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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.

October 30, 2007

Lutein (Halloween Carotene)

Category: Food

Lutein is just another carotenoid - like the previously covered retinal, it is a terpene....

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October 26, 2007

Sodium Amalgam (Mercury is so cool)

Category: Inorganic

Mercury dissolves many metals. Put a little on normally steadfast aluminum and it will slowly eat it away. Mix it with some silver, copper, and other metals, and you've got a dental filling. Mix it with sodium, and you've got...

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October 25, 2007

Didymium (Yes, I just ran through a list of rare earth alloys)

Category: Inorganic

The term "rare earth metal" is a misnomer that's just stuck around. They haven't been rare for years - take this ad material from about 50 years ago at Theodore Gray's excellent Periodic Table Table site....

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October 24, 2007

Niobium-Tin (You'll need some for your homemade NMR)

As I've mentioned several times before, NMR is vital to modern chemistry (and medicine, for that matter)....

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October 23, 2007

Mischmetal (Alloy week!)

Category: Inorganic

Mischmetal is a mixture of a some rare earth metals, mostly cerium and lanthanum. The cerium, when finely divided, is pyrophoric - it burns....

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October 19, 2007

Lewisite (More good common names)

Category: Poisons

Lewisite is nasty stuff - it's a compound of arsenic with two labile chlorines. As I mentioned yesterday, BAL is its antidote....

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October 18, 2007

British Anti-Lewisite (Sometimes the common name is just too cool to pass up)

Category: Medicine

Lewisite is nasty stuff, which I'll cover tomorrow. Tonight, it's an antidote, which is simply the dithio analogue of glycerine. It enjoys the more colorful name of BAL, or British Anti-Lewisite....

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October 17, 2007

Thiophene (Sulfur, not quite stinky)

Category: Synthesis

My boss was, generally, far from cavalier about chemical hazards, but his quips were the best. "You'll get hit by a bus before this stuff gets you." "We all have to go sometime!" Or, when wiping up (gloveless) a concentrated (deep red) ethidium bromide spill, "I'm too old to worry about this intercalator shit!"

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October 12, 2007

Diazolidinyl urea (Keeping your lotion mold-free)

Category: Medicine

Diazolidinyl urea is a broad-spectrum biocide that is ubiquitous in cosmetics:...

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October 11, 2007

DCMU (Who needs electron transport anyway?)

Category: Biology

DCMU is a simple aromatic molecule, and a pretty specific electron acceptor for the photosystem II protein found in plants. What does this mean?...

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