Clams' Insane Molecular Diversity

When I tell people I am a chemist the most common response is, “Oh man, I hated that in school, especially organic chemistry!” That's an unfortunate but reasonable response. Trying to understand these tiny things called molecules that are impossible to see can be kind of like learning about a never-to-be-seen dimension in which up is down and left is orange.

Thinking about chemicals can be very disorienting. Image via Andrew Lipson.

I love chemistry though because the shapes of these molecules scribbled on the chalk board actually have consequences that we can see in the world. The changing color of leaves on the approach of winter is caused by actual changes in the structure of the matter of which those leaves are made.  The effects of the diversity of molecular shapes in the world around us can actually be SEEN with our eyes!

Green and yellow leaves on the Katsura tree with the chemicals responsible for those colors (chlorophyll a and yellow-chlorophyll-catabolite, respectively). Image and knowledge via Krautler et. al.

When someone tells me they are a biologist my most common response is, “Oh man, biology is so complicated!” It seems so daunting to me to move beyond a simplistic description of aspects of life such as "chemical X results in color Y" and actually try to understand the nearly unfathomable diversity of chemicals that come together to make each living thing unique.

Not to scale. Clams are way bigger than DNA, which is way bigger than water.

I am certainly not capable of crafting a simple yet complete description of how the shapes of the molecules that make up living things contributes to those things' visible shapes, sizes, and colors.

Fortunately, where my scientific brain fails, an artistic brain succeeds. Video artist and experimental animator David C. Montgomery has created a beautiful video capturing the diversity of shapes, patterns, and colors that are present within several different species of life. When watching this video (full screen it!!), try and think about how all of the differences you see are caused by differences in the shape, arrangement, and composition of the unimaginably tiny and diverse molecules of which the living things are composed.

LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Experiments at Home #2 - "Skillet Control Oven"

In my last post I showed how my skillet was coated in liquid after a short stay in my pre-heating oven. I guessed that the liquid was water and that it came from the burning of natural gas. Though I was quite confident in my guess, I admitted I hadn't done any other experiments to show that the liquid actually was water.

Thankfully, The Second Criterion blogger Jenny pointed out that while my oven produces heat by burning natural gas...

This is my oven! Definitely try this at home!!!
If you want to know why the flame is blue, check out this post.

Experiments at Home #1 - "The Skillet Mystery"

In my ever-continuing quest to become an actual adult, I have recently begun to cook. I use a real oven and everything!

In my usual encounter with the oven it takes just a few minutes of pre-heating before I realize that I have yet again left the big skillet inside. Panicked, I pull it out of the oven, and notice something weird! Finally I decided to repeat the skillet-in-the-oven experiment and document my findings. Here we go!

Step #1--observe the condition of the skillet before its trip into the oven.

I Am a Scientist! - part 2

I am a scientist. Here is me pretending that life in lab is just as I had imagined it as a child...lab coat, frizzy hair, flasks of colored solutions, smoke, and all:

Erlenmeyer flasks are my favorite piece of laboratory glassware.

Feynman on Flowers

I had planned to post my favorite quote from one of my favorite scientists, Richard Feynman, when I discovered that the fine folks at the Sagan Series had already set it to images and music. Its the first passage in the video, and it communicates way better than I could one of the main reasons I love science. Enjoy!


And for those script-lovers in the audience:

I have a friend who’s an artist and he’s sometimes taken a view which I don’t agree with very well. He’ll hold up a flower and say, “Look how beautiful it is,” and I’ll agree, I think. And he says—“you see, I as an artist can see how beautiful this is, but you as a scientist, oh, take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing.” And I think that he’s kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me, too, I believe, although I might not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is; but I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time I see much more about the flower than he sees. I can imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside which also have a beauty. I mean it’s not just beauty at this dimension of one centimeter, there is also beauty at a smaller dimension, the inner structure. Also the processes, the fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting—it means that the insects can see the color. It adds a question: Does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which shows that science knowledge only adds to the excitement and mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds; I don’t understand how it subtracts.

Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988)

P.S. Do yourself a favor and go read "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman!" Adventures of a Curious Character.

"The Shape of It All" or "Dr. Licorice Explains Why Bisphenol-A is Scary"

I recently made a chemical that smelled extremely familiar, but after numerous wafts, I couldn't quite tell what it reminded me of.

Me wafting the chemical I made.  The chemical is the tiny bit of brown oil in that small clear jar in my left hand.

This puzzle went unsolved for days until my labmate Michelle used some of the chemical and was like, "Lee, have you noticed how that chemical you made smells just like licorice?"

I was like, "OMG, you solved it!!!!"

Victory Licorice!!!

Asteroid Particles

Recently the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency sent a spaceship to an asteroid named Itokawa.  A spaceship to an asteroid!!  As if that wasn't awesome enough, the spaceship landed on the asteroid, collected material, and returned home to earth!  These are images of tiny particles collected from the surface of that asteroid.

These particles are around half the diameter of a human hair.  Click to make them HUGE!

Here are three views of Itokawa, which is about 630 meters x 250 meters.  Assuming a spacesuit didn't slow you down, and the surface of the asteroid were boulder-free and easy to walk on, it would only take you ~20 minutes to walk around the whole thing the long-way.  Pretty small!!