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The Only Black Chemistry Professor in the UK
There are 575 chemistry professors in the United Kingdom, but Robert Mokoya is unique: he's the only black chemistry professor.An investigation conducted by Royal Society of Chemistry has unveiled the still pervasive issue of normalized racism among scientists in the UK. A case in point: in the 15 years he’s been a professor at Nottingham University, Mokoya has had all his funding applications for research projects rejected by the UK Research and Innovation Agency, Britain’s main chemistry funding body.It did not escape Mokoya’s notice that his predicament is atypical compared to his peers. He had research papers published, which should have enabled him to obtain funding for follow-up research. Such was not the case. And he suspected it might be due to his surname.Mokoya’s situation mirrors the RSC’s findings. Racism is still hard to challenge in their field of work and marginalization has become normalized in universities and industries.Just as it is in wider society, the science community in the UK still needs to do better when it comes to inclusivity.Image: Andrew Marlow Hallsworth#chemistry #racism #RoyalSocietyofChemistry #UnitedKingdom #professor
Loving Husband Turns Wife's First Scientific Publication into Christmas Ornament
Kelsie Wentz is a doctoral student in inorganic chemistry at the University of Virginia. Her first scholarly publication was “Extremely Twisted and Bent Pyrene-Fused N-Heterocyclic Germylenes.” She co-wrote this article with six other researchers and published it in Chemical Communications. It was a starting point for a great career in scientific publishing, which has been followed by two more articles since that time.Her husband recently celebrated this accomplishment by framing a tiny version of her journal article in a Christmas ornament. I can make out the title, but the rest should be read in a larger font.-via Lawrence Everett#chemistry #Christmas #Christmasornament
Chemistry Professor Caught Breaking Bad
The TV series Breaking Bad was about a high school chemist teacher who turned to manufacturing methamphetamine. Although the show ended in 2013, a real life version of that story played out recently at an Arkansas college, except this chemistry teacher got caught in a spectacular fashion.As more and more people set up chemistry labs in their kitchens to make meth, the government set up restriction on the purchase of the raw materials. Professor Bradley Allen Rowland of Henderson State University had the know-how to circumvent those restrictions by synthesizing his own raw materials. Maybe he shouldn't have used the school's chemistry lab to do it. Rowland was exposed after he spilled some benzyl chloride, which sent fumes through the entire chemistry building and it couldn't be used for three weeks afterward. This prompted an investigation which uncovered Rowland's nefarious project. Part of his sentence was a fine of $150,000 just to clean up the lab! Read about Rowland's extracurricular activities, including an explanation of why a chemistry professor makes a good meth cook, at McGill. -via Real Clear Science#methamphetamine #chemistry #chemistrylab #meth #BreakingBad
Carbon Residue from Ancient Life Found in 2.5 Billion-Year-Old Ruby
Professor Chris Yakymchuk of the University of Waterloo became one of the pioneers in studying the geology of ruby formation. During one of their research trips to Greenland, which is known for large deposits of rubies, Yakymchuk and his team found a sample of ruby that contained graphite. Graphite is a mineral made of pure carbon which was examined and found to be a remnant of early life. In fact, it was found in rocks older than 2.5 billion years ago. Looking back, this was a time when oxygen was not yet abundant, implying that only microorganisms and algae were alive. Studying the conditions necessary for ruby formation, the research team also found out that graphite does not only relate the gemstone to ancient life but was also a necessary factor for the ruby to exist by changing the chemistry of the rocks surrounding it.Image credit: University of Waterloo#ruby #graphite #carbon #gemstone #ancientlife #chemistry #geology
Why Warm Milk Makes You Sleepy
Feeding a baby milk is one of the best ways to get them to sleep. For adults, it's conventional wisdom that a warm cup of milk will help you get to sleep. The "warm" part may just make you feel comfortable inside, physically and emotionally. But scientists have been picking apart milk to see what's in it that promotes sleep. It was once though that the critical ingredient was tryptophan, but that's not all of it. Milk contains a variety of peptides. Scientists isolated many of these peptides and fed them to mice. One that seems particularly good for promoting sleep is α-casozepine (α-CZP). However, combination of α-CZP and other peptides is even better. Treating the milk protein casein with the digestive enzyme trypsin produces a combination peptide called casein tryptic hydrolysate (CTH) that appears to promote sleep even better than its component parts. Research into isolating the sleep-enhancing chemicals in milk may lead to more natural medications to promote sleep. Or you could just make a cup of hot cocoa, if you are lactose tolerant. Read about this research at the American Chemical Society. -via Real Clear Science#milk #sleep #peptide #chemistry
Scientists Measured the Mechanical Forces Applied to Break a Single Chemical Bond
Wouldn't it be nice if we could measure the mechanical forces applied in atoms at the moment of breakage? Thanks to today's technology, it has already been made possible. Using a high-resolution atomic force microscope (AFM), researchers from Princeton University, the University of Texas-Austin, and ExxonMobil recorded the breaking of a single chemical bond between a carbon atom (which was from a carbon monoxide molecule) and an iron atom (from iron phthalocyanine). The findings could have applications for biochemistry, materials science, and energy technologies. The said findings were reported in a paper recently published in Nature Communications. Now, scientists know the amount of force needed to break a single chemical bond. Learn more about this study over at Princeton University. (Image Credit: Pengcheng Chen et al.) #MolecularBreakup #Chemistry #Atom #Molecule #MaterialScience
Chemists Recreated Gunpowder from a Medieval Recipe and Tested it with a Cannon
Gunpowder, while explosive, is only a mixture of sulfur, carbon, and potassium nitrate (also known as saltpeter). But in medieval Europe, chemists added other ingredients into the mix, namely brandy, varnish, and vinegar. Of course, the next question would be, why?To answer this, experts at the US Army Military Academy at West Point decided to create gunpowders based on these old recipes. They also fired these gunpowders in a replica cannon.The recipes were written in the Feuerwerkbuch (which means "firework book" in German). According to Cliff Rogers, a West Point history professor, the Feuerwerkbuch was the go-to book of master gunners. The book provided invaluable information about processing gunpowder ingredients, making gunpowder, and loading and firing a cannon.Unfortunately, the researchers faced many challenges during this study, such as today's ingredients being too pure and not being able to check how far the cannonballs traveled because the military testing grounds were filled with unexploded weapons.Nevertheless, their research suggested that gunpowder recipes did improve over time.More about this over at Wired.(All Images: wpaczocha/ Pixabay)#Chemistry #Gunpowder #Medieval #Sulfur
The Secret To The Super Strong Ant Teeth: Even Arrangement of Zinc Atoms
Ant teeth might be thinner than a strand of human hair, but don’t let their size fool you. Because of these miniature chompers, ants can bite through tough leaves, and their teeth won’t even be damaged in the process. The ant teeth can even cut human skin and still not break — a feat difficult for human teeth. That’s how strong ant teeth are. The question is, what makes the ant teeth so strong? The answer lies in the uniform distribution of zinc atoms, which allow for equal distribution of force.Each time an ant bites into something, the force is perfectly spread throughout their teeth because of the even dispersal of zinc atoms. That explains why only about 10-20% of zinc is actually necessary for their mighty dental material. Better yet, the researchers say the animals end up using about 60% or less of the force than they would require if their teeth were identical to our comparatively weak pearly whites, which have different types and distributions of elements.Arun Devaraj, the author of a study about ant teeth composition, states that, using the concept behind the ant teeth, scientists could make materials that are really strong."We have already started looking at scorpion stings, for example, and the spider fang," Devaraj said, "and many other kinds of miniature tools to understand the kind of small tool arsenals of insects."Truly amazing.(Image Credit: diego_torres/ Pixabay)#AntTeeth #Superstrength #Zinc #Chemistry
Citric Acid Photographed in Stunning Clarity
Meet Vance Williams, a professor of organic materials at Simon Fraser University. Williams, aside from being a scientist, is also creating art with his scientific findings.In order to convey the information he discovered during his studies, Williams creates images of different chemicals and organic materials. His photos are bright, vibrant, and abstract. At first glance, the photos he publishes online look like drawn artworks, but they’re not!Williams employs different steps in creating his magnificent images. Take, for example, his photo of a citric acid crystal. First he dissolves the material in water, then he lets it evaporate on a microscope slide. To generate the different colors for the image, he views the crystals with polarized optical microscopy. Finally, he chooses a slide and processes it using the site Make Hyperbolic Tilings of Images.Aside from generating images of citric acid, Williams has also captured images of different organic materials. Check some of his images below and more on his Instagram! Image credit: Vance Williams #Chemistry #Photography #ScientificPhotography #OrganicMaterials #Science #Art #CitricAcid #PolarizedOpticalMicroscopy
This Is Lab-Made Metallic Water
Under normal circumstances, pure, distilled water (water removed of impurities such as salt) cannot conduct electricity due to its loosely linked molecules and bound valence electrons. But put water in an environment of extreme pressure, such as in the cores of giant planets like Jupiter, and it goes into a metallic phase, with its electrons behaving like free electrons in a conduction band. This fact on its own is already amazing. However, recreating this phase transition of water is more amazing, and this just happened for the first time ever.Using the electron storage ring BESSY II, a group of 15 scientists from 11 research institutions have successfully produced a aqueous solution with metallic properties, but with a different method. Instead, the scientists experimented with alkali metals, putting a tiny amount of water into a sodium-potassium alloy (which is liquid in room temperature.) According to the report by Dr. Robert Seidel, the scientist who supervised the experiments at BESSY II, this phase transition of water could even be seen by the naked eye.Siedel states that their study proves that metallic water can be produced here on Earth, and that their study “characterises the spectroscopic properties associated with its beautiful golden metallic luster.”Truly magnificent.(Images Credit: HZB)#Water #MetallicWater #BESSYII #Electrons #ConductionBand #AlkaliMetals #Chemistry
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