Author Archives: stu

Make-or-break chemistry

Posted on September 22, 2011 by stu

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 stu

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 stu

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 , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Pop quiz #1

Posted on September 2, 2011 by stu

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

Insight story

Posted on August 23, 2011 by stu

And breathe. Closing issues of Nature Chemistry can sometimes be a bit frantic – and the just-published September issue was a little more of a challenge than usual. In addition to the usual types of content (research articles, reviews, research … Continue reading →

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Awed by the rings

Posted on August 14, 2011 by stu

Whether it’s actually true or not, most of us can’t help being charmed by the snake-biting-its-own-tail story of how Kekule figured out the structure of benzene (as well as the associated Ouroboros symbolism). And I’d be willing to bet that … Continue reading →

Posted in In the lab | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The road to hell?

Posted on July 25, 2011 by stu

Well, it is my good intention that this site turns into a blog at some point. With witty and insightful posts as well as regular updates (we can all dream a little can’t we…). Stranger things have happened. I imagine … Continue reading →

Posted in Housekeeping | Tagged | 1 Comment