Leech,+Jennifer

The article Crystal Art was fairly interesting. It turns out that young artist Roger Hiorns pumped supersaturated copper sulfate solution into an apartment, and left it until it hardened, crystallizing the entire area. Crystals are very interesting in themselves, and how they are naturally made is even more interesting. But it's also fascinating how we, as people, can pump a chemical solution into something or an area, leave it to harden, and viola! crystals. It's absolutely amazing how we have the technologic and scientific resources and ability to be able to create something like this, and make it a form of art. Whereas hundreds of years ago-- maybe even just as early as the 1900's, if you would've asked anyone about this or how to, they would've seem dumbfounded. You can see, this as an example, a sheer advancement of technology and scientific research in the past years.

Jennifer, Nice job! Very thorough! We may have to try making these crystals! 5 star. MW

In this article, I found several things that were interesting and that related to chemistry. I found there were seven base units, when I only knew of five, the unknowns being: ampere, and candela. This relates to Chemistry because we use most of the base units to measure different things. I also didn't know that we had an international prototype which was ratified as the official kilogram, that you compare a 'kilogram' to. In class, we are starting to measure a lot of things in kilogram, so it's important to know about it. I wonder, though, how this 'official kilogram' has lost weight in the past years, and in chemistry, we find mass and weight and figure out how we can change that, or IF we can change that through different experiments(like the quarter: moving the copper and nickel). I found that the two constants; Planck's and Avogadro's, were pretty precise in their measurements, but I wondered why Planck's was picked over Avogadro's-- this is a tie in to SI base units, which we use in class.
 * Redefining the Kilogram**

Jennifer, Awesome post! You really nailed this one! I love the way you related this stuff to class! 5 stars. MW

In the article, I found many different things that relate to chemistry and that were also interesting. One was how the article stated, "Some motion detectors use a light source (usually infrared radiation) aimed at a photo sensor." Yesterday in class we went over Gamma rays and how they related to radiation, and how they WERE radiation. I never knew that motion detectors sensed the radiation we, as people, give off. Another technique that the article pointed out was that of how a device can send out pulses and sensors to monitor the reflection pattern. The next chapter in the book is about energy waves and how they move and what they are, and I thought it was interesting how these little electronic devices can pick up energy waves when motion is detected. Another thing I found interesting was how electrons can be ejected when sufficient light energy is shined on a given surface. And, how a low-frequency beam of strong red light cause no electrons to be ejected, when a high-frequency beam of low blue light can send them flying.
 * Motion Detectors**

Jennifer, You are doing great work here! Another awesome post. I like the fact that you quoted the article! Nice touch! 5 huge stars! MW