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Molecules: You'd better learn to live with them.
November 29, 2006
Category: Not Really a Molecule
Polonium-210 is a radioisotope that's gotten lots and lots of press in the last few weeks because of its purported role in the death of Alexander Litvinenko. Polonium is an alpha emitter - that is, in the process of decay,...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 8:04 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Topologically/Geometrically Interesting
Cyclopropane is another markedly strained ring (the smallest simple ring geometrically possible, really): It used to find some use as an anaesthetic. Strained rings being strained rings, however, it had a nasty habit of exploding. One movie made good use...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 28, 2006
Category: Topologically/Geometrically Interesting
Squaric acid is an unusually strong acid for an organic acid: It's also unique because of its strained ring. In general, five- and six-membered rings dominate in chemistry - hence the endless parade of hexagons. Higher rings are tolerated but...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 21, 2006
Category: Drugs
As a followup to the entry earlier today, here is a drug that is used in the treatment of gout: allopurinol. In vivo, purines are metabolized by the enzyme xanthine oxidase to hypoxanthine and xanthine, which are converted to uric...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 12:00 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
Happy Thanksgiving week to the American readers! In celebration, let's talk gout! Uric acid is the final product of purine (the bases that comprise exactly half of your DNA) catabolism in humans. Normally, you urinate it out with no problems....
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 20, 2006
Category: Not Really a Molecule
With a MotD Thanksgiving-themed double-header, which will probably be the last posts for the rest of the holiday week over here....
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 8:45 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 17, 2006
Category: Drugs
Inhalants are ubiquitous illegal drugs of abuse and a public health problem worldwide. Most lipophilic solvents have some kind of neurotoxicity (some gas anaesthetics, in fact, work based mainly on their lipophilicity, and are only special because of lower toxicity)....
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 10:00 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Not Really a Molecule
Brazilian reader Luis Brudna has begun translating some MotD entries into Portuguese. Feel free to have a look if you're not reading this in your first language!...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 16, 2006
Category: Medicine
The urea entry ended up with a discussion in the comments I encourage you to read about early organic chemists, one of whom was Kolbe, who first prepared acetic acid (an indisputably organic and biologically relevant molecule) from inorganic compounds....
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 15, 2006
Category: Synthesis
Normally, iodine just makes one bond, as you'd expect from a halogen. Some compounds, though, force it into lively higher oxidation states (hopefully without the tendency to explode, as some highly oxidized iodine reagents worryingly exhibit). There is a whole...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
PZ Myers 07.06.2009
Ed Brayton 07.06.2009
Ed Yong 07.06.2009
PZ Myers 07.06.2009
Tim Lambert 07.01.2009
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