4.3.2. day in the life of a chemist-en-2.1. project n. 129193-cp-1-2006-1-de–comenius–c21 1 a...

1 4.3.2. Day in the Life of a chemist-EN-2.1. Project N. 129193-CP-1-2006-1-DE–COMENIUS–C21

A blogged complaint

Vor einer Weile hab ich mich, trübsalblasend, darüber beschwehrt, dass niemand[2] mehr interesse an Chemie hat. Die Medien ignorieren uns. Ich habe eine sterbende Wissenschaft studiert. Et cetera. SO hatte Mitleid mit mir und hat mir exact ausgelegt das ”alles ist Chemie, es heißt nur anders.” Wir haben eine Liste gemacht und mein lieblings Euphemismus war Materialdesign. Ehrlich, welche Werkzeuge willst du verwenden um ein Material zu designen, wenn nicht die der Chemie. Siehste?!Egal, ich möchte euch eine schöne letzte Woche vor den Ferien wünschen (wenn ihr welche habt) und ich möchte bekanntgeben das ich nicht mehr Chemikerin bin sondern ein “molecular designer, the profession formerly known as chemist” .... www.hdreioplus.de/wordpress/?tag=Chemistry


Thank you for inviting me


Selling Chemistry With a Sample Case- Chemists see molecules dance -

Leo Gros Europa Fachhochschule Fresenius Idstein Germany


Can we sell chemistrywithout being spectacular?

We have to, because chemistry needs imagination (Huisgen)– let us nourish it!


What is the difference between chemists and all other people?

Chemists see molecules bounce, run, collide – and dance where and when other people see everyday life – or nothing...

Let us accompany a chemist during a normal day – with a chemist‘s eyes and brains8 observations wait for us


1. Early morning: The alarm clock rings

A „digital display“ shows him/her the hour


Intervention from industry

„It is most astonishingly the high „technology content“ of everyday life that decreases interest in technical studies: everybody can operate a mobile phone or an MP3 – but few have an idea how it works. Technology becomes self-understood, and at the same time a black box.“

Volker Brenneke, Bildungsabteilung VDI , Interview in DER SPIEGEL 50/2006


An unexpected observation

.... which we can now share


1970: A patent

.... and a publication: M. Schadt, W. Helfrich, Voltage Dependent Optical Activity of

a Twisted Nematic Liquid Crystal Appl. Phys. Lett. 19, 127 (1971)


Chemists see molecules dance


.... and a rubber band stretches

2. The chemist gets out of his pyjamas....


This is what the chemist sees.....


.... and this is what became an unexpected toy invention

Early in World War II, James Wright was working in General Electric's New Haven, Connecticut labs, under a government contract to create an inexpensive substitute for synthetic rubber. One day in 1943, Wright happened to drop boric acid into silicone oil, and was astonished to find that the resultant goo would stretch and bounce further than rubber, even at extreme temperatures. In addition, the substance would copy any newspaper or comic-book print that it touched.

... which we will now observe in action... and observe further


3. An apple for breakfast –

and simplified view of a brilliant mind

Szent-Györgyi (1925) – observation/ideas:

patient -------------------- brown skin(adrenalopathy)

polyphenol oxidase

apple ------------------------ apple (just cut) (brown)

citrus fruit juice

apple ------//------------ apple (just cut) acids (brown)

.... which we can share today


.... and his words in the Nobel Lecture 1937


„It was an acid, it seemed to be derived from an unknown sugar which I called „Ignose“ , the substance itself I called „Ignosic acid“. But the editor of the journal to whom I sent my publication did not like what he called a joke and rejected the name. „Godnose“ was not successful either, therefore we agreed that the child ought to be baptised hexuronic acid. Later on, with advanced knowledge about the structure, it had to be renamed hastily and now it is called ascorbic acid (sometimes Vitamin-C-acid), since it is identical to Vitamin C and prevents scurvy. That's how I became a father without having intended it, father of the Vitamin C.“

... as a chemist, he tries to isolate an active substance….


http://www.gartendatenbank.de/photo/2004012583

http://www.fao.org/ag/Ags/agsi/ENZYMEFINAL/Enzymatic%20Browning.html#ASCORB

This is how chemists see the action of lemon juice:

….ascorbic acid inhibits polyphenoloxidase


A Nobel Prize Winner’s conclusion


4. Chicken soup for lunch ….

www.schule-bw.de/unterricht/faecher/biologie/archiv/tiere/voegel/Huhn2.jpg/view

the chemist as a food detective


Simple forensic chemistry


This is how chemists describe the phenomenon of the red light:

http://www.ieap.uni-kiel.de/plasma/ag-stroth/lehre/physik/HTML/f40_08.html


http://lims.uni-duisburg.de/Lehre/Material/PMAll/vorproben.pdf

Based on this phenomenon, Bunsen and Kirchhoff developed an analytical technique: flame emission spectroscopy


This is how chemists measure calcium in blood or soil samples


5. Lemonade in the afternoon - and three times

NaHCO3 + C6H8O7 → NaC6H7O7 + H2O + CO2

H3O+ + HCO3- → H2CO3 + H2O → CO2 + 2 H2O

• Brause (sherbet)• Schorle (spritzer)• baking powder

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brausepulver

…chemists recognize the „underlying principles“ and thus classify, i.e. simplify

effervescence …..


.... and understand stalactite and scale formation as well


6. Evening meal with healthy garlic – and a story taking place at the Auer Dult near Munich

http://www.gartendatenbank.de/photo/2004012583

Observe with me the wonderful anti-poison activity of garlic extract – and of wine!


http://www.uni-bayreuth.de/departments/ddchemie/umat/knoblauch/knoblauch.htm#1

That’s only one feature of the „chemistry“ of garlic

Alliin ((+)-(S)-Allyl-L-cysteinsulfoxid)

Alliin Allylsulfensäure alpha-Aminoacrylsäure

Allylsulfensäure Allicin


http://www.chemie.uni-greifswald.de/~analytik/Lehre/Schr%F6der/Quanti/Wasserg%FCte.pdf

An example of a chemical reaction using permanganate:

(Determination of oxalic acid)


Water pollution in the Elbe river at the beginning of the 20th century.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/k85400x365p3q37h/fulltext.pdf


A very recent publication tells us more…

Here we show that human RBCs convert garlic-derived organic polysulfides into hydrogen sulfide (H2S), an endogenous cardioprotective vascular cell signaling molecule…. The vasoactivity of garlic compounds is synchronous with H2S production, and their potency to mediate relaxation increases with H2S yield, strongly supporting our hypothesis that H2S mediates the vasoactivity of garlic.

Gloria A. Benavides et al., http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0705710104v1


7. Evening pleasure: the chemist takes a bath…

http://www.uni-essen.de/chemiedidaktik/S+WM/NachteileSeife/Wasserh.htm

...and has to clean the tub like everyone else…

...observes dirty whitish flakes on the bathtub surface after letting the water go down the drain…


…but he or she sees the molecules dance…

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenside


This way chemists see surfactant salts:

--

Ca 2+


8. The chemist‘s baby needs diapers...


Not a secret: diapers contain an astonishing powder.....

The super-absorbent – a white powder

Super-absorbent particles before (left) and after absorbing water

1g of polymer absorbs up to 1000g of water


Chemists must see molecules

CH2 CH2

C O

O-

[ ]n

Na+

H2O

CH2 CH2

C O

O-

[ ]n + Na+


Imagination – a professor’s imagination – is it true that molecules dance?


http://www.physics.ubc.ca/~stm/news0229.pdf


How chemists see the world

… they see molecules dancing where other people see nothing

…and that is our benefit:

We understand our world better – we can make substances, transfer and measure them – and we learn about dangers and benefits of

our actions


I thank my students, here represented by

Sascha and Noreen, 3rd semester


Limits and Dreams

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be

taught.

Oscar Wilde (The Critic as Artist)

* You see things and say: “Why?”

But I dream things and say “Why not?”

G.B. Shaw, John Bull’s Other Ireland(on a poster in Dublin airport)


Can we teach without being spectacular?

Yes, we can, we must inspire imagination....


„Die große Regel: Wenn Dein Bißgen an sich nichts Sonderbares ist, so sag es wenigstens ein bißgen sonderbar!“

G.C. Lichtenberg (Sudelbücher E [243])

The golden rule: If your bits and pieces have nothing special, then at least present them in a special way!

4.3.2. day in the life of a chemist-en-2.1. project n. 129193-cp-1-2006-1-de–comenius–c21 1 a...

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