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The author is not a physician. The content on this website does not, and is not intended to constitute medical advice. It should not be relied upon when making medical decisions. It is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other healthcare provider.

April 27, 2007

Alizarin (Not so mad for madder anymore, are we?)

Category: Dyes

The word chromatography, reveals its origins - in the beginning of the 20th century, Mikhail Tsvet - color compounds. The modern stable of robust, tunable separation techniques (i.e., chromatography) is probably one of the most important things chemistry has given...

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April 26, 2007

Watching debates...

Category: Not Really a Molecule

Back tomorrow....

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April 25, 2007

Beta-mercaptoethanol (Last bio-reducing agent, promise)

Category: Biology

Aqueous bio-compatible reducing agents are legion, but people end up using the same ones over and over. Probably the least used is TCEP (which doesn't stink at all), next is dithiothreitol (and the related but slightly less effective dithioerythritol), which...

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April 24, 2007

TCEP (Look Ma, no stink!)

Category: Biology

Yesterday's entry on Dithiothreitol garnered one lone comment. Remarking on the smell. True enough; it's a thiol - where there's sulfur, there's often stink. There is a biologically compatible reducing agent that doesn't stink at all: tris(carboxyethyl)phosphine, or TCEP....

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April 23, 2007

Dithiothreitol (Cyclic Reductants)

Category: Biology

The environment within a cell is actually rather reducing, this is evidenced by the free cysteine found in some proteins. Many proteins require a free cysteine to operate properly, and once they're outside the cell, they can easily become oxidized....

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April 20, 2007

Carbonyl Diimidazole (Slightly less dangerous phosgene)

Category: Synthesis

Phosgene is a very useful molecule, but it's often not the best for the situation, and it has the unfortunate side effect of being a gas. A war gas....

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April 19, 2007

Borazine (Benzene, but not)

Category: Inorganic

Carbon, with its four valence electrons, is in a unique position; its valence shells are exactly half filled. Compounds of elements with three valence electrons (such as boron) and elements with five valence electrons (such as nitrogen) can act very...

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April 18, 2007

Inulin (The Jerusalem artichoke and the blustery day)

Category: Polymers

Inulin is polymeric fructose:...

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April 17, 2007

Chloranil (Annoying oxidants)

Category: Synthesis

Sorry for the short updates this week! Chloranil is an oxidizing agent. Part of its usefulness comes from its solubility in organic solvent, which you don't see with things like permanganate or H2O2....

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April 16, 2007

MCPBA (Warning: oxidant may be explodey)

Category: Synthesis

Meta-chloroperbenzoic acid is a common organic oxidant used in synthesis. It is popular in part because it is very easy to handle; another common peracid, peracetic acid, is a liquid....

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