Bio-Chemical Hacker

This blog is for Bio-Chemistry majors, students, and soon to be scientists! We'll upload posts for studying subjects for obtaining a biochemistry degree, along with some news related to the field, enjoy!

[biochemicalhacker]

Free College Level Chemistry Tests to Study For End of Year or End of Chem. 2 Final + Answers:

For End of Chem. 2 Or End of First Year of Chem.

American Chemical Society Local Exam + Answer Sheet For Years:

2018

2017

2016

2015

General Chemistry by Colby.edu:

Practice Exam 1

Practice Exam 1 Answers

Practice Exam 2

Practice Exam 2 Answers

[cenchempics]

Mirror, mirror in the flask

As a Bunsen burner heats the bottom of this glass tube, a thin layer of potassium-called a potassium mirror-grows along the tube’s inner wall. Chemists like Andryj Borys, who is a researcher at the University of Kent, use these sealed tubes to keep chemicals away from the oxygen and moisture in air to prevent unwanted reactions. As an added precaution, before putting his water-free hexane in the tube, Borys first placed a bit of potassium metal at the bottom and vacuum sealed the tube. At the low pressure created by the vacuum, the potassium didn’t melt when heated; instead, it turned directly into a gas and deposited onto the cooler walls above. The coating kept his hexane water-free because the metal rapidly reacts with any water present.

Credit: Andryj Borys

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Related C&EN Content: Simple Process Creates Near-Perfect Mirrors Out Of A Metamaterial Why sodium and potassium really explode in water

[gifsofprocesses]

No idea what theese are but this looks cool as hell 

[savagebeastrecords]

KNOW THE LEDGE!!!

[cenchempics]

Blue moon

This quinolinone derivative is just a regular white powder under normal light. But under ultraviolet light, it fluoresces blue. Constantinos Neochoritis, a drug design researcher at the University of Groningen, isolated the derivative contained in this 250 mL flask as part of a project to find molecules that can inhibit specific reactions between proteins. Quinolinone derivatives participate in other types of fluorescence, such as that of South American tree frogs.

Submitted by Constantinos Neochoritis

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Related C&EN Content: First naturally fluorescing frog found in Argentina Illuminating the way forward

[cenchempics]

A complicated way to make salt

Despite the complex setup that Jarrod Sage used to run this reaction, he ended up holding a flask lined with a pattern of crystals consisting mostly of plain old sodium chloride. Sage, an undergraduate at Western Washington University, used this air-tight flask and a glove box to make an oxygen-sensitive molecule for his green catalysis research. He mixed resorcinol with sodium hydride and added that to di-tert-butylchlorophosphine. One of the reaction products was the molecule Sage wanted. But these crystals containing sodium chloride—which isn’t soluble in the organic solvent used in the reaction—built up on the vessel’s walls as a by-product.

Submitted by Jarrod Sage

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Related C&EN content: Stunning Structures Spring From Humble Table Salt Tiny Bits Of Plastic Found In Table Salt In China A recipe for salt

[cenchempics]

Fine-tuned glow

Biologists use fluorescent dyes to stain and image biological tissues using specialized microscopes. Luke Lavis’s group at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus recently came up with a new, milder synthesis for rhodamines, a popular class of dyes, using a palladium catalyst (Nat. Methods. 2017, DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.4403). With this new method, they were able to prepare rhodamines decorated with four-membered azetidine rings, which boost the efficiency of the dyes’ fluorescence. By changing the functional groups at the end of the azetidine rings, they can tune the color at which the dyes glow, opening up a range of applications for the compounds.—Craig Bettenhausen

Submitted by Chad Binns (vials)/Nat Methods (structures)

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Related C&EN Content: Chemistry in Pictures — Propulsion Chemistry in Pictures — Nebula in a flask Dye Colors Up Live Cell Surfaces In 3-D

[yourfunwithchem]

The Molecular Shape of You (Ed Sheeran Parody) | A Capella Science

I had to share this parody because it’s awesome!!

[tobeagenius]

The world’s most detailed scan of the brain’s internal wiring has been produced by scientists at Cardiff University.

Not only does the scan show the direction of the messaging, but also the density of the brain’s wiring. Conventional scans clearly show lesions - areas of damage - in the brain of MS patients.But this advanced scan, showing axonal density, can help explain how the lesions affect motor and cognitive pathways - which can trigger movement problems and extreme fatigue.

Prof Derek Jones, CUBRIC’s director, said it was like getting hold of the Hubble telescope when you’ve been using binoculars. “The promise for researchers is that we can start to look at structure and function together for the first time,” he said.

[littlecellbiologyblog]

The Battery of the future?

They may not look like the batteries we are used to, but Electric Eels, or Knifefish, can discharge a large voltage to attack their prey. They do this through thousands of connected cells, called electrocytes, present along their body which generate voltage through movement of ions across their membranes (in a similar way to how nerve impulses are generated). 

Researchers have used gels to recreate the properties of electrocytes from the eel and made a battery which generates enough voltage to power something like a cardiac pacemaker. Improvements to these hydrogel cells could see these eel-inspired batteries being used to power artificial organs, such as contact lenses with virtual displays, and biosensors or wearable tech. What is potentially groundbreaking about these hydrogel batteries is that in the future they could be recharged using salt water, in a similar way to the eel biologically recharging their electrocytes. 

For a video of how these cells work go to: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-08617-3