Welcome my Chemistry website. It is fully free web site. Many people don't understand chemistry, fort this purpose I have added some lessons, articles, images, events, etc. I think You can use this web site as a home tutor. to learn chemistry please scroll down this page or click other pages.Welcome
Welcome my Chemistry website. It is fully free web site. Many people don't understand chemistry, fort this purpose I have added some lessons, articles, images, events, etc. I think You can use this web site as a home tutor. to learn chemistry please scroll down this page or click other pages.
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Chemistry For Greenhouse Gases
Novel metal catalysts may be able to turn greenhouse gases into liquid fuels without producing more carbon waste
If fossil fuels burn completely, the end products are carbon dioxide and water. Recently, the carbon dioxide is a waste product, one that goes into the air — adding to global warming; or the oceans — acidifying them; or underground — with as yet unknown consequences.
But it's not impossible, says Liviu M. Mirica, PhD, assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, to drive things the other way, turning carbon dioxide into fuels such as methanol or hydrocarbons.
Until now, reversing combustion has been a loser's game because making carbon dioxide into a fuel uses up more energy than combustion releases and produces more carbon dioxide than it reclaims.
But Mirica thinks catalysts might change everything. Catalysts might provide alternative reaction pathways with lower energy barriers. The reactants then could be bumped over those lower barriers with carbonless energy sources such as sunlight.
Instead of being a polluting one-way street, hydrocarbon chemistry could circle back on itself and become a clean carbon-neutral cycle, although one that still consumed energy.
In the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Mirica describes a new metal complex that can combine methyl groups (CH3) in the presence of oxygen to produce ethane (CH3-CH3).
This is the second step in the conversation of methane (CH4), the main component of natural gas, into a longer-chain hydrocarbon, or liquid fuel.
Mirica's team is currently tweaking the complex so that it will perform the first step in the methane-to-ethane conversion as well.
Research Points to Brain Chemistry as Influencing Sexuality
Researchers say that by controlling serotonin levels in the brains of laboratory mice, they have been able to influence sexual behavior. But, they warn, it is far too early to conclude that manipulating human brain chemistry can change sexual orientation.
A March 27 LiveScience.com article says that genetically engineered male mice unable to produce their own serotonin exhibited more same-sex courtship behavior, mounting other males and "singing" to them at frequencies too high for the human ear to detect--another part of the mouse mating ritual.
"Serotonin is known to regulate sexual behaviors, such as erection, ejaculation and orgasm, in both mice and men," the article said. "The compound generally dampens sexual activity; for instance, antidepressants that increase the amount of serotonin in the brain sometimes decrease sex drive."
The article said that mice with normal serotonin levels "mounted females first," but that "nearly half" of the mice lacking the brain chemical "clambered onto males before females," and went on to report that when the mice were given injections to enable them to produce serotonin, they then "mounted females more than males." However, if the serotonin levels climbed too high, the result was a reduction in "male-female mounting," the article said.
"An unavoidable question raised by our findings is whether [serotonin] has a role in sexual preference in other animals," the researchers wrote in a paper that was published in science journal Nature on March 24.
Florida State University’s Elaine Hull told LiveScience that the results may have some bearing on the mysteries of human sexuality, but added, "A lot of people are going to be reading more into this than may or may not be warranted." Hull warned that further research was called for, and warned against "jump[ing] to the conclusion that serotonin is the factor that inhibits male-to-male attraction."
Much has been made in the last two decades over the concept of a so-called "gay gene." Though it is unlikely that any single gene will be identified that controls sexual orientation, it is almost certainly the case that genetics plays a role.
Intriguing research carried out in Korea last year shows that there might indeed be a genetic basis for homosexuality, at least in mice--not by the presence of a specific "gay gene," but rather due to the deletion of a gene.
When Korean researchers deleted a gene in laboratory mice relevant to a specific enzyme, fucose mutarotase, what they ended up with were female mice whose sexual behavior focused on other female mice, due to a "masculinization" of their brain structures, reported Neuroscience on July 15, 2010. The female mice shunned sexual contact with male mice, and displayed sexual interest in other females.
"The mutant female mouse underwent a slightly altered developmental program in the brain to resemble the male brain in terms of sexual preference," stated Professor Chankyu Park. Professor Park led the research, which took place at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejon, South Korea, reported U.K. newspaper The Daily Telegraph on July 8, 2010.
Similar brain structure differences have been theorized to account for gay and lesbian humans. Scientists suspect that in utero hormone levels play a role in the development of human fetuses that later develop into gay or lesbian adults. Several studies have confirmed a slight, but definite, increase in the incidence of homosexuality in children whose mothers have already given birth to male offspring.
Though changing the hormone balance in the human brain in the same way would probably not lead to a "masculinization" of human neural pathways--the specific hormones that appear to govern human brains and related sexuality are different than in mice--it is possible that an analogous genetic change could have a similar impact of human sexuality. However, a genetically based "cure" (or prevention) for gay humans also seems questionable, since human sexuality could be the result of a confluence of factors.
It is an open question how society might be affected by the eventual discovery of a "gay gene," or even a number of genes interacting in a way that leads to gays and lesbians, rather than heterosexuals, developing. Gay volunteers for a study looking at genetic factors for homosexuality expressed a hope that if a scientific basis in genetics were discovered for homosexuality, the claim--prevalent among religious conservatives--that gays "choose" their sexual orientation would be put to rest once and for all. Were that to be the case, social and legal restrictions on gay equality--such as marriage--might disappear.
However, it is as unlikely that society will change on a dime as it is that a single gene will be discovered that accounts for all or most cases of human homosexuality. An Associated Press Article from Oct. 28. 2007, that reported on the study also carried a quote from Exodus International leader Alan Chambers, who claims to be a former gay man himself. Chambers declared that no matter what science proves about the innate origins of homosexuality, genetics "will never be something that forces people to behave in a certain way." Added Chambers, "We all have the freedom to choose."
The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association’s Joel Ginsberg told the Associated Press that one concern among GLBTs is that any such discovery of a definitive genetic basis for homosexuality might lead to demands for pre-natal testing to screen out--and possibly terminate--fetuses determined likely to grown into gays and lesbians.
Mad Molecule Science Store focuses on learning
Tomorrow's scientists have just been given a place to hang out today.
The Mad Molecule Science Store, which opened in the Rancho Del Mar shopping center in Aptos about six weeks ago, is a haven for science products and experiments, a place where kids can find invention kits, chemistry lights, build-your-own-volcanoes and a brew-your-own-root beer set, plus much more.
There is a small theater in the back of the store, playing endless loops of "Mr. Wizard" and "Bill Nye the Science Guy," replete with popcorn and coffee for parents. There are tables in the center of the store with open experiments, ready to be tinkered with.
"It's something that starts young," she said. "I honestly feel that tomorrow's scientists are going to do everything that today's world needs. They're going to cure the incurable diseases. They're going to save our planet. And they're going to do it by learning to love science."
The Mad Molecule recently gained its 501c3 nonprofit status, which has given Tyler the unique opportunity -- in the middle of a retail shopping center, in the midst of an economic downturn -- to focus on teaching and educational opportunities, and worry less about sales.
"I decided to try to create a store where you would just come and play, and there would be no pressure to buy anything," she said. "For me it's about enjoying being in the store with the kids."
Tyler, a La Selva Beach resident who is married to a scientist, plans on hosting classes from Santa Cruz County schools, throwing science-themed birthday parties and engaging children in science classes.
The overall goal of the shop is to promote the idea that science is fun, Tyler said. She interviewed hundreds of children at her tutoring center to figure out what they'd like to see in the store. A lot of the answers involved explosions.
"It's not hard to learn, and it's not intimidating," Tyler said. "This is something that girls can enjoy equally as well as boys. You can't do these experiments incorrectly."
Store manager Josh Morris said that the shop is doing well so far.
"It's a really fun experience for the kids and the staff," Morris said. "At this point we're trying to make sure that we get new science stuff in here every week."
Tracie Gomez, a Watsonville resident, said that the store is perfect for children. Gomez recently spent time in the store with her daughter.
"It's really nice having something fun and different nearby," Gomez said. "This store is all about the children, and I can't wait to get my daughter's classroom involved."
Kiana Shekarchi, age 7, agreed with her mother.
"My favorite subject in school is science," she said. "That's because of the store. It's really fun."
Tyler, who is looking to network with local teachers as well as to find a volunteer grant writer, said that she has realized a dream.
"When I see the fun that kids are having in that store, it just makes me feel like dancing," she saidOcean chemistry changing at "unprecedented rate"
Carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming are also turning the oceans more acidic at the fastest pace in hundreds of thousands of years, the National Research Council reported on Thursday.
"The chemistry of the ocean is changing at an unprecedented rate and magnitude due to anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions," the council said. "The rate of change exceeds any known to have occurred for at least the past hundreds of thousands of years."
Ocean acidification eats away at coral reefs, interferes with some fish species' ability to find their homes and can hurt commercial shellfish like mussels and oysters and keep them from forming their protective shells.
Corrosion happens when carbon dioxide is stored in the oceans and reacts with sea water to form carbonic acid. Unless carbon dioxide emissions are curbed, oceans will grow more acidic, the report said.
Oceans absorb about one-third of all human-generated carbon dioxide emissions, including those from burning fossil fuels, cement production and deforestation, the report said.
The increase in acidity is 0.1 points on the 14-point pH scale, which means this indicator has changed more since the start of the Industrial Revolution than at any time in the last 800,000 years, according to the report.
The council's report recommended setting up an observing network to monitor the oceans over the long term.
"A global network of robust and sustained chemical and biological observations will be necessary to establish a baseline and to detect and predict changes attributable to acidification," the report said.
ACID OCEANS AND 'AVATAR'
Scientists have been studying this growing phenomenon for years, but ocean acidification is generally a low priority at international and U.S. discussions of climate change.
A new compromise U.S. Senate bill targeting carbon dioxide emissions is expected to be unveiled on April 26.
Ocean acidification was center stage at a congressional hearing on Thursday, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in the United States.
"This increase in (ocean) acidity threatens to decimate entire species, including those that are at the foundation of the marine food chain," Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey told a Commerce Committee panel. "If that occurs, the consequences are devastating."
Lautenberg said that in New Jersey, Atlantic coast businesses generate $50 billion a year and account for one of every six jobs in the state.
Sigourney Weaver, a star of the environmental-themed film "Avatar" and narrator of the documentary "Acid Test" about ocean acidification, testified about its dangers. She said people seem more aware of the problem now than they did six months ago.
"I think that the science is so indisputable and easy to understand and ... we've already run out of time to discuss this," Weaver said by telephone after her testimony. "Now we have to take action."
'Cold Fusion' Rebirth? New Evidence For Existence Of Controversial Energy Source
Researchers are reporting compelling new scientific evidence for the existence of low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR), the process once called "cold fusion" that may promise a new source of energy. One group of scientists, for instance, describes what it terms the first clear visual evidence that LENR devices can produce neutrons, subatomic particles that scientists view as tell-tale signs that nuclear reactions are occurring.
Low-energy nuclear reactions could potentially provide 21st Century society a limitless and environmentally-clean energy source for generating electricity, researchers says. The report, which injects new life into this controversial field, will be presented March 23 in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the American Chemical Society's 237th National Meeting.*
"Our finding is very significant," says study co-author and analytical chemist Pamela Mosier-Boss, Ph.D., of the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) in San Diego, Calif. "To our knowledge; this is the first scientific report of the production of highly energetic neutrons from an LENR device."
The first report on "cold fusion," presented in 1989 by Martin Fleishmann and Stanley Pons, was a global scientific sensation. Fusion is the energy source of the sun and the stars. Scientists had been striving for years to tap that power on Earth to produce electricity from an abundant fuel called deuterium that can be extracted from seawater. Everyone thought that it would require a sophisticated new genre of nuclear reactors able to withstand temperatures of tens of millions of degrees Fahrenheit.
Pons and Fleishmann, however, claimed achieving nuclear fusion at comparatively "cold" room temperatures — in a simple tabletop laboratory device termed an electrolytic cell.
But other scientists could not reproduce their results, and the whole field of research declined. A stalwart cadre of scientists persisted, however, seeking solid evidence that nuclear reactions can occur at low temperatures. One of their problems involved extreme difficulty in using conventional electronic instruments to detect the small number of neutrons produced in the process, researchers say.
In the new study, Mosier-Boss and colleagues inserted an electrode composed of nickel or gold wire into a solution of palladium chloride mixed with deuterium or "heavy water" in a process called co-deposition. A single atom of deuterium contains one neutron and one proton in its nucleus.
Researchers passed electric current through the solution, causing a reaction within seconds. The scientists then used a special plastic, CR-39, to capture and track any high-energy particles that may have been emitted during reactions, including any neutrons emitted during the fusion of deuterium atoms.
At the end of the experiment, they examined the plastic with a microscope and discovered patterns of "triple tracks," tiny-clusters of three adjacent pits that appear to split apart from a single point. The researchers say that the track marks were made by subatomic particles released when neutrons smashed into the plastic. Importantly, Mosier-Boss and colleagues believe that the neutrons originated in nuclear reactions, perhaps from the combining or fusing deuterium nuclei.
"People have always asked 'Where's the neutrons?'" Mosier-Boss says. "If you have fusion going on, then you have to have neutrons. We now have evidence that there are neutrons present in these LENR reactions."
They cited other evidence for nuclear reactions including X-rays, tritium (another form of hydrogen), and excess heat. Meanwhile, Mosier-Boss and colleagues are continuing to explore the phenomenon to get a better understanding of exactly how LENR works, which is key to being able to control it for practical purposes.
Mosier-Boss points out that the field currently gets very little funding and, despite its promise, researchers can't predict when, or if, LENR may emerge from the lab with practical applications. The U.S. Department of the Navy and JWK International Corporation in Annandale, Va., funded the study.
*It is among 30 papers on the topic that will be presented during a four-day symposium, "New Energy Technology," March 22-25, in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the first description of cold fusion.
'Dry Water' Could Make a Big Splash Commercially, Help Fight Global Warming
An unusual substance known as "dry water," which resembles powdered sugar, could provide a new way to absorb and store carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, scientists reported at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.
The powder shows bright promise for a number of other uses, they said. It may, for instance, be a greener, more energy-efficient way of jumpstarting the chemical reactions used to make hundreds of consumer products. Dry water also could provide a safer way to store and transport potentially harmful industrial materials.
"There's nothing else quite like it," said Ben Carter, Ph.D., researcher for study leader Professor Andrew Cooper. "Hopefully, we may see 'dry water' making waves in the future."
Carter explained that the substance became known as "dry water" because it consists of 95 percent water and yet is a dry powder. Each powder particle contains a water droplet surrounded by modified silica, the stuff that makes up ordinary beach sand. The silica coating prevents the water droplets from combining and turning back into a liquid. The result is a fine powder that can slurp up gases, which chemically combine with the water molecules to form what chemists term a hydrate.
Dry water was discovered in 1968 and got attention for its potential use in cosmetics. Scientists at the University of Hull, U.K. rediscovered it in 2006 in order to study its structure, and Cooper's group at the University of Liverpool has since expanded its range of potential applications.
One of the most recent involves using dry water as a storage material for gases, including carbon dioxide. In laboratory-scale research, Cooper and co-workers found that dry water absorbed over three times as much carbon dioxide as ordinary, uncombined water and silica in the same space of time. This ability to absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide gas as a hydrate could make it useful in helping to reduce global warming, the scientists suggested.
Cooper and colleagues demonstrated in previous studies that dry water is also useful for storing methane, a component of natural gas, and may help expand its use as a future energy source. In particular, they hope that engineers can use the powder to collect and transport stranded deposits of natural gas. This also exists on the ocean floor in the form of gas hydrates, a form of frozen methane also known as the "ice that burns." The powder could also provide a safer, more convenient way to store methane fuel for use in vehicles powered by natural gas. "A great deal of work remains to be done before we could reach that stage," Carter added.
In another potential new application, the scientists also showed that dry water is a promising means to speed up catalyzed reactions between hydrogen gas and maleic acid to produce succinic acid, a feedstock or raw material widely used to make drugs, food ingredients, and other consumer products. Manufacturers usually have to stir these substances together to get them to react. By developing dry water particles that contain maleic acid, Cooper and colleagues showed that they could speed up the acid's reaction with hydrogen without any stirring, resulting in a greener, more energy-efficient process.
"If you can remove the need to stir your reactions, then potentially you're making considerable energy savings," Carter said.
Prof. Cooper's team describes an additional new application in which dry water technology shows promise for storing liquids, particularly emulsions. Emulsions are mixtures of two or more unblendable liquids, such as the oil and water mixture in mayonnaise. The scientists showed that they could transform a simple emulsion into a dry powder that is similar to dry water. The resulting powder could make it safer and easier for manufacturers to store and transport potentially harmful liquids.
Carter noted that he and his colleagues are seeking commercial or academic collaboration to further develop the dry water technology. The U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Center for Materials Discovery provided funding and technical support for this study.
Spain: Student plotted attack on anti-Pope crowd
Why Does Ice Float?
Answer: A substance floats if it is less dense, or has less mass per unit volume, than other components in a mixture. For example, if you toss a handful of rocks into a bucket of water, the rocks, which are dense compared to the water, will sink. The water, which is less dense than the rocks, will float. Basically, the rocks push the water out of the way, or displace it. For an object to be able to float, it has to displace a weight of fluid equal to its own weight.
Water reaches its maximum density at 4°C (40°F). As it cools further and freezes into ice, it actually becomes less dense. On the other hand, most substances are most dense in their solid (frozen) state than in their liquid state. Water is different because of hydrogen bonding. A water molecule is made from one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms, strongly joined to each other with covalent bonds. Water molecules are also attracted to each other by weaker chemical bonds (hydrogen bonds) between the positively-charged hydrogen atoms and the negatively-charged oxygen atoms of neighboring water molecules. As water cools below 4°C, the hydrogen bonds adjust to hold the negatively charged oxygen atoms apart. This produces a crystal lattice, which is commonly known as 'ice'.
Ice floats because it is about 9% less dense than liquid water. In other words, ice takes up about 9% more space than water, so a liter of ice weighs less than a liter water. The heavier water displaces the lighter ice, so ice floats to the top. One consequence of this is that lakes and rivers freeze from top to bottom, allowing fish to survive even when the surface of a lake has frozen over. If ice sank, the water would be displaced to the top and exposed to the colder temperature, forcing rivers and lakes to fill with ice and freeze solid
New chemical elements synthesized by Russian team recognized
Physicists at Russia's Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) have been officially credited with synthesizing the heaviest elements yet to be included in the periodic table.
It took the Joint Working Party on Discovery of Elements of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) three years to determine that the team at the institute in Dubna near Moscow had, in cooperation with scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, successfully synthesized the superheavy chemical elements with atomic numbers 114 and 116.
Element 114 was first synthesized in December 1998 by bombarding plutonium nuclei with calcium nuclei, which have 94 and 20 protons respectively. Element 116 was synthesized in July 2000 by bombarding the curium nuclei, which have 96 protons, with calcium nuclei.
Yury Oganessian, the leader of the Russian team, told RIA Novosti that the scientists now had to submit names of the elements for approval by IUPAC.
"The commission looks at whether the name is generally acceptable in accordance with the traditions of naming - in honor of the planets, after the place where the discovery was made, or in honor of great scientists," he said.
He would not reveal what the Russian physicists might propose, but did not rule out that one of the elements could be named in honor of the Soviet physicist Georgi Flerov, who led the institute's synthesis of element 105 in 1968. It is now known as Dubnium, after the town where JINR is based.
The institute's deputy director said in March that element 114 would be named for Flerov, and the name for element 116 would be derived from Muscovy, in honor of the Moscow region.
JINR intends to soon begin experiments on the synthesis of element 119 as the search continues for a so-called "island of stability" in the sequence of superheavy elements where scientists theorize that they will find atoms that live for decades or even longer.
Chemical elements heavier than uranium, number 92 in the periodic table, do not occur naturally on Earth. The two new elements decay in less than a second - element 116 lasting only milliseconds before decaying into element 114, which lasts for about half a second before becoming copernicium, which itself only officially joined the periodic table in 2009.
MOSCOW, June 3 (RIA Novosti)
Chemistry student killed by exploding chewing gum
KIEV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian chemistry student has been killed by exploding bubble gum that tore off half of his face, police said Thursday.
Vladimir Likhonos, a student at a regional branch of the Kyiv Polytechnical Institute, is thought to have accidentally dipped his chewing gum into explosives he was using for his studies, police spokeswoman Elvira Biganova told The Associated Press. She said the 25-year-old mistook the powder for citric acid, which he often added to prolong the gum's taste.
Likhonos, from the town of Konotop, in northeast Ukrainian, blew off his entire jaw and most of the lower part of his face in Saturday's accident. Medical workers who arrived on the scene attempted to treat his injuries but were unable to save him.
"Even some of our seasoned officers, who have seen a thing or two, even they were pretty badly shaken up by what they found," Biganova said.
On the table where Likhonos had been working police found about 3.5 ounces (100 grams) of the suspected explosive -- a powder that resembles citric acid but has yet to be identified, she said.
"Anybody could have mixed them up," Biganova said.
A bomb squad was dispatched to determine the nature of the substance, which was deemed too volatile to transport, Biganova said.
Cops: Man tried to split atoms at home
Updated: Thursday, 04 Aug 2011, 8:10 AM EDT
Published : Thursday, 04 Aug 2011, 8:10 AM EDT
Published : Thursday, 04 Aug 2011, 8:10 AM EDT
STOCKHOLM (AP) — A Swedish man who was arrested after trying to split atoms in his kitchen said Wednesday he was only doing it as a hobby.
Richard Handl told The Associated Press that he had the radioactive elements radium, americium and uranium in his apartment in southern Sweden when police showed up and arrested him on charges of unauthorized possession of nuclear material.
The 31-year-old Handl said he had tried for months to set up a nuclear reactor at home and kept a blog about his experiments, describing how he created a small meltdown on his stove.
Only later did he realize it might not be legal and sent a question to Sweden's Radiation Authority, which answered by sending the police.
"I have always been interested in physics and chemistry," Handl said, adding he just wanted to "see if it's possible to split atoms at home."
The police raid took place in late July, but police have refused to comment. If convicted, Handl could face fines or up to two years in prison.
Although he says police didn't detect dangerous levels of radiation in his apartment, he now acknowledges the project wasn't such a good idea.
"From now on, I will stick to the theory," he said.
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