Chemistry

What Was I Thinking? Part 4: Hamsterlamp

As an organic chemist, my thoughts went immediately to the idea of somehow sticking them together to make giant molecular models. It occurred to me that if you removed the access cover from one sphere you could fit the resulting opening over the surface of another sphere, glue them together, and have something that looked a lot like a space-filling model of, say, methane. So I bought five of the things–four small “hydrogens” and one large “carbon”–and got in the car to go home.

Continue Reading February 24th, 2010 Sean Michael Ragan4

Nuclear reactor test footage

But this video of Penn State’s Breazeale nuclear reactor “pulsing” is the first time I’ve ever seen any moving pictures of the phenomenon, which are somehow way more impressive. And since this is a phenomenon few of us will ever have an opportunity to witness first-hand, the 15 seconds it takes to watch the video definitely count as time well spent in my book. Note how the blue glow persists for some time after the reactor itself has been shut off.

Continue Reading February 23rd, 2010 Sean Michael Ragan6

Time lapse video of ‘tin pest’ metallic phase change

Really amazing. What’s going on in this cool time-lapse video from Italian YouTuber wwwperiodictableru isn’t a chemical reaction per se–it’s not oxidation or some other type of traditional corrosion. Turns out metallic or “white” tin spontaneously changes its so-called alpha crystal structure at temperatures below XX to the crumbly beta structure of “gray” tin. It’s the same stuff before and after–just different allotropes of the same element. The transformation, known as “tin pest” (Wikipedia), catalyzes itself–once it starts it just gets faster and faster.

Continue Reading February 23rd, 2010 Sean Michael Ragan6

Thermal lance is every bit as awesome as it sounds

This is a video, from YouTuber OliKills, showing two guys using a thermal lance (Wikipedia), also called a “thermic lance” or “burning bar,” to cut through a lump of concrete. It really gets going about 20 seconds in, and by the end of the video a white-hot stream of molten concrete “lava” is clearly visible running across the pavement.

Continue Reading February 22nd, 2010August 31st, 2015 Sean Michael Ragan4

Microfluidics with common thread

Along the same lines, a reader recently pointed me to this paper in the ACS journal Applied Materials & Interfaces that proposes using capillary action along ordinary cotton thread as a cheap and easy way to prototype, and perhaps even manufacture, microfluidic devices. Although the scale of even fine thread is quite a bit larger than normal for microfluidic research, the accessibility of the technique is pretty intriguing. Among other things, Wei Shen and co-workers at Australia’s Monash University demonstrate that fluids flowing along two thread “channels” can be effectively mixed simply by twisting the threads together, and that, when stitched onto an impermeable substrate, two channels can cross each other, without mixing, by the simple expedient of passing one thread over the substrate and one thread under it at the intersection.

Continue Reading February 21st, 2010 Sean Michael Ragan

Atomic emission spectrum scarf

ur very own inimitable Becky Stern makes and sells these beautiful custom scarves featuring the atomic emission spectrum of your favorite element. Shown above is the “silicon” version (as modeled by AdaFruit’s likewise inimitable Limor Fried) but you can choose whichever element/spectrum you like. And here’s a handy-dandy Java applet from The University of Oregon that makes it easy to browse for your selection. Minimalists may prefer hydrogen or helium, but for my money it’s hard to pass up the rainbow-y goodness of, say, iron or tantalum. Want!

Continue Reading February 14th, 2010 Sean Michael Ragan4