Videos in Science: Current Research in Chemistry

I thought these might be useful for science teachers. Your students might like learning about how active scientists are using science research to investigate real-world issues. Thanks to Bill Bayley for forwarding it to me!

Videos provided by Purdue University Chemistry Department

Fighting Drug-resistant Malaria

Professor Christine Hrycyna and Chmielewski Research Group graduate student Hilda Namanja were featured in a WLFI-TV report on Gates Foundation malaria research. Link to video

Detecting Chemicals on Produce 

Cooks Research Group graduate student Santosh Soparawalla and postdoctoral researcher Fatkhulla Tadjimukhamedov recently took an innovative miniature mass spectrometer to the grocery store to detect chemicals on produce. Link to video

Building Molecules for Medicine

As a part of being awarded the IUPAC-Richter Prize, Professor Arun Ghosh talks to high school chemistry students about his research in designing enzyme inhibitors for treatment of Alzheimer's Disease and AIDS. Link to video

STEM Innovations for Blind Students 

Purdue Chemistry alumnus Cary Supalo and his Purdue Research Park company Independence Science develop technologies to increase hands-on experiences for blind and low vision students. He worked with Purdue Chemistry to produce several videos demonstrating safe methods to collect real-time data. Link to video

Monthly Lab Safety Message 

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board has produced an important video on laboratory safety called "Experimenting with Danger." Link to video 

For questions or more information about the videos, please contact Purdue University.
Steve Scherer 
Chemistry Communications 
scherer@purdue.edu 

Christmas coal in your science stocking

Here's a fun idea to use with your Earth Science or chemistry classes at Christmas time:

I have 3 stockings hanging, with the question--Which type of Carbon do you want in your stocking?  I have a pencil in one; coal in the next; and a HUGE diamond-ring ornament I found at Pier One Import store.

I give the kids pencils and a coupon for a homework pass as a gift.  I tell them that they've been so good they don't get coal...and I'm not rich enough to give them diamonds...so I'm giving them graphite!  They are appreciative.  I used to give out pencils with snowflakes on them (crystalline solids)...but a few years back, they requested the "yellow" ones, because the "fun" ones don't sharpen well!!  :)

Idea by Karen Delgado. Used with permission. 

Way cool science illustrations, videos, and photographs

Science magazine's winners for visual excellence show that art and science can complement each other well. Some of the winners are truly stunning while still illustrating interesting science. Click on the link to see what I'm talking about.

http://www.sciencemag.org/site/special/vis2010/show/index.xhtml

Lady Gaga and chemistry?

Lady Gaga and chemistry are certainly words that you don't often hear in the same sentence. Yet, chemistry is being used to preserve her infamous meat costume from the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards:  Lady Gaga Meat Dress Designer Tells How To Re-Create His VMA Look.  In an interview on the Graham Norton show, Lady Gaga mentioned that she has a warehouse where all of her costumes are being preserved because she'd like to someday have a museum dedicated to displaying them.  The meat dress obviously poses some interesting challenges. I guess it could have been turned into beef jerky :) but she wants the full effect of the dress to be preserved. That's where chemistry comes in to help. Here's a link to a description of what could be done to save the dress for future display....if anyone really wants to see it after it's been preserved and sitting in a warehouse for years!


Chemical & Engineering News Digital Edition - August 29, 2011
Click here to go to the issue.If you cannot click on the links, paste this link into a browser:
http://www.cendigital.org/cendigital/20110829_sub/?g=50&pm=2&u1=friend&sub_id=CMUSf4QsXdID0

How the metric system is creeping into our lives: Part 1

You often hear about "the global economy" but another thing that's becoming global is "culture". With modern communications, people all over the world can be exposed to ideas and items from other parts of the world. I started noticing about 6 months ago that I'm reading a lot of things on the internet that were created outside the U.S. Since the U.S. is one of only 3 countries that doesn't use the metric system (Crazy!), units on websites are often in metric.  More about how I think the internet is going to influence the use/understanding of the metric system in the United States coming later so stay tuned!

I came across this collection idea while looking at craft sites on the web. Issue 1 of Less Than 100g - Bottle cap collection: Create a collection of things that each weigh less than 100 g.

• What would you collect? 
• What weighs less than 100 g that you could include?

I'm going to post examples of collections of science-related goodies that I have that meet the less than 100 g limit. I checked them all with a kitchen scale that I keep at home.

First off, my wind-up toy collection:



I love these little toys. Each winds up and does something different. I'll try to put together a video to show them off. You might be wondering what this has to do with science. Well, a number of years ago, NASA had a program running on the space shuttles called Science of Toys where astronauts would test the behavior of  toys like these on the shuttle and compare that to what we see on Earth.  Check out these NASA websites for more information about the really neat Science of Toys program.
Toys in Space Investigation   
 http://quest.nasa.gov/space/teachers/liftoff/toys.html
http://shuttleexperience.nasa.gov/KidsCorner/ToysinSpace.pdf

A free resource for keeping up with current events in science

I subscribed to a couple of the Scientific American email digests earlier this summer, and I've enjoyed many of the stories that they have sent. For example, my favorite stories from today's email included: 


A Brief History of the Toilet (Forget about skyscrapers, protected harbors or capital markets. The lowly toilet is key to what makes modern cities possible.) (Note: Some of these images might not be appropriate for students.)
 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=health-brief-history-of-toilet&WT.mc_id=SA_WR_20110825

and Check How Intense the East Coast Earthquake Was in Your Zip Code.  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=check-east-coast-earthquake-intenity-by-zip-code&WT.mc_id=SA_WR_20110825


They have published many stories that would be great for students. Here's a link to the newsletter signup page in case you're interested. The best part is that it's FREE!

http://www.scientificamerican.com/page.cfm?section=newslettersignup

Make your own field bag for carrying your supplies

Sometimes you may want to make observations for science outside. It can be a pain for both the teacher and students to keep track of their pencils, magnifying lenses, rulers, and other supplies while studying outdoors.
I picked up this cool way for storing your field supplies while attending the Decatur Township training for the Indiana Science Initiative program last month. I don't know who the teacher was that came up with this idea, but the 5th grade teachers made these to use during their outdoor science studies. They are so simple to make! And cheap too! I'll post some pictures later to show what the bags look like when they're finished.

You'll need for each student:

1 one-gallon ziploc bag

a piece of yarn that is long enough to form a loop that can be pulled over your head

You'll also need a hole punch.

Punch one hole in each of the corners of the bag where the zip seal begins and ends. 

String yarn through one of the holes and secure it to the bag with a knot.

Repeat with the other hole. 

Put the field bag on over your head and you're ready to go!

Want something more permanent? Here's a great way to use old clothes to make a nifty bag with pockets!
Make a field bag from recycled clothes

Wow! Just Wow! Joy Hakim's Books in the Story of Science Series

I just picked up her first book in the series through a lucky purchase at Half-Price Books. (I LOVE that store!) The book The Story of Science. Newton at the Center was published several years ago, but this was my first chance to take a look at the book in person. The way she tells stories about science is so unique in scientific writing that's it's almost shocking to read at first. Even science books written for young children are largely fact based, but Joy uses storytelling to introduce the "characters"-real scientists-who made important discoveries in science interjected with a lot of humor. For example, on the first page of the introduction (p. ix), she writes, "Francis Bacon died as the result of a scientific experiment (or so the story goes). He was stuffing a duck with snow--to see if cold is a preservative. He caught a chill, and that was that." Right away you know that this is not your ordinary science book.

Each section is relatively short but is packed with interesting stories. I also love the variety of illustrations throughout the book. I've become accustomed to the formal language used in most science communications, and The Story of Science proves that you can still describe important ideas in science without using the stagnant writing style that we scientists are used to reading and, sadly, writing as well. This is definitely not your ordinary science book, and if you love science books as much as I do, it's certainly worth checking out.

Here's an article about the book series with a couple of video links about using narrative storytelling to present scientific information. She currently has 3 books in the series.

Using Narrative Storytelling to Engage Readers about Science

Difference of similar magnitude earthquakes in CA vs Midwest

In light of today's earthquake in Virginia, I thought it would be interesting to share this illustration that shows the difference of area that a 6.8 magnitude earthquake impacts in California vs. the New Madrid fault in SE Missouri/West Tennessee. Today's earthquake was reportedly felt as far away as Cincinnati, OH. The wiki link below gives some technical explanations why earthquake waves can travel so much farther in the eastern part of the U.S. compared to the west coast. Basically, it's all about the type of foundation: the soil, the bedrock, and the depth below ground of the initial shock.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/NMSZ_Vergleich.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Madrid_Seismic_Zone

Search Your Engines: NASCAR Engineers Zoom In on Motor Problems with Powerful Microscope [Slide Show]: Scientific American

This is an interesting example of real-world science applied in a field that you might not expect. I'm hoping to be able to share articles like these on a regular basis.

Search Your Engines: NASCAR Engineers Zoom In on Motor Problems with Powerful Microscope [Slide Show]: Scientific American

An amazing example of recycling in action! A Kansas landfill takes 16,000 truckloads of Joplin tornado debris

A Kansas landfill takes 16,000 truckloads of Joplin tornado debris

The mystery of the misbehaving rocks, or how to identify an unknown rock using science

I have a video that I still need to edit that will explain this set of experiments a lot better, but I wanted to get this posted sooner to help some teachers who made the initial observations that led me to want to do some more testing.

Scenario: You are given two rocks. Rock A is labeled Sandstone. Rock B is labeled Limestone. According to the information you are given, sandstone will not make bubbles when put in a vial filled with vinegar. Limestone will make bubbles when in a vial filled with vinegar.

                                        Vinegar-expected results          Vinegar-actual observations

Rock A=Sandstone           Does not bubble                          Bubbled vigorously

Rock B=Limestone           Bubbles                                       No bubbles seen

(The bubbles are carbon dioxide. They form when carbonates/calcites are exposed to acids. Vinegar is a weak acid.  Note: Chemists would call limestone a carbonate, but geologists call it a calcite.)

Sandstone is a grainy rock composed of sand grains fused together. Other minerals are usually present between the sand grains. You can easily tell with even a simple magnifying lens (3-5 times magnification) that the rock is made up of small grains, and  you can also feel the bumpiness of the grains with your fingers.

Limestone is a harder rock. In Indiana, it is usually light gray in color, but I've also seen darker gray samples with almost rust colored lines. The surface feels powdery and is dull (not shiny). Limestone is made of calcium carbonate, which is also what Tums is made of. Some forms of chalk are also made with limestone.

Both limestone and sandstone are used to cover the outside of buildings. Indiana limestone is sometimes used to make monuments because the color is consistent and it can be cut into large pieces.

The teachers at a workshop I attended thought that perhaps the samples of limestone and sandstone were mislabeled because both behaved the opposite of what they expected. I borrowed their samples to do some more testing. I was hoping to determine if the rocks had been mislabeled.

A bit about my own previous experiences with sandstone and limestone: The house that I grew up in was built on land that had a large sheet of sandstone just a foot or so below the surface. There were lots of places where you could see exposed sandstone, especially along the side of roads where hills were blasted through to make a flatter road. My dad worked for a quarry where they mined and crushed limestone for building roads, so I've seen a limestone quarry and limestone in lots of different sizes. Our house's driveway was covered with limestone. Large pieces of limestone were used for covering homes and businesses. We even had it on the bottom third of my house. So, I know a bit more about both rocks from my own observations growing up. (This is a good example of how each of us brings their own experiences in when doing science. Had I not known as much about sandstone and limestone, I might have approached these experiments differently.)

I'm not a geologist, but I did take a geology class in college. I really enjoyed rock and mineral identification. My chemistry background came in handy when I had to learn about the different tests that are used to identify rocks and minerals, especially the chemical test of dropping small amounts of acid on a sample to see if bubbles are formed.

Before starting my experiments, I wanted to get some photos of what both samples look like close up.

Here is what the sandstone sample looks like. Notice how grainy it looks even in the photo. Can you see that there seems to be a lot of white between the grains? I wonder what that might be...hmmm.

Sandstone: Before testing

This is what the limestone sample looks like. Notice the lines in the rock on the upper right hand corner of this photo. That is an interesting set of lines in the rock. They look like they might be tiny cracks. 



Limestone: Before testing  (Well, not quite. Notice the bottom center of the rock. That's where I did the streak test.)



So, without even doing any testing, I was able to make several observations about the rocks. I'm going to add these observations from my table above, but I'm going to change how my table is formatted so I can fit the other experiment data on the table more easily.

                                          Rock A=Sandstone?                Rock B=Limestone?

Vinegar-Expected Results           No bubbles                                  Bubbles

Vinegar-Actual observations     Bubbbles                                      No bubbles

Color                                              Gray with white streaks              Dark brown. A few cracks present.

Looks like a crystal                              No                                                No

Surface                                          Grainy                                            Smooth

Luster (shine)                                dull                                                dull

I decided to do the tests that would cause the least damage to the rocks first. The last experiment was going to use a hammer, and I didn't know what the rocks would look like after that!

A hardness test is a great way to start identifying a rock after you've described the color(s) in the rock, the luster of the surface (Is it shiny or dull?), and identified any special fractures or layers in the rock. To test hardness, you "scratch" or rub the rock against something with a known hardness. Geologists use a scale called a Mohs scale that lists materials and their hardness on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being a diamond and 1 being talc. Here's a link to a step-by-step guide for testing hardness from the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. http://www.childrensmuseum.org/geomysteries/cube/b2.html

I first tried to scratch the rocks with my thumbnail. My nail was worn down by the rocks, so the rocks are both harder than my fingernail. Nails have a hardness of 2.5, so I knew that the rocks were harder than 2.5. I then tried to scratch the rocks with a paperclip, which I read had a hardness of 3.5. In both cases, the paperclip scratched the surface of the rocks. I forgot to take photos of the rocks after they had been scratched by the paperclip, but it'll be on the video.

From the two hardness tests, I determined that the rock was harder than 2.5 but less than 3.5. That eliminates a lot of possibilities of what the rocks were, but it's not enough to identify them.

Link to mineral hardness of many common minerals:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohs_scale_of_mineral_hardness
http://www.minsocam.org/msa/collectors_corner/article/mohs.htm

In a streak test, you rub the rock against a rough surface. The surface must be harder than the rock. Otherwise, the rock will get scratched by the surface. I had a unglazed tile left over from some Christmas craft projects last year, so I rubbed the rocks against the tile. This is what rubbed off the rocks onto the tile.

Streak test (limestone on left; sandstone on right)

This was really interesting to me. The limestone sample left a white powder on the tile, but the sandstone left a dark gray mark on the tile. When I rubbed the limestone powder between my fingers, it felt chalky. The sandstone didn't feel chalky but it wasn't really grainy either. I wasn't expecting either rock to feel chalky, so that was an interesting observation.  (If you look at the bottom of the post, you'll see my notes that I took during my experiments...but you may want to wait if you don't want to know what I discovered just yet!)

                                                   
                                          Rock A=Sandstone?                Rock B=Limestone?

Vinegar-Expected Results           No bubbles                                  Bubbles

Vinegar-Actual observations     Bubbbles                                      No bubbles

Color                                              Gray with white streaks              Dark brown. A few cracks present.

Looks like a crystal                              No                                                No

Surface                                          Grainy                                            Smooth

Luster (shine)                                dull                                                dull

Hardness test                              >2.5 but <3.5                                  >2.5 but <3.5

Streak test                                    Gray                                              White. Powder feels like chalk.

 

Next I wanted to try a variation on the vinegar test that the teachers did. Normally the bubble test is done with dilute hydrochloric acid, but since this experiment is for 3rd graders vinegar is used because it's safer. I wanted to put just a few drops of dilute hydrochloric acid (0.5M for any chemistry geeks out there) onto each rock and see what happens. Based upon what the teachers saw, I expected the limestone sample to not bubble and the sandstone sample to bubble. Here are the photos of what I saw.

Sandstone

 Hydrochloric acid on Sandstone-You can see tiny bubbles at the top and bottom edges where the rock is touching the liquid. I also noticed what appeared to be powder (white?) forming on the surface of the rock.

I then immersed the bottom of the Sandstone in a small puddle of hydrochloric acid, since that was similar to the immersion test the teachers did.

Sandstone surface immersed
in a small puddle of hydrochloric acid. 
You can see bubbles where the liquid and the rock are touching.

Large carbon dioxide bubble forms on sandstone after several minutes. Can you see the big bubble?

I did the same experiments with the Limestone. I first put a few drops of Hydrochloric acid on the surface.

Hydrochloric acid on Limestone
If you look closely, you can see bubbles forming.

Several minutes later--
One surface touching a puddle of Hydrochloric acid on Limestone
Lots and lots of bubbles!

Limestone: Large bubbles forming in hydrochloric acid several minutes after starting the immersion test.

                                          Rock A=Sandstone?                Rock B=Limestone?

Vinegar-Expected Results           No bubbles                                  Bubbles

Vinegar-Actual observations     Bubbbles                                      No bubbles

Color                                              Gray with white streaks              Dark brown. A few cracks present.

Looks like a crystal                              No                                                No

Surface                                          Grainy                                            Smooth

Luster (shine)                                dull                                                dull

Hardness test                              >2.5 but <3.5                                  >2.5 but <3.5

Streak test                                    Gray                                              White. Powder feels like chalk.

Hydrochloric acid                      Small bubbles                               Many large bubbles, lots of bubbling



More experiments to be posted soon.....

Another hint: What am I?

This is a relative of the first What Am I? post. Can you guess what it is now?

Sent from my Windows Phone

And then there was pollen!

If you've ever had your car covered with yellow pollen, this is an example of one of the culprit trees. It's a pine tree, not sure what species. 

I noticed this morning that all of the branches seemed to be tipped in yellow. All of the yellow color on the branches is pine pollen. I'm curious about how long it will take before the tree turns back to its normal color! The good thing for allergy sufferers is that pine pollen has such a large particle size that it doesn't usually cause allergic reactions. Pine trees do get a lot of blame for allergies in the spring even though it's not deserved. Lots of other "late spring pollinators" happen to pollinate at the same time as pine. Maple, oak, and ash are just a few examples, but you won't see the pollen from these trees. They have a much smaller particle size. In other words, it's the pollen that you can't see that causes allergies, not the ones that you can see!

Closer view of the tree:

What am I?--The answer FINALLY!

I thought it would be fun to occasionally post a picture for you to guess what it is. This is a plant in my yard. Do you know what it is? Stay tuned for the answer!

Sent from my Windows Phone

Quick News Bit: Conserving Gasoline by Changing Traffic Light Patterns

My local Fox 59 news station just aired a story about how Indianapolis is changing the patterns on the city traffic lights so people don't have to stop as often. The lights are normally timed to increase the number of stops you have to make, the theory being that you'll drive closer to the speed limit if you're constantly doing the stop and go. But the process of getting a car from a stop to moving takes more energy than going continuously at a set speed. So if you stop less, you'll save gas. And with our gas prices up to about $4.25 per gallon, anything the city can do to help us save gasoline will be much appreciated!

I'll share some problems you could do with students about this idea in a future post. I worked in a national petroleum lab for two summers so I have some interesting petroleum science I could share. Gasoline is a great example of lots of scientific principles in action that we take for granted as long as we remember to fill the tank!

The Human Brain is so COOL! Part 1: Sense of Smell

Have you ever smelled something, and suddenly you remembered something from a long time ago that you had completely forgotten about. The smell itself triggered that memory in your brain to resurface. The memories can be very old, and they can be very, very powerful.

Last night, the t.v. show Modern Family  was all about the extended family celebrating Mother's Day. Jay, the patriarch of the family, decided to make a special recipe that he loved that his mom had made for him as a kid. At the end of the episode, he took a big wiff of the delicious dinner, and it made him cry. The smell of the dinner triggered powerful memories of his mom and  and the happy times he had with her.

Your sense of smell can be a very powerful trigger of memories. But how? And why? After all, the part of your brain that detects smells is very close to your nose but not close to the places where memories are stored.

The sense of smell is one of the most basic processes in the human body as well as other animals, yet our understanding of how your brain captures molecules and translates that into something that your brain recognizes as a smell is cutting edge science. In 2004, Richard Axel and  Linda Buck won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their groundbreaking work in how the sense of smell works. That just goes to show that there are plenty of basic things about science that we still don't understand very well, even things that are so basic to the human experience.

Here's a link to Richard Axel's Nobel Prize lecture.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2004/axel-lecture.html
And here's one for Linda Buck's Nobel Prize lecture.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2004/buck-lecture.html

There's a lot going on in the small space that a human nose takes up I like using Google Chrome's interactive   You can adjust what you see, adding and removing the cardiovascular and nervous system, as well as human organs. You can even fade any of the three so the system is visible but not so much that it blocks your view of other features. You have to download Google Chrome to use this tool.
http://www.google.com/chrome/thankyou.html?hl=en&brand=CHMI&oneclickinstalled=&statcb=&installdataindex=defaultbrowser

Once Chrome is installed, you can click here to access Google Body.
http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com/

In my next post, I hope to talk a bit more about how the brain stores memories, then I'll tackle how scents trigger those memories.

Other resources for images of the nasal system:
A very detailed set of slides showing the anatomy of a nose can be found at this site by Kansas State University.  http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/yousryelsayed/Atlas%20ENT%20teaching%20slides/Atlas%20Anatomy%20of%20the%20nose%20and%20paranasal%20sinuses.pdf

If you'd like to see some images that are more appropriate for younger children, The Children's Hospital Boston has some good images that separate the sinuses from the rest of the nasal system (olfactory).
http://www.childrenshospital.org/az/Site1366/mainpageS1366P0.html

Observations from an amateur meteorologist

When I was in high school, I was one of those kids that liked to do science for fun. So I did science fair projects on weather forecasting. I lived in Oklahoma, where I think everyone becomes an amateur meteorologist. You almost have to. We didn't need the Weather Channel to tell us when a cloud was a wall cloud.

Today my old skills kicked into action when I saw this.

We had a gorgeous day today with beautiful blue skies and unseasonably warm temperatures (over 70 deg F), but it was very windy--for Indiana--and this morning is was over 25 degrees F colder just a couple of hours north of us. All in all, the perfect conditions for a big storm. This cloud type is called a cumulonimbus cloud, and if you look closely, you can see that the winds were really strong in the upper atmosphere.

I was using my camera phone, so the photo wasn't the greatest to show this, but you could see straight lines in the clouds. A lot of times strong upper winds like that lead to hail formation. When I got home, I captured what the radar looked like.

The red area near Anderson is what I captured in the cloud photo. Some of these storms have produced ping-pong size hail. Eeek! Unfortunately my concerns about the upper air winds were correct about the hail. You see, hail form because it's cold enough in the upper part of the cloud for water to freeze, and the wind causes the frozen water to bounce around in the cloud. While the frozen water bounces around, more frozen water accumulates on it. The frozen water continues to bounce around until the wind that's holding it up isn't strong enough to keep the frozen water/hail in the cloud anymore. That's when the hail falls to the ground. This isn't a very diagram, but hopefully it helps you see what I'm talking about.

(In case you're not familiar with severe storm radar, green means light rain, yellow means stronger rain, and red is the strongest. Red not only means strong rain, but also hail and possibly tornadoes if the conditions are right.)

We're continuing to have lots of storm cells like this tonight.  The storm I captured in the photo luckly has started to lose its strength.

My neighborhood has been very lucky. The main storm cell in our county was much stronger just south of my neighborhood. Hopefully no one will have serious damage tonight.

P.S. Sometime I'll talk about why I prefer the Fahrenheit scale for outdoor temperatures. :)

Come Explore the World with Me!

Do you ever think to yourself, "I wonder how that works", but you don't know where to learn more? Maybe you wish you could be a 4-year old again and ask "Why? Why? Why?" about something you've observed, but you don't have anyone to ask. I hope to be your guide into the world of science, the kind of science that's all around you. I'll explore animal behavior by telling stories about my silly dog. I'll talk about botany and meteorology using observations in my backyard. And I'll use field trips and experiments to show you how cool chemistry can be. Who knows what else we might discover together! So stay tuned!