Cancer's Epicentre- The Economist

There is an article in The Economist this week that helps me understand a bit more about why Carl Zimmer made the error that I pointed out in a previous post.

The article outlines a new explanation for cancer's mysterious genesis and proliferation throughout the human body. Its a similar article to the book review Carl wrote about epigenetics. I don't recall his book review focused specifically on cancer as a disease- it was more of a discussion about how gene therapy and epigenetics could combat a variety of conditions (I would need to reread it to be sure).

The article in The Economist mentions that genes are switched on and off by plastering the DNA or surrounding proteins with chromosomes containing clusters of acetyl and methyl groups. This would explain why Carl mentioned methylation as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. He merely forgot to mention that the methylation can also sometimes be acetylation. Acetylation does, in fact, include oxygen. So- instead of getting the definition of methyl group wrong perhaps he forgot to include the additional functional group (acetyl). Then, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen would all be involved, as correctly noted in the article.

 Glad I got this ironed out. Didn't think Carl was prone to errors.

Surfactants: How does simple soap work?

I am currently reviewing a book about intellectual property for a trade publication. It specifically focuses on chemistry patents which I know very little about outside of my master's level knowledge of basic chemistry. Interestingly, I have learned about scientific patents in general from my involvement in The Association for Women in Science (AWIS). Several PhD level female scientists have taken the patent agent exam and worked for law firms as patent agents. It seems to be a logical, lucrative and practical solution to the problem of an educated woman in the business world. For some reason the patent/law world is able to accommodate women much better than academia or even industry science is able to do.

Partly for this reason, I volunteered to read and review the book for Technical Communication. This brings me to the focus of this post- surfactants. Apparently surfactants are used to solve a nanotechnology/quantum problem. This is fascinating to me because the two areas of science seem so distant from each other, yet apparently in this case, someone wrote a patent using surfactants for their more electricity/nano oriented problem. (This also gives you an idea of where I get ideas for these posts. Usually I'm reading about something that sparks my interest into writing about a related topic.)

Surfactants help make something intermix with something else. The most obvious example of this is when you are washing your dishes. (Believe me, I'm the queen of DLD right now as a stay-at-home mom- this is coined as DLD or "dinner, laundry, dishes") You have a stack of plates covered in greasy, leftover food. Hopefully, you remove the excess food before you place them in hot, soapy water to wash. Why not just hot water? In most cases, some of the grease is still left if you just wash them in hot water. On a molecular level, here is why:

The grease on the plates is full of hydrogen/carbon chains that have the properties of something  "hydrophobic." Generally, the chemical properties of carbon/hydrogen don't mix with the properties of water (made of hydrogen and oxygen). This is related to the concept of polarity/electronegativity that is discussed here in my other blog.Generally, polar compounds mix evenly with other polar compounds and nonpolar compounds (pure covalent compounds) mix with other nonpolar compounds. Water is extremely polar while any kind of grease or fat is extremely nonpolar.

The detergent molecules (surfactants) create an interface between the polar and nonpolar so that the grease molecules can be removed from the place.  The detergent generally has a polar head that will "stick" to the polar water molecules while it has a nonpolar carbon/hydrogen tail which will "stick" to the grease molecules. By intermixing with both polar and nonpolar components of the grease/water mixture the soap is able to engulf the grease and send it down the sink.

 As you can see in the picture, the left side of the soap molecule is a carbon/hydrogen chain while the right side (the head) has oxygen-containing functional groups. It is these oxygen functional groups that will intermix with the water while the greasy tail (left side) will combine with the grease on your plates.

Here is a picture of nonpolar greasy molecules in the same container with polar molecules:

My book likens it to a mixture of magnetic and nonmagnetic particles. Can you think of anything else that behaves this way?

I have discussed polarity and dipole moments in other posts. Here are links:
Electronegativity
Ionic and Covalent Bonding
VSEPR Shapes

The Future of Nuclear Energy in the World

Recently there have been some intriguing articles in a variety of publications about renewable and alternative energy sources. I subscribe to both The Economist and The Wall Street Journal and took note of articles in both focused on the future of nuclear energy. This topic is particularly relevant to me as a science educator as I have seen it as a topic of study in my classes.

By now it's no news to anybody that finding alternative energy sources is essential to our health as a planet. Not only do we have carbon dioxide levels rising to dangerous levels but we have political problems gaining access to the world's supply of fossil fuels so desperately needed to maintain our energy demands in the United States. (Believe it or not when I was a child the concept of global climate change was a liberal notion of crazy, out-of-touch people.)

One thing I have only become familiar with in recent years is the theoretical amount of energy that can be harvested from nuclear sources. I had no idea that, theoretically, nuclear energy should be able to provide for all of our energy needs, and them some more after that. This is probably why people like Bill Gates bring up nuclear power as the key to energy demands of the future. Bill Gates, the entrepreneur turned business man who achieved the impossible with his power-buster software company of the 1980's that came to dominate the marketplace in the decades that followed. Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world. Bill Gates who can afford to take risks, dream big and think in theory. It's just that theory, in this case, could also mean the end of the planet.

In theory nuclear energy is very appealing. If properly developed, a nuclear plant could solve all of our energy problems. But the realities are discussed very nicely in a recent focus-section of The Economist on nuclear energy. In reality, nuclear energy is too expensive, takes too long to develop and is too risky to really be a viable solution to our energy problems. While it looks viable on paper, nobody has been able to develop a really safe, inexpensive nuclear facility that unleashes this theoretical energy is a usable form. The risks are too high and the payoff, so far, has been too low.

There are political concerns as well. The proliferation of nuclear energy has caused international dissent about how and where nuclear energy is developed and used. Iran, for example, is developing its nuclear capabilities, and for all we know, those capabilities are to make a dangerous bomb. From reading The Economist I gather the majority of the dispute is over exactly how much of Iran's nuclear capability is energy related and how much is in the actual development of a bomb. The difference is subtle. It doesn't say this in the article(s) but I'm figuring that the only way to really tell would be to inspect the nuclear plants very, very carefully. And I suspect Iran does not allow us to do this. So we really don't know exactly how far along they are in unleashing a bomb. For all we know they are creating nuclear power to power the electricity of their citizens. We can't tell the difference from afar.

So as we march forward in our quest to develop renewable energy sources and other ways to replace fossil fuels, we know that we are not meeting our goals fast enough. The Economist outlined the rate that we are currently replacing fossil fuels as compared to what we would need to do to keep carbon emissions under check. With current progress we are falling short. This is disturbing considering the consequences to continued fossil fuel use and carbon dioxide production. But- nuclear energy, according to them, is not the answer.

Maybe they should talk to Bill Gates for some inspiration.

A Children's Book on the Elements

I was envisioning what a children's book on the elements might look like:

-   A cross between the Sesame Street version of Law and Order and something like Dr. Seuss with a bunch of funny word combinations. (In SS Law and Order the detectives go on a quest to find a delinquent letter of the alphabet on the run)
-  A narrative in which carbon walks around in chains a bit like Marley when he haunts Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (Carbon has a tendency to form chains and this illustrates this basic characteristic)
-  A narrative in which an oxygen-hydrogen structure sucks everything else to stick to it (like hydrogen bonding)
-  A narrative with a nosy and busybody fluorine molecule that buries itself deep in everybody's business/lives. It buries itself in people's lives and then creates deep damage.


There are so many other character traits that could be developed from the elements chemical behaviors. It would be fun (and challenging) to create such a story with all of this information. And- hopefully it would make the element characteristics more fun to learn and remember for children.

High School and College Textbooks in the Sciences

I was just reading  a book review on a new e-book for biology students and it reminded me of some of the challenges I've had referring my students to a helpful textbook for introductory chemistry.

The problem is very nicely explained by this writer (a professor) who basically likes the electronic videos and other gimmicks of the e-book and agrees that these tools add dimensionality to the learning environment. However, the particular ones included in this book don't strike him as resonating with sixteen-year-olds.

So, basically there are a bunch of videos that show cool stuff to people who already know what it is. 

This same problem applies to old fashioned textbooks.  Either the textbook is very clear and straightforward (appealing to a typical introductory student), but lacks depth and completeness or is very thorough and complete (appealing to the professor)  but lacks clarity and a sense of logic. How do you effectively teach a class with this problem?

Often many students in an introductory class just want the bare information needed to get whatever grade they need on the test. Chemistry is usually required for whatever career path they have chosen and they know they need the coveted A to get to their next step. For this reason,although introducing extra videos and illustrations from multi-media often seems appealing to the instructor for better understanding from the students, often the students' themselves are frustrated by it. It broadens the number of materials they are required to study for their exam and they usually can't see how it fits into the material presented by the textbook. So while it is possible these extra tools help their long-term understanding of the material, they don't help them perform on the exam.  Many students find this very, very frustrating.

A real-life example of this would be use of the Tro texts for introductory chemistry versus use of the Zumdahl texts. I've used both. The Tro text is wonderful for a step-by-step, logical explanation of each topic in chemistry. Of the three textbooks I've taught introductory chemistry from, it is the only one that explains the topic of Lewis dot structures, VSEPR shapes and bond angles from start to finish and concludes with a very helpful discussion of polarity based on shape. I had never seen such an amazingly clear discussion of the topic before in my education. For this reason, I take diagrams and other tools from this chapter when I'm explaining this to other classes at other junior colleges. Yes, the approved textbook is one by a different author but the chapter on this topic is so good I tack it onto their required reading.  (If someone knows the proper publishing procedure I need to take then please leave a comment after this post. I've tried to contact the publisher without success on this issue.)

As useful as the Tro text is for preparing my students to perform on tests, it does not provide some of the excellent examples of complex items from nature that my Bauer text provides. For example, the post that I wrote about carbon monoxide poisoning was adapted from a diagram/excerpt from my Bauer textbook about the importance of understanding shape/function of molecules. This kind of discussion cannot be found in Tro. It's a bit of a tangent really- only peripherally related to the main topic of the chapter. While I found it fascinating, I doubt most of my students know enough about science to appreciate its relevance to what they are learning.

I keep a very detailed blackboard site of all of the resources I provide for my students. I'm always hesitant to add extra items to it for fear the students will get bogged down in a swamp of information. I'm just fearful that the meandering explanations of Zumdahl and the unclear examples in the text actually confuse them more than educate them. However, their required homework is from Zumdahl (a very educated and accomplished chemist- just not all that clear for beginners.) Therefore, I must teach from Zumdahl and any additional materials I feel explain thoroughly and clearly the material on which I want to test.

It's really hard. Sometimes I think the students don't really know what they are supposed to study because I present so many different ideas from different resources.

More on Happiness.....

Gretchen Rubin would be someone I would have a really good time with as a friend. Our most obvious common interest is LM Montgomery. Apparently, when she identified children's literature as an interest of hers, she read everything written by LM Montgomery (among numerous other children's books). This caused me to think about my own interests: am I also interested in children's literature or just LM Montgomery's writing? I think the answer is that I am interested in children's literature but probably not enough to join a weekly club. I am also not a Harry Potter fanatic. For example, I own the first four books and have never touched the fourth one. All of the movies after the fourth or fifth one are films I will have to watch in their TV versions. But- I have read five out of the seven Narnia books and A Wrinkle in Time.  Gretchen obviously seems to have more time (or interest) in reading than I do. My adult nonfiction stack seems to grow larger and larger with books I want to read but haven't found the time for yet. I can't also add a bunch of children's books I read long ago and admired but would need to reread for a book group. I'll let her have that one for herself.

However, Gretchen's children's literature group reminded me of something about myself. It actually made me pat myself on the back somewhat. Some of the changes she describes are changes I made consciously after college without thinking exactly of my happiness, per say, but my sanity. I really needed a break and some outlets of lowering my stress after college. To this end I made an effort to get involved in some activities I had enjoyed as a child. This is the exact advice she gives herself- and one of the reason's she starts the children's literature club. My outlet of happiness was to join a music club. During my senior year in college I joined the Sigma Alpha Iota women's music fraternity. My hope was to have performance opportunities as an alumnus. Here we are fifteen/sixteen years later and that is exactly what that organization did for me. But- it also did much more than that (without my knowledge). Through my involvement in SAI here in San Diego I've formed a group of lasting friendships that are priceless. In some cases I have nothing else in common with my fellow club members other than our  interest in music. However, in some cases, the friendships have expanded beyond the group into outside friendships. Joining a group with people who have a common interest really is a way to create more happiness- whether it's the enjoyed activity itself or the contact with others, I have experienced first-hand Gretchen's notion that happiness can be found in a club.

All of this fit into her chapter on learning how to play. Another fun idea she had was to start a collection. Hers was a bluebird collection. I wondered if I should take up my old collection of stamps or if I should start something new. The more I thought about it the more I thought renewing my interest in stamps would bring me the most happiness.  Part of happiness is recalling happy times. And working on my stamp collection as a child was a very happy experience for me.  It wasn't really me that started the collection. Sure- I took the stamps off their backs and arranged them in books but I didn't actually obtain them myself. My father brought them home from work. He and his colleagues received correspondence from people all over the world - remember this is during the 1980's before email and the Internet. All communication was via snail mail. This was a good thing for me- once word spread that my father's young daughter collected stamps I received all kinds of stamps for my collection. More important than the actual collection, however, were the connections made with people through the exchange of the stamps. Just by tearing a small square off of an envelope and handing it to my dad at work I grew to recognize people's names and job titles. Unfortunately, much of this was also possible because of the use of secretarial staff in hospitals back in the 1980's. This was back when a real person actually answered the phone and they had people to dictate and type manuscripts and other correspondence. With the changes in health care, I doubt such a collection would be possible for a young daughter of a doctor today.

The collection was so much more than a collection. It was a conversation piece, reason to connect with others in my father's office and a community building activity. It brought happiness.

I'm eager to explore more of Gretchen's ideas about happiness.

My Search for a Nanny.....

So the latest news on this is the amount of money that it costs to hire a separate company to hire/fire and pay my nanny.

And the conclusion is that this is way too expensive. It is twenty-one dollars an hour to hire a temporary nanny who is covered by social security and unemployment through an agency. That is absolutely ridiculous. I could end up paying more for childcare than I make as a salary. Add gas for the commute on top of that (I drive up to Irvine) and the costs associated with working could easily surpass my income.

It's too bad the law doesn't allow honest people to hire a nanny without making them reach so far into their pocketbook that they decide it is more cost-effective to stay home.

I'm thinking I hope one of John's relatives volunteers to do childcare for my daughter. This seems so much easier than formal nanny/childcare. How do people do it? I honestly don't know.

looking for a nanny

I saw an article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday comparing Mitt Romney and Obama in terms of their corporate tax reform policy. I thought to myself, "Could we make those corporate tax reforms apply to moms please?" Here is the reason I wondered such a thing:

I will need to hire a part-time nanny if I am going to go back to teaching in the fall. My husband feels much more comfortable with this option than any kind of group daycare or home daycare. However, it also is more expensive, if done according to the law. Most people actually break the law on this one and there is a good reason why (although I do not agree with breaking the law). A nanny is considered a domestic employee in your home and, therefore, regardless of whether the person is part-time or full-time, they are considered a W2 employee. It is illegal to 1099 your nanny. Apparently the IRS has a specific section of the code related to this regulation. Therefore, if you hire a nanny and  for some reason the arrangement doesn't work out, you are responsible for unemployment, medical and social security. My sister had this experience when she hired a nanny for her infant daughter about five years ago. The nanny was a great caregiver but insisted on creating her own schedule and dictating policy in the home. For this reason, my sister had to fire her. And- because she is a W2 employee my sister was obligated to pay her unemployment insurance. On top of that, if my sister wanted to rehire a different person to fill her shoes, her unemployment tax would increase about four times the previous rate. My sister was treated as a business and every business has a hire/fire ratio. Since she only employed one person, her hire/fire ratio was 100% and, therefore, she was obligated to pay more into unemployment insurance.

Now- how many people can afford to hire a nanny under these conditions? It doesn't make sense. Especially if you only need someone ten to fifteen hours a week as I will need in the fall. The majority of people simply break the law and either pay cash under the table or create a 1099 situation where they are not responsible for the extra government fees. I would like to be a good citizen and follow the law and so I intend to find a company that will create the W2 for me so the nanny is their employee instead of mine. Apparently, there is only one such company in the entire city of San Diego.  (There is only one such company in Bellingham, Washington where my sister lives but that is a much, much smaller city.)

Only one such company? This is an immigration issue. The reason that only one company like this exists is because of illegal immigrants who come from Mexico. Today I spoke with the owner of a nanny company in San Diego and she explained the situation to me. Nobody can afford to W2 their employees for temporary work because there is not enough demand for them. It is too expensive and not enough people use the service. Everybody employs undereducated, illegal immigrants from Mexico and pays them under the table.

How is that for a law that doesn't make sense? (Read my previous entries about regulations and the importance of relevance and enforceability) In this case, people who follow the law (like me) pay huge fees that cut into their profits while those who break the law and employ illegals pay less money and are not responsible for social security and unemployment insurance. Why can't we modify the law to benefit American nannies and create a more level playing field in this industry?

What a nonsensical system. And, once again, we are back to the concept that you can't get away from regulatory.

Joseph James Kinyoun- Founder of National Institutes of Health

https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/what-we-do/nih-almanac/joseph-james-kinyoun-md

Every family needs a genealogist. For the good of the family and for the good of the public it is critical to keep careful family records of all birth/death dates as well as complete family names of parents and children in each generation. Here is why:

Especially since the advent of the Internet my father has received numerous inquiries about his family connection to Joseph James Kinyoun, the man often credited for founding the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  It is an easy association to assume my father is related to him- his name is James Kinyoun (spelled the same way) and he is also a doctor. People type in "Joseph James Kinyoun"and come up with my father's profile as their top google hit, "James Kinyoun."

For this reason I had been looking for a number of years for a family connection between Joseph James Kinyoun and our family. It took me nearly ten years to find the connection. It is so distant that one mistake on a document or misinformation entered on a web site could have deterred me forever from knowing the real truth.

In my possession I have a recount of the family history of my father's family. It came from dear Aunt Dorothy Kinyoun, late aunt of my grandfather. She used to show up at family events when I was a kid. I could never figure out exactly who she was and why she always sent me homemade scarves and hats for Christmas. She and Claude (Mike) Kinyoun had never had any children and she had apparently adopted her nephew's (my grandfather Robert Kinyoun) children as her own. I always thought it was a bit strange she had no other family other than her in-laws children and grandchildren but I never said anything about it. We had no idea how blessed we were.

Dorothy took meticulous records of her knowledge of the Kinyouns. It is because of her that I have birth/death dates for James Edward Kinyoun and a bit of information about his children. Here is what I know:

James Edward Kinyoun came to Nebraska to raise his family. He had a daughter Jessie and a son Lem who both died. He had two sons who both lived to have children: Robert Edward Kinyoun I and John Wesley Kinyoun. (The Wesley Kinyoun family lives in Superior Nebraska today.)

This information (along with some other narrative about his life) matches the information about James Edward Kinyoun that I found on ancestry.com during a family Christmas celebration in Nebraska in 2007. My husband was playing pool with my uncle and cousins and it gave me a good excuse to duck into the study for some research.

James Edward Kinyoun (born and died on ancestry.com the same years as my Aunt Dorothy's records indicate) is the son of James Lemuel Kinyoun. James Lemuel Kinyoun was the son of Joel Kinyoun, assistant paymaster in George Washington's colonial army. Joel Kinyoun came from England to settle in America, according to text in a book written by Joseph Kinyoun Houts about John Hendricks Kinyoun (father of Joseph James).

Here is the complicated part of the story that is confusing because the records are not clear: Joel Kinyoun must have had two wives that both had a son named "James Kinyoun" within about two years of each other. So "James Kinyoun"and "James Lemuel Kinyoun" were half brothers, I think. James Lemuel (known as Lemuel) was the father of James Edward Kinyoun (my relative) while James Kinyoun (his half brother) was the father of John Hendricks Kinyoun, surgeon in the civil war for the south. John Hendricks Kinyoun is the father of Joseph James Kinyoun, founder of NIH.

Whewwww..... you say. Yes, that is complicated. So- to summarize: Joseph James Kinyoun is the second cousin of my great-great grandfather Robert Edward Kinyoun I. Their fathers (John Hendricks and James Edward) were first cousins. And their fathers were brothers. Except- it is not a full brotherhood- they were half brothers (I think). So- we are only half related to that side of the family.

Always, always, always keep meticulous records. You never know when you might want to trace the history of your family.

About Maria Shriver's blog

There is the most wonderful post on Maria Shriver's blog written by a woman who was an executive in publishing. It basically outlines her life from rising star to mother of two with a consuming career and then back to stay-at-home mom after she quit her job.

Typical scenario really- executive female realizes she is missing out on the best part of her life by not staying home. This time I thought of something new while I was reading about what was otherwise not a unique situation.

Some of the most precious achievements and moments in life come without any effort, planning or money. The moment your babies are born every minute seems like a treasure. The feedings, diapers, late-nights and accidents.....all of this is so mundane but irreplaceable with any other experience in life.

I say this with a twinge of regret because I too want it all in life. I want the career, the power, the money, AND I want to have my husband and children as well. I know, however, that if I had all of those things I would go  nuts. Believe me, it has happened before. I end up hating every part of my life that I am supposed to enjoy. Hobbies and other enjoyments become chores when I am so stressed out I cannot function.

I cannot do it all and so I say I do not want to do it all. But I do. I really do want it all. I just cannot have it all and maintain my sanity.

A Gold Star

I'm really enjoying Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project. It is making me want to start one of my own.
One of her comments struck me as especially profound yesterday. She said something like, "One of my worst faults is my need for recognition. I always want the gold star, the award, or the acknowledgment for something I have achieved."

She hit the nail on the head. I too suffer from this fault. I think it comes from my upbringing in which I would watch my older sister participate in some activity and then study it carefully for how to garner maximum attention and credit for doing the same activity. I got pretty good at it. I'm ashamed to admit that I was this scheming at age fourteen or so.

Anyway, it really is a terrible fault and here is why. Ultimately, the most progress is made when nobody is looking or noticing. Is that motivating? The answer for a very mature and advanced person should be yes. Unfortunately for me (and I'm sure for a lot of other people) the answer is no. I don't find it motivating that I make more progress when nobody is looking.  This might be because whatever I was trying to do was not successful!  It could also be an outcome that was covered up (even if successful) or for some other reason not noticeable to other people. 

I'm so glad Gretchen reminded me about this fault that I have because I can reflect on it again and remember why it is such a destructive way to live life. Here are a few examples of where I know this to be true in my own experience.

When I was a child my mother forced me to take piano lessons. I hated it. I would devise reasons I couldn't practice. I was an expert at practice avoidance as a child. I'm not sure how I got through that stage because as an adult I love music and my appreciation of it. Most of this appreciation was gained when nobody (except my mother) was really noticing. As an adult I can download different classical songs on my ipod and enjoy a Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, or Beethoven (to name a few). My favorites, by far, are Chopin and Liszt. It is the romanticism of their music that really gets my emotions and feelings moving.

Interestingly, when I was a young adult at age eighteen I turned this hidden appreciation into a public display of recognition. I realized this hobby that had been largely secret up to that point, could really bring me public recognition and credit in my community. I performed at my high school graduation in front of five thousand people and it changed my life for better and for worse. The "worse" part was that I was now hooked on public recognition. I loved it. I thrived on pleasing the audience- having people ask me for more. The better part was that I really loved public performance and it felt really rewarding that they loved me too.  Unfortunately, although this taught me a very valuable life lesson it did not teach me the reality of life: Most unnoticed contributions do not turn into public recognition. Some of the most valuable contributions we make are never noticed and shouldn't be noticed.

There are many scientists and writers who have not been appreciated in their lifetimes. Does this mean they wasted their efforts during their lives? I'll have to say yes and no here. I hope they were able to find something that gave them enough recognition to pay their bills. However, they truly followed their passions, talents and interests and did make a recognizable contribution to the world.

Does a contribution have to be recognizable to be real? Its a fascinating question that does not have an answer. If it isn't recognizable then is it really a contribution? This could be the title of a book to be researched about all of the contributions that were never recognized during people's lifetimes. I may have just stumbled on my next book topic.

Remembering situations that make me happy

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from an old friend the other day. Back in 1998-1999 I joined a musical group at a church as one of two flute players. At the time it was a way to fill time after college in the interim of trying to decide what steps to take next in life.

Catherine was the lead vocalist on the team and the general organizer of the group. She emailed me to invite me to like her facebook page. She and her husband just moved to Burbank California and were working in film and music projects.

The email reminded me of what an incredible experience that music team was for me. At the time I didn't realize it nor did I set out to have such an incredible experience. I just opened up my schedule for 1-2 hours per week and saw an amazing experience unfold.

The director was a woman in her mid-late thirties who had previously had a job writing/scoring music for Nova specials on TV. She had been nominated for at least one Emmy and it wasn't clear to me whether or not she had won the award. (The pastor seemed convinced that she had won although I received different information from other people.)

She wrote parts for each musician on the team to familiar songs we always sang at church. The style of the music was really original- she seemed to add a flavor to familiar tunes that I hadn't heard before.

The weekly practices were a team building experience and the weekly services a chance to lead in front of the church.

The best part were the special services like Christmas and Easter. Now that I attend a church without an established music program I really appreciate the training and effort it took to put together those programs. There was narrative to go along with music and a bit of drama as well. It was the perfect combination of speaking and music to make the holiday special.

Looking back, it would have been neat to learn some of the composing that Kari did for the group. I have done a bit of composing in the past- I composed my senior year of high school for my senior project. However, I don't have any formal training in composition which is what Kari brought to the table.

I've never seen a group like that in my twelve years of living in southern California. It was a unique experience that I didn't fully appreciate at the time. Sometimes these boosts come our way- we fall into something marvelous and don't even realize it until its long past. Its these types of experiences that truly make me happy.

The Happiness Project

There is a New York Times bestselling book titled The Happiness Project. My mother sent it to me and I am really, really hooked on what this lady had to say.

I haven't read very much of it yet but what I have read intrigues me. Her most important piece of advice is "Be Gretchen." (Her name is Gretchen.) Her need for legitimacy led her to attend law school and clerk for Sandra Day O'Connor. During this clerkship she realized that her fellow classmates read law articles in their spare time and loved it. She spent the required time needed to finish the clerkship but found herself doing other things in her spare time. She took one other law position after that but realized what she really wanted to do was be a writer. She is fulfilling the goal of "Be Gretchen" by being a writer- and this is part of happiness. But- part of happiness is also having enough money to pay the bills and support a family.

This lady speaks to me on a very deep level. I can relate with the need to feel legitimate. Its a bit like JK Rowling (Harry Potter) being told by her father to pick a practical major in college- not writing. She needed that practical major after college too. Her deadbeat, drunken husband was not able to support her and her baby before the Harry Potter books were sold. She was forced to take a teaching position at a high school to pay the bills. I think all writers can relate to the advice that some other educational background/experience is necessary for that person to have something to fall back on. Writers, musicians, all entertainers need to have day jobs. If JK Rowling had solely lived by the philosophy to "Be Joanna" she would have been starving in the streets with her infant and Harry Potter might never have been sold to a publisher. The "Be Myself" rule can only be taken so far in life for true happiness to be achieved.

It's like walking a balance beams or tight rope. You walk the tight rope that feeds your inner desires and passions only to realize your basic need for food and shelter may not be met. So you hop over to the tight rope of the practical to select a very marketable, practical line of work that pays the bills. This tight rope presents its own challenges which often lead to the same feeling of a satiation of passion and fulfillment. I think it just takes longer to find fulfillment in a job that is practical- you need to practice it long enough to appreciate the mastery of something that is really useful in the world.

It is incredibly satisfying to help chemistry students master the trade. I've received emails from students profusely thanking me for my services. Apparently I helped them learn the material and motivated them to continue in their careers. This is incredibly rewarding. Do I get the passion rush of mastering a classical piano piece and performing it with all the emotion my soul can muster? No, but it is a different kind of reward.

What can I say? We can't all be the Meryl Streep of our trade. I knew a star student of the musical/drama/theater department at Northwestern University my freshman year. From recent surfing on the web it seems her show was cancelled in Chicago and I can't find much on the Internet about her recent performances. Even someone as talented as she was is struggling right now in this difficult economy.

I've digressed from the original topic of the Happiness Project. The author spends a year of her life focusing on improving her life to become happier. She works on all aspects of her life: relationships (marriage), career, friendships, health and hobbies (to name a few). Her main question to herself is this: What is it in life that makes me happy and how do I bring more of it into my daily life?

I want to ask myself this question over the coming year. What is it that makes me happy? How can I find more of that in my day to day life. Interestingly, one of Gretchen's pieces of advice is to start a blog- which I have done here. A blog is a way to measure progress on small goals and mark that progress in writing.

One of the parts of an online blog that is really positive is the accountability I get from readers. I know there are people out there who will measure my progress by reading this blog. One of the drawbacks in the lack of privacy in a public blog.

I know writing makes me happy. I plan to add many entries to this blog over the coming months and comment on my happiness. Could I take steps to be happier?

"Food is meant to be shared, especially with friends like you."

This is a quotation from Emeril on Emeril's Table. Cooking is an art meant to be shared in groups. Friends, family and even people you barely know all benefit from improving this skill.

Seeing the glass as half full, not half empty

I was just reading about Victoria Beckham's life. She is a 37-year-old mom of four who is also a very successful model, dress designer and fashion enthusiast. The article basically stated that she admitted to being very, very tired. She is up in the night with her 7-month old baby Harper as well as up in the night to take international calls about her fashion line. She stated she is very happy with her life despite her exhaustion.

I can relate with her. It is incredibly rewarding to feel like you are part of the world; and a big part of the world is the work world. For her, it is worth the exhaustion that she feels to have all of those rewarding parts of her life fit together.

I first took note of Victoria Beckham when she was pictured as a guest at William and Kate's wedding last April. I had heard of her before but not really noticed her until I realized her baby was due within days of mine. (In fact, I think we had the same due date.) As the wife of soccer-great David Beckham, she lacks no spotlight and could very easily get by without any career at all- I'm sure David brings in a hefty check to support their four kids. But no, she has decided to make way in the world on her own. She has her own career, her own income and her own claim to fame. And for that I give her applause. She is living all aspects of her life to the fullest and, despite her exhaustion, is feeling very rewarded.

I am struggling with my own lot in life at the moment. I have chosen a home life for the first year of my baby's life. I say "chosen" because it was a decision that made sense when I got pregnant. It was more of a sequence of events that led my income to be eclipsed by my husband's. If anyone's income weren't to be missed it would be mine. So it made sense for me to forego a few career committments to take time for our baby. And I'm not sorry. But I do have pangs of longing when I see articles like the one about Victoria Beckham. There are women out there who do it all. And it is very rewarding. Perhaps next fall I'll get a chance to rejoin them in the workplace.

sprucing up the easiest meal

The crock pot is the greatest invention. Throw in a pot roast or a whole chicken with a little water or broth, add some vegetables and you have a complete meal with very little effort. It is this type of cooking that made me interested in doing more with it. I now want flavor AND convenience in one.

Lucinda Scala Quinn (Mad Hungry) has provided me with solutions. For example, marinade your pot roast in soy sauce with a bit of ginger (1 hour minimum), sear it with a skillet and then add it to the crock pot with a can of beer. It is full of flavor, DELICIOUS! This really isn't much more effort than just putting it straight into the crock pot without the first two steps.

A bit more effort is required for her whole chicken recipe. She dressed it in a herb/butter sauce by smothering it under the skin and then tucking lemons in the inside, under the wings and in other crooks/cranies around the chicken. She also placed whole garlic cloves in the interior.

Cooking seems to be a skill learned in phases. I'm now in the phase where the simple/easy recipes bore me. I need more flavor and more sophistication.

Cooking

My favorite activity while I'm home is watching Lucinda Scala Quinn on Mad Hungry. I'm sitting here watching her make minestrone soup right now. Her theme is "Bring back the family meal." I can't tell you how much she has improved the family meals at our house! The quality is not the only thing that has improved: she has enhanced my joy of cooking. Cooking is so much more of an art than it was before for me. I've always liked it. Now I love it.

Lucinda Scala Quinn teaches me about teaching. She has the perfect combination of personality, knowledge , humor and fun to make her show informative and entertaining at the same time.

So much of being a mom is so mundane: washing, cleaning, feeding.....it is so nice to find something artistic in the mundane everyday tasks.

stroller traffic

I've reached one of those age-milestone markers in life. I am now aware of stroller traffic and stroller parking places. It is comparable to the milestone reached by seniors when they move into the retirement communities and suddenly become aware of wheelchair/walker parking places and traffic in the hallways.

I was walking with my stroller (baby happily strapped in) in my residential neighborhood on a smoothly-paved sidewalk with disability-accessible curbs. I stopped briefly to adjust my baby's hat or socks only to be barraged  by two teenage skate-boarders racing to school. Yes, racing. The disability-accessible sidewalks make racing on a skateboard as easy as taking an uninterrupted walk with a stroller. Luckily, I was able to remove my stroller from the sidewalk to the grassy area next to it. Close call- just another example of my latest milestone-marker of life.

I have graduated to middle-aged mom.

holiday entertaining debrief

The Christmas Eve meal was a success! We even made enough food to have a leftover meal last night in our  post-Christmas exhaustion!

I chose a featured meal from the Martha Stewart show.  She demonstrated the roast pork with prunes and brown ale on her show last month. On her web site she had recommended side dishes and desserts to go along. We chose the brussel sprouts with gouda cheese. I made a traditional holiday scalloped potatoes as well.

We started with a simple green salad with cranberries and pine  nuts. Then we served the pork and  Brussell sprouts with scalloped potatoes. Finally, we served some chocolate covered pomegranate with mint brownies and fluffy cookies made with egg whites.

It was a perfect combination of traditional recipes along with new adventure for extra spice.

Here's to next year and the joy of creative cooking.

Merry Christmas!

I'm packing my supplies to make scalloped potatoes while I'm visiting some family up north. I was assigned Christmas Eve meal as my holiday project.

I confess scalloped potatoes are my weakness around  the holidays.  The warm butter mixed with flour moistens the potatoes so that they melt in your mouth. Such a holiday treat I cannot pass up.

This actually ties into a project I did in graduate school  with the Maillard Reaction. This is the reaction that is the basis of flavoring buttery flavored foods in the food industry. It occurs between a carbonyl and an amino group in a basic environment.

Beginner cooks pay attention!

If you have never cooked and want to try it then please pay attention! I was a member of the club that cooked from books titled "Idiots Guide to Cooking" about four years ago. Now I consider myself a fairly proficient chef. I'm not Martha Stewart but I can prepare a decent meal for two or even entertain a group of friends with my skills. Here are some pointers I've learned along the way:

1. Simple recipes do not mean less appealing food. The meals my husband raves about are not necessarily the most difficult, expensive or time consuming meals.
2. You must invest in some basic kitchen gear to get started. I recommend a basic set of pots (all sizes), several pans, a combo frying pan/stew pot (deep enough to hold liquid but wide enough to fry meat), and a set of kitchen appliances that include a Cuisinart, mixer, crock pot, toaster oven and several casserole dishes of varying sizes. By a wonderful stroke of luck I was given all of these items awhile back- it would be a considerable investment to purchase all of them but a necessity if you want to provide a wide variety of foods. I had no idea I would use all of these items. Never fear if you can't afford them- there are still many recipes that can be made with just a few pots and pans.
3. It is good to hold a few staple ingredients in your cupboard at all times: kidney and black beans, beef and chicken broth, sugars (powdered, regular, brown), flour, butter, olive oil, and spices. I would start by purchasing parsley, basil, oregano and chile powder. As time goes by you find your spice cabinet multiples itself abundantly.
4. Invest if a 1-year subscription to Cooking Light or another magazine about cooking. Some of the simplest, most nutritious recipes come from these magazines.

Give yourself a one-year grace period to experiment. It takes time to learn. The toughest part is the timing of the meal. Getting the roast to come out of the oven simultaneous with the vegetables and the bread is a challenge. This can only be learned with practice.

Here are some simple foods that are favorites around our house. Its amazing how these incredibly simple recipes create tasty and nutritious meals in short amounts of time.

1. Shrimp with pasta (This is a very, very simple recipe and one of our favorites. This is the recipe that made me give up my complex pot pies and other time-consuming endeavors. Why bother when something this easy is so popular?)
2. Pot Roast with bread (a crock pot is really useful for this classic dish. You load the crock pot in the morning and you have a ready-made meal when you come home from work at 5 pm)
3. Scallops with pasta (a bit expensive but not to bad if you buy frozen scallops)
4. Grilled Chicken (very easy if you microwave the chicken for 5 minutes and then put it on a Foreman Grill or a regular barbecue) with rice (a rice cooker is very handy here but you can make it on the stove also)

Add a salad and a side-dish of a fresh vegetable and you have a delicious, fairly-easy meal in a short amount of time. It is so nutritious to cook at home and such a rewarding feeling to know how to prepare a meal.

Good luck. May you discover a creative side of you that you never knew.

children's books

A dear friend of mine from childhood just sent me an illustrated copy of Wind in the Willows and The Secret Garden. It inspired me to take inventory of children's literature on my bookshelf. I've actually been collecting various children's books for awhile now. I lived with an elementary school teacher about ten years ago and she lent me the book order forms from her classroom. The prices offered to children are great through mail order. I'm sure the Internet has probably changed all of that by now ten years later.

My collection now includes the following:
1. Wrinkle in Time (series of 4 books)
2. Narnia books (7 in set)
3. Harry Potter (I have the first 4 in the set)
4. Wind in the Willows (beautiful illustrations)
5. Secret Garden (beautiful illustrations)
6. Anne of Green Gables/Emily of New Moon (can't remember how many exactly- I keep these at my parent's house)
7. Jane Eyre (copy taken from my grandmother's house)

I regret to admit I've never finished Jane Eyre. Always something left to accomplish.

 Much to feast on for my daughter's upcoming bedtime reading. Let the fun begin.

You just can't get away from regulatory.......

After graduate school I began looking for a job in.....??????  I didn't really know what I was looking for. Have you ever noticed that when you don't know what you are looking for you rarely find something that really satisfies you? This does occasionally occur but more often than not a person who is looking haphazardly for something doesn't find anything worth finding.

I landed a job in regulatory affairs at a large research chemical supply company. Looking back, although the position was not intellectually satisfying or even all that challenging, I learned something that I didn't identify until now: The power and importance of regulatory affairs in the American economy.

As I read articles about the economy and regulatory affairs I realize how the problems I encountered in my little cubicle in chemical supply pervade the regulatory climate that encumbers the banks, the housing market, high-tech ventures and other businesses.
 

Problem number one:
Companies do not want to follow the rules (especially new ones) because they must spend money to comply with these rules. If they invest money in meeting the demands of these rules they risk having the rules repealed only to find their monetary investment was for nothing. (Unfortunately, for the peon (that would be me) in the cubicle monitoring the regulations, this can drive you crazy. The system is messy, disorganized and totally unsatisfying to work within.)


For this reason, companies stall in following regulations that are new or poorly enforced. What is the point when it cuts in on their  profit?


Problem number two:

There are some regulations that nobody understands or that are so old nobody can remember the original purpose. It becomes a total waste of time to follow these: a bureaucratic nightmare to figure out which sucker in the organization keeps a database geared toward following such nonsensical and ridiculous regulations.

While this applied to me in my little cubicle in research science it applies to the high-tech world as well. In two different editorials in the Wall Street Journal on Oct 31 the problem of regulations and green cards is addressed. Why is it that we send foreign graduates of engineering and physical science programs back to their countries after they complete their degrees? Even in this weak economy we are short on engineers in the US. The editorial states that Steve Jobs could have moved manufacturing jobs from China back to the US if Apple could hire 30,000 engineers in the United States. We don't produce enough engineers here in the US (by the time we send all our foreign graduates home) to keep jobs here.
The current green card policy is a stupid rule that not only fails to serve a purpose, it actually harms our economy and (as the article states it) gives an unintentional gift to China of jobs/business.

Part of the problem here is a failure to communicate and work as a team.
I liked how Newt Gingrich summed up the problem in one of the GOP debates recently. He said something like this: The gridlock in Washington is best summed as avoiding something totally stupid by cutting off your head if you don't allow your leg to be cut off. So we will allow something semi-stupid to avoid something totally stupid from occuring. (In reference to the super-committee and the impending automatic budget cuts in the event they can't come to an agreement.)

This is relevant because the super-committee must come to an agreement about how to streamline current regulations that strangle the economy. I just hope we have insightful enough politicians to be able to maturely tackle the problem without too many political games and other wasteful behaviors. 

We must have leadership that can work with businesses on this problem. Regulations must make sense and be comprehensive of the needs of businesses. We must be able to enforce regulations and have the enforcers have a logical reason to implement the rules. Stupid rules have no place in American business.

We need leaders who act in the best interest of the country: this includes private business, private citizens personal lives and public government needs. Do we have enough integrity as a country to select leaders who can manage all of these needs simultaneously while also preserving their proverbial political neck? This is a tall order- one I'm glad I'm not committed to achieve. Why would anyone want to run for such political office?

Recitation as a tool of learning and a way to fight boredom

This is my day: 1. Wake up. 2. Feed baby  3. Change and clothe baby  4. hold baby and walk back and forth around the house to keep her from crying. 5. Take a walk with a neighbor who also has a baby (if I'm lucky)

As you can see my intellectual interests are stalled currently. Here is how I combat the situation:

I recite.


You recite? You ask. Yes, it is a tool I used to learn introductory chemistry when I was a freshman in college. I made flashcards with definitions, terms, key ideas and concepts. Then, I would review the flashcards at all free moments during the day: after/before meals, before dorm meetings and at other times of the day. Now I recite because index cards are all I can hold while still holding an infant.

I am currently not reciting chemistry- I am learning a subject unrelated to science. But I still recite and can relay the information I'm learning by memory. It is really a great way to break up the boredom. You should try it.

the chemistry of breastfeeding

In a spirit of interest about the chemistry of breastmilk I ask the following question: Why is it that baby humans digest human breastmilk more efficiently than they digest cow's milk? I really wonder how much the nutritionists know about this in terms of the actual digestive path. I bet there is a nutritionist or scientist out there who knows.

It could possibly be related to the structure/function arrangement of the proteins in the milk. I'm guessing that the structure of the human milk proteins match more of the active sites of the digestive path of a baby human. Has anyone ever looked at these proteins in that level of detail?

I know that my baby human intakes breastmilk and excretes a byproduct very different from that of the formula-fed babies I meet. The exact chemistry involved here is fascinating. I'll have to research a chemistry-nutrition specialist who can map it for me.

Buoyancy

I'm thankful for this scientific concept. I wore my ugly 38-week pregnancy swimming suit over to the pool the other day and gasped at my ability to float without effort in the pool. I guess my density is much less than water now that I have extra fat, baby and other nutrients floating around in my abdomen.

The nostalgia of being a competitive swimmer!

As I tried to do a flip turn my buoyancy prevented my simple head-duck to propel my body into a circular motion into my efficient turn-around. I don't flip to turn- I get too much water up my nose.

Hope I can swim my way back to low-body-fat content in the months following delivery.

Time is short....

So according to my doctor my membranes are "thinning." This is a good thing- when one is 38 weeks pregnant you would expect the membranes to ready themselves  to eject a human.

Sometimes I wonder if infertility is nature's way of getting parents ready for mother and fatherhood. Since infertility is NOT a problem in our household, we skipped that preparation step altogether. This is kind of scary- taking on the health and well-being of another human being. It goes so far beyond any principles of science or logical analysis. Becoming a parent is not logical- but we aren't entirely logical creatures- are  we?

It seems so easy to decide to become a parent and then when the dream becomes a reality it is a truly daunting task. Not that I don't think I can do it- I'll do it. I'll just do it as I am able. And I will make mistakes. And this is ok. 

cross-stitch and science

I pulled out some unfinished cross-stitch kits the other day contemplating making something for the new addition to our family. Surprisingly, I have finished most of the many projects I purchased from Michael's for various special occasions and gifts. It's so easy to purchase a cross-stitch or other craft kit and then somehow never finish it. I collect my past patterns, leftover floss and kit-covers of the finished product. I have over 25 finished kits in my archives- at some point I will organize them by category/topic and put them in a permanent archive for when a similar occasion arises.

We have reached a new era in crafting. Michael's no longer sells complete cross-stitch kits. This means you must purchase or create your pattern independently and purchase the floss/aida cloth separately. While I think this probably increases the level of skill of your average cross-stitcher, it makes it harder to get started and requires a bigger committment for each project. Oh the days of convenience! While you can buy the completed kits online it is considerably more difficult to do so since you really can't see the picture on the front cover in any detail. It makes it difficult to judge whether or not you really like the design or not.

What does such a silly topic have to do with science anyway? Actually not a whole lot but I was trying to force a connection in my mind today. Is there anything scientific about cross stitch? I came up with one thing: color. The assembly of different colors with thread on a cloth is scientific in nature because it uses the principles of harmony/complementary colors to create pleasure. The absorption and reflection of white light creates the beauty of the combination of colors selected for any art project. Cross-stich does that with floss, aida cloth and a needle.

What beauty- I love crafts. Crafts relate to science as well. Almost everything in this world does.

cooking and chemistry

I think it is more typical for people to garner an interest in chemistry from their interest in cooking. I, on the other hand can confidently say that I was never really interested in cooking before I studied chemistry. It is only since I got married and more interested in domestic matters that my interest in cooking has really piqued.

Today I made a french lamb stew that I found several weeks ago in the Wall Street Journal. Often on weekends WSJ has a food section- most notably I've seen this stew recipe as well as  whole section about how to cook artichokes. (Artichokes are hands down the best vegetable out there.)

After I browned the lamb in hot oil and then carmelized it with sugar followed by a heating in the oven I felt like I was in chem lab. Heating, cooling, thickening, wetting.......it took me all day to prepare the lamb to combine it with a few fresh veggies for a complete stew.

For the first time I used my joint frying pan/casserole pan to cook part of the stew on then burner and then bake it for a bit in the oven. The broth was made with whole garlic, chicken broth, flour, drippings from the lamb, fresh sage and, of course, salt and pepper.

All the vegetables were fresh except the peas and the pearl onions- I parboiled them in water and then plunged them into an ice bath. If that doesn't sound like something straight out of organic chem lab then I don't know what does! The "plunging" in the ice bath is supposed to prevent them from overcooking before they are neatly tucked with the lamb in the thick, bubbly, richly-smelling lamb base.

I love cooking and I love its relationship to science. I wish I realized this a long time ago.

Whatever will I write about as I am idle?

I am afraid of being idle. I get terribly bored very, very easily. This is why I hesitated before I said "no" to offers to teach in the fall. Am I crazy or am I just realistic? I have been told by numerous people, most notably my beloved sister, that I will be feeding around the clock for at least six weeks. By my calculation, that puts me at mid-August or so before the madness ends. This is exactly when the fall semester begins. This is why I declined offers to teach in the fall.

My spring schedule is already filling up- the question is really what kind of a load I can realistically handle. I would love to take on more classes and even move up in the ranks in terms of the level of classes that I teach. I'm not sure that will happen based on my tendency for exhaustion.

This is becoming a reality quickly- last night we ordered the pack n play and the stroller/carseat travel system. Next weekend we purchase our crib/changing table.

Motherhood has nearly begun. Embarking on the unknown is both tremendously daunting and excruciatingly exciting simultaneously. This is a bit like the curve, severe dip and then drop-off of your scariest roller coaster at the park. The question is- is it fun or just very frightening?

In recent years I vote more for frightening as I get severe whiplash on any roller coaster. Perhaps this is why traditionally, nature favors younger mothers. Am I too old for this?

Titration Help! Ahhhhh- how do I do the titration lab?

Titration help handout:


The acid/base titration with NaOH and acetic acid is the oldest experiment in the book. I did it when I was in college (a long time ago) and both schools for which I work do the lab. I know they repeat it in higher level classes with a few more steps to make it more challenging. So it is to your advantage to try to master it at this level so you can handle more detail when they throw it at you.


Part I: Standardization of a base (NaOH)

Why would you standardize a solution? Generally it is because you need to precisely know the concentration of it.

What variables do you know in the first part? You know how many moles of acid that you started with. (KHP). You can calculate moles of acid in your starting material. You also know that the balanced chemical equation for the neutralization of KHP and NaOH reacts in a 1:1 mole ratio between acid and base.

KHP(aq) + NaOH(aq) → KNaP(aq) + H2O(l)

With your buret, you measure the volume of NaOH required to neutralize your KHP acid. You know the experiment is complete when you see your indicator turn a faint pink color. This indicates the pH of the titration is greater than 7 (slightly past the end point the pH can jump up sharply). The true equivalence between NaOH and KHP comes a few drops before you see pink in the solution but we approximate equivalence at the point the solution turns pink.

How do you calculate the concentration of the standard solution? You take moles of acid and set it equal to moles of NaOH. (You know this is true based on the balanced equation).

You can read the volume of NaOH required to complete the titration on your buret. This is the total mL (or Liters) you used to complete the titration.

Simply divide moles of base by liters of solution to get the concentration of the standard solution.

In part II of this experiment you are working backwords. What are your known and unknown variables? Let’s think about this carefully:

Generally you are told to pipette a certain amount of acetic acid in a flask. Let’s say you have a 5.00 mL calibrated pipette. You have 5.00 mL or 0.00500 L of acetic acid in your flask. (Notice I used three sig figs by adding two zeroes to the end of my liter value)

In this titration you now have a known concentration of NaOH from part A. (No, it is not 1:1 as I often see in my lab reports for this lab. It is the value you determined in part A). At this end of the titration, your acetic acid turns pink when moles of acetic acid is essentially equal to moles of base. How do you use this data to derive the concentration of your acid?

Let’s say you have a 0.2540 M concentration of NaOH from part A and you used 26.80 mL of your NaOH to titrate your acetic acid. You can determine moles of NaOH used for the titration by multiplying your concentration of NaOH by your volume of NaOH.

0.2540 moles/Liter NaOH X 0.02680 L NaOH= moles of NaOH (moles/Liter X Liters is always moles)

We know this is equal to moles of acetic acid by the balanced chemical equation.

What volume is this divided by to get the concentration? The original volume of acid you pipette into your flask- 5.00 mL or 0.00500 L.

Triumph!!

It feels so good to have the check box for "excellent" on one's performance review. Yes, I'm going out with a bang!

I leave my job at the end of May to embark on motherhood. I was worried about finding a place to teach when I want to come back to it. Would all of my schools replace me with younger teachers, fresh out of school, brimming with enthusiasm?

Of course there are no guarantees in life but I feel reasonably assured that I have a place to teach come January when my newborn will be six months old and ready to spend a few hours a week with a babysitter.

Hurray! Bravo for that "excellent" check box on the evaluation form.

Lewis structures, VSEPR theory thoughts

My fourth time through this topic in lecture and lab is yet an other new beginning. I rewrote my handout AGAIN for the third time. My supplementary handout started out as a four-page document, evolved into an eight-page document and has now become a 12-page document. Whewwwww! Challenging. Every time I teach this topic I realize more and more exactly what the students don't understand. The strange thing is that out of the three textbooks I own on chemistry, only one actually explains it thoroughly from the lewis dot models to the VSEPR shapes to the dipole moments/polarity and overall symmetry of each molecule. Is this a new topic? I doubt it. I'm trying to understand why none of the book authors can sufficiently explain it.

The Power Of a Personal Network

Today I'd like to share about the importance of networking. There are endless workshops out there about how to speed network, work a room, meet important people and build your network. Many of these workshops are helpful, yet leave out a personal element that makes networking all the more relevant to the individual. This is a true story about how I was hired at my current job:

I have played the flute since age ten, piano since age five. Music is strictly a hobby for me although at various times in the past I've taken it more seriously than others. About four years ago I attempted to join a community orchestra here in San Diego. What a shock! If you want to play in a high-calibre, amateaur group here in southern Cal you need a PhD in music performance. I am not kidding- there are professionals competing for unpaid community orchestras around here. There is one orchestra in particular that attracts professionals and high-quality amateurs. You have to be a very good musician to join and you have to know the right people.

Three years ago I started taking flute from a former member of the San Diego Symphony. Last summer she invited me to perform my Quantz Concerto at the  First United Methodist Church in La Mesa. (She is music director at that church). One of the ushers was a teacher/professor at Southwestern College in  Chula Vista. He asked me about my day job and I told him I had taught some chemistry at community colleges and worked in industry around San Diego. Small world! He told me that he taught physics at Southwestern and gave me the name of the department chair. The rest is history.

I did not perform at that church to get a new job. It was the last thing on my mind. I strive to become a quality musician; even someday join a high-quality orchestra here in San Diego. My performance at that church was purely for furtherment in the musical world. However, I walked away with a new contact in the chemistry education world.

You never know who in your network can help you at any given time in your life. Networks,  skills, hobbies and ALL of the people you know are very important in your network.

An article about introducing science to students

I just read this article from NEA journal fom fall 2010. It describes science in a very general way. I found it helpful in explaining the difference between science and other disciplines to my students.

embarking on motherhood

As I pass the halfway mark toward my July 2 due date I am somewhat overwhelmed by the remarkable changes my life will undergo in the next year. I look at where I've been over the last twelve or so. I moved down to San Diego in the fall of 1999 footloose, fancy-free of obligation and responsibility; ready to tackle the world and anything that might come my way.

Much of what I've done has been very rewarding; I've taken this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be completely selfish. I've followed Ayn Rand's philosophy of being true to myself.

As rewarding as this has been, it is ending, and now I am entering a new phase in which I cannot keep this same mentality and behavior. It must be my responsibility now to think of the other people in my life ahead of myself. I must provide for their protection and education and well-being. I can no longer date that random guy (that ended three+ years ago when I got married), take a job in another state, or make other random decisions that ride on my daily desires.

In a way I have lost my freedom and in yet another I have gained so much more. The lack of responsibility and obligation seems initially very liberating, however, over time it becomes very empty. It is the responsibility and obligation in life that yields meaningful and lasting relationships. As hard as these can be sometimes they are really what makes life worth living.

I will be a mother, a protector and a care-giver. Hopefully I won't completely lose my professional identity or my sense of daily accomplishments completely inside myself. My first and foremost priority will be my child and my family. I will give my previous sense of self to the betterment, protection and furtherment of another human being in what may become my most significant relationship yet. I am so excited for what awaits me.

I am scared as well. Am I really ready for this? I think so. It has taken me nearly as much time to prepare for this as it took to raise and prepare an infant for college (18 years). I am now nearly 18 years out of high school. A completely different being has emerged with new ideas, values, and sense of the world. I am ready to be a parent.
Cheers to the future.

Chromium VI: A Human Interest Story

Today I taught nomenclature in my introductory chemistry class and I thought of a wonderful human interest story to make type II transition metals (type II ionic compounds)  all the more relevant. Here it is:

Have you ever seen the movie Erin Brockovitch? If you  haven't, I highly recommend that you do. In this 2000 movie starring Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovitch, a local electricity company releases hexavalent chromium (Chromium VI) into the drinking water of a southern California town. The chromium VI compound is used to prevent corrosion at a cheap price. Not just at a cheap monetary price; at the price of the general health of the surrounding population. This happened from the early '50s through the mid '60s. According to the film, Brockovitch took a low-level clerk position at a law firm to pay her bills amid her rather low-class, somewhat promiscuous, borderline-sketchy lifestyle. Initially, her treatment at the firm was very poor.

Whether it was luck, God, general intelligence or a combination of all of these attributes is unknown. However, in her filing and general administrative duties at the law firm she noticed something odd about documents she was given. She noticed several people in a real estate case had family members with severe health problems (cancer, chronic illness and other complications).

One thing led to another and by the end of the film Brockovitch won the largest class-action settlement in US history against PG&E.

Brockovitch did not have a chemistry background and probably did not know what the health ramifications of Chromium VI might be. Can you imagine how much faster her work might have gone if she had known about this?

Today we looked at Chromium is several different oxidation states. Do you know how to figure out the oxidation state of chromium in a type II ionic compound?

molecule vs compound. What is the difference?

I realized recently that I use the terms molecule and compound interchangeably. Someone asked me what the difference is and I said, "same thing." This answer is actually incorrect- there is a difference between molecules and compounds although many people (chemists included) use the terms interchangeably. The reason for this is that the two have many things in common.

Both molecules and compounds follow the law of definite proportions. Another way of saying this is to say that in every molecule of water you have one atom of oxygen and two atoms of hydrogen. An alternate way to state this is to say that for every 16 grams of oxygen (per molecule) you always have 2 grams o hydrogen. This is true whether you refer to molecules or compounds.

The terminology differs however when we talk about the type of bonding that occurs in molecular compounds vs other compounds. (Notice how I used the word "compound" in both terms. It implies that something molecular is a compound by nature meaning that it follows the law of definite proportions.) A molecular compound is one that only contains nonmetals (generally) and is held together by the sharing of electrons. Whole molecules might be held rigidly in place by intermolecular forces between molecules but there is never any official chemical bonding between molecules. The sharing of electrons might not be equal. This is the cause of polarity and electronegativity differences. The degree of polarity can actually be calculated on a scale of severity to rate the nature of the polar bond. A bond that has a high enough polarity or electronegativity difference between atoms is actually no longer considered a polar covalent bond but moves into the ranks of the ionic bonds.

Two atoms that have vastly differing electronegativities are bound together by forces of electricity, not the sharing of electrons. It can be thought of as a donation of electrons from one species to the other to create two charged species- positive and negative. The bond is then an electrostatic interaction. One of my students expressed it this way, "It's like the difference between lego legs and a magnet- the ionic bond is the magnet attraction." (and a compound as opposed to a molecular compound)

The "lego legs" illustration refers to the characteristic of molecular bonding in which the sharing of electrons (through overlap of orbitals) creates distinctly arranged atoms that form distinctive shapes with distinctive angles.  In the "magnetic" bonding, the atoms arrange themselves to minimize repulsions and maximize attractions.  In some ways the atoms all float together in magnetic attraction (as if they don't form individual compounds but one big centralized compound made up of many formula units) but if you broke the unit down into pieces it would always have the same ratio of atoms as the compound itself (due to law of definite proportions).

What a talented student! Lego legs vs magnets! I love it.

Randall Knight comes alive in my classroom!

I've finally implemented the idea of instant feedback from the Five Easy Lessons book by Randall Knight. Did I need complex electronic equipment to do it? No. I passed out large index cards and each student divided them into 4 parts. A, B,C, D. Now whenever I want to estimate the number of students who understand my point I ask for people to hold up the appropriate card.

I learned what does NOT work. If you ask the students to give you a rating on the easy/hard nature of the quiz they have no idea what they are talking about. Almost everybody gave me "B" (the quiz was easy). Funny thing that the average was a 65%. Guess they are remiss in the idea of easy vs hard.

Its a subtle change in teaching technique but I already feel a difference. I am connecting with my students on a deeper level. I can't wait to continue.

The Personal Journals of LM Montgomery: My growing interest in a topic

The evolution of my interest in these literary works spans twenty-five years. For the amount of time I have been interested in this topic I should have received a PhD by now. The unfortunate part of this is that my studies have never been official or affiliated with any kind of university. But, nevertheless it is true, I am fascinated with the life and works of LM Montgomery. Her writing never ceases to lift my spirits in times of trial or provide general entertainment on a rainy day.

When I was ten years old I had very little exposure to television or movies. My viewing was limited to Little House on the Prairie and a few other harmless shows. However, one night I got lucky: Mom and Dad were having a party and needed me to stay upstairs for the entire evening. This meant that not only did I get to watch TV but I got to move the TV into my bedroom to watch it. Since this had never happened before I was thrilled beyond belief. My mom set up the TV in my room to watch the brand new Canadian version of the classic movie Anne of Green Gables. From this moment (was it 1985 or 1986 that it made its debut on television?) I was a hard-core Anne of Green Gables/LM Montgomery fan. Little did I know how my life changed the night I saw the movie for the first time.

Shortly after that I had my own copy of the book, then the entire Anne series (8 books). Not too long after that I had the Emily of New Moon books and a few others. By the time the second movie came out I had parts of the first movie memorized.

As I grew older my enthusiasm waned a bit. Anne seemed a bit juvenile as I got into high school and then during college I was too busy for my old love affair with a fictional character. It wasn't sometime after college that I discovered LM Montgomery  had written novels for adults. There are actually two novels for adults: Blue Castle and A Tangled Web. Both were written while she was living in the Toronto area. A Blue Castle is actually based on a location she visited as a tourist in Toronto; the owners of the hotel have created a museum to commemorate the fame she created out of their hotel in her novel.

When I met my husband one of the things that interested me about him was his Canadian origins. He had lived in Toronto for a number of years before he moved to the United States. I wondered if he had ever heard of famous Anne and her creator. Of course he had not.  (Most men are not overly fond of Anne in the way I am.) I told him about my love affair with LM Montgomery and her origins on Prince Edward Island and he convinced me we should pay her hometown a visit. So we did. And thus began my second love affair with LM Montgomery.

In 2009 we fulfilled a life-long dream of mine and went to Prince Edward Island. Cavendish is just as beautiful as Montgomery describes in her books. We were even able to stay right across the street from the Cavendish cemetery that borders the MacNeill family property. Green Gables is just down the road. Of course the guest house was named after Rachel Lynde (of all people) and ties in with the theme of the different buildings Anne used from Cavendish in her Anne novel. The entire setup is a fairy land.

How much delight it gave me to roam the old MacNeill property so elegantly described in LM's books. The old MacNeill house was torn down long ago - apparently Uncle John was not thrilled with LM's literary fantasies (as obvious in her journals) and rid the property of the house in a utilitarian sweep of the unnecessary. However, John's son and his wife Jenny refurbished the old foundation and created a walking path with a gift shop nearby. You can traverse through the haunted wood to the Green Gables house and walk through the famous Lover's Lane. Surprisingly the Lake of Shining Waters is not there but  over at Park Corner (Campbell home) which is several miles away.

Trips to Rustico and to the North Cape proved to me that there is even more to PEI than Cavendish and Green Gables. I could buy a summer home there it is so beautiful.

It was at the gift shop on the Macneill property that I first became interested in autobiographical information about LM Montgomery. There is a book called the Alpine Path in which she describes her literary career. It is the only such book available by her about her own career and decisions. I read it from cover to cover and found it fascinating. (As an added bonus, John MacNeill's son David MacNeill signed a copy of it for me)

Here in Brampton I discovered that Montgomery and Ewan Macdonald (her husband) served in the Presbyterian Church in Norval. It is about fifteen minutes down the road from us.  In the town there is a bakery owned by the Crawford family; Marion Crawford was one of the children who grew up in the house Montgomery used as her scaffold for Green Gables. The Webbs were cousins of the MacNeill family in Cavendish.  The bakery has a museum in the back dedicated to the memory of LM Montgomery. Of course they sell the 100-year anniversary memorabilia, display her belongings like old teacups and dishes, first-editions of her novels, and display pictures, flyers and other advertisements from the many theatre, church and other functions during her time at the manse. Apparently there is a garden dedicated to her memory- it features her favorite flowers. You can drive by the old Presbyterian manse; however, it is not a museum because the current  pastor of the Presbyterian church (and his family) live there.

The University of Guelph nearby (about 1.5 hour drive from here) owns all of the original journals, scrapbooks, fiction manuscripts and correspondence of LM Montgomery in a special collection that is available for public viewing. Her son Stuart donated the collection shortly before his death in 1982. I am drooling already in anticipation of going there. And go there I will because my in-laws live here. What luck for me!

Meanwhile, The Blue Castle and A Tangled Webb are high on my list of books to read in the near future.

May the love affair continue!