DailyDirt: Chemistry Isn't Just A Class Everyone Hated In High School....
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Chemistry is a fascinating subject, but usually it gets a bad rap. Still, chemistry affects almost every aspect of our lives -- even though most people don't think about it that much. Here are some interesting chemical discoveries that have made it into the news recently. Any reactions?- A rare form of sulfur in the Earth's mantle could explain how gold mineral deposits form and shed more light on early Earth geochemistry. Even though this discovery is about chemistry in the depths of the Earth, it could also change how we describe the composition of the Earth's ancient atmosphere. [url]
- Helium might be the second most abundant element in the universe, but its supply on Earth isn't inexhaustible. And a particular isotope, helium-3, might be getting quite expensive in the near future (until nuclear chemists figure out a cheaper way to make more). [url]
- When hair products say they're formaldehyde-free, someone should double check for formaldehyde precursors. When formulation chemists find ingredient loopholes, watch out! [url]
- An environmental group claims that BPA-free containers can still leach out chemicals with "estrogenic activity" under normal use conditions. But there are a lot of chemicals that might exhibit "estrogenic activity" -- and be perfectly harmless at low concentrations. [url]
- To discover more interesting chemistry-related articles, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]
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Filed Under: bpa, formaldehyde, helium, plastics, sulfur
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as much as I think plastics are dangerous
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I loved chem..
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Making Chemistry Both Fun and Safe.
I understand that at U. Oregon, they are doing what they call "green chemistry," meaning, for example, an experiment in which they use evaporating dry ice in a test tube to pressure-extract the essential oils from fruit peels, that kind of thing. There was an article about it in the alumni magazine. I used to know some people in the chemistry department there. There was one professor who was famous for having explosions during his demonstrations, to the point that it became standing joke. Maybe that had something to do with Oregon's early adoption of Green Chemistry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_chemistry
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Re: Making Chemistry Both Fun and Safe.
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BTW, did you guys know that, Kelvin was a brewer and because he needed to maintain temperatures at exact levels he made some amazing discoveries for what he was honored for eternity by having his name be a measure of temperature? or that airplanes manufacturing in the beginning of the last century was done by furniture manufacturer's?(see Hitler's Stealth Fighter a.k.a. Horten Ho 229 and the Amerika Bomber), or that microscopes came about in the weaving industry because textile manufacturers needed a way to inspect what they produced, I don't think people realize how much transferable abilities there are in their normal lifes.
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*glue not clue
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Chemistry also used to create glue for post signs LoL
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Heh
"Thank you, I'll be here all week."
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My most favorite was making hydrogen, then lighting it on fire. Of course, I also accidentally mixed Silver Nitrate with Nitric Acid, and the teacher evacuated the classroom (since I didn't do it under the fume hood.) Cannot remember exactly what I was trying to do, but I had never made Nitrous Oxide (NO) before that.
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