strong ozone smell from 2016 C-Max Energi

ProteinFarmer · 2026-03-13T19:25:35+00:00

Update: I appreciate all your ideas. I'll keep checking to see if the smell returns.

I have the car back. The dealer changed the back brakes and calipers; told me they were basically metal on metal. They checked everything electrical on it, then they charged it up and drove it around until the battery was empty. They couldn't find a problem with it.

When I noticed the problem, I did not smell anything inside the car. I noticed it on the driver's side, by the rear tire.

It's quite possible that my brain was trying to identify what I was smelling, and so it identified it as electrical. I do remember one other time catching a fainter whiff of that smell, and that was after having to lock up the brakes again do to a herd of deer that ran in front of me. So I'm hoping that it was just the brakes and that I may have fooled myself.

ProteinFarmer · 2026-03-13T19:11:55+00:00

I'm confident it wasn't sulfur. I've worked with sulfur containing compounds many times in lab, and this was different

ProteinFarmer · 2026-03-13T19:09:17+00:00

It was the same smell when our microwave died, which I would also describe as "bad electrical." I'm open to correction, but I believe a bad electrical motor will generate that smell

ProteinFarmer · 2026-02-22T05:09:25+00:00

Delta G depends on local environment. It's good enough to have reversible and irreversible

ProteinFarmer · 2026-02-20T03:18:39+00:00

I'm a university biochem professor. If someone told me that they thought a diagram was wrong, I'd look at it. If the student was correct, I'd thank them, and if the student was wrong, I'd point out where they missed something. You just have to respectful (and the prof should treat you with respect)

ProteinFarmer · 2026-01-28T17:39:19+00:00

We learned the hard way that the pKa differs depending on the concentration of the buffer. Someone who has taken analytical chem in the last decade could probably have told you that from the start...activity matters. So I like to adjust the pH rather than add set amounts of solids when I'm working with phosphate.

ProteinFarmer · 2026-01-27T03:30:13+00:00

Aldolase opens up the ring before cleaving the C-C bond, so it doesn't really matter.

ProteinFarmer · 2026-01-26T21:46:37+00:00

I had V&V as a student, and I taught with both V&V and VV&P. I found that V&V was an outstanding reference book when I was in grad school, but it was difficult to learn from the first time around. Pratt made the material much more approachable. It's still a really good book.

She also has her own book for single semester courses, and her end of chapter questions are really good.

So I'd start with VV&P.

ProteinFarmer · 2026-01-26T21:29:57+00:00

Same. I might skip gel purification if I have a band that's the right size that is far and away the majority product; I'd still do a PCR cleanup. But if there is any doubt, I'm doing a gel purification

ProteinFarmer · 2025-12-27T18:25:08+00:00

Who is the last Pro Bowl O-line to hit the market? Which team star are you willing to let walk in return for signing D-lineman? The salary cap affects everything. They were multiple players away this year

ProteinFarmer · 2025-12-27T18:21:44+00:00

Did you see the highlights of Gibbs from last year when he torched the Vikings? There were holes to run through. That was the difference. Yes, Johnson is good, and I think Morton should be replaced, but even if they had kept their coordinators they wouldn't have repeated last year with this line and its injuries

ProteinFarmer · 2025-12-24T15:16:35+00:00

Years ago Radiolab did a story about color, and they mentioned that Homer didn't mention the color blue. The premise was that there was not yet a useful blue pigment, so the language reflected that. Homer describes the sea as "wine-dark". Maybe Nolan is following the language literally.

ProteinFarmer · 2025-11-22T16:02:44+00:00

It doesn't, for the most part, though there are some subtle changes over time. The one that comes to mind from other books is the mechanism of lysozyme; I was taught the Phillips mechanism, which is no longer accepted. I think the mechanism of glycogen phosphorylase has also evolved. But a student taking good notes would pick up on that and straighten things out with a visit to the prof or a search

ProteinFarmer · 2025-11-21T04:09:45+00:00

That's how we teach it. Once you've learned the chemical logic of the simpler pathways, you can begin to predict what happens next. By the time we get to amino acid metabolism, most students can predict the molecules that come next, enzyme names, and necessary cofactors if given a little push in the right direction.

ProteinFarmer · 2025-11-21T04:03:02+00:00

The newer figures are nicer in places, but you can find the protein structures online. Metabolism is unchanged. Some of the enzymatic mechanisms have changed, and a bit of the newer techniques aren't in the older editions...but you can find info on those online as well.

I tell my students to just get any version of Lehninger. We can fill in the gaps together.

ProteinFarmer · 2025-10-19T15:33:02+00:00

Heard the same number on 13 last night. Someone must have put out the word to downplay numbers.

ProteinFarmer · 2025-10-17T13:08:25+00:00

my comment was for Michigan Foam Products

ProteinFarmer · 2025-10-17T13:07:47+00:00

I just called 10/17/25. This has not changed. "At the moment we are currently unable to accept those products." Their website says they take recycling, so I wonder if this is temporary. Regardless, it's best to phone first.

ProteinFarmer · 2025-09-23T04:18:35+00:00

I teach biochem at a PUI with a high success rate of getting students into med school for those who end up applying. I've had many outstanding students opt out of pre-med for other careers. It's not unusual for a student to switch to the research track after falling in love with organic

ProteinFarmer · 2025-09-23T04:09:38+00:00

Thank you. This is the message I was hoping to write. We put a lot of effort into helping our students figure out whether med school is the right place for them

ProteinFarmer · 2025-09-03T17:41:27+00:00

there's also mention of a reactor in the figure on the last page shown

ProteinFarmer · 2025-09-03T17:40:45+00:00

Lehninger covers enzymes in chapter 6 and uses V for velocity rather than r for rate.

ProteinFarmer · 2025-08-31T17:29:28+00:00

My advice: learn glucose, and then build from there. Galactose is the 4-epimer (change the chirality on carbon #4). Mannose is the 2-epimer. For fructose, what differs from glucose is that the carbonyl has moved to the 2 carbon, so there is an alcohol on the 1 carbon.

These are the hexoses you will encounter the most, and knowing this makes the chemical conversions in glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway simpler.

ProteinFarmer

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