ChemCafé

Synthetic chemists use to perform their reactions in various pieces of glassware such as round-bottomed flasks, vials, Schlenk tubes of simple beakers. An article recently published in PNAS(1) reports synthetic chemistry performed in an unusual environment, as the authors present it, ‘in the physiologically relevant context of a mouse‘!
The team from University of California (UC) [...]

For more than three centuries, Antonio Stradivari’s instruments (violins, cellos, harps,…) have represented the quintessence of the Cremonese instrument-making tradition. During his life (1644-1737), Stradivari has produced more than 1100 instruments, and roughly 650 still exist today – and many violins are still played by virtuoses. Hosts of musicians, violin makers, acousticians and chemists have [...]

To romantic people such as chemists, autumn and its spectacular colors provides every year an endless source of wonder. Rather unsurprisingly, a couple of coloured chemicals are involved in the process, which leads several billions tons of leaves to go from green to red, yellow or orange, and finally to fall and let the winter [...]

When inhalated, organophosphorus compounds can cause death within minutes. Although they are prohibited by the Chemical Convention Weapons, several states still possess large stockpiles of these chemicals, and terrorist organisations are not particularly known for complying with international conventions – one of these organophosphorus compounds is sarin, (in)famous for having been spread in the Tokyo [...]

It is a pity Mr Nobel did not think about including a prize for biology in his final will. Today’s announcement was eagerly awaited in my department, particularly since a very member of our institute was part of the Thomson Reuters nominees, which raised considerable buzz over the last couple of weeks. We all crossed [...]

Among the loads of various ‘concentration calculators’ and ‘grams-versus-moles converters’ that are available online, I think the one provided by WolframAlpha can be quite useful and is nicely done. For example, if you need to know how many moles of iron are present in 5 grams, just query ‘how many moles are in 5 grams [...]

It’s been a while since last post… I’ve been quite busy for several reasons, such as trying to get some of my research published, taking part at the annual meeting of the Swiss Chemical Society and, last but not least, spending three weeks doing military service – Switzerland still has mandatory military service for [...]

Chemical and physical explanations are invoked in order to explain the popular phenomenon referred to as a chemical fountain (or chemical geyser) that one obtains upon mixture of diet Coke and Mentos candies.

Phosphorus was known since heroic alchemistry times for its propensity to emit light and spontaneously self-ignite when exposed to air. These rather unusual properties make this compound dangerous to handle and transport. The most reactive allotrope of phosphorus is the so-called white phosphorus (also named yellow phosphorus, never mind), which in more modern times became [...]

To conclude the ISMSC 2009 overview, let’s sum up what amazing things were presented in the last days… We had a really funny talk from Prof. J. Sessler – great cartoons, but great science as well! Then Prof. L. Lindoy presented nice ‘boomerang complexes’ – interesting name for research produced in Australia – as well [...]