Posts for 'Chemistry' Category

HSC Chemistry is one of the most rewarding HSC subjects you can choose. In terms of scaling, Chemistry has consistently been the highest scaled HSC science course, compared to Physics and Biology. Chemistry also provides a very useful foundation for university courses in the health sciences fields (Medicine, Pharmacy and Medical science in particular). With typically around 10,000 students doing Chemistry for their HSC each year, it is also one of the most popular HSC subjects chosen. If you can do well in Chemistry, it will greatly help your UAI and your chances of getting into the university course you desire.

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Flasks, beakers and hot plates may soon be a thing of the past in chemistry labs. Instead of handling a few experiments on a bench top, scientists may simply pop a microchip into a computer and instantly run thousands of chemical reactions, with results - literally shrinking the lab down to the size of a thumbnail.
 
Toward that end, UCLA researchers have developed technology to perform more than a thousand chemical reactions at once on a stamp-size, PC-controlled microchip, which could accelerate the identification of potential drug candidates for treating diseases like cancer. Their study appears in the Aug. 21 edition of the journal Lab on a Chip and is currently available online.

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When I was chemistry student I had just one goal in mind: finishing my studies as soon as possible. Simple as it is, the other day I was walking down a hallway toward my classroom thinking about the upcoming weekend. What do you expect a young student to think about?

As I said, I was walking toward the classroom for my next biochemistry class. My biochemistry professor was a 60-something-year-old gentlemen with an unbelievable ability to explain everything in plain words. To me it seemed that he knew "everything" about each topic related to biochemistry. Because of him I can call myself a medical biochemist.

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When I was chemistry student I had just one goal in mind: finishing my studies as soon as possible. Simple as it is, the other day I was walking down a hallway toward my classroom thinking about the upcoming weekend. What do you expect a young student to think about?

As I said, I was walking toward the classroom for my next biochemistry class. My biochemistry professor was a 60-something-year-old gentlemen with an unbelievable ability to explain everything in plain words. To me it seemed that he knew "everything" about each topic related to biochemistry. Because of him I can call myself a medical biochemist.

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Robert Bruce Thompson, author of MAKE:Books' Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments, spoke at the 2008 Bay Area Maker Faire on the demise of the chemistry set. He traces the history from the good old days when chemistry sets were full of possibilities to the present day where they are very hard to obtain.

Check out the book to learn how to roll your own home chemistry lab! Video linkIllustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments. For students, DIY hobbyists, and science buffs, who can no longer get real chemistry sets, this one-of-a-kind guide explains how to set up and use a home chemistry lab, with step-by-step instructions for conducting experiments in basic chemistry.

Learn how to smelt copper, purify alcohol, synthesize rayon, test for drugs and poisons, and much more. The book includes lessons on how to equip your home chemistry lab, master laboratory skills, and work safely in your lab, along with 17 hands-on chapters that include multiple laboratory sessions.

A knowledge of basic chemistry is important for understanding just about any area of biology from the function of cells to the behavior of organisms and the ecological relationships between organisms and their environment.

Indeed, chemists are fond of teasing biologists by claiming that all biology is chemistry*. While this isn't quite true, in order to make sense of the structure of cells and organisms a little chemistry goes a long way."Ball and Stick" Model of a Heme group. This group is part of a larger molecule, hemoglobin. Grey=Carbon, Blue= Nitrogen, Red= Oxygen. Hydrogens not shown.Of course the physicists say that all chemistry is physics!

In this class you will learn how chemistry has played a vital role in the survival of the human race.   Unfortunately, in the process of doing good, chemistry has also done some harm. Society often allows these negative consequences because it focuses on the product or the results and not much on what happens before or after the result. I equate society's attention to that of the audience at a magic show. They love the tricks and performance (results) but rarely investigate what happened before or after the performance.
For example, the images on the right are from the movie "The Prestige." It's the scene with the disappearing "Bird in a Cage" trick. Click the lower left arrow to move through the images and to read the captions.

Now that you know the trick, would you respond the same way to the trick? By the way, these cruel bird cages are still sold at some magic shops.

The spread of a new strain of influenza A H1N1 virus across 50 countries worldwide since last month has helped remind the medical community that it needs to adapt to a virus that continuously reinvents itself.

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute (R.P.I.) in Troy, N.Y., say they are developing chemical compounds.

That could be used to create an antiviral weapon that would not only disrupt the work of the neuraminidase proteins (the "N" in H1N1), which allow the virus to escape an infected cell and infect healthy new cells.

But also the hemagglutinin proteins (the "H" in H1N1), which bind to sialic acid on the healthy cell's surface, helping the virus penetrate the cell.

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Of course, talent has a lot to do with the Arizona Wildcats' appearance in the NCAA Sweet 16. The Wildcats have two expected NBA players, forwards Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger, and another, guard Nic Wise, who eventually will be making a lot of money somewhere, if not in the NBA.

There's also been luck. The Wildcats built the early portion of their midseason seven-game winning streak on a soft schedule and combined their ensuing confidence with rabid McKale Center atmospheres in homecourt wins over Washington and UCLA.

Then, because of those big wins, Arizona earned what very well may have been the final NCAA tournament at-large bid  and fell into a fortuitous set of matchups in a No. 12 slot, with a second-round game against a 13th-seeded Cleveland State team that was unable to shoot over the UA's zone defense.

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Prof. Akiko Kobayashi is one of the recipients of the 2009 L'Oreal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science, along with four other scientists from five continents, becoming the third Japanese to win the prize. The L'Oreal-UNESCO Awards were established in 1988 to honor female scientists who have made outstanding contributions to science.

Kobayashi, 65, attended the award ceremony in Paris in March with fellow scientists from countries including Britain and Brazil. Kobayashi succeeded in using single-component molecules to develop the world's first molecular crystal that conducts electricity--a characteristic feature of metals. Many believed this was an impossible task.

This new material is expected to be used in future electronics.Kobayashi made history when, at the age of 55, she became the first female professor at Tokyo University's school of science. "I worked in earnest, taking one step at a time, and I never gave up. I was able to overcome the handicap faced by working women," Kobayashi said.

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