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.
Certain compounds occur as "hydrates"; that is, with one or more molecules of water. Sometimes there is just water trapped in the crystal structure at a specific stoichiometry (i.e., creatine), sometimes the water is actually covalently incorporated into the molecule,...
As I've discussed in the past, certain dyes can detect radiation, stain DNA, sense solvent polarity, or (in olden times!) color the Chicago River green. This one can make a laser!...
I posted Sunday and last year about the putative use of fluoresciein in the Chicago river on St. Patrick's day. As some readers pointed out, they apparently aren't using it anymore....
Edit: Looks like I might be off on this. CNN has a clip in the rotation right now about the yearly tradition of dying the Chicago river green for St. Patrick's day. They're saying it's a "secret orange dye." Well,...
Wow, sorry. I pretty much missed a whole week there. A consolation Friday entry coming up, but first, if you enjoyed Breaking Bad, you might enjoy Trampled Underfoot, the autobiographical blog of Todd Hall, a chef in the Southwestern US....
Flavylium is an unusual heterocycle - it has a trivalent oxygen atom. These tend to be quite reactive - trialkyloxoniums, some of the most potent alkylating agents, contain them....
As I mentioned in the previous entries on HF, mercury fulminate, and phosphine, I really like Breaking Bad. As an astute commenter noted yesterday, they sometimes make some mistakes:...