General Chemistry Thread

Talk about chemistry here.

Because hey, we have a thread for physics and medicine, so this has been long time coming.

Out of the recent news, well, at least ones that I could understand, here's an NYT article on molecular compression(?). Quoting the article:

I don't understand the full implication of this, but that sounds interesting, all right.

Opened.

I got my degree in chemistry, but as life would have it, 90% of what I do is biology- and entomology-based with only basic bench-level chemistry skill needed.

We already had a Chemistry thread, it just wasn't active for a while now.

Personally, I started studying chemistry but I stopped when I couldn't deal with the labwork.

Milestone in chemical studies of superheavy elements: Superheavy element and carbon atom bonded for first time

Lego-like modular components make building 3-D 'labs-on-a-chip' a snap

A while ago, I finished watching Breaking Bad (a great series, btw), and it got me wondering:

Is it possible to make medicine out of explosives?

Some explosives are medicine, if I am not mistaken — for instance, nitroglycerin is sometimes used as a heart medicine (in very small amounts, I imagine).

edited 23rd Sep '14 11:16:42 PM by Carciofus

Yes, several compounds (such as the abovementioned nitroglycerine) can be both explosives and medicines.

But they're rare. Drug discovery chemist Derek Lowe reckons that these days regulatory bodies take a dim view of explosive medication and that nitroglycerin had to be grandfathered in as an exception.

Oh yeah, nitroglycerin, I remember that one.

So it's possible for something to be both medicine and explosive.

Now I have another question.

Is it possible to make a narcotics out of explosives?

Dinitrogen monoxide from ammonium nitrate. Also, ethanol from ethene.

Researchers elucidate how a nitrogen-fixing enzyme also produces hydrocarbons

Researchers discover a way to tease oxygen molecules from carbon dioxide

Two Americans, one German win Chemistry Nobel for giving microscope sharper vision

How implausible would it be for a 19 year old, talented as that might person be in chemistry, to have enough chemical knowledge to comprehend a relatively simple recipe for a designer drug and successfully recreate it?

If there is a recipe, pretty plausible. Creating moderately complex chemicals what I did in college as part of the college courses (not drugs of course, but the difference doesn't matter) when I was 19.

edited 12th Oct '14 2:05:10 PM by SeptimusHeap

Ah, I see.

Hell, quite a few highschool chemistry classes have synthesizing aspirin as a project.

That sounds neat!

The Chemistry of Pizza

Here's a not so fun joke about chemistry:

Step 1: Say there's an dihydrogen monoxide outbreak in a given area.

Step 2: Mention that said "chemical" is severely toxic.

Step 3: Enjoy the chaos as people Google search the term.

Step 4: Get called out on your joke.

That is so old, it's got a set of family albums the thickness of The Wheel Of Time in carbon-capture form.

Still works though

I'm an English major and even I wouldn't fall for that. Then again, with sufficient acting...

By the way, a random question.

In the context of chemistry, what does "changing property" entail?

Try telling that to Lee County

And a change in physical property is an change in the object's state of matter or appearance. Where an change in chemical property affects the composition of said object

edited 30th Apr '15 5:58:15 PM by RabidTanker