DailyDirt: Allotropes Of Carbon

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Most people are familiar with graphite and diamonds, but elemental carbon comes in plenty of other forms. Buckyballs weren't discovered until 1985, but since then, all kinds of fullerene structures and carbon nanotubes have been made. And maybe we haven't found all the different kinds of carbon yet. Here are just a few links on some of them.

• Carbon nanofoam can exhibit magnetic properties temporarily. This form of carbon is a spongy solid, and it was first made in a lab in 2004 using pulsed lasers that create a web of carbon tubes at temperatures exceeding 10,000°C. [url]
• A linear form of carbon (called carbyne or linear acetylenic carbon) could be strangely strong, exotic material. However, it's not easy to come by carbyne chains that are more than a few dozen atoms long (so far). [url]
• There's a patented process for making chaoite -- the naturally-occurring mineral form of carbon found near meteorite impacts. The exact structure of chaoite is not well known, but the patent office still granted a patent for making the stuff. [url]

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Filed Under: allotrope, buckyball, carbon, carbyne, chaoite, chemistry, diamond, fullerenes, linear acetylenic carbon, materials, nanofoam, science

DailyDirt: The Science Behind Flavors

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Part of the enjoyment of eating is indulging in the sensory experience of food. Whether we like a food depends on the texture, consistency, temperature (both physical and perceived, as in cool mints or hot peppers), smell, taste, and even its appearance. Flavor is primarily determined by our sense of taste and smell, and is often a main deciding factor in whether we like a food. Here are just a few links related to the chemistry of flavors.

• People may be shocked to learn that MSG, the infamous food additive that's supposedly responsible for "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome," is the essence of umami, the now trendy "savory" taste. The flavor-enhancing additive MSG, or monosodium glutamate, resulted from an attempt to mass produce the key chemical compound responsible for that delicious meaty flavor in foods. In case you're wondering how much glutamate might be found in an original Umami Burger from Adam Fleischman's chain of umami restaurants, the answer is almost 2.2 grams. [url]
• Why do people torture themselves by eating tongue-scorching chili peppers? Probably because the capsaicin in the peppers triggers the release of endorphins, which not only help to relieve the burning pain, but also give people a natural high. Check out this video about the chemistry of Sriracha sauce, which also includes an interesting bit on how the Scoville scale was established to measure how spicy a pepper is. [url]
• Here's a blast from the past: an article about the chemistry of flavor as it was understood in the 1960s. This was a time when the now widely used Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) technique was heralded as a "major breakthrough in instrumental analysis in aroma chemistry." The article also includes photos of old school chemical analysis equipment, as well as ads from that era for chemicals and equipment, from Morton Purex Salt to stainless steel tanks. [url]

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Filed Under: capsaicin, chemistry, chinese restaurant syndrome, flavor, food, gc-ms, monosodium glutamate, msg, senses, smell, sriracha, taste

DailyDirt: Fuels From Thin Air

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Carbon dioxide has been the focus of a lot of discussions on global climate change and energy policy. Certainly, there are other greenhouse gases, but CO2 is the major by-product of our fossil-fueled economy that people have been massively pumping into the air at an extraordinary rate. Over millennia, biology has already come up with an answer to this problem -- in nature, carbon dioxide is part of a carbon cycle that is recycled and/or sequestered into wood or sugars or other forms of chemical storage. Perhaps some clever chemists/scientists can come up with another kind of photosynthesis to save us from dangerously high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? Check out some of these research projects that could turn CO2 into fuels.

• A new catalytic system using ionic liquids and carbon nanofibers has been shown to turn carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide, which is could be used to create syngas and other fuels. The real breakthrough here is the discovery of a relatively new class of metal-free catalysis using doped carbon nanofibers. [url]
• The combustion of methanol to CO2 and water is a well-known reaction, but finding catalysts that promote the reverse reaction (CO2 to methanol) is what would be really useful. A novel, very efficient, single-step catalytic system to convert CO2 to methanol has been devised, but the problem is that it uses a borane compound that is actually more expensive to make than methanol (so the process isn't very economical). [url]
• Carbon Recycling International is a company that has a commercially viable process to turn waste CO2 into methanol. The trick is that the company has access to the waste CO2 from a geothermal power plant next to a volcano in Iceland -- giving it access to a relatively cheap source of CO2 and energy. The company brands its methanol as Vulcanol -- to remind buyers that its product comes from a natural volcano source. [url]

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Filed Under: borane, carbon dioxide, catalysts, chemistry, climate change, energy, fuel, geothermal power, ghg, iceland, ionic liquids, methanol, nanofibers, vulcanol
Companies: carbon recycling international

DailyDirt: How To Really Cook

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Chemistry labs are usually pictured as a clean room environment with an array of colorful liquids sitting in weird glass containers -- or sometimes as an RV racing through a desert with some crazy guy in a gas mask and dead drug dealers sliding around on the floor (a la Breaking Bad). But home kitchens are also a type of chemistry lab, and food science is getting more advanced as people with entirely too much free time (ahem, Nathan Myhrvold...) experiment with novel cooking techniques. Here are just a few links for budding home master chefs.

• If you want to grill a nice steak at home, don't try to mimic how your favorite steakhouse does it. Steakhouses optimize for speed, but at home, you can take your time and get it just the way you like it. [url]
• Some fancy cooking techniques have been called "molecular gastronomy" to describe the intersection of food science and chemistry/physics. The definition of this field of study hasn't quite been nailed down, but some chefs are starting to publish papers in scientific journals. [url]
• Harvard researchers and professional chefs are teaching an online course for haute cuisine techniques. This introductory course has no pre-requisites, and starts Oct 8th.... [url]

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Filed Under: chefs, chemistry, cooking, edx, food, haute cuisine, molecular gastronomy, science, steak

DailyDirt: Scientists, You Too Can Be Rich And Famous!

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Science isn't glamorous. It says a lot when kids these days are more familiar with Mark Zuckerberg than they are with Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Louis Pasteur, Thomas Edison, or Isaac Newton. So, what better way to inspire and encourage scientists than to recognize and reward them for their innovative work with huge cash prizes? Here are just a few examples of some lucrative science prizes that are being awarded to exceptional researchers.

• The $3 million Fundamental Physics Prize recognizes major achievements in fundamental physics. The prize is given out by The Milner Foundation, which was established by tech investor Yuri Milner. Compare that to the Nobel Prize in Physics which awards winners "only" $1.2 million. [url]
• The Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists gives out $250,000 in unrestricted funds to exceptional young scientists under the age of 42. Each year, one winner is selected in each of three fields: Physical Sciences and Engineering, Chemistry, and Life Sciences. [url]
• The X Prize Foundation has already handed out $10 million to the first team to successfully launch a reusable manned craft into space twice in two weeks. That honor went to Scaled Composites, the company behind SpaceShipOne. Curious about the guy behind the X Prize? Check out this short film called "The Sky is NOT the Limit" about Peter Diamandis, the founder of the X Prize Foundation. [url]
• The Michelson Prize in Reproductive Biology is awarding $25 million to the first researcher to invent a cheap, single-dose method for sterilizing dogs and cats. This will hopefully eliminate the need for millions of euthanasia procedures performed each year on animals. Twenty-two research teams are already working to solve the problem. [url]

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Filed Under: awards, biology, chemistry, innovation, life sciences, physics, prizes, research, science, technology, xprize
Companies: scaled composites

DailyDirt: Conducting Electricity In Unlikely Ways

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Human history was once defined by advances in materials, going from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age to the Age of Steel. Material science could still revolutionize society, but the advances would have to be much more impressive -- like creating a room-temperature superconductor (or transparent aluminum). Here are just a few curious developments in the field of material science.

• The ability to manufacture lots of long carbon nanotubes (CNTs) could replace copper wiring someday. However, current CNTs aren't as electrically conductive as copper, and they aren't as easy to solder to existing electrical systems, either. [url]
• Liquid cement can be made into a semi-conductor to form a metallic-glass material. New materials made with this technique could have better corrosion resistance than traditional metals, less brittleness than regular glass materials, and fluidity that would allow the material to be molded and processed easily. [url]
• Normally, carbon disulfide is a non-polar solvent, but when subjected to intense pressure (50,000 atm) and extreme cold (6.5 K), it can become a superconducting material. It's not likely that this particular discovery will have many practical applications, but it could lead to a better understanding of how (super)conductivity behaves. [url]

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Filed Under: carbon disulfide, carbon nanotubes, chemistry, cnt, material science, nanotechnology, science, semiconductor, superconductivity

DailyDirt: Metallic Royalty

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Noble metals, such as gold and platinum, get their name from their rarity in occurrence and because they don't easily oxidize or corrode when exposed to the atmosphere. It takes a highly corrosive mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid (aka, "aqua regia") to dissolve gold or platinum. In fact, Aqua regia (which is Latin for "regal water") is named for its ability to dissolve "noble" metals. Due to their desirable properties, noble metals have found use particularly in jewelry making as well as chemical catalysts. Here are a few examples of some recent findings related to noble metals.

• Researchers at Northwestern University have figured out how to use cornstarch instead of toxic cyanide to selectively extract gold from raw materials and electronic waste. Apparently, alpha-cyclodextrin (a cyclic starch fragment made of six glucose units) works best for isolating gold. [url]
• University of Helsinki researchers have concluded that silver nanoparticles aren't any more toxic than silver ions for aquatic ecosystems. Since silver nanoparticles have anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties, they are used in many consumer goods like clothing, cosmetics, food storage containers, and medical devices. However, there have been concerns about the increased amount of silver being washed into the environment. [url]
• Scientists at Hokkaido University have developed a platinum nanoparticle catalyst that can keep fruit from ripening prematurely while in storage. Ripening fruit releases ethylene gas, which then accelerates the ripening of other fruit. The platinum nanoparticles were able to effectively oxidize ethylene even at zero degrees Celsius, which is the temperature required in cold storage warehouses. [url]

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Filed Under: catalyst, chemistry, cornstarch, cyclodextrins, fruit, gold, nanoparticles, noble metals, platinum, silver

DailyDirt: Microorganisms For Biofuel Production

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In recent years, there has been increasing interest in biofuels due to growing concerns about global warming and rising oil prices. Biofuels are generally made by using chemicals, fermentation, and heat to break down the starches, sugars, and other molecules in plants to produce a fuel that can be used by vehicles. However, growing crops, making fertilizers and pesticides, and processing the plants into biofuel requires so much energy that it's questionable whether biofuels are really as environmentally friendly as they might seem on the surface. Plenty of research is already under way to figure out ways to make biofuel production more efficient with the help of microorganisms. Here are just a few examples.

• Companies like Luca Technologies and Next Fuel are investigating the potential for microbial methane production from coal. Their approach is to stimulate native microorganisms that feed on underground hydrocarbon deposits to produce more methane. This could make it possible to extract fuel from coal reserves that have been too expensive to mine. [url]
• Researchers at Purdue University are studying how termite digestion could help improve biofuel production. They found that protists, which live in the termite's gut, may play an important role in the insect's digestion of woody material. Further research could lead to finding enzymes that could one day be used to help improve biofuel production. [url]
• Researchers at UC Berkeley have created a biodiesel fuel using a fermentation process that was once used to make explosives in World War I. The process uses a bacterium called Clostridium acetobutylicum (also known as the "Weizmann Organism") to ferment sugar from various sources -- including corn, sugar cane, molasses, woody biomass, or plant biomass -- and produces acetone, butanol, and ethanol. The fermentation products are then converted into a mix of hydrocarbons that are similar to those in diesel fuel. The resulting fuel burns as well as petroleum-based fuel and has more energy per gallon than ethanol. [url]
• Researchers at UC San Diego have demonstrated for the first time that marine algae can also be used to produce biofuels like fresh water algae. They genetically engineered the marine alga Dunaliella tertiolecta to produce five different enzymes that could be used to convert biomass to fuel. Their finding suggests that algal biofuels could also be produced in the ocean, in the brackish water of tidelands, or even on otherwise unusable agricultural land with high salt content in the soil. [url]

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Filed Under: algae, biofuels, biology, biotech, chemistry, energy, enzymes, fermentation, hydrocarbons, microorganisms
Companies: luca technologies, next fuel, purdue university, uc

DailyDirt: Better Living Through Chemistry

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Occasionally, we talk about problems with big pharma companies and how they sometimes hinder innovation. There are lots of ways to develop new drugs, and apparently plenty of people out there are willing to ingest experimental drugs for fun (and then maybe eat other people's faces). Here are just a few examples of some innovative folks doing some chemistry.

• Underground chemists are making synthetic versions of recreational drugs that are technically legal to possess and sell. This has been going on for years, but recently, there have been increasing political efforts to make these "chemically-similar" drugs illegal. [url]
• Amateur scientists are working on all kinds of crazy biological experiments and ideas such as rewriting the DNA of an acorn so that it grows into the shape of oak furniture. The zombie apocalypse might not come from a megacorporation, but from biology experiment gone wrong in a garage... [url]
• Albert Hofmann discovered LSD had interesting effects in the 1940s, and he said that it spoke to him: "Don't give me to the pharmacologist, he won't find anything." And lots of people have tried LSD since, including Steve Jobs and Aldous Huxley. [url]
• To discover more interesting science-related stuff, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

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Filed Under: albert hofmann, biotech, chemistry, drugs, lsd, pharma

DailyDirt: Diamonds, With Lucy, In The Sky

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Carbon comes in several allotropes: graphene, diamond, nanotubes, buckyballs, nanofoam etc. Some forms are easier to manufacture than others, but someday we might have diamond-based semiconductors or diamond-based quantum computers. If you like shiny minerals, here are just a few interesting links on diamonds.

• The world's first all-diamond ring -- no setting needed, but it's kinda difficult to re-size -- weighs in at about 150 carats and $68 million. And if it gets stuck on your finger, it'll be really hard to cut off without taking your finger with it.... [url]
• The 45-carat Hope Diamond could provide some insights on the geology of the Earth, but it's not easy to conduct science on famous museum artifacts. Scientists are looking at how boron makes blue diamonds blue, and they're etching off a few atomic layers of the diamond to determine how much boron is in it. [url]
• Diamonds can store qubits at room temperature for at least a couple seconds -- a pretty long time in the world of quantum physics. This discovery might lead to more practical quantum computers -- but general quantum computing is still a long way from becoming as useful as traditional computing. [url]
• To discover more interesting science-related stuff, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

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Filed Under: allotrope, carbon, chemistry, diamonds, quantum computing, qubit