From my unplowed street in New York City last week, two feet of beautiful fluffy white stuff morphed into frustration if you actually needed to leave the house. But secretly snow still reduces me to an 8-year-old child every time I see a few flakes. I grew up in Florida where I rarely saw a…
So this video isn’t chemically perfect: oxygen atoms and hydrogen atoms tend to hang out in pairs most of the time. But I can’t argue with its creative spunk. Enjoy! Video by Christopher Hendryx (his website) Hat tip: Joanne Manaster, also known as Twitter’s @sciencegoddess
Carbon is the big star among the science Nobel Prizes this week. Sure, IVF is a big deal, too. But, today, I’m all about the element that ruled my life as an organic chemist. Carbon more than math is the universal common denominator of ‘O-chem. “As my undergraduate professor once quipped , “You just have…
From a science perspective, the great frozen stuff is the unsung hero in all these sports. Its slick surface (and low friction) allow skates, skis, snowboards, sleds, and curling stones to slide smoothly, with a lot of help from some talented athletes, who have trained for years. Of course, it also creates all kinds of…
I get to talk about an interesting application of carbon dioxide today in my latest article for Scientific American: sterilizing transplanted tissues such as tendon and bone. Before I heard about this technology, I certainly wouldn’t have suspected that the ubiquitous gas that we exhale could become a super-scrubber with a little heat and a…
Though the tryptophan rush from turkey is more hype than reality, Thanksgiving is the perfect time to put up the most structurally complex of the amino acids, tryptophan. The body uses it to make serotonin, and biochemists use its absorbance of ultraviolet light to determine concentrations of proteins in their samples. Today I’m thinking that…
More FDA warnings for cold sufferers– and really anyone who takes pain relievers– to keep in mind. Acetaminophen– the molecule at the left– is found in Tylenol and a whole host of other pain relievers, cold medicines and prescription drugs. At lower doses, it’s safe, but at higher doses can cause liver damage and even…
This small molecule is too big for a single post, so I’ll probably revisit it at different points in this blog. It’s the most oxidized form of carbon, often thought of as waste product: both of fossil fuel burning and of the energy reactions that fuel life. But it’s also an essential component of photosynthesis…
The Molecule of the Week is the active ingredient in Zicam, the nasal gel cold remedy that the FDA warned consumers to stop using this week. What’s the problem? Some users have reported losing their sense of smell after using the gel. On Tuesday, the FDA stepped in and issued a warning letter to Matrixx…
Though hydrogen is the smallest atom and is perched at the top left of the periodic table, hydrogen in nature exists as two atoms hooked together. Hydrogen hit the news this weekend as a leak led NASA to scrub the Space Shuttle Endeavor launch: Hydrogen is as clean as chemical fuels get: burning it produces…