Structures From Nature

Finally! Something was made what is a critical compound during the production of a quite special amino acid. 

The fun part with this was, that I tried nearly 20 methods to obtain this compound, and all of them failed. At last I tried a Chinese recipe what said that the product will be something that could be easily converted to my molecule, but instead of that compound I got the compound what I need out from the reaction. Better news: 90% isolated yield! 

I always get stupid names for these so I have devised an egalitarian solution

This beautifully diverse group of sea slugs can be found in oceans worldwide, but its greatest variety is located in the magical habitat of warm, shallow reefs. It’s name comes from the Latin for “naked” (nudus), but it’s often informally called a “sea slug.” Today, a profile of a group of marine gastropods called Nudibranchia.

Unlike other mollusks (think snails), most nudibranchs have lost their shells, evolving other mechanisms for protection. For example, some are able to ingest and retain poisons found in prey, later secreting them for defense.

All known nudibranchs are carnivorous, feeding on a variety of sea life including sponges, other sea slugs, and barnacles. One species, Glaucus atlanticus, is known to prey on the Portuguese man o’ war!

Hermaphroditic, nudibranchs have a set of reproductive organs for both sexes, which means any creature can mate with another. That said, a nudibranch can’t fertilize itself.

According to National Geographic, “some nudibranchs are solar-powered, storing algae in their outer tissues and living off the sugars produced by the algae’s photosynthesis.”

The creature has very simple eyes (able to distinguish little more beyond light and dark), but have cephalic (head) tentacles that are sensitive to touch, taste, and smell. Its gills are uncovered, located behind their heart, and protrude in plumes on their back, making for a large surface area that grants more efficient oxygen exchange.

(Image Credits: Creative Commons, clockwise, richard ling, Raymond, Peter Liu Photography / Source: National Geographic, Wikimedia Commons, Earth Touch, Murky Secrets: The Marine Creatures of the Lembeh Strait)

Brine is your friend 

*gags then googles how to get rid of an emulsion*

if you give me a task with no deadline i will literally never do it but if you give me a deadline i will get it done exactly 1 hour before the deadline even if the deadline is in six years

Formation of a polyaromatic imidazole based compound. 

I used quite harsh conditions to prepare this compound (polyphosphoric acid and 180 °C), but instead of obtaining a black mess as usual, I obtained a deep blue reaction mixture with a white mass floating on it’s surface and some white crystals sublimed out from it to the wall of the flask. The only question is, that where is the compound what I am looking for….

I originally started making this material not necessarily for armors but more for cars and trains. [I wanted it] to squeeze like a sponge, but in a heavy duty kind of form of a sponge so we could put it in front of the car or a high speed train and take care of the impact. But when we saw the performance of the material, we started thinking about ballistics and bullets. And so I tested those and we saw that…the material can perform.

Afsaneh Rabiei. He developed a metal foam that is lightweight, strong, heat- and radiation-resistant, and, when incorporated in a bulletproof vest, for example, capable of shattering bullets on impact without injuring the person wearing it.

(via sciencefriday)

Disposing of all our products in the last day in lab. So many scint vials... 

Craig Ward | Subvisual Subway

Turning Bacterias from New York Subway into Beautiful Artworks

Superhero origin story

why hood 32?

Oooooh this is a good story! ( I think, at least). In my first summer of college I had a stockroom job in the chem department. My friend Annie and I were tasked with inventorying the ENTIRE department’s chemicals, and to put chemicals back where they belonged if we found any that were mismatched. 

One day we were going through the research labs, and we came across a hood that had a SHIT TON of chemicals in it. Instead of trying to find out where they all went, we named a folder in the inventory system “Hood 32″ (it was in Hood 32….). Annie goes “that’d be a GREAT name for a short story.” I ended up naming my blog after it during that job (because it sounds cool, right? ;) ) 

I ended up working for the professor whose hood had all those chemicals in it, which was an awesome coincidence. 

THEN when I went to Montana to work, I worked in Hood 32 AGAIN. 

So it stuck :)