working on exciting new things. Right now, those exciting new things happen to involve a lot of device fabrication. Here's a little something I made last week:Only one component of this little guy contains my favorite element. Everything else pretty much falls into the "icky metal" (or otherwise

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-43660835220999714582007-06-13T22:15:00.001-04:002007-06-14T09:52:22.108-04:00

Lately, I've been working with a lot of elemental silicon in the lab. Silicon is a pretty amazing material, both in terms of its chemistry and properties as an electronic material. Its semiconductor properties make it an essential part of this blog's existence, and thus, it serves us well to pay a brief tribute to this, the element which is primarily responsible for my pejorative and pedantic

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-68860990746356621482007-06-11T00:27:00.000-04:002007-06-10T23:56:26.756-04:00

When I was an undergrad, I was a TA for the sophomore organic chemistry labs for a few years. Of all the things I look fondly back on as an undergrad (a pretty short list), being an undergrad TA is near the top. As an undergrad, I was still in love with the subject and how much it made sense to me, and I loved helping other people learn it. Educationally, the way organic chemistry just clicked

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-39595439950639410792007-06-10T04:01:00.000-04:002007-06-10T04:30:12.767-04:00

Sadly, this may be the last carbon-based photo you see from me for the next two months. I'm interning in a non-synthetic environment (as opposed to A Synthetic Environment?), so I won't have nearly as many colourful organic things to show you. I may throw up some device pics, though, since that's what I'll be doing in the meantime. While I could dig up some glowing liquids I've made and not

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-87338238491569705952007-06-04T00:38:00.001-04:002007-06-04T10:56:05.706-04:00

Congratulations (to me)! I successfully finished my first year of grad school, for varying degrees of "successfully." There were some bumps and bruises and a t-butyllithium fire I'm not terribly proud of, but I managed to scrape by relatively unscathed. Physically, anyway. My ego, on the other hand, has taken a complete 180° and is currently jettisoning off somewhere in between Bittersville and

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-64317236649187340872007-06-03T22:21:00.000-04:002007-06-03T22:34:22.102-04:00

All apologies for the lack of posts lately. Excimer is on vacation, and I've been packing in preparation for a summer research program.[1] More than likely you'll see a barrage of lit posts over the next few weeks as I familiarize myself with (yet another) a new lab and a new research area (well, sorta new).In the meantime, this is all I can post for now. It's what happens if you meet a really

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-70973805119217591132007-05-29T02:09:00.000-04:002007-05-30T09:37:32.634-04:00

Well, I don't think that anyone really intended to start anything, but the past few weeks have been filled with lots of nice photos from the lab.[1] Beth Halford of C&EN is probably responsible, what with her coverage of the MRS Science as Art competition.[2] Then there was Mitch's post with a video clip of some of his funny-looking non-carbon-based stuff. Kyle threw in some colorful photos of a

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-25657332432902179162007-05-27T00:16:00.000-04:002007-05-27T00:33:01.363-04:00

Sorry, Excimer. I was going to do a post on something else, but then I got to the lab today...and found these! Surprise crystals are maybe the best kind of surprise ever. The only thing that really comes close is surprise money...if it's more than $20.[1] Kyle did a post a while back on growing crystals, but he failed to mention the only method that has seemed to work for me thus far. See,

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-89072171751638107892007-05-23T17:05:00.001-04:002007-05-23T20:48:08.687-04:00

I should preface this post by saying that dolls freak me out a little. The more baby-like they look, the freakier, in my opinion. Luckily for me, chemistry is a relatively doll-free profession. You still manage to have the weird doll-collecting grad students or postdocs who think Trolls are the coolest thing ever or something, but these people are few, far-between, and completely insane.So one

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-86174943634097281052007-05-22T12:49:00.001-04:002007-05-22T20:42:43.579-04:00

Not too long after my lil' unsolicited advice post on Clar's aromatic sextets comes this Org. Lett. paper in ASAP today about the synthesis of hexacene. (While Ψ*Ψ has much more experience with linear acenes, I think she's out of town, so I'm scooping her on this one. Sorry hon.)Hexacene is a green polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) with six fused, six-membered rings. In PAH's, the number and

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-83080023629895736512007-05-18T00:40:00.001-04:002007-05-18T01:32:00.124-04:00

I can't let Ψ*Ψ have all the glory when it comes to pretty colors. Mitch at Chemicalforumsblag has pretty much christened this the week of pretty pictures, especially because of Beth Halford's pretty materials picture extravaganza in C&EN, so I decided to rock out my own. Although a lot of my stuff is ugly brown crap or ugly brown crap that shouldn't be ugly brown crap, I have a few gems in my

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-54942348267955281982007-05-17T21:44:00.000-04:002007-05-17T22:17:23.917-04:00

Synthetic chemistry is one of those disciplines in which there is no substitute for experience. Frequently, something arises for which there is no accepted procedure, so a high degree of resourcefulness is required.[1] No one is particularly good at it when they start (usually as an undergrad), so a few fuckups are more or less expected. Some people make more mistakes than others, and some

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-38035869047871725882007-05-15T23:21:00.000-04:002007-05-16T00:05:35.599-04:00

I'll start by admitting how much I love the Sonogashira coupling. It's a fun reaction, and it LOVES my substrates. Plus, it gives me an excuse to make Pd(Ph3P)4. Making tetrakis is one of those things you can do on a particularly bad lab day that is guaranteed to make you feel better. It's very hard to screw up, and you get shiny yellow crystals.[1] Anyway, I set three of these up the other day:

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-79009221191083854062007-05-14T19:44:00.000-04:002007-05-15T11:09:34.632-04:00

Yesterday, Bossman asked me the following question: "Do you think that the ACS will eventually host a reddit-type scoring of it's publications?  Do you think it's a good idea?  Nature's experiment with open peer review failed, but this approach may have more appeal." As he put it, despite my inexperience with peer review for major publications, he wanted the opinion of someone "embedded in the

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-3320083162482478132007-05-11T01:10:00.000-04:002007-05-11T01:53:27.396-04:00

Sometimes a good title for a paper is necessary. I find that sometimes if an article in an alright-but-not-super journal is on a subject that is somewhat outside my interests, it can appear worth reading even if I've never heard of the authors as long as it has a curious title. This can sometimes be accomplished by a single word.Case in point: Electron Density Modulations in Columnar Banana

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-89989585932326319032007-05-07T03:45:00.000-04:002007-05-07T11:55:52.726-04:00

It's Monday, I don't feel like doing a lit review, nor have I found any good chem-related poop jokes, so it must be time for another unsolicited advice column.One of the stranger tenets of aromatic chemistry, when first diving into it, is that not all molecules we'd call aromatic by definition are very stable. We learn as sophomores that benzene is remarkably stable, by nearly 30 kcal/mol, due to

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-17154816041328763012007-05-03T23:42:00.000-04:002007-05-04T00:40:09.524-04:00

Final exams are almost over for both of us at CBC, which means less fluff posts and more chemistry in the near future.[1] Until then, though, I have a few questions for anyone who might be reading this.Unlike many other chemistry bloggers, I'm still an undergrad. There are about 2.25 years between me and starting grad school. Unlike most undergrads, I'm in the position of having about 200 people

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-2473293840049168862007-05-01T11:25:00.000-04:002007-05-01T12:02:57.498-04:00

Okay, look. Telling people you have a blog is sometimes frusturating (I tell my friends and they're like "you're a dork" and I have to eliminate them) and it's sometimes hard to get people to visit it. My hizzle Ψ-stizzle and I spread the word about CBC by being snarky and/or cute on other people's blogs that people read a lot. Then we post kitties here and hook 'em. (Shameless, but, y'know.

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-24617404743730505972007-05-01T00:43:00.000-04:002007-05-01T12:10:48.259-04:00

Drop what you're doing and go read this post over at Just Chromatography. I'm not sure what it has to do with chromatography, but it's pretty awesome.

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-61080174461394766592007-04-30T12:58:00.000-04:002007-04-30T13:12:15.714-04:00

Here at CBC, it is little surprise to anyone that we love conjugated polymers. Why do we love them, you ask? What is not to love? Their extended π-conjugation aids to warm our hearts, their structural rigidity brings us comfort, and their soft luminescence energizes our spirits. Conjugated polymers are the heart and soul of all that we love- they are the paradigm of the things we treasure in

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-45058034772442280512007-04-26T00:05:00.000-04:002007-04-26T00:05:00.964-04:00

I was searching for something-or-other recently and came across an interesting review by Jean Fréchet. It had all sorts of familiar structures.[1] I was very excited and knew I had to mention it here. But then I noticed some of the other articles. I'm about two weeks late in spreading the word, since it isn't something I usually read, but the current issue of Chem. Rev. (vol. 117 issue 4) is ALL

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-16414392757228303132007-04-25T09:00:00.000-04:002007-04-25T12:04:39.064-04:00

Sometimes it's so fucking annoying that SciFinder doesn't have DOIs in their database. You'd think that would be, I dunno, useful to people, since they don't actually link to all online journals. Of course, you get what you pay for ($25,000 per user per year or something). Sure, SciFinder is a very useful research tool, but it reeks of highway robbery sometimes. (I love Beilstein, but those

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-80299442060611351092007-04-24T00:01:00.000-04:002007-04-24T00:57:17.738-04:00

I'll attribute the title quote to a prof here who happens to be a fluorine chemist. (It happened to stick in my mind, and now maybe it will stick in yours.) I suppose he's right, though. Fluorine is an electron-hungry little beast, and it does some interesting things when stuck onto other atoms.Not all of these interesting things are desirable, mind you. I don't know many chemists who aren't

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-39101788318545029122007-04-22T22:56:00.000-04:002007-04-23T10:52:42.155-04:00

I have a theory about April being the most depressing month of the year. Like all of my theories, there is no evidence backing this up, aside from the fact that people seem to go completely insane around mid-April, myself included. Maybe it's because as we thaw out from the winter, and things start warming up, and you can finally go outside and do things, you start to realize how shitty your life

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-35745563065089302322007-04-20T02:23:00.000-04:002007-07-25T03:07:06.206-04:00

If anyone came up to me and asked me, "Hey Excimer, what's your favorite functional group?" I would be very puzzled how they knew who I was based on my blog handle. But after questioning them NSA-style and maybe a little executive branch-approved torture (thanks PATRIOT Act!), I'd let them know that my favorite functional group is, in fact, the azobenzene group. (Then I would probably eliminate

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-52457665694585662262007-04-15T21:00:00.000-04:002007-04-15T22:55:58.677-04:00

The relative lack of posting on CBC is due to illness and exams--both of us have been sick and are nearing this semester's finals. All apologies. (Please keep reading anyway?)A Synthetic Environment's prolific top five lists have inspired us to do a top five list. After a bit of debate and a few rounds of asking who the hell is that?, we finally agreed on five scientists who have contributed

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-18183088726439209572007-04-12T22:41:00.000-04:002007-04-12T23:04:58.414-04:00

I am now of the belief that human civilization has, at least, reached its zenith. We, as scientists and rational creatures, base our achievements in science as the true judgement of a civilization. I am happy to say that all great previous scientific achievements- Newton's Principia Mathematica, Darwin's theory of evolution, Mendel's genetics, Rutherford's discovery of the atomic nucleus,

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-76171553475830313862007-04-11T15:57:00.000-04:002007-05-07T03:59:30.348-04:00

Apologies from Ψ*Ψ and I regarding the lack of posts as of late: we have been quite busy and, despite living in different states, we have come down with similar illnesses at the same time. Nevertheless, I believe it's time for another of my unnecessary advice posts. This week: how to distinguish between R- and S-BINAP.BINAP is a chiral, bidentate phosphine ligand that's used a whole lot in

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-14741511694883911602007-04-07T01:02:00.000-04:002007-04-07T18:39:39.573-04:00

Stuart at The Sceptical Chymist recently did a quick interview with Mike Zaworotko, so I'll continue what he started and point you in the direction of a recent paper in Crystal Growth & Design.[1] The idea behind it is C3S3, which is a much faster way of saying co-crystal controlled solid state synthesis. Naphthalenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (NTCDA) and an amine were ground together with maybe

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-29765759193297523012007-04-04T00:13:00.000-04:002007-04-04T00:30:36.441-04:00

...you needed another reason to go into materials science. Most of what's posted on CBC relates to electronically interesting carbon-rich goodies, but there is also something to be said for development of mechanically interesting materials.In materials-oriented research, there is usually some testing involved once the long and painful synthetic part of the project is over. My little corner of the

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-16642786883633773322007-04-03T00:24:00.000-04:002007-04-03T01:38:27.322-04:00

For some reason, I receive a copy of C&E News a week after everyone else does. In light of that, I was unaware until now of what I'm about to talk about. In last week's issue, which featured Priestley Medal winner and world's smartest chromedome George Whitesides along with two excellent articles about him, there were a number of articles and clips that, shall we say, were scooped earlier by

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-22138547541888546932007-03-30T14:40:00.000-04:002007-05-07T03:59:48.123-04:00

Since it was brought up in an earlier post that I mixed up the terms "stereoselective" and "stereospecific," I busted out my phys org notes to relearn the terms, so I don't get pwn3d by professors on it later. I'll post it here for everyone else's benefit too.Stereoselectivity: A reaction is stereoselective when one stereoisomer is formed in preference to another.Lindlar hydrogenation of alkynes

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-64663442424865096962007-03-28T22:59:00.000-04:002007-03-30T02:04:12.388-04:00

Most chemists who blog seem to be either in grad school or the great beyond. I'm in neither category, though, since I don't graduate until the end of the year. A few others share my predicament. Tynchtyk, though he hasn't written often of late, used to post Friday Night Retrosynthesis. One of his former labmates has started writing more recently. Felix of Chemical Quantum Images does a killer job

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-89186195852348845102007-03-26T19:43:00.000-04:002007-03-26T19:50:58.215-04:00

I didn't think much of this setup until several labmates asked me the question that became the title of this post. As you can see, there's a balloon in the hood. The first question for you, readers, is why? (Just so I don't have to answer it again.) The second question is...what's in there? It's been awhile since we posted a mystery reaction. Have fun guessing! (This should be pretty easy.)

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-5441419737782095702007-03-24T21:12:00.000-04:002007-03-25T00:59:08.478-04:00

As Paul from TotallySynthetic has mentioned, this issue of Nature is packed with organic chemistry- rather unusual for the journal. Reviewed in TotSyn was Baran's protecting group-free total synthesis of Ambiguine H and other molecules, which is quite a read. Also in the issue are papers by Bergman on C-H activation and one on relativistic effects in gold catalysis by demi-god F. Dean Toste. Like

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-12517869967918340832007-03-23T01:00:00.000-04:002007-03-27T20:19:43.436-04:00

Looks like I didn't get that C&EN internship. Oh well. Better luck next year, I guess. I'm sure whoever did get it doesn't deserve it (kidding!). Anyway, if anyone has any fun science writing internships/opportunities/stories/nightmares they'd like to share, please do. But, if you're worried Excimer's feelings of elitist dejection are past him with this losing battle, not to worry! He also

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-13392763479326524632007-03-19T20:29:00.000-04:002007-03-19T21:10:46.749-04:00

Every now and then it's nice to be able to post something amusing that doesn't require much thought. Search engines are great for this. I don't know what these people were looking for, but most of them probably didn't find it here:aldrich bottlessilicon carbide paper home depotbiology nonstick (They're clearly looking in the wrong place. No biology here!)milkshake tattooshower

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-20257952353389599282007-03-17T00:58:00.000-04:002007-04-23T21:30:40.226-04:00

There are labs where the gloves guard against sample contamination, and there are labs where the gloves (half-assedly) guard you against almost everything you touch. After working in a few of the former, I am now in one of the latter, but I'm a little paranoid at times. Most things I see here on a daily basis are harmful in some way or other. A little caution in handling them negates most of the

Ψ*Ψnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-76314235789447891892007-03-14T15:04:00.000-04:002007-03-15T01:44:42.945-04:00

Interesting paper came out in JACS ASAP today. While the process of olefin metathesis is quite well-known, alkyne metathesis is also a well-studied process but is not nearly as widespread as the former. Several different types of alkyne metathesis catalyst systems exist, all of which involve a metal-alkylidyne moiety (that is, a carbon-metal triple bond), analagous to the metal-alkylidene moities

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-82547015255897630122007-03-13T14:28:00.000-04:002007-03-13T18:54:54.171-04:00

It's ψ*ψ's birthday. Happy birthday, you complex conjugate.Here's a kittyAnd another one just cause

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35278057.post-45081706832201583682007-03-12T17:08:00.000-04:002007-03-12T22:31:51.001-04:00

I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but, contrary to what my mom thinks, I don't know all organic chemistry. I can usually bullshit my way out of most organic problems, but this one continues to stump me. My undergrads do this Grignard reaction where they react phenylmagnesium bromide that they make in situ, then add ethyl benzoate to make tritylcarbinol (which is what old people call

Excimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159376908782797242noreply@blogger.com16