week 12, animations

Well, I'm frustrated with computers -- I think that everything will be easy if I do my chem homework away from home with high speed internet, but here I am in the school library and the animations need a software update to play, and neither the librarian nor I have the password or whatever it takes to update something. Boo Hoo! I want to see the animations!

week 12, definitions of the chemistry of life

I read through quite a few of these links and was liking how my increased understanding of what biochemistry is was giving me a nice feeling of integration. In the past I've thought of chemistry as mildly interesting, in that you can make things that explode or make pretty colors, or grow crystals, etc., but not something that I could get really personally involved in. But these links on biochemistry got me really interested, because of my dawning awareness that this is part of healing work. Looking at living systems at the molecular level, researching diseases and trying to find cures, looking at the biochemistry of viruses, describing the molecular basis of living systems... I was thinking "OOOOH, I GET it -- now I understand why we have to study Chemistry!!!" I'm feeling like chemistry just became part of me, not this thing that some other people, who are not like me, do. Then I got to the link that says "Biochemistry is the study of molecules (e.g. proteins) in the absence of the rest of the organism." and I thought "OOOOOH, THAT's why I wasn't previously interested in chemistry!" This is how I've always seen it -- very reductionistic, just seeing the protein, and not the organism as a whole. If I look at the protein, or whatever molecule, as part of a living being, and I'm looking into it in order to try to find a way to heal this living being of a disease, then I'm way interested! And the first several links were encouraging to me, that many biochemists are looking at their work that way. I hope that biochemists are able to keep sight on the big picture, and not just muck around with their tiny little pieces of someone. This reminds me of a book I read as a kid, by Madeleine L'Engle, where the characters were somehow inside the mitochondria of their friend, who was sick, trying to heal him. That's how I'd like to envision a biochemist working on a piece of DNA or enzyme.

week 9-10, general chemistry: balancing equations tutorial

I couldn't get this link to work, it just loaded a blank space where the tutorial should have been. : ( Gosh, high speed doesn't solve everything, huh?

week 9-10, chembalancer

This was fun, I like the interactive sites. I did some from the "learning" section and some from the "review" section, and then I did the first few of the brain boggler questions and got them right! Yay! And I liked the little bits of information about the elements and molecules in the equations, for example it was nice to learn that acid rain has decreased due to better industrial pollution controls. I couldn't get the element quiz to work though -- no questions came up.

week 9-10 semiconductor of the week

Wow, I am fascinated to learn about silicon. And really impressed with how the course material is all coming together, building on the previous weeks! Learning about electron orbitals is really coming in handy to understand how a semi-conductor works. So, Silicon has 4 electrons in it's outer orbital, allowing them to form nice crystals -- 4 electrons form perfect covalent bonds with 4 neighboring atoms, creating a lattice. so there are no free electrons to conduct electrical current, making a silicon crystal an insulator rather than a conductor. Metals tend to be good conductors of electricity because they have free electrons moving easily between atoms and electricity involves the flow of electrons. Silicon crystals look metallic but they aren't. BUT then we can "dope" the silicon -- mix in a small amount of an impurity. In N-type doping they mix in an element with 5 outer electrons so that one has nothing to bond with and moves around -- thus conducting electricity, and in P-type doping they mix in an element with 3 outer electrons so there are holes in the silicon lattice, and the holes conduct electricity. And then the real fun begins when you put some N-type lattice together with some P-type lattice. So, silicon can be an insulator and a conductor -- thus the name semi-conductor. I'm getting an appreciation for science in that things actually make sense. Like N-type doping is called that because of the Negative charge and P-type for the Positive charge, and semi-conductors are just what the name implies, they sort of conduct and sort of don't. How refreshing in an often confusing world.

This was also pretty cool to me because I just finished reading a science fiction book where there were these groups of psychic people who would join minds in a circle to do stronger psychic work, and they used these lattices to amplify the power of their minds, and the lattices sound similar to silicon lattices. Knowing something about science enhances my enjoyment of science fiction, and reading science fiction enhances my enjoyment of science!

week 8--color of minerals/luminescence

Interesting that almost any element can be responsible for any color -- I guess we see this in the spectra of gas discharges link too -- all the elements are making a full spectrum. (I guess that's the point of that link -- I admit I was a little puzzled as to what exactly it was demonstrating, but what I got from it was that all these elements were making a full spectrum.) I was also interested to know that Manganese is what gives the pink to rhodochrosite, one of my favorite stones. I feel like chemistry is really a good thing for all those questions that little kids ask, like why is the sky blue, why is that stone pink -- there should be chemistry classses in pre-school, that's when we're all really interested in that stuff, before someone who doesn't know the answer tells us it's just that way and we accept that and lose our curiosity.

I really liked the link on luminescence, as I love glowey things. So now I know that the glow sticks that I weave into my braids at Burning Man are glowing due to chemiluminescence -- the energy for the light is supplied by chemical reactions. I am curious about what the chemical reaction is though. When I was a kid I used to think those glow sticks must be radioactive or something -- they just seemed unhealthy! Now I know they are unhealthy for the environment, as they only last one night and then get thrown out, so I'm trying to get more battery powered glowey things. I wonder if I could make my own glowsticks in my kitchen, along with bombs and fuel cells?? I'd really like to figure out how to do bioluminescence, like fireflies. That would be much more environmentally friendly. The link didn't mention glow in the dark algae -- I love that. I remember walking with someone on a beach at night near the waterline, and our footsteps glowed, as we were uncovering the phosphorescent algae in the sand.

I get it that incandescent lights are really ineffecient, but seeing as the light of the sun is incandescent, it makes sense that we like that kind of light better than others, like fluorescents. It would be nice if someone would figure out a light that is energy efficient but also is similar to sunlight.

I was also struck to discover that TV, neon and lightening are all the same kind of light -- electroluminescence. Quite a feeling difference between them!

I'm terribly disappointed that the movies on color elements in a flame didn't play for me. Here I am paying for high speed internet and they didn't play! : ( The pictures were nice, but I really wanted to see the movies. I assume they look a bit like fireworks....

week 8- colors of foods in my kitchen

Lately I've been obsessed with orange and yellow food, no doubt due to my overworked spleen. So, there are orange yams and yellow squash, also lots of green, with kale and chard. Oh, and more orange from carrots. In my freezer I have blackberries, for the purple end of the spectrum, and I've got tomatoe sauce for the other end of the rainbow. Then there's lots of white -- rice, oats, quinoa, amaranth, pasta. Oh -- yet more orange -- oranges, and some more red from apples. Orange, green and white are definitely the predominant colors.