Discover Top Posts Tagged with #ochemlab

Extracting orange essential oil. #ochemlab #organicchemistry #essentialoils #orange #byuh #universitylife #hawaii (at BYU–Hawaii)

#hawaii #organicchemistry #essentialoils #universitylife #ochemlab #byuh #orange

Wondering if this was the right decision

Is ochem lab really this hard or did I get stuck with a really, really bad teacher. She doesn't "teach" anything. We have to go off the lab manual.

#ochemlab #anonymouspremed

This is what I've had to sit through all morning taking notes. I've gotten through 9 videos and I have about 15 more..... Pray for me..... #examontuesday #ochemlab #ochemfinal #lastexam #studysession #boring #saveme #ikeepdaydreamingandthenihavetostartitover #whyhisvoicesoboringthough

#ochemfinal #ochemlab #examontuesday #saveme #lastexam #boring #studysession #ikeepdaydreamingandthenihavetostartitover #whyhisvoicesoboringthough

science is a funny thing

I am currently taking an organic lab class over the summer and I have to say, I have been enjoying it very much. Yesterday, I did my first recrystallization and I left the lab smiling with contentment. If you are not familiar with recrystallization, it is basically the process of purifying a substance by: (1) boiling down the substance in a solution so that the substance dissolves (2) slowly cooling it down to reform the crystals in its pure form. It is an important processes in all industries, from food to pharmaceutical.The goal is to get rid of impurities within the solute.

Our group of four members was given an unknown substance, letter W, and the purpose of recrystallization was to purify the compound given, find its unique melting point, and then identify what it was. Although it was a tedious, time consuming process, I was able to recover 71 % of my substance. There was pride in my heart because it was a lot more than a lot of people had obtained. The most enjoyable part has to be watching the crystals form in the cool ice bath. One by one, little snowflake like substances formed on the side of the test tube in the once clear solution and gently fell onto the bottom. After I collected the little snowflakes and dried them off, I was left with a white solid, almost identical to the substance I had first boiled. But it was not. It was more pure, more authentic, more simple.

Is not science a funny thing? To find answers to the most complex questions, it is necessary to boil things down to the simplest, purest form. There is beauty in science that I have a great appreciation for, one that is closely intertwined with nature itself.

On a side note, I just want to mention another thing that made me giggle to myself as I looked at my pure substance. In general chemistry lab, for some odd reason the experiments were not giving accurate results (possibly due to the fact that our lab instructor had no idea what he was doing). The phrase that seemed to pop up constantly after every experiment when comparing our results was "Science doesn't work!". Although we laughed, that phrase seemed to become more and more true every time we exclaimed it. We knew that it was most likely due to our mistakes, but I could not help but to slightly believe it while doing experiments. Science seemed to fail us every time. It was a silly thought indeed. The recrystallization lab brought back my faith in science. Everything seemed to click and worked. We found our unknown substance and obtained accurate data that did not confuse us at all. Amazingly simple. It was in that moment that my silly thought dissipated out of my head. Oh science, you are a quaint thing.

#personal #science #ochemlab #recrystallization