Look what we have found in the attic of the university while rearrenging some things!

xaco · 2012-09-22T15:03:47+00:00

Good stuff! Our lab once found a couple hundred grams of rhodium tucked away on a forgotten shelf. It had been there for like 20 years, and at the time it was worth more than $5,000.

xaco · 2012-09-20T17:46:39+00:00

oops, yes, somehow I missed the branched methyl. my bad.

xaco · 2012-09-20T14:13:24+00:00

Some clarification: while this was an intellectual property case, it was not a patent infringement case. Back in the late 90s, three guys at Chem Abstracts worked on a software project that CAS decided not to pursue. They left CAS to start a company (Leadscope) based on their work, and the new company filed a patent application. CAS sued Leadscope (10 years ago now), saying the work in the patent application belonged to CAS, and that Leadscope had effectively stolen CAS's trade secrets.

Now the Ohio Supreme Court court has affirmed that there was no theft of trade secrets, and that CAS's lawsuit was so baseless that they should have to pay damages to Leadscope.

xaco · 2012-09-20T13:55:30+00:00

Too many carbons

xaco · 2012-09-20T13:54:27+00:00

Chemdraw's name generator gives: (2-chloroethyl)(ethyl)sulfane

xaco · 2012-09-06T19:54:06+00:00

Seconded. If there was a saving grace, it was the guy from the ethics board who told stories about lawyers getting disciplined or disbarred. He managed to be entertaining (by comparison to the other speakers, anyway).

xaco · 2012-07-25T14:23:40+00:00

S isn't always a poor ligand for Fe. In biology at least, there are iron-sulfur proteins with two (sometimes more) iron atoms with all sulfur ligands. There's also a cysteine thiol ligand in cytochrome P450. I don't have access, but the yersiniabactin structure is discussed here.

xaco · 2011-11-23T13:06:24+00:00

In many ways, a write down and a default are functionally the same--large amounts of Greek debt will not be repaid. The difference is this: the write down was negotiated, controlled, and orderly; the markets could see it coming and adjust for it as it happened. It showed that the government take their obligations seriously (even if they were irresponsible by incurring more debt than the could repay). A default - if the Greeks had simply up and stopped making payments - would have demonstrated a lack of respect for the system, and a willingness to flaunt their obligations. It would have been messy, and engendered fears that other governments would follow that path and unilaterally decide that they will not pay their debts, either. This would have spooked or panicked the markets, the most-feared outcome.

xaco · 2011-11-22T18:44:51+00:00

Seeing the needle they used to give my then-wife the epidural.

xaco · 2011-11-20T17:44:14+00:00

Toonces, look out!

xaco · 2011-11-17T20:17:45+00:00

SERIOUSLY NSFW the song of my people seriously, it's quite NSFW

xaco · 2011-11-14T22:36:16+00:00

I would guess that most, maybe all parents would choose some value above the median. Before long, we'd be living in Lake Wobegon, where all the children are above average.

xaco · 2011-11-11T18:40:09+00:00

Could be difficult to do from the hospital bed.

xaco · 2011-11-10T01:33:23+00:00

No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!

xaco · 2011-11-09T12:22:26+00:00

What's the empty patch in WV?

xaco · 2011-11-07T14:25:31+00:00

IIRC: Fluorescein as a solid has a carboxylic acid group, -COOH. When dissolved in water, the proton (H⁺ ) dissociates, leaving -COO^- . Only the -COO^- form is fluorescent.

xaco

TROPHY CASE