week 13-- to live is to know.  Well, yes, there are a lot of different ways of "knowing",  any living thing is having some kind of cognition. I have to go to sleep now. Sorry to be not so articulate. 

This was a great class, Larry. Thanks for organizing it the way you do. It was a pleasure even though I didn't have enough hours in the week to really do it justice.  I am saving these packets for future reference!

Peace on ya---- Jean

week 12:  photographed auras..... I plan to do this again on Jasper's birthday, and on my birthday --- make a tradition of it!   Jasper is obsessed with crystals now.  it could get expensive.

wk 11:  the "cool animation site" one about the krebs cycle is very pretty and kind of mesmerizing to click back and forth on.... I still can't explain the Krebs cycle to someone else though. 

TCM and cell biology.  I don't have much to articulate there.  Systems. Systems with rules that all fit together and have their own sense.  Causes and effects that can be predicted and seem to flow naturally.......

week 11--- How Cells Divide: Mitosis vs. Meiosis  -- The flash animation comparison  side by side is really really helpful!   Love it. 

week 10---- critters in my environment:  Child. Plants. Mold. Bacteria, beneficial and not. Rat(s) in basement and possibly attic.  Redwood tree on property line is gone now for a couple of weeks (had to be cut down for safety reasons) but was formerly an ecosystem holding raccoons, squirrels, who knows what else.  No worries, there is another redwood a few feet away and they probably live in the sewer  half time anyway (the raccoons). Squirrels are as big as housecats from eating my figs, so I don't pity them.

My backyard is an ongoing experiment to see how many native weed volunteers can invade the previously groomed and fancy garden the former owners (orchid breeders, no less) had created. It pains me a bit to see the sea of wild onions that have taken over like a blanket, choking out the former inhabitants (various flowers with purpose). No time for gardening. 

week 10- Cell Biology sites--

I found the Intro to Cell and Virus Structure site to be very useful-- I loved the relative sizes and detection devices diagram. Interesting data point: human body has 75 trillion cells!

I took a lot of notes about these sites on my assignment sheet. Too tired to copy them all down now, but I swear I looked at them all!  Another interesting factoid-- "modern biology" is only since 1839 -- the idea that all living things are made of cells concept......

Also interesting-- questions about cellular evolution-- cells came from non-living chemicals--volcanic eruptions plus lightening plus UV radiation = amino acids rain down and form CELLULAR SOUP!  Or.... up from hydrothermal vents, or fell from meteors....... hmmmmmm?

Spikes Gallery-- I want to have a blown up picture of the fossil diatoms from Oamaru in my living room!   Absolutely magnificent.

Week 9:  Ethics of Gene Therapy----

Well, the fact that someone died from gene therapy due to an immune response is pretty disturbing. It all seems so risky and uncertain.... tumors can be induced if a gene is integrated in the wrong place in the genome (same fears with the genetically altered salmon that I wrote about....scientists forging ahead without considering wider consequences) The theory that info only travels from germline cells to somatic cells (DNA~RNA~protein)  is just a theory (Weismann barrier)-- and if it turns out that it is not true and this "barrier" is actually permeable, and genetic treatments of somatic cells may result in inheritable changes to the genome THAT would be scary genetic engineering of the HUMAN SPECIES!  Bad idea. 

Week 9:  review of Animations link:   The "Periodic Properties" section is GREAT.  Tells a lot about the history of the Periodic Table, and has good graphics and explains things in an engaging way.... the Acids/Bases/Salts  section was less impressive. Just kind of like reading a boring textbook......except for that one funny picture of a dog drinking out of a toilet, although what that has to do with the subject is questionable.....

My favorite definition of biochemistry was: " Biochemistry is the science that studies the activities of living organisms at the cellular and molecular level".  While all the definitions are technically correct,  this one is specific enough to really define it and give you an idea of what a biochemist might be engaging in.....  A broad statement like "Biochemistry is the chemistry of life" may sound poetic, but it is not helpful to differentiate it from other types of chemistry or biology.......

Week 8:  Semiconductor-- GERMANIUM: Ge: atomic # 32, a shiny hard silver/white metalloid similar to tin. Same crystal structure as diamond. One of the few substances that expands as it freezes!  Was predicted by Mendeleev, but was proved to exist by Clemens Winkler in 1886.

It is a semiconductor material used in transistors. It was used in "solid state" electronics from the 1950's until the 1970's, then silicon became more commonly used.  Solid state components have no mechanical action , but electromagnetic action instead. I always wondered what that meant.

Week 8:  Chembalancer and Balancing Equations Tutorial were both useful for practicing and getting it down.... I'm going to save all of these for when my son is a little older and learning chemistry....The website about the acidity and alkalinity of various foods is my FAVORITE website we have looked at, and I've emailed it to many of my clients and friends. Very useful.

week 7:   RADON!   one of the 6 "Noble Gasses" , which used to be called rare gasses, but Argon is not so rare, and "inert gas" is a misnomer too since several do take part in chemical reactions.

Rn : atomic # 86, #neutrons=136, has 6 energy levels. Colorless, odorless gas with a cubic crystal structure. Discovered in 1898 by Freidrich Ernst Dorn. It's a radioactive gas that emanates from radium compounds, i.e. is obtained from a radium chloride source (the kind used in cancer treatment anyway). Radium and radon are not used in x-ray medical radiography like they used to be.... it is also produced during the operation of nuclear power plants. It is probably what killed Marie Curie in the end.....

Radon is a contaminant of indoor air that causes 21,000 LUNG cancer deaths in the US per year, the second leading cause of lung cancer after cigarettes. It can accumulate in buildings from natural sources beneath them-- soil and rock!    AAAAACK!

Week 7:    So, unfortunately Avogadro never got any credit in his lifetime for having the radical thought to make a clear distinction between atoms and molecules. Poor guy.  This is a good website for explaining things about the scientific process..... A good definition of a HYPOTHESIS: merely a tentative explanation of observed events, not a prediction, but it allows you to make predictions that can be tested by experiments (and may eventually become accepted as scientific theory).  Avogadro's number (6.02 x 10 to the 23rd, ) is the number of fundamental particles in a mole of substance.  Gram molecular weight is a convenient weight..... a gram molecular weight of any substance contains (Avogadro's number) of molecules.....a particular volume of gas is proportional to molecular weight.  A MOLE is a gram molecular weight of a gas (at standard temp. and pressure), it occupies 22.4 liters of volume. Another way to say it is: 22.4 liters of a gas (at standard temp and pressure) contain the number of molecules that weigh as much as the molecular weight of the gas expressed in grams.

I think these were good websites..... I would need to hammer it into my brain a lot longer to make it stick though.  

Week 6--- Alchemy: Historically an attempt to understand the cosmos... leading to scientific discoveries in chemistry, physics......, some  misguided attempts to use magic to achieve certain goals (making gold out of other things,  achieving immortal life through various means)  , Historical Chinese Taoist "external alchemy"-the search for herbs of immortality- led to some practical herbal medicine....(and lots of death by mercury ingestion) .... "internal alchemy" in which the alchemist overcomes the limits of individuality and gains transcendental knowledge... has enduring relevance for anyone interested in meditation, energetics, philosophy/spirituality or achieving a higher state of being....TCM is an "alchemical" art in the sense that it combines energetic manipulation and herbal elixirs, etc.

So yes, alchemy is or has been science, art, and magic....

 The halogen of the week: Fluorine. Symbol is F. Atomic number is 9. It is the element for which the largest number of atoms combine with atoms of other elements..."univalent"....it readily forms compounds with most other elements...It is the most chemically reactive and electronegative of all the elements. 

In pure form it is a poisonous pale yellow/brown gas. Like the other halogens , contact with skin gives you severe chemical burns. It is a powerful oxidizing agent and reacts EXPLOSIVELY with hydrogen. It is too reactive to be found in elemental form.

Fluorides are compounds that combine fluorine with some positively charged counterpart.

--atomic fluorine is used in semi-conductor manufacturing

--sodium fluoride compound and others are used in toothpaste and water fluoridation,  more        about that controversy later....

--SSRI anti-depressants are fluorinated molecules! And because our bodies have difficulties metabolizing fluorinated molecules, these are the major cause of fluorinated organics found in sewage and waste water!

--Fluorochlorohydrocarbons are used in air conditioning and refrigeration. CFC's, or chlorofluorocarbons, are banned due to ozone destruction, but it is the chlorine and bromine radicals which are the guilty parties, not fluorine, thus hydrofluorocarbons are not banned by the EPA. They have a relatively small greenhouse effect compared to CO2 and methane.

Week 6:   Science Toys website:

These were really interesting-  I'm glad Lise made one of them! (film canister cannon looks like the most fun).  I will keep this link for the future when I might have time to attempt to do one of these with my soon to be six year old son. 

The plastic H bomb experiment helped me to get a grasp on the electrolysis of H2O into hydrogen and oxygen gasses.... what is going on at the cathode and the anode.... a bit better than the fuel cell one.... I'm regretting not taking the chemistry lab class through community college, because I think that would be the best way to really understand,  but there are only so many hours and months and years. Sigh.

The metal that melts in hot water was interesting--- I learned about "Field's Metal", a non-toxic fusible alloy that melts at a low temp: bismuth+tin+indium.

It's used in fire sprinkler systems-- the temp gets hot enough, melts the metal, and then water sprays out!  I took a lot of notes from this one, about pure substances vs. mixtures ... Trust me.

STRONTIUM sulfate crystals form the exoskeletons of Acantharea protozoa in the ocean!

Colors in my kitchen:

Red group:  Apples, raspberries, pomegranate, cherry tomatoes, Lingonberry Jam (IKEA!), Goji Berries.

Orange/Yellow group:  Grapefruit, tangerines, bananas, mango, mango juice.

Green: Celery, Kiwi

Pink: smoked salmon

Blue: frozen blueberries

Not bad,  but there is also PLENTY of brown and beige crackers, nuts, chips, etc etc.

I've been having to eat the beige diet for a week since I had the stomach flu! I'd love to get back to the colorful groups, but rebellious stomach qi says NO!

Week 5:   New info absorbed:  

Color of Minerals: Azurite (deep blue) and Malachite (deep green) frequently occur together and have remarkably similar formulae:     Azurite: Cu3 (CO3)2(OH)2

                                                               Malachite: Cu2 (CO3)(OH)2

Incandescence:  light from heat energy, like the sun, or the tungsten filament in old school light                                  bulbs glowing hot....

Luminescence:  "cold light" from other sources of energy, can take place at normal or lower                                          temps...

Some types of luminescence:

        Fluorescence: lum. from energy supplied by electromagnetic radiation

        Chemiluminescence: lum. from energy supplied by chemical reactions

        Bioluminescence: lum. caused by chemical reactions in living things!

STRONTIUM is an interesting alkaline earth metal.  Sr, atomic #38, atomic mass 87, electrons per shell: (2, 8, 18, 8, 2) . It's a soft, silver-white or yellowish metallic element (turns yellow when exposed to air) . It is HIGHLY reactive.... a fine powder of it ignites spontaneously in air! It burns crimson in a flame.....

Metallic strontium was first isolated by electrolysis by Sir Humphrey Davy in 1808, although the mineral strontianite was discovered in the lead mines in the Scottish village of Strontian in 1787.  

Strontium occurs naturally in the minerals celestine and strontianite. It's compounds are used in glass for color TV cathode ray tubes to prevent x-ray emission.  Strontium is also part of a durable magnesium alloy used in BMW engines! 

Week 4:  Atom Economy:  "Chemists need to measure efficiency of chemical reactions in order to compare alternative routes to products and their associated economic and environmental costs". Atom Economy is the method of expressing how efficiently a particular reaction makes use of the reactant atoms.  I'm glad that guy invented this equation to help green chemists do this-- even though it does not take yield into account. Also encouraging to see that ibuprofen is made in half the number of steps than it used to be, increasing atom economy.

Green chemistry as social movement:  great idea.  Consumers can bring their influence to bear on the profit driven uncaring industries. It's already starting-- people don't want damaging chemicals in their (household, personal, food) products . If more people are more informed,  we can make changes like that in ibuprofen production.  I liked the first website, Phillip Sutton has some inspirational ideas for resolving the conflict between economic growth and ecological sustainability. He mentions green chemistry, nanotechnology, and biotechnology as a way to have economic growth occur naturally in a physically constrained world. Basically, future economic growth needs to be generated through net qualitative change, not physical expansion. We need less stuff. No more landfills filling up with plastic shit, etc.

He points out that in the developed world, countries and provinces with the strongest environmental controls have the strongest economies and the leading exports of related technologies.....

Week 4:  My "Catalyst of the Week" is Iron, Fe, a transitional metal. Silvery looking!

Iron's atomic number is 26, neutrons:30.  It has 4 energy levels (2,8,14,2). Iron was known to the ancients. Its symbol is from the Latin Ferrum. "Iron" comes ultimately from celtic origins, or German=eisen, Old English= Isen, Iren......

It is obtained from iron ores. Iron and nickel are the most abundant metals in metallic meteorites and the earth's core. It is used in steel, and is a constituent of the biological molecule hemoglobin (carries oxygen in the blood).

A catalyst increases a reaction rate while remaining chemically unchanged at the end of a reaction. Iron is the catalyst in the Haber process, which is the reaction of nitrogen  and hydrogen over an iron substrate. This produces ammonia, which can then be oxidised to make the nitrites and nitrates for production of nitrate fertilizer and munitions.

 

Week 3:  Molecular structure of different kinds of Carbon:

Comparing diamond and graphite, for example:   Both have covalent bonding-- electrons shared between the carbon atoms.   In diamond, each carbon atom is the same distance to each of its neighboring carbon atoms in a rigid network... like a playstructure on a playground.  In graphite, carbon atoms are attached by strong covalent bonds also, but in stacked up layers with weaker forces between the layers... like a stack of pancakes stuck together by syrup.  So when you draw with a graphite pencil, layers of the carbon are being scraped off onto your paper.

Recently, new carbon structures have been discovered. In the shape of icosohedrons (20 sided round shapes) named Fullerenes (after Buckminster-Fuller). 60 carbon atoms are covalently bonded together to form a hollow sphere.....different shapes can be constructed, as if the graphite layers were rolled up to form pipes....

Week 3:   Favorite website was definitely the Visionlearning site.... Clear definitions of concepts, and simple useful graphics to illustrate those definitions.  Will use that one again....

Transition Metal :  Cobalt, Co

Protons: 27, Neutrons: 32, atomic mass: 58. Four energy levels.

Has a hexagonal crystal structure and a silver color.

Some character sold me a pair of high end haircutting shears once claiming that they were extra hard as they had cobalt in them.  I suppose it might be possible that they were electroplated with a corrosion and wear-resistant alloy of cobalt.....? Which would be good, since you lose a bit of your shears every time you get them sharpened. 

Pure cobalt is not found in nature, but compounds of it occur in many forms... by-products of nickel and copper mining (ores, used to make alloys...) Its compounds are used in the production of inks, paints, varnishes, magnets, ceramics, special glasses....

One source says it is obtained from arsenic, oxygen, sulfur, and cobaltine. Apparently mammals require small amounts of it and it is the basis of Vitamin B12 (says Wikipedia).

Cobalt was discovered by George Brandt in 1737 and named after the German Kobalt (Kobold), which means goblin, or evil spirit---probably since it poisoned miners when they first tried to smelt it (gave off arsenic).....

Extended Bio (from week 1):

I'm a 2nd trimester AIMC part-time student... and part-time self-employed hairdresser and single mom of a hilarious 5.5 yr old boy, Jasper. My background is in art, but I've always been interested in alternative medicine and holistic healing modalities. I studied for a while at the Acupressure Institute in Berkeley before deciding that I'd need to go deeper.  I have a bachelor's degree from Smith College (majored in studio art and French- did a lot of printmaking and photography). Cities I've lived in:  Madison, Wisconsin (hometown), Northampton and Boston, Mass., Paris and Aix en Provence, France, Tucson, Az., and San Francisco and Berkeley. Berkeley feels like home to me now, but I miss the smell of real autumn.

Week 2:   review of "Elements , Compounds, and Mixtures" website---

Very helpful to see these definitions again (last time was probably 1983)-- good to know compounds can't be busted apart physically, but mixtures can.... a compound does something different than its individual parts do....but mixtures retain many of the properties of their components.....good definitions all around, and pleasing graphics with the little Joan Miro-esque doodles, and the bouncing around argon atoms, nitrogen and water molecules......

Element of the Week: Calcium (Ca)

Atomic number (# of protons/electrons) is 20, #of neutrons is 20.

It's in the Alkaline Earth classification....has a cubic crystal structure....4 energy levels, and a silvery color!   It was discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy in 1808. The name comes from the Latin for lime= calcis. It is used for life forms for bones and shells, and comes from chalk , limestone, and marble.

comment from week #1 assignment:

I like the game to id the elements-- Antimony= Sb   .... nutty!  this is a useful website.

Week 2,  Ozone discussion:

I asked two friends at my book group tonight about the ozone,  here are the comments:

Friend #1 (energy engineer): It's being depleted.  By.... CFC's? I think the hole is shrinking. Wasn't that in An Inconvenient Truth?

Friend #2 (symphony fundraiser) : There is a hole in it. It's a layer. CO2?  Harmful rays from the sun.....

Ok, found quiz-- interesting!  I'm apparently not so clear on the difference btwn chem/physical changes.... however, I did know that coffee is impure, and got the water boiling right.

Bio, quiz, comment.....

Good Morning!  

-- could not find quiz,  page not available....

Bio:  Jean Lusson:  AIMC first year student, up at 1:30 am after dealing with parenting crisis. Will add more exciting details later....