Molecules: You'd better learn to live with them.
December 21, 2006
Category: Medicine
I picked this molecule for one main reason: I was flipping through a physiology book and read this statistic: your body goes through on the order of one liter of bile per day! Did you have any idea? That is...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 4:58 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 20, 2006
Category: Inorganic
Oxalic acid is a bifunctional carboxylic acid. Your body will make it as the result of metabolism of ethylene glycol if you ever drink antifreeze, resulting in the catastrophic precipitation of calcium oxalate in your kidneys. Some foods have (fairly...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 7:38 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 19, 2006
Category: Synthesis
There are a number of "strong" acids that are essentially completely dissociated in water - hydrochloric and sulfuric acid are two of the most common. Unfortunately, these are often volatile (as in HCl), insoluble, or otherwise ill-behaved in organic solvents....
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 18, 2006
Category: Synthesis
The fluoride ion is important to synthetic chemistry, often because it can be used to cleave silyl ethers (the silicon analogue of a carbon ether). Fluoride is notorious for holding onto water (like any tiny ion - lithium is about...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 8:18 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 15, 2006
Category: Not Really a Molecule
Makes MoTD a bad blogger. Back Monday....
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 14, 2006
Category: Inorganic
You may have heard of a guy named Kurt Vonnegut. What you might not know is that his lesser-known little brother Bernie was the guy who came up with the idea of using AgI for cloud seeding. From little bro...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 13, 2006
Category: Biology
Tris is one of the most common buffers out there and absolutely ubiquitous in molecular biology. The idea behind a buffer is that you have a compound that takes on a proton (hydrogen) at a certain pH, usually somewhere near...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 12, 2006
Category: Biology
Methyl viologen is a groove-binding DNA ligand; that is, unlike an intercalator, which slips between bases, it slips into the grooves of the DNA helix. You've probably heard of it as paraquat. It is an herbicide, but it's not that...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 11, 2006
Category: Biology
The catnip plant belongs to the genus Nepeta. The molecule responsible for its odd effects on cats is called nepetalactone: Apparently catnip can repel insects in a garden, and some people have looked into whether nepetalactone works as an insect...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 8, 2006
Category: Not Really a Molecule
Sorry, this week evaporated. Back to regular posting Monday....
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 8:21 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
