Ask Electro-Static

Hello, My name is Electro Static and I am a University Student studying Chemistry. I will be answering questions about chemistry and posting lessons that I have learned about friendship during my Academic Studies.

[catfood-mcfly-deactivated201310]

So while you Brits were all distracted by your national broodmare squeezing out a potential successor, your glorious leader banned Incestria Girls in your country. BUT THERE’S AN UPSIDE: It’s for the chiiiiildren and their iiiiinnocence. So now you don’t have to continue striving to be a good...

[electro-static-blog]

In this day and age isn't innocence a bigger liability than ever? I find it strange that the prime minister would talk about something that is necessarily a temporary state of being like it is a national asset.

[secretst0rms-deactivated2015042]

Argon Ice

In the video above, argon is liquified and frozen (wut), using liquid nitrogen, ultimately producing argon ice (double wut). I think it’s quite interesting to think of a solid noble gas.

At room temperature, argon exists as a gas. Argon has a melting point of -186.36 °C (-303.448 °F) and a boiling point of -185.847 °C (-302.525 °F) . The narrow range between the melting and boiling points is demonstrated around 4:37 when the drops of liquid argon immediately boil as it lands on the surface.

Fun fact: argon is the third most abundant gas (0.93%) in the earth’s atmosphere, behind nitrogen (78.09%) and oxygen (20.95%). 

Sources used: “Argon Ice” Video and PubChem

[electro-static-blog]

I really want to try making this. 

[adventures-in-the-lab]

Sugar solution to toxic gold recovery | Chemistry World

US researchers have discovered a way to selectively isolate and recover gold from raw materials, including alloys, using a simple sugar derived from corn starch. The work could offer a greener and cheaper alternative to conventional processes, which use cyanide and often result in environmental contamination.

The specific self-assembly between α-cyclodextrin and KAuBr4 leads to the precipitation of nanowires © Dennis Cao

[electro-static-blog]

Being involved in the world of gold chemistry for my research and having attempted to recover gold compounds from waste solutions for eventual recovery this is of personal interest to me lol

[nerdygirllifts-deactivated20160]

Look! I’m actually doing science today. Or really I set it up and the pump is doing the work. We’re testing materials that do anion exchange to remove a radioactive element from seawater. The material in the column is not our material. That test is for next week! #chemistry #science #enivornmentalresearch #inorganic #zeolites

[electro-static-blog]

Looks quite a bit like my lab lol!

[electro-static-blog]

Gotta learn to draw

It's been well over a decade since I've seriously lifted pen to paper, guess it's time I learn to draw again if I actually want to post real content. 

[laboratoryequipment-blog]

Catalyst Preserves Fresh Fruit Ripening fruit, vegetables and flowers release ethylene, which works as a plant hormone. Ethylene accelerates ripening, so other unripened fruit also begins to ripen — fruit and vegetables quickly spoil and flowers wilt. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, Japanese researchers have now introduced a new catalytic system for the fast and complete degradation of ethylene. This system could keep the air in warehouses ethylene-free, keeping perishable products fresh longer. Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/catalyst-preserves-fresh-fruit

[electro-static-blog]

How you like dat science?

[labphoto]

Activation of magnesium with some subliming iodine. It has a really pretty color and it start’s the formation of Gringard reagent in no time!

Have You seen my portfolio? It’s over here: http://labphoto.tumblr.com/tagged/portfolio

[electro-static-blog]

AWWWWW Yeaaaa chemistry just got real! Weather flying gringard reangent, I have these reagents in my drawer at home. 

[zerostumbleine33]

For anyone taking organic chem, this site saved my life. Particularly helpful when identifying unknown compounds based on H NMR and IR Spectra

[centralscience-deactivated20160]

Used this all the time. Great resource =)

[adventures-in-the-lab]

Highly recommended for when you can’t take the measurements yourself

[electro-static-blog]

This Site will save your life in Organic Chemistry lab, thanks to Adventures in the Lab for posting it. 

[indeliriums]

[madlori]

I bet you did.

Did you estimate what mpg your car is getting?  Did you figure out how many hamburgers you could get for six bucks?  Did you think about how long it would take you to get somewhere given the speed and distance?  Did you plan a meal so all the components would be done at the same time?  Did you encounter anything on sale?  Did you figure out how many groceries you could get for how much money you had?

There are about a million other daily, unconscious tasks that use algebra or at least algebraic thinking.  Just because you weren’t writing out an equation or employing variables doesn’t mean you weren’t using the skills that algebra and other math courses taught you.

Science and math aren’t important because you’re going to need to know the exact steps of photosynthesis or the quadratic formula.  They’re important because they teach you scientific and mathematical literacy and rational thinking, and that is sorely needed in a world where charlatans and cheats or people with a political or religious agenda can get away with all manner of pseudoscience and bullshit because people don’t have enough scientific literacy or critical thinking skills to accurately weigh the arguments or even discern where they fail logically.

So study math and science, and art, and literature, and history, and politics, not because you’re going to need it or it’s going to do something specific for you, but because an uninformed populace is bad for the world.

[heretherebdragons]

Bless this commentary. 

[electro-static-blog]

Semester is over

hopefully with the end of the academic semester I will be conducting research. As well as creating updates at least once a week. I'm not much of an artist,or a writer really so we will see.

[electro-static-blog]

Gluten free Oatmeal cookie recipe with an almond base

This is another culinary experiment of mine with an almond meal base. Note that the cooking times can be tricky, depending on how chewy or crunchy you want your cookies. It is still a work in progress (getting all parts of the procedure standardized and simplified, as well tweaking the recipe to be easier on the wallet (raw almonds are like $4.75 a pound in bulk), ect..) but everyone who has tried them has been pleased with the results.

Reagents:

1.0 cup almond meal (I just shred costco raw almonds in a coffee grinder)

1.0 cups gluten free rolled oats

0.5 cups sugar (I use white granulated)

2 eggs

1 pinch ground cardamon (or to taste)

cinnamon to taste

0.33 cups chopped pecans

0.33 cups raisins

Lab ware:

Measuring cups

1 large bowl

2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. 

Procedure:

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F

2. Add the gluten free oats, 3/4 of a cup of the shredded almond meal, the cinnamon, cardamon, chopped pecans, and raisins into a bowl and then mix well until you get a uniform mixture. Then mix in both of your eggs, until you once more have a uniform mixture. Now that this is done you can mix in the remaining 1/4 cup of almond meal to bring the mixture to a more dough like consistency. 

3. use a spoon to drop cookie dough onto the cookie sheets, note that cooking time depends on size. 

4. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, then leave in the oven as it cools down (this will make the cookies crunchy). 

5. let cool for 30 mins, then enjoy. 

[electro-static-blog]

A lesson on friendship that I learned after spending weeks in anti-social isolation, and then spending the afternoon in the forest with my friend Tree Hugger. 

[electro-static-blog]

Gluten and dairy free almond cookies

Some friends of mine have been asking me to write down the procedure to one of my culinary experiments, evidently they find it to be fairly tasty, and being almond instead of flour based these little cookies do pack a bit of nutrition as well for all you hungry students out there.

Reagents:

1.00 to 1.25 cups ground almonds (I use raw unsalted almonds and a coffee grinder)

0.500 cups granulated sugar (you can use less if you like a less sweet cookie)

a pinch of ground cardamon, or cinnamon (to blend the flavors)

1 large egg

some vegetable oil

Lab Procedure:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees, then ready a two cookie sheets with parchment paper,or a silicone baking mat.

Mix dry reagent first until all lumps are gone, then mix in the egg (it helps to beat the egg before adding it) Then mix until you get get a sticky mixture, you may add more ground almond meal to make the cookie dough easier to work.

coat your hands in the cooking oil (to prevent your hands from sticking to the dough)then use your oiled hands to shape the dough into balls about 1.5-2 cm in diameter (squish them flat with your palm if you want crunchier cookies, leave them ball shaped if you want chewier cookies) then place in oven for 13 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are slightly browned. Finally remove from oven and let cool for 15-30mins.

Hope you all enjoy!

[adventures-in-the-lab]

Painting a patient’s skin with a liquid metal ink could make heart monitoring much less painful and even let doctors keep an eye on a whole range of vital signs. Scientists used the ink to draw electrodes on to the skin, which could also be used to monitor muscle or brain activity.1

A-ok. Yang Yu models the new liquid metal electrodes holding two batteries to power LEDs connected by a circuit © Jing Liu

[electro-static-blog]

Midterms commeth

Midterms commeth, and all those who've studied science know the fear that they bring. Goodbye Social life, Goodbye sleep, goodbye ponies. Hello books; my dear friends.  Hello homework , hello lab reports. 

It is a good day to struggle.

Until next weekend

Electro-Static. 

[electro-static-blog]

I learned a lesson on the magic of friendship as related to studying during the course of a very difficult physics assignment. 

[electro-static-blog]

Ask Electro Static

Hello Everyone, My name is Electo Static, and I am a student studying Chemistry at University.  I have made this blog for answering chemistry related questions and for posting lessons that I learn about friendship during the course of my studies. For now I will stick to posting my letters until I am able to create other images.