The Tale Of A Wolfram Research Co-founder And His Beloved “Periodic Table Table” [Video]

Out of the annals of history comes this doozy. A man by the name of Theodore Gray is a co-founder of Wolfram Research, best known as the creator of Wolfram Alpha, the two-year-old computational answer engine, which Siri uses for 25 percent of her mobile searches.

Along with Stephen Wolfram, Gray helped develop Mathematica, the computational software used in technical computing that makes Wolfram Alpha, among other things, tick. He is an author, polymath, and, it seems, an amateur Chemist — or should I say, element collector. Yes, as the story goes, about 10 years ago, he built and created his own wooden “periodic table table” (presumably on company time), complete with compartments underneath in which Gray collects samples of the periodic table’s elements. This feat of carpentry, Rams-ian design, and wizardry won him an “Ig Nobel Prize” in Chemistry back in 2002.

Yesterday, a new video, or rather episode of “Bytesize Science,” emerged on YouTube wherein Gray discusses the tale behind his periodic table table. The video has been being passed around, and was tipped to us (thanks to Kirk Zamieroski). We thought it was worth sharing, based on pure awesomeness, the high quality kitsch, and DIY mastery. Luckily no radioactive elements made it into the table — or at least we didn’t spot any lead. No one was hurt in the making of the table, as far as we know, other than perhaps Schrodinger’s cat?

As the video’s uploader points out, Gray has gone on to win less Ig Nobel awards, becoming the 2011 winner of the ACS Grady Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public, and the periodic table table is a “testament” to his love for chemistry — and his compulsive eBay purchasing habits.



We hope you enjoy.

多功能三维微血管网络 (视频简介)

用的原料和常规的复合材料制备方法，合成出同时具有高强度、并且具备多重功能的三维微血管网络。


在生物系统中，血管网络用于承担机体最基本的职能，如：温度调节。热量通过这个网络传递到器官的表面并且快速耗散；营养输送同样也是通过这样一个网络来进行。在生物系统中，这些网络具有轻、强韧并且能够进行传热和传质(energy and mass transport)的特点。不过，制备具有类似性能的人造系统很具挑战性，因为这样的系统往往可以有很高的强度/重量比，但是缺乏天然生物系统所具有的动态功能。从实验角度来看，将血管和具有结构的组件整合在一起也是很困难的，而且现有的用于制备合成血管网络的技术都不适合快速大规模制备。

最近来自美国伊利诺伊大学香槟分校（Universityof Illinois at Urbana- Champaign）和阿贡国家实验室（Argonne National Laboratory）的研究人员报道了一种新方法，仅使用商用的原料和常规的复合材料制备方法，就可以合成出同时具有强度高和多重功能两大特点的三维微血管网络。在这个方法中，首先需要将牺牲纤维（sacrificial fibers）与玻璃纤维一起织成具有一定结构的预制体，然后在预制体中的空隙中填入树脂并且加热固化。牺牲纤维可以在高温下蒸发消失，这样原先填充牺牲纤维的地方会留下空的管道，即可得到三维的类似微血管的网络系统。最后得到的复合材料结构可以是由简单的管道结构组成，也可以是由电脑控制编织技术织成的精密复杂网络结构组成，这些仅仅取决于牺牲纤维的编织和排列方法。通过在这些微管道内填充不同的溶液，作者展示了这个复合机构具有的种种功能，包括热调控，电导率调节，动态机电信号以及化学反应性。这个三维微管网络合成系统具有可靠性以及很好的扩展性，并且可以应用于仿生输运功能（mimic biological transport functions）材料的合成制备。

A. P. Esser-Kahn et al., Adv. Mater. 2011 ; DOI: 10.1002/adma.201100933.

溶液法制备含有共轭聚合电解质的有机发光晶体管 （视频简介）

Seo教授和加州大学圣巴巴拉分校的Gui Bazan教授通过视频向大家介绍他们即将发表在Adv. Func. Mater.上的文章：Solution-Processed Organic Light-Emitting Transistors Incorporating Conjugated Polyelectrolytes。


他们通过引入共轭聚合电解质（Conjugated Polyelectrolytes – CPE）层、对称的具有高工函数的源极和金属漏极电极，提高了p型有机发光晶体管（Organic Light-Emitting Transistors – OLETs）的性能。该晶体管包含3层的结构：空穴传输层、发光层和作为电子注入层的CPE层。CPE层的厚度对器件的性能具有非常重要的影响。他们首次向大家展示了具有优良性能的溶液法制备的蓝光OLETs。这些研究成果既简化了器件的制备工艺，也通过引入CPE层提高了有机光电器件的性能。

Cracking a Hydrocarbon

Liquid paraffin (a mixture of alkanes of chain length C20 and greater) is vaporised and passed over a hot pumice stone catalyst. A gaseous product is obtained which is flammable and which will decolorise bromine water and acidified permanganate ions. The same apparatus and method can be used to dehydrate ethanol.

The Oral History Program at the Chemical Heritage Foundation

Science is as much about scientists as it is about the experiments they perform. But the experience of science and stories of the lives of scientists are often missing from the annals of history. CHF's Oral History Program helps ensure that the history of modern science is preserved in the words, beliefs, thoughts, and actions of its current practitioners—and not just in scientific publications.

The purpose of our oral history program is to develop and maintain—in accordance with the Oral History Association's guidelines—collections of oral history interviews with women and men who hhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifave contributed to the advancement of scientific knowledge in the 20th and 21st centuries. Our program facilitates and participates in all facets of the conduct and recording of our oral histories, from choosing interviewees, creating question lists, and ensuring the proper use of recording equipment, to processing oral history transcripts and establishing relevant, standardized research materials for scholarly use.

To learn more and browse CHF's oral history collection visit http://www.chemheritage.org/oralhistory

It's Elemental! Hydrogen

Discovering Hydrogen is a DNK Global Studios production that takes you on a journey to discover the element that is hydrogen.

RSC org

An education video on Mass Spectrometry using a magnetic sector instrument from the Royal Society of Chemistry. From the Modern Instrumental Techniques for schools and colleges DVD. For more information on the Chemistry for our Future programme please visit http://www.rsc.org/CFOF (C) Royal Society of Chemistry

http://www2.chemistry.msu.edu/faculty/reusch/VirtTxtJml/Spectrpy/MassSpec/masspec1.htm

The Mass Spectrometer
In order to measure the characteristics of individual molecules, a mass spectrometer converts them to ions so that they can be moved about and manipulated by external electric and magnetic fields. The three essential functions of a mass spectrometer, and the associated components, are:

1. A small sample is ionized, usually to cations by loss of an electron. The Ion Source
2. The ions are sorted and separated according to their mass and charge. The Mass Analyzer
3. The separated ions are then measured, and the results displayed on a chart. The Detector


Ultraviolet/Visible Spectroscopy (UV-Vis)




An obvious difference between certain compounds is their color. Thus, quinone is yellow; chlorophyll is green; the 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazone derivatives of aldehydes and ketones range in color from bright yellow to deep red, depending on double bond conjugation; and aspirin is colorless. In this respect the human eye is functioning as a spectrometer analyzing the light reflected from the surface of a solid or passing through a liquid. Although we see sunlight (or white light) as uniform or homogeneous in color, it is actually composed of a broad range of radiation wavelengths in the ultraviolet (UV), visible and infrared (IR) portions of the spectrum. As shown on the right, the component colors of the visible portion can be separated by passing sunlight through a prism, which acts to bend the light in differing degrees according to wavelength. Electromagnetic radiation such as visible light is commonly treated as a wave phenomenon, characterized by a wavelength or frequency. Wavelength is defined on the left below, as the distance between adjacent peaks (or troughs), and may be designated in meters, centimeters or nanometers (10-9 meters). Frequency is the number of wave cycles that travel past a fixed point per unit of time, and is usually given in cycles per second, or hertz (Hz). Visible wavelengths cover a range from approximately 400 to 800 nm. The longest visible wavelength is red and the shortest is violet. Other common colors of the spectrum, in order of decreasing wavelength, may be remembered by the mnemonic: ROY G BIV. The wavelengths of what we perceive as particular colors in the visible portion of the spectrum are displayed and listed below. In horizontal diagrams, such as the one on the bottom left, wavelength will increase on moving from left to right.



Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)




1H NMR Intrepretation Tutorial

Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H NMR) Spectroscopy is a powerful method used in the determination of the structure of unknown organic compounds.

During Chemistry 222 lab you will be using NMR extensively to help assign structures to two unknown organic compounds and this tutorial and exercises will hopefully help you solve your unknown.

To remind you of some things that you probably already know about the basic workings of an NMR and interpreting NMR spectra:

The 1H NMR spectrum of an organic compound provides information concerning:

the # of different types of hydrogens present in the molecule
the relative #'s of the different types of hydrogens
the electronic environment of the different types of hydrogens
the number of hydrogen "neighbor" a hydrogen has
Use the index on the left to choose which topic you want to go.
If you feel pretty good about your knowledge of NMR, you should go directly to the exercises. If not, maybe you could visit the tutorial pages and take the included quizzes to help you remember.

Infra-Red Spectroscopy (IR)

An education video on Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectrometry from the Royal Society of Chemistry. From the Modern Instrumental Techniques for schools and colleges DVD. For more information on the Chemistry for our Future programme please visit http://www.rsc.org/CFOF (C) Royal Society of Chemistry

Lec 1 | MIT 3.091 Introduction to Solid State Chemistry

8 minutes version:




50 minutes version:



Vision Statement, Administrative Details

Introduction

Taxonomy of Chemical Species

Origins of Modern Chemistry

View the complete course at: http://ocw.mit.edu/3-091F04

License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
More information at http://ocw.mit.edu/terms
More courses at http://ocw.mit.edu

ChCemistry Review 101 Online Course - Universal Class

Combination of Metal- and Organocatalysis

Author: Sarah Millar
Published: 09 September 2010
Copyright: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA

Rene Tannert from the group of Andreas Pfaltz, University of Basel, Switzerland, presents his poster entitled "Development of a New Bifunctional Ligand Class for the Combination of Metal- and Organocatalysis" in which he describes the synthesis of ligand and irdium catalyst as proof of concept

ChemistryViews.org is the online portal for anyone interested in chemistry.

ChemistryViews.org is the online portal for anyone interested in chemistry.

This exciting new service is provided by ChemPubSoc Europe and Wiley-VCH. ChemPubSoc Europe is an organization of 16 European chemical societies. Wiley-VCH is the leading society publisher.


ChemViews, the online-magazine of ChemPubSoc Europe, complements the market-leading peer-reviewed journals of ChemPubSoc Europe and Wiley-VCH – for example Chemistry – A European Journal. ChemViews offers you an overview of the best articles from these journals and other information on the chemical societies, as well as news, commentary, opinion and additional feature material from leading authors for the global chemistry community.

Thermodynamics (part 1 & 5)

電化學原理與方法

電化學原理與方法

Fighting deadly parasitic infections with a UV flashlight

Using fluorescent dyes and a simple ultraviolet flashlight, Ellen Beaulieu, a medicinal chemist at SRI International has created a test to detect parasitic infections in human beings. The new test will make it easier to stop the spread of diseases, such as Chagas, Leshmaniasis and African Sleeping Sickness by providing a low cost, low technology diagnostic for medical personnel in developing countries.

自然期刊專訪 林政鞍台灣第一人(影音)

國際頂尖科學期刊「自然」(NATURE)雜誌，首度專訪了台灣青年科學家，這位台灣本土栽培，中原大學生物醫學工程系的林政鞍教授，他研發出可以發出螢光的奈米金材料，受到國際的肯定，他說，他從小立志當一位土產的博士，果真證明了台灣出產的科學研究、也是可以掛保證。這四瓶材料，在紫外燈照射下，各自發出不同顏色的螢光，主要的材料是黃金，將黃金奈米化後產生的發光特性，紅色光是1.5奈米、綠色光是1.1奈米，藍色光最小，只有0.8個奈米，這些獨特的螢光材質，將照亮未來的醫學研究。研發出這些材料的是今年才34歲的年輕科學家林政鞍，林政鞍從小在台灣土生土長，一路上都不是念明星的學校，不過他從小立志要當個本土的博士，如今他的研究成果，備受國際肯定，還在美國的奈米生醫光電學術會議，得到青年研究學者獎，成為國際知名科學期刊自然NATURE首度專訪的台灣科學家。
林政鞍的指導教授說，他的成績一向中等，但活躍於社團，培養了優異的組織能力，對從事研究很有幫助。
雖然林政鞍在念博士班時，才第一次出國，在教授的帶領下到加拿大參加國際會議，之後他參加國科會的德國交流計畫，他說，這些國外交流的經驗讓他開了眼界，雖然是台灣本土博士但也能與國際接軌，林政鞍的表現，可以說是台灣的科學之光。

Aromatic Chemistry

Chemistry, Energy & Climate Change

Chemistry, Energy & Climate Change

View more presentations from Gavin Harper.

Teaching Organic Chemistry with Blogs and Wikis

Teaching Organic Chemistry with Blogs and Wikis

View more presentations from Jean-Claude Bradley.

Chemistry Tutorial 13.2b: Addition And Substitution Reactions