Snowadzky,+Morgen

Tattoo Ink, January 21st 2010

I enjoyed that this article combined art and chemistry, and made the subject more relatable. I personally haven’t put serious consideration into getting a tattoo ever, partially because of the bad reputation tattoo’s get for being unsafe. The article didn’t say that any of the compounds such as zinc oxide or lead carbonate were unsafe or toxic for the skin. However, I wondered how lead can be poisonous when ingested but when combined with carbon becomes safe for permanently dying your skin. Are there other elements that would normally be toxic but when combined with other elements, the effects are neutralized. I think even more people, though I was surprised to see 1 in 8 American's have tattoos, would get tattoos if these removable tattoos are really a possibility.

Morgen, Good thoughts. 5 stars! I suppose if you could have an "erasable" tattoo you could think of yourself as a chalkboard. :) MW

Distillation of Crude Oil, January 22nd 2010

How massive do these oil distilling mechanisms get? (Answered later in video) If all different forms of crued oil take about the same amount of effort to separate, besides higher temperatures, are certain types more expensive just because they can be? Do longer molecules always have a higher boiling point or is this only true of oil? I could imagine that this whole process is relatively expensive on a mass scale, and perhaps thats why less wealthy countries don't distill it themselves. Because if they were selling the products of distilling it, I could imagine they would be able to make more money since they eliminated some of the work involved. I can’t see corn oil, like in ethanol, can replace and function relatively similar. Is the molecular structure of ethanol similar to petrol?

Morgen, You ask many good questions. We will address these in this class - great post! 5 big stars! MW

Redefining the Kilogram, January 28th 2010

It makes me smile to see how up in arms these people get about their science, and how precise the measurements are. I mean, what sorts of things really come down to nano-grams in the long run? I do however think its intelligible to find something, like a number of carbon, to have as a standard because it seems like something easier to verify than this weight protected in glass cases and what not. What exactly are they protecting it from? I would love to see a group of scientists getting into a heated debate over how to define the kilogram. Who are these people that are concerned with the standard for a kilogram anyway?

Morgen, Funny remarks! The people you refer to are most likely quantitative chemists. Their work is a bit mysterious to most of us but I bet it has impacted us in more ways than you think. For example in the electronic and computer chip industry where light weights and smaller sizes are popular. MW

Where do elements come from? March 2nd 2010

After reading about this process, it makes me wonder what would have happened if none of this would have happened, or a different star would have exploded. Its interesting to imagine how small we are in this universe in comparison to like where the stars are and etc. How much impact can we really have on the universe if we are so tiny, seeing as something like a star exploding will destroy mankind even though stars exploding is but a natural occurrence. Also, if another star explodes will there be more new elements that come with it?

Morgen, The enormity of space makes one humble does it not? I guess all things are cyclic - I'm not sure how the human race can endure forever. Good questions. 5 stars! MW

Mole Day, March 11th 2010 My favorite past theme would have to be the Rock N’ Mole theme. I especially enjoyed the Mole Beatles drummer. But in my humble sophmole opinion, I feel that the Mole I no laughing matter. The people who use it on a daily basis, like chemists, would probably agree. I’m sure that a lot of the things we use like plastic or rubber have very exact compositions similar to expoxies, and the composition decides its properties. I think its interesting to see that Avagrado, similar to many artists and great minds, wasn’t recognized for his work till years after his death.

Molgen err Morgen, :) Good comment and relation to the mole movie we watched. 5 moletastic stars. MW

Helium Balloons Sulfur Hexaflouride, April 28th 2010

Before reading this, I thought of the fact that Sulfur Hexaflouride has one sulfur atom and six flouride atoms. I was thinking of how helium is an extremely light gas, so Sulfur Hexaflouride is assumably more dense in comparison to the helium. One would therefor understand why a more dense gas would make your voice lower when inhaled. If you were to inhale this gas continuously without inhaling air, you can suffocate to death. This is because you are not inhaling oxygen, you are instead filling your body with non necessary gas.

Morgen, Yes actually it's the CO2 that makes you want to breathe! MW

Motion Detectors, May 10th 2010

We do not have one of those motion detectors- but I'm sure my mother would know if I was out past curfew. I've seen the beam that keeps the garage door from closing on those things, and it has saved my bike on a few occasion. Would this displacement of light particles be similar to the displacement of gas particles, because that is what I was picturing. As the article said the criss crossing beams are not quite reality, it makes sense and it seams that the monitoring infrared radiation would be more practical for security measures. I was actually already aware of the fact that bats used sound waves, but I also was thinking that the snakes must use a similar method. I was apparently wrong.

Morgen, Yes it's hard to get much by Mom! :) Good post! 5 stars! MW