Category → Chemistry is Everywhere
Gimme That Old Time Poisonin'
It’s not often that an article about chemistry reaches the “most popular” articles list on Slate. Perhaps the last one was a much-talked-about Slate article about the UCLA/Sheri Sangji case.
Unlike the Sangji article, this story from Friday was about something I’d never heard of before- during Prohibition, the U.S. government ordered the adulteration of industrial alcohol in order to thwart bootleggers and stop people from drinking. As author Deborah Blum explains, that didn’t go so well. Poisoned holiday revelers died by the dozens in the nation’s hospitals. And outraged public health officials and anti-Prohibition legislators had harsh words for the government’s ethically dubious chemistry dabblings.
Since most liquor syndicates were simply taking denatured industrial alcohol, which has additives put in to make it undrinkable, and distilling it to remove said additives, the feds decided to make that distillation a bit more complicated.
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Blame It On The Brain(s) Behind The ACIEs Puns
So. My breaking point came a few weeks ago when I read one of ACIE’s genius abstract caption titles, “Just another Mannich Monday.” After laughing out loud, I proceeded to hum the cheesy tune by the Bangles, loudly, from C&EN’s rooftop Berlin office, for three days. From here until perpetuity, the lyrics “I can’t be late because I guess I just won’t get paid” will remind me of Mannich-derived, stereoselective, one-pot syntheses of “spirocycles, 1-aminoindanes, and 5,6-fused azabicycles that have a quaternary carbon center.”
Yeah yeah. I know I’m not the first to grin, groan, or comment about the puns, pop references, and general goofiness ACIE puts into its online abstracts. Many a blogger (Derek Lowe, Excimer, “Phil,” and Chiral Jones ) have also, um, “admired” ACIE’s ability to bring Shakespeare (“Double, double, no toil and trouble”), Star Trek (“Beam me up,” twice), the X-files (“The truth is out there“), and the disembodied voice from the London Underground (“Mind the gap”) into the world of chemistry. The journal has even gotten pretty risqué of late with “Metal ménage à trois” and “Balls galore!”
But Mannich Monday followed soon on the heels of the caption “The Write Stuff,” which permitted the New Kids On The Block hit–(oh yes, here’s the video)–to breach my consciousness for the first time in 20 years—a particularly traumatic reminder of the boy band phenomenon.
So much so, that I had to meet the evil mastermind behind it all.
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Snoverkill Safety
Safety goggles protect the eyes from more than stray chemicals: this hardy worker protects his eyes from the driving wind and snow of today’s Snowpocalypse III, Snoverkill, GroceryStore Thunderdome, Snoverload, whatever you want to call it.
Although ACS offices have been closed all week, C&EN is still operating, and we do need to eat. Venturing into the tempest, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Maureen Rouhi, Associate Editor Linda Wang, and I went to pick up lunch for the seven of us who stayed in hotels in town or braved the commute to get to headquarters and produce the magazine on schedule. On our way back with the victuals, we encountered this fellow shoveling the sidewalk in front of the hotel/restaurant.
C&EN Enjoys Snoverkill
Most people in DC seem to have taken a light-hearted outlook to the past couple Snowpocalypses, unlike the first one in December, when a cop pulled a gun at a snowball fight. This fellow chuckled and was very happy to have his picture taken with Linda. As quoted from a fellow C&ENer who saw this photo, “Linda looks like she’s about to happily bonk the equally happy grinning dude! Reminds me of Japanese TV!”
Elements Abound In D.C.
After reading Beth’s elemental town-name Newscripts last week, I spent a bit of time looking through Nicholas C. Thomas’ article trying to find the closest elmental town to Washington, D.C. Of the ones listed, Barium Springs, N.C., is the closest, at just under 400 miles away. (Although Alloy, W.Va., is a bit closer, it’s not an elemental name, so I’m not counting it.)
I thought this area should have tons of elementally named towns, what with all the science that goes on here. Maybe we can convince some towns to change their names for the International Year of Chemistry 2011? I’m thinking “Radon, District of Columbia” has a nice ring to it (especially as we’re ringing out Radon Action Month). Or maybe “Lead,” to go with all the contamination we have in our soil and water.
Anyhow, not finding any towns in the area currently named after elements, I was surprised to stumble upon some graffiti on the trash can across the street from my apartment building.
Chemistry Graffiti
Periodic Tables Galore
As I was scrolling through boing boing today, I came across a familiar face – the Periodic Table of the Elephants elephant, which hangs out here at the ACS building in Washington. Now, we’ve chronicled various periodic tables from beeriodic table t-shirts to a video periodic table to baked goods ones, but Mark Leach has taken the chronicling to a whole new level with the Internet Database of Periodic Tables. Take a gander at his extensive collection of periodic tables, great and small (including said elephant).
(Hat tip to Maggie Koerth-Baker at boing boing)
Photo credit: C&EN
Chemis-trees
It’s chemical Christmas trees galore! This week’s Newscripts covers chemical decorations for Christmas trees, and the Periodic Table of Videos folks have visions of glucose molecules (and ethanol and ibuprofen and iron tetracarbonyl) dancing in their heads:
As an aside, Professor Poliakoff was featured on CBS News the other night.
Happy Holidays!
Hmmm … What To Watch?
With a huge snowstorm about to hit the Washington, D.C. area, I am pondering how to spend this weekend trapped in my studio apartment.
I can’t do my last minute Christmas shopping for fear of driving. I can’t go out and take pictures for fear of frostbite. And I can’t call a friend to come visit for fear of rejection. One thing I can do, however, is pop in a DVD (which I’ll grab from Blockbuster tonight) and sink into my big comfy blue couch.
I just finished reviewing “Whiz Kids” (stay tuned for that) and am in the mood for something sciency. Let’s see, what to watch?
I visited Reel Science for some inspiration. I’m not a big Sci-Fi fan, so I’ll skip “Surrogates.” If I want to lose my appetite, “Food, Inc.” may be my answer. Truth is, I’m a sucker for a good drama, so I’ll probably rent “Adam.”
Head over to Reel Science yourself; there are dozens of reviews and recommendations worth checking out.
Image: Shutterstock
2009 Holiday Gift Guide
The crew here at C&ENtral Science has once again assembled some recommendations to help your shopping this holiday season. Many of our suggestions from last year’s guide are still available as well. (Complete guide available after the jump.)
A search for “chemistry” on Etsy.com turns up all sorts of unique items from a Dewar flask stein to a chemistry book handbag to crocheted christmas methane molecules. But three shops have lots of great chemical gifts. Anandi’s Laboratory has cool themed glass magnet sets (Coffee & Dessert, Elements of Poison, Organically Spicy, etc.) and glass pendants. Gibberish specializes in nifty periodic-table-inspired gifts, including this holiday card and necklace set. And although perennial favorite Made with Molecules just sold out of this year’s ornament, zingerone (ginger), you can still find lovely necklaces, earrings, and even phone charms there.
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