The American Chemical Society made this five-minute video essay about Theo Gray and his invention: four-legged periodic table table. The 2002 Ig Nobel Prize in chemistry honored the inventor and the invention: BONUS: Theo Gray’s relatives’ “nauseatingly cute” version of Tom Lehrer’s classic song “The Elements”:
Tag: chemistry
Teaser for the 23rd first annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony
Daniel Rosenberg, Al Crockett, and David Kessler made this twerk-allusive teaser for the 23rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony: Daniel and Al made a teaser last year, too:
Moronic acid
Yes, there is a moronic acid: “Moronic acid, a simple triterpenoid keto acid with antimicrobial activity isolated from Ozoroa mucronata,” M. Hostettmann-Kaldas and K. Nakanishi, Planta medica 37.12 (1979): 358-60. Unwhimsically, it is not unstructured. The structure looks more or less like this: (Thanks to investigator Deborah Blum for bringing this substance to our attention.) […]
Some say strychnine
Chemistry Blog muses about names: (4aR,5aS,8aR,8a1S,15aS)-4a1,5,5a,7,8,8a1,15,15a-octahydro-2H-4,6-methanoindolo[3,2,1-ij]oxepino[2,3,4-de]pyrrolo[2,3-h]quinolin-14(4aH)-one. Imagine if Agatha Christie had to write that every time she had to mention the poison used in the murder, or if Hitchcock’s leading man had to vocalise it in the courtroom. Well they’d never get the book or the film down to a manageable size. It’s much easier […]