Chemistry365

During 2011, I will be making one blog post every day on Chemistry as part of my personal contribution to the International Year of Chemistry. As this progresses, I’ll add the link to the posts here in the one place.

And I’ve just signed up formally to the WordPress challenge of Post A Day/Post a Week. Clearly I’m in the Post a day part of the challenge so in addition to tagging these posts with chemistry365 I will also be using the tag postaday2011,

[Disclaimer]: A blog post does not equate to an endorsement. No company, brand or manufacturer is paying me to create these posts. I am just talking about Chemistry on this blog every day for the year 2011 as it is the International Year of Chemistry. By all means if you know of some kind of awesome Chemistry out, feel free to let me know by a leaving a comment here. If I blog about it I’ll credit the heads-up to you and better yet, you’ve participated in the International Year of Chemistry.

0/365 International Year of Chemistry

1/365 The Secret Life of Bleach – The mechanism behind the disinfecting power of bleach.

2/365 Chemistry for Life – Desalination and Reverse Osmosis

3/365 Introducing Oxidane – Water and its physical properties

4/365 The Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide – The Dihydrogen Monoxide hoax and its real danger

5/365 What is Chemistry? – What Chemistry is all about. It really isn’t scary

6/365 The Definition of Chemical-Free – There is no such thing

7/365 Chocolate – Polymorphism

8/365 Algal Blooms – Eutrophication and what you can do to minimise it

9/365 Phoslock – A Chemical Answer to Eutrophication

10/365 Caffeine – Does it really help with lack of sleep? And a mention of alkaloids

11/365 The Day of Caffeine – A write up of my experience with caffeine the day before.

12/365 Childhood Chemistry Heroes – Chemistry figures in cartoon!

13/365 What Did You Study in High School? – Using things like English Literature and Economics in Chemistry

14/365 Alchemy – Where Chemistry Began

15/365 Hip Hop Chemistry – Chemistry in an unlikely place.

16/365 The Element of Surprise – Using the gut instinct and having fun in science.

17/365 The Source of the Glow – With the a little Chemistry know how, glowing bacteria can be created.

18/365 Chemical Handshake – A snapshot of one breakfast that took part in a global even celebrating women in Chemistry as part of the International Year of Chemistry

19/365 What do Chemists do? – Chemistry doesn’t have to lead to working at a lab bench!

20/365 That Looks Like Fun – There’s nothing wrong with having fun as a main goal of science outreach. That in itself can start a path of discovery.

21/365 Emeritus Professor Noel Bayliss 1906-1996 – The Chemist who laid the foundations of Chemistry in Western Australia

22/365 The Periodic Table – Sung by Tom Lehrer

23/365 Pixie Dust in Your Drink - Electrolytes, sports drinks and Lance Armstrong!

24/365 On the Right Side of Chemistry – Enantiomers, a medical tragedy and the busting of a Chemistry urban legend

25/365 The Deaf Chemist – John Conforth’s work on enantiomers that led to his Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1975

26/365 Colourful Bangs – Incandescence and Luminescence, the key to creating colourful explosions

27/365 Minerals – What are they? Well it depends on who you talk to.

28/365 Carbon is a Girl’s Best Friend – Allotropism and how diamond and graphite are made of the same thing.

29/365 Chemistry: It’s All About You – How Chemistry affects your life without you even knowing it.

30/365 A Little Frog Chemistry – Small colourful frogs secreting toxins that could one day lead to new medical treatments.

31/365 Opals – It’s not quite a mineral and no one knows how it is formed.

32/365 Mining Waste Improving the Environment – The by-products of mining providing answers to an environmental problem.

33/365 A Day Without Chemistry – Imagine your day without chemistry.

34/365 Curds and Whey – Little Miss Muffet was eating them but what is it?

35/365 Chemistry Matters: Beyond the Textbook – Part of a four video series the Nobel Prize Foundation have put together for the International Year of Chemistry.

36/365 Chemistry Matters: The Life of a Chemist - Part of a four video series the Nobel Prize Foundation have put together for the International Year of Chemistry.

37/365 Chemistry Matters: Beauty - Part of a four video series the Nobel Prize Foundation have put together for the International Year of Chemistry.

38/365 Chemistry Matters: Eureka! - Part of a four video series the Nobel Prize Foundation have put together for the International Year of Chemistry.

39/365 Fire – It can be useful and its discovery is important in human history, it can be deadly.

40/365 Eau De Vieux Livres – The smell of old books.

41/365 Green Chemistry – Chemistry isn’t about using toxic chemicals.

42/365 An Intelligent Blob – Watch a blob of oil navigate a maze with ease.

43/365 pH – A measure of acidity and alkalinity

44/365 Fermentation – One of the first organic chemistry reactions utilised by humans

45/365 Winemaking – Flow of Chemistry and Art – Micro oxygenation in winemaking

46/365 Ethanol – It’s not the only alcohol out there.

47/365 Liquid Nitrogen Cocktails – Ethanol’s freezing point is -114C so you need something very cold to freeze it.

48/365 Umami – The Fifth Taste – The latest taste to hit the scene

49/365 MSG Headache – Is there any truth in the Chinese Restaurant Syndrome?

50/365 Urushiol – It’s found in poison ivy and can cause rashes. It’s also in mangoes and was used as lacquer for furniture.

51/365 Cancer’s Scent – An 8 year old labrador retriever can detect cancer with the same accuracy as a colonoscopy.

52/365 No Hilarity in Helium Shortage – The world is running short on helium and it’s more than just balloons and squeaky voices at risk.

53/365 The Phlogiston Theory – The theory that didn’t quite work out.

54/365 The Caloric Theory – The theory that got eaten up.

55/365 The Kinetic Theory – The theory that is kicking along.

56/365 My Chemistry Hero – A tribute to a high school science teacher.

57/365 Everything is the Matter – What is matter?

58/365 Thermite and Liquid Nitrogen – What happens when something really hot is added to something really cold?

59/360 Playing With Oxygen – Some of oxygen’s chemical properties explored.

60/365 Maillard Reaction – The similarities between steak, toast and popcorn

61/365 Gummy Bear Science – All it takes to show osmosis is a glass of water and a gummy bear.

62/365 Where Dust Bunnies Come From – Where does all that dust come from? The answer is close to home.

63/365 My Mosquito Repellant Dissolves Plastic – Find out what in mosquito repellant causes plastic to dissolve.

64/365 The Chemistry of Tea – A cup of tea demands that you slow down while you savour the taste but there’s a lot of chemistry involved.

65/365 Sticky Gecko Feet Nothing to Do With Glue – van der Waals forces

66/365 Vaccines – Vaccines are safe. Go get immunised.

67/365 Women in Chemistry Are Not Named Marie Curie – A list of women who have done great things in chemistry.

68/365 Chemical Reactions – What is a chemical reaction?

69/365 Chilli Chemistry – Behind the fire in chillis.

70/365 Are You Accurate or Precise? – Something sports commentators cannot help you with.

71/365 Colloids – They are everywhere and we even eat them!

72/365 Suspensions – Similar to colloids but they’re settling nature makes them quite different.

73/365 Solutions – Not the answers to questions but a very specific type of mixture.

74/365 Concentrating on Substance – How do you describe a quantity of solute in a solution?

75/365 Time to Take a Look in a Nuclear Reactor – Following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, a nuclear power plant was damaged.

76/365 A Discussion About Guinness – It’s St Patrick’s Day and a time for celebration of all things Irish.

77/365 The Chemistry of Beer – It takes a bit of Chemistry know how to make a pint of beer.

78/365 Elementaurs – Chemistry Pokemon – Taking Chemistry out of the classroom and turning it into child’s play.

79/365 Element Hunters – Chemistry edutainment from Japan!

80/365 Where Did Medicines Come From? – They had to come from somewhere.

81/365 World Water Day – The launch of the Global Water Experiment

82/365 Dance for International Year of Chemistry – A group of chemists have put together a rap and dance to perform.

83/365 Grape Plasma – Create a plasma in your kitchen.

84/365 Don’t Smoke Near Me – Third hand smoke, the one you can’t see.

85/365 Trinitite – The Nuclear Mineral – A mineral birthed from atomic testing.

86/365 Lemonade – A list of chemicals in a glass of traditional lemonade.

87/365 The Bunsen Burner – It may be in every science lab today but this wasn’t always the case.

88/365 A Sticky Situation That Became Super – Super Glue was an accidental invention.

89/365 Lead Shot – How do you make balls of lead?

90/365 Chemists Can DANCE! – Over 200 chemists dance in celebration of the International Year of Chemistry.

91/365 Bugs, They Even Crawl in Chemistry – RIP Thomas Eisner – Thomas Eisner, the man who unveiled the world of chemistry used by insects passes away aged, 81

92/365 The World of Chemistry – A 2008 Youtube video depicting what a party would be like if elements of the periodic table were invited.

93/365 Crying Over Onions – Why onions make you cry.

94/365 Jelly Beans – Where do the flavours come from and how are they made?

95/365 Chemiluminescence – The chemistry of glow sticks. Reader request from Tassie_Gal

96/365 Polytetrafluoroethylene – The accidental discovery of Teflon

97/365 Atomic Absorption Spectrometer – An Aussie Invention

98/365 Cacophony of Colour Marks Arrival of the International Year of Chemistry in WA – Bayliss Youth Lecture series

99/365 Water Has a Memory – However, there’s nothing in it.

100/365 Big Ideas in Chemistry – The ideas that have influenced chemistry and the ones I keep returning to.

101/365 Coagulation – Kitchen chemistry you can eat.

102/365 Rocket Fuel – In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the first manned spaceflight.

103/365 The NanoPutians – Chemical molecules that look like people.

104/365 Polyester – How polyester is made from recycled plastic bottles.

105/365 Pineapple Ruins Jelly – Why some fresh fruits aren’t suited for making jelly.

106/365 In Defence of Chemists – Despite what you may think, I do get that you hate chemistry.

107/365 Boranes – RIP William Lipscomb - A tribute to a chemist who introduced the world to boranes.

108/365 Food Provenancing – How can you tell that the French truffle came from France?

109/365 The Fumehood – Without this, chemists wouldn’t live very long.

110/365 Silly Putty – A bit of silly chemistry.

111/365 Century Eggs – A Chinese delicacy that has nothing to horse urine.

112/365 Chemistry of Creme Eggs – It’s Easter and let’s do a few experiments with Cadbury Creme Eggs.

113/365 Chocolate isn’t for Dogs – Chocolate may taste good to us and dogs but the difference is that it can kill our four legged friends.

114/365 Artificial Sweeteners – No, they don’t give you cancer.

115/365 The Gas Mask – Something developed to counter chemical warfare now saves the lives of many.

116/365 Warheads Candy – Extremely sour candy from my childhood. What made them so sour?

117/365 Superconductivity Flash Mob – A chemistry flash mob on superconductivity shown through a graceful dance.

118/365 Post-it Notes – Of the sticky notes we leave each other and how they work.

119/365 Of Sapphires and Diamonds – There’s a royal wedding in the air so let’s take a look at Ms Kate Middleton’s engagement ring.

120/365 Slime – It’s gooey and you can make it with ease.

121/365 Colour Changing Lenses – Lenses that darken when you walk into the sun. Brilliant after a late night.

122/365 Chemical-Free Chemistry Kit – Why would you even bother with this? It’s madness.

123/365 Catalysts – They can speed up the rate of chemical reactions and in some cases slow them down but they don’t get consumed by the reaction.

124/365 Cigarette Filters Get the Nano Treatment – It makes smoking ever so very slightly safer for the smoker but for non-smokers, it is still just as deadly.

125/365 Karrikins - The smoky compounds that wake up seeds.

126/365 Breaking Out the Plastic - In some countries, this doesn’t always mean a credit card.

127/365 Ink – Despite the advent of computers, mobile phones and a myriad of devices to send notes and messages, ink is still used.

128/365 A Blue Seizure – Copper sulphate is a wonderful deep blue colour and it is useful in applications outside of chemistry class demonstrating colourful compounds.

129/365 The Aussie Synchrotron - It’s under threat of being closed due to a lack of funding and buckpassing politics.

130/365 Lab on a Chip - A number of advanced laboratory analyses can be performed on a piece of plastic about the size of a credit card.

131/365 Triple Point – The point at which a substance can exist as a solid, liquid and gas at the same time.

132/365 Protein Crystallography - Dorothy Hodgkin pioneered this field of which techniques are commonplace today in the study of proteins.

133/365 I’d Like My Drink with 14C - Carbon-14 is used in radio carbon dating and also to ensure that the ethanol in an alcoholic drink originated from fermenting plant material.

134/365 Hot Ice – The Science of Heat Packs.

135/365 Paper - It’s been around for centuries and so has the chemical process used to make it.

136/365 Making Clothing From Milk - Yes, clothing can be made from milk.

137/365 Dord – The Chemistry Word That Never Was - How a non-word became linked to Chemistry.

138/365 Exploding Watermelon Scandal! – Watermelons are exploding in China and it appears that chemicals are to blame. Are things as simple as they seem?

139/365 Rosin – No, this wax is not made from insects, but rather from pine.

140/365 Capillary Action – When fluid flows against gravity.

141/365 Mighty Wallet – Tyvek, waterproof material that is virtually impossible to tear.

142/365 Gold and Silver in a New Light - Gold and silver appear quite different to us when they are only nanometres in size.

143/365 Autumn Colours - The yellow, brown, orange and red colour that leaves change to isn’t just due to a temperature change. There’s some chemistry along the way.

144/365 E-ink – There is actually some ink involved in e-ink!

145/365 Using Movies to Teach Chemistry Informally and Formally – Watching movies and appreciating the chemistry in them.

146/365 Soft Metals – The soft alkali metals that just don’t follow the expectations of metals. They also go bang when placed in water.

147/365 Some Not Quite Right Explosions - Explosions that don’t go according to plan.

148/365 Rock Sugar is just Sugar – It’s just sugar. That’s it.

149/365 Link Between Perfumes, Soaps and Petrol - Find out what Muslim chemists pioneered. It’s something that chemists use to this very day.

150/365 Noble Gases - What do you know? They do react after all.

151/365 Metal Memory – Metals that remember their original shape after being bent out of shape.

152/365 The Artificial Leaf - A synthetic leaf that could create power from sunlight by being placed in water just like the real thing.

153/365 A Smurfy Little Frog – This little frog makes a bubble nest that turns blue.

154/365 The Crabs and Ants of Christmas Island – Fipronil keeps the yellow crazy ant at bay.

155/365 Mirror Mirror on the Wall - How are mirrors made? By utilising the silver mirror test!

156/365 Liedenfrost Effect – It’s why you can theoretically quickly place your hand in liquid nitrogen and pull it out again without being harmed. (Don’t try this at home. Ever.) Now it could be put to use.

157/365 Two New Additions to the Periodic Table - Two new elements have been added to the Periodic Table.

158/365 Chameleon Bandage – A bandage that changes colour in response to temperature changes could lead to better wound treatments.

159/365 Growing Marshmallows in a Microwave – Marshmallows get bigger when you microwave them.

160/365 Chemical Free Naming and Shaming – Someone has finally snapped and is now accepting evidence of the use fallacious term “chemical free”.

161/365 Bacteria Spotting - Using spot tests to detect bacteria in drinking water sources.

162/365 Making Fire Without Matches – Yes, there are some perks to having a chemistry degree. This one is pretty neat.

163/365 I’ll Never use Botox – Not ever. Seriously.

164/365 Revealing Hidden Fingerprints - Using amino acids to target fingerprints left behind by criminals.

165/365 Chemistry Music Videos – UCLA students taking Chem 14B have once again created chemistry music videos featuring Lady Gaga, The Argonauts and more.

166/365 Spider Silk Chemistry – The silk of spiders is inspiring a new generation of material science.

167/365 Microwaving Soap – It’s in the name of science and it demonstrates Charles’s Law!

168/365 Got E.coli problems? Hold the Disinfectant and Grab the Graphene – A chemist is designing a new polymer that could detect E.coli and even hinder them.

169/365 Smelly Socks: The New Dining Experience – Could your smelly socks be attracting spiders?

170/365 Making Rubber Eggs in the Kitchen – What happens to an egg when you dissolve the shell with an acid?

171/365 Synthesised Meat – There are claims that Japanese scientists have synthesised meat from sewage for human consumption but what really has been synthesised?

172/365 The Stradivarius Violin – For centuries, the sound of a Stradivarius violin has been the holy grail for violin makers.

173/365 Snapple – A chemistry joke. It’s still funny after the punch line is explained.

174/365 Tin – What is it good for?

175/365 There’s an Emulsion in My Salad – A simple salad dressing has a lot of chemistry in it to keep it together.

176/365 The Perfect Pancakes Rely on Chemistry – For the love of good pancakes, watch this video.

177/365 Onion Powered mp3 Player? – It sounds good but it just isn’t true.

178/365 Glowin Luciferin – The chemicals that glow

179/365 Magnificence of the Magnesium Flame – It’s a bright white flame and it can be put to good use.

180/365 Science of Ocean Acidification in Three Minutes – It’s a chemical problem with some very dire consequences.

181/365 Finding Nemo Becoming Easier – Little clownfish may become easier to spot in the future which could spell disaster.