Monthly Archives: September 2011

Make-or-break chemistry

Posted on September 22, 2011 by

When I told Rachel that I would write something for the favourite chemical reactions #chemcarnival being organized by C&EN, I started thinking about the reactions I did during my career at the bench (undergrad, PhD, and postdoc). My least favourite … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnivals, In the lab | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Drawing conclusions

Posted on September 12, 2011 by

How do you draw your benzene rings? No, not how do they look when you’re finished, but what are the motions you go through when you put pen to paper? And I do mean pen to paper, obviously drawing benzene … Continue reading →

Posted in Fun | Tagged , , , , , , | 19 Comments

The smallest chiral hydrocarbon?

Posted on September 9, 2011 by

Last week I posed the following question: What is the lowest molecular weight hydrocarbon that is chiral? (A couple of restrictions — isotopes don’t count, so no deuterium or 13C, and no conformational stereoisomers, I’m looking for stable enantiomers at … Continue reading →

Posted in Fun, Quiz time! | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Pop quiz #1

Posted on September 2, 2011 by

In my former life I taught organic chemistry — sometimes to classes of 300. A significant fraction of the students were ‘pre-med’ which for those of you who don’t know, roughly translates as, ‘I couldn’t give a crap about chemistry, … Continue reading →

Posted in Fun, Quiz time! | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments