It’s that time of year again where I stack layers upon layers of cotton, wool, polyester, denim and all sorts of different fabrics just to keep my extremities from freezing and falling off. Now although I enjoy being warm and … Continue reading
After all the computational modeling that we learned about this week, I was curious which other ways chemists use modeling. One important development is modeling the interactions of complex chemical systems, and Levitt and Warshel were awarded the Nobel prize in … Continue reading
We have been talking A LOT in class about the “standard” 20 amino acids. Recently, I had a conversation with my dad that got me thinking about one amino acid in particular: glutamic acid. More specifically, we were discussing the … Continue reading
Stepping out of Tower on Wednesday, I realized that Wellesley has secretly transformed to Narnia. Snow befell on us during the night and early evening. As I walked to class, snow from the branches that were hyper-extended due to the … Continue reading
My friend, who is allergic to gluten, was eating a gluten-free brownie. I was curious about the purpose of gluten in baking, and after a bit of research, found that gluten is actually a protein complex! While the exact structure … Continue reading
Last week, I was walking out of my dorm when I slipped on some freshly fallen snow and skinned my hands and knees. Since then, I’ve been applying Neosporin to help the scrapes heal faster. I began to wonder how … Continue reading
I just read an article on how in the summer of 2012, a huge space rock hit Mars, creating a 100-ft crater. We’ve been talking these past two days about bond length and strength, and so this article prompted me … Continue reading
Freshly out of the shower, I walked across campus this morning with my hair still wet. In the sub-0°C air, my hair froze almost immediately. I entertained myself thinking about the hydrogen bonds I broke and allowed to re-freeze as … Continue reading
I unfortunately have to admit that I have never seen a diamond melt, and I’m not sure I’ll get a chance to witness such an event. However, with all the snow flurries today, we can all say that we have … Continue reading
Today, we were curious about what nanopure water would taste like, since it’s free of ions, and asked Professor Oakes for her opinion. She informed us that it is very dangerous to drink nanopure water – apparently, they would place … Continue reading