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Molecules: You'd better learn to live with them.
October 31, 2006
Category: Synthesis
Methyl iodide is another simple organoiodide: Probably the most common lab use is tacking a methyl group onto something; MeI is a great substrate for the SN2 reaction. Despite its ubiquity, methyl iodide isn't nearly the best alkylating agent. It's...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 6:27 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 30, 2006
Category: Medicine
Another theme week: Iodine. Iodoform is, as the name suggests, the iodine analogue to chloroform. Iodoform, as the Wikipedia entry mentions, isn't the best antiseptic in the world, but they're mistaken in saying it's not used anymore: iodoform impregnated gauze...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 27, 2006
Category: Drugs
L-methamphetamine is a fine example of how molecules that vary only in their chirality can have very different biological effects. Chiral molecules have non-superimposable mirror images. L-methamphetamine, at left, below, is found in Vicks Vapor Inhalers. (Notice how they obfuscate...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 26, 2006
Category: Drugs
Kavain is a member of a class of compounds known as the kavalactones. (A lactone is a cyclic ester; click here for examples). Kavain is a species found in the kava plant, which is used by the aboriginal residents of...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 25, 2006
Category: Drugs
Arecoline is a compound that occurs in the seed of the betel palm. It's taken by chewing the nut. Arecoline, like nicotine, binds to certain receptors for acetylcholine. I've grouped them together so you can note the structural similarities. Remember...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 24, 2006
Category: Drugs
It's weird drugs for the rest of the week! Salvia probably means one of two things, if anything, to most people: a houseplant (for which purpose it is ubiquitous) or a recreational drug that you can still get your hands...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 11:22 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 23, 2006
Category: Not Really a Molecule
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:48 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 20, 2006
Category: Not Really a Molecule
This might not apply to a lot of the readers, but I think a decent subset might find it important. As you know, it's not so easy to search for chemical information. With most search engines, you're limited to the...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 12:00 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Stinky
Pyridines and thiols are two of the stinkiest kinds of compounds you can come across in chemistry. You'd think if you put them together in a molecule, you'd have something nasty. Oddly, you don't: Bafflingly, thiopyridine is apparently odorless. You'll...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 19, 2006
Category: Topologically/Geometrically Interesting
For a better idea of how the bond angles look, here is an energy-minimized structure of windowpane (4.4.4.4). Notice how it's (nearly) planar. That central carbon atom (middle gray dot, blues are hydrogens) is the one to watch....
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
