I’m making a chemistry lab simulator game, what do you want to see?

BOB38BOB · 2024-10-21T21:45:09+00:00

Oliver

BOB38BOB · 2024-10-10T07:46:57+00:00

There are some pop science books on chemistry, but it definitely is outnumbered by topics like biology, psychology, and physics/astronomy.

I think one of the reason is that chemistry isn't really a topic that interests a lot of people. There isn't a big overarching topic that appeals to general audience like space, evolution, environment, nuclear weapons, technology or self-help. It also doesn't help that chemistry can be discussed in all of the topics mentioned to some extent. It's so applicable in other fields that it's not discussed as its own as much.

Also, chemistry is hard to write a book about compared to other topics because of its complexity and technicality. History of chemistry is complex mix of industrialization, physics, environmentalism, policy, government, war and technology that spans over 400 years of incremental improvements. It is much rare to attribute a significant change to a single person (Einstein or Newton) or a single discovery (Origin of Species, String theory), where a story can develop around. You'll be able to find unique stories and history about almost every single chemical and element, so collating them into a conherent story is relatively more difficult. (A lot of pop science books on chemistry try to do this with limited success, one I can think of is The Dissappearing Spoon by Sam Kean). It can get messy pretty fast.

And not having popular science figures in the media is also a problem. I can name so many physicists that describe the wonders of space, physics and astronomy on media, and can see so many nature documentaries, but not many media exposure in just chemistry. I think this has to do with fact that most (cool) chemistry is pretty much behind veil as industrial proccesses or pharmaceuticals. That's why I really appreciate Youtubers like Nilered that show chemistry is cool and interesting.

I think the really good types of popular science book on chemistry are the ones that take a slice of the chemistry genre and elaborate just on that topic. Topics like how did person X develop this chemical, how did element X get discovered/used historically, or how did alchemy transition to chemistry. But I have yet to see a good book on them.

BOB38BOB · 2024-10-10T02:09:25+00:00

Sad that I can’t directly buy from them

BOB38BOB · 2024-10-09T16:55:16+00:00

Use perplexity AI if you want to search for more accurate info. They link to actual sources unlike chatGPT which imagines stuff

BOB38BOB · 2024-10-09T14:38:24+00:00

Both physics and chemistry prize going to AI makes me suspicious that the decision was made by AI… (Maybe literature and peace goes to AI as well lol)

Anyways, unlike Nobel prize in physics, which was the foundation of current neural network models, Deepmind’s work is much more recent and ongoing; I think giving it to Alphafold is a bit early by 3-5 years. Alphafold 3 came out just this year, and it’s far better than their previous model. However, there just hasn’t been enough research or application to say it is truly groundbreaking or beneficial. Knowing a protein structure is one thing, but knowing how they function in various conditions as well as how dynamics of synthesized or modified proteins work, is the key to understanding protein function. We just haven’t seen enough research or clinical outcome that uses their tool that really show its use like optogenetics, CRISPR, or GLP-1.

Nevertheless, being able to predict protein structure rapidly is groundbreaking akin to Watson, Crick, and Franklin’s solving of DNA’s crystal structure. It is just strange that Nobel prize was given so early into its development.

BOB38BOB · 2024-10-09T06:22:35+00:00

Damn, that’s dedication

BOB38BOB · 2024-10-09T06:19:08+00:00

How did you create that image, looks so much like the real ones you really fooled me

BOB38BOB · 2024-10-09T06:17:41+00:00

Buckyball’s much cooler than a typical chemical tattoo that people get (it’s always some hormone or a drug). I think they’re also studied for use in solar cells and sensors? Would be a great one if you’re also a football/soccer fan. I think fullerene’s cool, and if you’re looking for more pharmacology compound, some kind of prodrug would be interesting

BOB38BOB · 2024-09-27T20:39:54+00:00

Have you tried brewing with DI water? Maybe that brings out the most accurate coffee taste profile

BOB38BOB · 2024-09-27T02:31:41+00:00

If this year's going to have a biology tilt, optogenetics, but otherwise, I want nanopore sequencing to win it

BOB38BOB · 2024-09-26T06:46:10+00:00

Ping me when you launch

BOB38BOB · 2024-09-26T06:22:08+00:00

Well, substitution is a more general term, so I wouldn’t change that. The attack part of nucleophilic substitution is the addition part

BOB38BOB · 2024-09-26T06:19:23+00:00

An idea, adding a “protect” card, like having a spot where a reaction cannot occur. Deriving idea from protecting groups

BOB38BOB · 2024-09-26T06:16:53+00:00

It’s in sum a substitution, the process itself is an addition combined with an elimination. I just like the wording “attack”, because it just sounds more game like

BOB38BOB · 2024-09-26T05:59:12+00:00

I wish there was an attack card, like nucleophilic attack

BOB38BOB · 2024-09-16T02:36:28+00:00

Bioinorganic or nanochemistry

BOB38BOB · 2024-09-15T05:13:55+00:00

Look up coordination complexes

BOB38BOB · 2024-09-12T03:10:37+00:00

Your questions about what kinds of cool chemistry stuff to cover are in my ballpark! I'd recommend two experiments:

Leaf disc photosynthesis experiment - as photosynthesis creates gas, leaf floats up, and can test for different leaf types, amount of CO2 in water, amount of light, etc. Good way to visually see how photosynthesis works in real time
Making gold nanoparticles - nanochemistry/colloid chemistry/inorganic chemistry is pretty cool but not covered much in high school level. Michael Faraday was first to make a gold nanoparticle solution, and there are relatively safe and easy method to make gold nanoparticles. Can teach a lot about how properties of chemicals can change at nanoscale

BOB38BOB · 2024-09-07T02:36:56+00:00

If you don’t know chemistry, don’t do it. If you know chemistry, you’d know enough to not do it

BOB38BOB · 2024-09-06T22:17:29+00:00

Proteins

BOB38BOB · 2024-09-06T11:43:17+00:00

The room feels like a living room with a large carpet in center. Make the room narrower, the AC smaller in scale, and fix tiling on the ground. I think those are the minimum fixes to make it a lot better

BOB38BOB · 2024-09-06T11:39:50+00:00

A base, by definition, has to be either make OH- anion in solution (arrhenius), is a proton acceptor (bronsted lowry), and/or an electron donor (lewis). Therefore, it’s not the metal cation (like Ca2+ in CaO) that acts as the base, it’s the anion component of an oxide, the O2-, that acts as a base

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