"You're in the limelight"

This phrase is normally said to people who are actors and people who have light shown upon them so they can be seen better by the audience. These lights are the footlights the lights that appear on the bottom of the stage. Before electricity was created in the olden days they used to make footlights by using calcium oxide better known as lime. This was burned with oil and it created a greenish light despite its white color, upon the actors thus causing them to say "hey you were in the lime light." this relates to chemistry because the limelight was made of calcium oxide which is a combination of elements.










http://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/whatischemistry/scienceforkids/articles/chemistry-puts-us-in-the-limelight.pdf

sports and chemistry

The advancements of chemistry have really helped the sports world thrive with new ideas and ways to make the performance of athletes better. Chemists designed fabrics that are synthetic and can help an athlete to either stay drier or swim faster. Also by creating bicycles using lighter metals they are able to make the bicycle faster and more efficient. They would either be made of aluminum, titanium, and other light weight metals rather than steel which they were originally made of. These major advancements and the gaining of knowledge of chemistry make it possible for athletes to make their performance better. This relates to chemistry because it talks about the light weight metals and fabrics made by using certain types of elements to enhance the way that athletes preform





http://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/whatischemistry/scienceforkids/articles/racing-ahead-with-chemistry.pdf

water water water water

Water is great. Not only does it quench your thirst it also is an amazing thing. We've learned that gases are less dense than liquids are less dense solids but water when it solid it floats. It allows fish to live under water and let's ice cubes float in out drinks. Also oil and water do not mix because the water molecules go to combine with the water and the oil molecules go off by themselves so that they can never combine.snowflakes are also very complex. Snowflakes form hexagons because the hydrogen and oxygen molecules form hydrogen bonds and it is easier for them to form hexagons. This relates to chemistry becuase it talks about hydrogen bonds.






http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/articles/article/martinwestwellcolumn5.htm/

My violin sounds good? oh thanks its also over 300 years old!!

Stradivarius violins are violins that have a pristine sound quality and are over 300 years old. Stradivari was a man who made violins in the 1700's. They are the best sounding violins i believe and they cost only over million dollars, nothing much or anything. But yes they have a really really good sound quality (which is probably why they cost so much)  and scientist Nagyvary decide that he wanted to know how Stradivari was able to create such amazing violins with amazing sound quality. People who owned Stradivarius violins were able to give them up in the name of science! Spectroscopy was used by this scientist to seek out the chemical structure of this wood and then he compared it to other violins made in the same time period and the results were shocking. The wood of the Stradivarius violin showed that it had been brutalized chemically, the amount of lignin was really low and hemi-cellulose was greatly damaged. Because of this it changed the acoustics making it sound beautiful. The scientist tried many things evening baking wood to try to get the same results as the Stradivarius wood but it did not work and it seemed like the wood was chemically made different by iron salt or copper salts which increases oxidation. He cannot tell for sure unless he gets more samples of the violin which shouldn't be that difficult since they only cost 5 million dollars. But Nagyvary thinks that Stradivari did not use this to make the violin better but simply preserve it for a long time. But today they have a very nice sound. Since i play violin i know how some can sound good and some can sound not so good. I have not heard a Stradivarius violin for myself because i don't know anyone who has 5 million dollars to spare but i have heard they create a beautiful sound and the chemical structure of it is what causes it.



http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/features/chemistry1/q_subject/21/?tx_naksciarticle_pi1%5Bpage%5D=2&cHash=e30895d197325e7f647192d368d1b8d3

Big foot

Some people believe in Bigfoot. Some people don't. Well some people believe that Bigfoot is not  really a creature but a collective group of people who are creating a large nitrogen footprint. Nitrogen is begin used being used more and more everyday and we are destroying the planet as we continue to use it up. There are two ways in which a person can reduce the amount of Nitrogen they use. First we can reduce the amount of meat we eat. Rather than eating meat on a daily basis we could eat it once a week or twice a week. Meat has protein and the protein we eat provides nitrogen that essentially we put back into the environment. Thus creating more nitrogen in the environment so if we change the amount of times that we eat meat we could lessen the amount of nitrogen that goes into the environment. The second thing we can do is we can save energy. All the energy we use has some kind if nitrogen in it and that is essentially put back into the environment. So we could turn off the lights when we are not using them, and we could unplug things that we are not using and we can simply buy things that are more energy efficient to help with create less of a nitrogen footprint. If a lot of people do these things then we could decrease the amount of nitrogen we release into the environment and i will try to do my best to be more energy efficient and eat less meat.

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/articles/article/bigfoot-the-nitrogen-problem/

Graphene

Graphene is the strongest thinnest material ever. it is light and flexible and has the ability to conduct electricity. Graphene can be used to make space suits and conduct cheaper solar energy. a thin film of copper with big crystallized grains is what researchers found when searching for a growth platform for this subject. the largeness of the crystals help with stand heat which is needed for the graphene to grow. this discovery could help speed up the advancement of electronics creating faster better and smarter computers potential i think. This would also help improve phones and other things as well.



http://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/146127/huge-grains-of-copper-promote-better-graphene-growth.html

Light bounces

Professors at  Tyndall National Institute have been studying how the atom acts when it is hit by short bursts of light. Atom's have a natural vibration and they are excited when they are hit by  beams of light. the x-ray 

laser creates pulses that can capture the atom moving at a billionth of a billionth of a second. this lets the 

scientists to look at an individual atom and how it is affected when light is absorbed. This kind of study has 

never really been done before and this can help with the understanding of photosynthesis and how it can 

possibly increase energy storage if replicated. this is very interesting it did not know that the atoms bounce

when light is added to it



http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131209143311.htm

Burning Plastic

Scientist found that there is a better way to get rid of plastic rather than just filling up land fills with it. Scientist Yiannis Levendis created a way to change combustion so that plastic would just turn in to soot. Even though the plastic cup gave of a lot of smoke the cup was turned into ashes. It could also burn as fuel as cleanly as natural gas. I think it is great that there is a new possible fuel source since we have so much plastic already and we use it every day it could be very useful to us in the future. 

Why is red dark?

The color read used in many painting a long time ago have darkened a lot since the time that they have been painted. Researchers thought otherwise until 2 scientists disapproved the other theory and made their own. The color red contains vermillion which is a made from a mineral called cinnabar. This mineral is made up of mercury sulfade. Researchers showed that when that was exposed to chloride ions such as salt it absorbs causing the mercury to become metallic which is black in color. This was probably what cause the dark color of red paint because it was found in the red paint. I think this was an interesting observation, although i do not go to many art museums i never noticed the color differences from out time to when they painted it.




 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=vermillion-red-paint-darkening-physics   

PLASMA!!!!!

With plasma combustion can last longer and through harsher conditions rather than just regular combustion. This could planes soar at higher altitudes. Scientists do not know exactly what reactions and what species of catalysts are starting to form when plasma is introduced to the regular combustion ingredients. To understand these things better scientists are doing experiments and creating computer models. This could really change things i believe. This finding will help with things that maybe we were not thought possible until now



 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131126134630.htm

Iorn is used to make greener, cheaper, drugs and perfumes

Scientists from Toronto discovered a way to make safer, better catalysis with iron. These catalysts help with the production of alcohol and amines that  help produce alcohol and perfumes.  These productions are usually more environmentally friendly than using any other metals that are toxic. Since iron is the 5th most abundant metal found on the earth it is easier to use it. The metals they used to use were really expensive to obtain and some where toxic. Iron is really inexpensive and can not be toxic. It is good that they are finding ways to make the production of things greener. I think this will really help the environment.

 http://phys.org/news/2013-11-iron-based-greener-cheaper-safer-drug.html

strengthening the bond

Scientist have found out that under very high pressure not only the valiance electron can bond but the inner electrons can bond too. When Fluorine was put under very high pressure along with Cesium not only the outer most electrons started to bond but the inner ones started to bond too. It breaks the rule that states that inner electrons cannot react. They can react and as science advances i believe that we can maybe even be able to see the exact location of an electron if we had the right equipment.




http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=chemical-bonds-inner-shell-electrons

Nano Particles!

Scientists found a way to use nano particles in glass so that it has the same properties as the nano particles. Nano particles are very important and is used in many different ways. They could bring many advancements to the medical optical, and electrical field which would be good. By adding nano particles to glass they could maybe even be able to see into the brain, or use less energy power for light. That way people could study more in depth about the brain while using lower energy light bulbs to help them. With nano particles we could be even more advanced than we are today which would not necessarily be a good thing but it might help that we advance in the medical field maybe.



http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131121103613.htm

Storing Co2 Under Ground

People are saying that it would be good to capture Co2 and place it deep under ground. This idea is a good thing to make the air cleaner and such but it would cost a boat load of money to maintain and start.  Almost 10 billion dollars would be the cost of putting it under ground. The method they would use would be to inject the Co2 into a brine and send that brine under ground. That is what would make up most of the expenses. The storage could also be used to  generate electricity potentially. I feel that this would really help the environment, even though maybe after a while it would have to much of a build up. For now it would be an awesome idea.

Zinc is used to help cure many diseases

Streptococcus pneumoniae is one of the many diseases that cause people to die each year. Researchers published that zinc is used to block a protein channel that is crucial for the bacteria to get magnesium. If the bacteria does not get the magnesium then it cannot survive and will die. Zinc has been used before to prevent infections but this is the first time that scientists have found out that it is very helpful in killing the bacteria. Zinc is very helpful and  maybe it could be used to cure other things as well. This could really be a big break through for the medical industry.  

"peanut" particles.

"peanut" can be used to build micro sized factories. The peanuts are propelled by light and steered by magnets. They are able to carry cargo that is really heavy and transport it. This could also be used to create artificial muscles. These peanut particles are called colloidal particles. This is made from hematite which is a magnetic iron oxide. they can come in many shapes but scientist focused on the peanut ones. To make them respond better to light the scientists etched them and made them have a rough outside. In the experiment the scientists put the particle in a solution with hydrogen peroxide. When a blue light was shined on it they particles got up to the surface. With magnetic fields they were able to steer the particle in the direction they wanted to go. The scientists said that when the light was shined the hydrogen peroxide turned into water and oxygen creating unbalanced osmotic pressure which makes a flow that propels the particle. This could potentially be used to make robotic arms and other machines to be used in factories.      

aluminum is really important

Aluminum is really important to many things that we do in our every day lives. It is almost as important as iron. Aqueous aluminum is also used in many things as well. Professors of Oregon state university or the university of Oregon have found a way to study aqueous aluminium. It is the most abundant metal in the earth's crust but it is usually never found in its natural state. One thing they found  was that it can be used for solar energy and such things. Researchers say that "green" could be less costly because of this. thus making solar panels and other earth friendly things affordable for a school or a home owner to buy and then save money for themselves.

Materials are recycled to make tv's and other devices.

Tv's and other electronic devices such as cellphones and car batteries require a special type of rare earth metal. They are plentiful but some are in short in supply. Scientist have found a way to recycle these earth metals. Scientist have tried to recycle them before but it is very difficult and can cost a lot of money because some metals are really soft and they get diluted into the waste water, which is where they recycle it from. Scienitsts knew that nano-Mg(OH)2 was used to take out dyes and metals from water before so they decided to try it with the rare earth metals as well. When they tried it they found out that it was able to capture 85% of the metal. If the continue to use this there would be many benefits economically, as well as in other was. I never knew that a compound would be able to capture metals from inside an object. That is very interesting.  

New Barrier for Electronics

Scientists in Georgia created film that can help electronics such as phones. This barrier will protect the phone even if it is submerged in water. Some of the barriers today have tiny holes that could possibly let in oxygen or water thus damaging the product. Many high performance barrier films use sputter deposition or plasma enhanced chemical deposition, but the new product uses atomic layer deposition. The other methods need to put multiple layers to make it a better barrier. The atomic layer barrier gives scientists more control so that they can control the substance up to the molecular level and there only needs to be a thin coat because they can do so.  The scientists surround a substrate that contains a particular metal with a gas and it forms a layer of atom. The excess gas is removed and then another gas is added that oxidizes the metal and it forms a metal oxide that is a barrier to water or air and they do that a desired amount of times and then the barrier is created. This barrier could help people who are prone to dropping their phone in water or dropping it in general (like me..). This is a really awesome product  believe.  

Florescence is used to detect finger prints

In many crime scenes the finger prints are sometimes hard to see. But scientist have figures out a way in which  a finger print becomes florescent  and much easier to see. They did have a way to make it florescent before but it was very dangerous and it needed to be done in fume cupboards. But scientist have come across that hurdle. Scientist from Laboratoire de Photophysique et Photochimie Supramoléculaire et Macromoléculaire (CNRS/ENS Cachan), in partnership with the specialized firm Crime Scene Technology where able to combine cyanoacrylate with Tetrazine and then it would be put onto the fingerprint, then using uv light the finger print would be more visible and police officers would be able to take photographs. It requires less cost and time which is good. That is cool that they where able to come up with a way to do that.  

Chlorine Good or Bad??

Although chlorine is used to disinfect water studies have shown to increase the rate of bladder cancer and miscarriages  for pregnant women. This study has made many facilities stop using it. Other facilities started to use an ammonia diluted version of chlorine called chloramine. In Washington D.C. the use of that resulted in lead in the drinking water. It is not completely clear whether the effects of going with chlorine or leaving it behind are going to cause new problems. Chlorine stops Microbes. Microbes are usually more prevalent in water with organic matter the chlorine mixes with that and creates a disinfectant. It is expensive ti have chlorine do its full job so many industries just add ammonia before adding chlorine to speed up the reaction time. But that resulted in chloramine.  Washington Aqueduct added  orthophosphate to the drinking water and now the lead levels are way less. But the less use of chlorine reduces the amount of chemicals that go into the other water environments. I never even knew chlorine was used to disinfect water. I never really knew why we had to use a filter when drinking water but now I see that it helps get rid of all the bad stuff that is stuck in the pipes where the water comes from. 

Super antioxidant is created!

Scientist at Rice University where able to create Super antioxidant. A scientist Vicki Colvin lead a team that created small spheres of cerium oxide and then coated them with a fatty oleic acid. This discovery can potentially help cure Alzheimer's disease, brain trauma, cardiac arrest, and can also help cancer patients from the side affects of radiation. It could also protect astronauts from long term radiation in space. Cerium oxide contains nano crystals which can absorb and release oxygen ions, and the scientist made it small enough to be injected into the blood stream so if organs need protection from oxidation  it could be used. Essentially the next step they need to do is attach antibodies to this so that it will be attracted to a certain cell in the body. Colvin is especially happy to help the cancer patients. Helping cancer patients in even a small way is good I think because even if we cannot cure cancer yet, the patients should still be helped in some way. Also if it protects astronauts from radiation maybe we could go farther into space. That would be cool.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131015123700.htm

Nobel Peace Prize Awarded

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the organization that has tryed to stop chemical warfare in Syria. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons led the international charge to try to ban chemical weapons from Syria. Because of their continous efforts to try to help Syria they received the award. Some chemicals are really explosive and they use those to make these chemical weapons that kill many people including very innocent ones. I believe they do deserve the award because if their continuing efforts. 


http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nobel-peace-prize-2013-chemical-weapons

Names Where Recently Proposed For Elements 114 and 116

Flerovium (Fl) and Livermorium (Lv) where the two names that where proposed for elements 114 and 116. The name makers of the element wanted to give the people a chance to comment on the names before they where officially put into the periodic table of elements. The people who named the elements had only named 114 elements up to that point and they have strict rules about the element and if one name is rejected then it cannot be used as a name for another element. Livermorium was named after the city it was found in and Flerovium was named to honor Georgi N. Flerov. People have made other suggestions for other elements so this time they where also given the opportunity to do the same. I do not understand why they have to pick such complicated names they could just say liver or flerov instead of adding the rest. It probably has something to do with the element itself I guess.

2013 Noble Prize Goes To......

2013 Noble goes to 3 chemists who where able to  predict chemical reactions and model them on a computer.Martin Karplus of Harvard University and the Universite de Strasbourg in France; Michael Levitt of the Stanford University School of Medicine and Arieh Warshel of the University of Southern California these three scientists who used a lot of computer power to show for example who an electron from the catalyst of an enzyme can jump from chemists don't only have to experiment in real life they can also experiment in cyberspace as well. This can help many other pharmacutical companies when they are making drugs and other substances to help the sick. As technology is growing everything is being turned into some type of computerized mechanism that makes things a lot faster. This could be both bad and good. Good because it can help with many problems such as finding a cure for a so far uncurable disease like cancer, but it can also be bad because what if one da someone creates a completly intelligent mechanism and the take over the world that would be so bad. But anyway for now it should help in scientific research.



http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=2013-chemistry-nobel-for-molecule-computer-models

Another Material Harder than Diamonds

Diamonds have been the hardest material for the longest time but scientists have been experimenting with substances and they've found a new material that is harder than diamonds. They used a lot of pressure to create this new material. The scientists first started with a carbon molecule called fullerenes. Which contains 60 carbon atoms and it resembles the shape of a soccer ball if everything was drawn out. Then they add xylene which is a liquid and it keeps the ball shaped molecules a certain distance apart. They then added a diamond anvil which is two small pieces of polished flat diamonds. The diamond anvils exerted a lot of pressure and the fullerene cages collapsed creating a very hard substance. When they took the diamond anvils out I looked like the diamonds where chipped. Although it did chip the diamond piece it could be softer than the diamond but there are only small samples of the new material. They should make more and if it looks shiny it could be made into jewelry as well like the diamond and it should be really notexpensive that way people who can not afford diamonds would be able to buy something better than that for cheaper.....I doubt that's going to happen....



http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2012/10/harder-than-diamonds/

Neutrons Fall of Ice!

 Malcolm Guthrie of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and colleagues found out that if you squeeze ice hard enough the protons in the ice would fall of. They looked at ice while it was compressed between diamond anvil cells which had the pressure of 55 gigapascals and under those conditions they saw that the protons drifted away. When they drifted away they filled in the spaces between the molecules. The stray protons might have something to do with the inner parts of icy plants such as Uranus and Neptune. It had been said before that the ice might go to a super ionic stage in which there are mobile hydrogen atoms that can support protein currents and can give of a magnetic field. Now with what the scientists have learned the manner of that could be different than what was thought and it could be at a lower temperature. Scientists used to think that the molecules in ice would go closer together under high pressure, but what really happens is that the hydrogen bonds equally to the oxygen and the molecule becomes divided. Guthrie says that they protons detach from the original cell under much less pressure and it just falls into the cavities in between the molecules. Protons can fall of ice. That's a weird thing because you normally would not think that hey could. I never knew they could. Could protons fall off of other things as well??? Maybe scientists can find out. 





http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/06/magnetic-proton-soup-ice-gas-giant

Rare Earth Metals in Your Phones, Laptops and Ipods??

In your cell phones, laptops, ipods there are tiny bits of what scientists call  "rare earth metals". The elements themselves are not really rare just the places they are found so many people are worried that there might not be enough to keep our electronics running. The rare earth metals are the 17 elements found on the bottom of the periodic table. They were first discovered in the 18th century as an oxidized mineral and it took them a while to separate the mineral and find the element. They are silvery, shiny metals that are good conductors of electricity which is probably why they are used in phones and other electronic devices. China currently mines 97% of the supply of "rare earth metals" and once they stopped production of the elements for one month and America wants to find more supply of that element so they do not have to rely on China. Miners have found supplies of the metal in California and in Nebraska. I never knew that there are "rare earth metals " in the some of the things we use daily. We definitely take things for granted when it comes to things like this. So much goes into making electronics and we do not even realize  it. We really need those elements to make our electronics work so I'm hoping they find more of it in America.




http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters/news/rare-earths.html

Atomic Weights Have Been Revised

The International Unit of Pure and Applied Chemistry have found new atomic masses for 19 different elements. As technology is advancing the scientists are able to figure out more in depth things about different elements. The 19 elements have either gained or lost weight. The atomic mass was thought to be a stable weight but as they find new sources of the element the ratio between the isotopes change. The latest weight change had been for the elements selenium and molybdenum. Selenium gained .011 atomic mass units and Molybdenum has lost.01 atomic mass units. As technologies increase the periodic table might change drastically. Scientists might find something different that just has to be on the periodic table. Things are changing really quickly!



http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/09/element-weights-redefined

New Element To Join The Periodic Table! (Maybe)

Scientists have found a new element that has 115 protons in it. That is so awesome!! It can fill in the space between the elements that have 114 and 116 which were only found last year. So it is amazing how the scientists where able to find the 115th element, which has not been named yet, in a year. The element was first found 10 years ago by a Russian and an American scientist. But the people who decide what goes in the periodic table said that they had to wait for another scientist to do the same experiment to officially publish the element. A Swedish University, in August, finally announced that they had duplicate the experiment . The scientist said that they also saw the element 113 when they preformed the experiment, which was said to have existed before. They created the element by shooting calcium into a target that contained americium atoms and then the calcium and americium merged at one point and created the element 115 but it fell apart in less than a second. They were able to determine that the element existed from the debris it left and they also took an x-ray while the element was decaying, which showed that element had 115 protons once again. Some of the elements on the periodic table are man made and they are still have not put the 115th element up yet. Why not? Two groups of scientists have already found it so why is it not up yet.? I think that they should just put the element up after all the hard work that people did to find it after 10 years!! what if it gets rejected I would feel so bad. But anyway it is good that they found it. Maybe some day scientists can find an element that has 200 protons, if that is possible.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/28/science/made-in-lab-fleeting-element-may-join-periodic-table.html?ref=chemistry&_r=0

Table Salt Turns Blue!

Scientist are closer to finding out how salt gets crystallized when it comes out the water. Scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have found a way to alter the electronic structure which is bringing us closer to figuring out how salt crystallizes. NaCl, also known as table salt, it comes out of water it crystallizes and then it shows a blue glow which means that's the electron structure is changing which is not what was believed generally. Scientists say that if any kind of light or luminescence is omitted then there is some change in the electron structure. Also another team of scientists at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center wanted to check to see if the water molecules and ions with the NaCl were what they were expected to be. They used an aqueous solution which is a solution in which water is more dominant. As they did their experiment they found out that the ions where not equal or opposite to each other. The water was acting as an electronic sink because the chloride ions ended up around the water molecules and it created a shell around the sodium and chloride, and the water around the sodium ions is most negative. The final thing is to find out how long the fields, how to create them, and to measure the energy gaps between the excited electronic states. First of all I did not know table salt came straight from the water, and I'm amazed at how much work nature puts in to make it. It is like mind boggling how much we do not understand goes on into making something we use everyday, like table salt. It is so cool how the scientists are so close to figuring out how salt does crystallize. Also I did not know that salt glows blue and that I can glow blue due to the electron changes but it is still amazing.

http://phys.org/news/2013-09-strong-simple-table-salt.html