#chemistry studyblr

[brokoala-soup]

Knowing that -one is pronounced as One (əʊn) and not one (/wUHn/) is peak STEM academia

[sleepy-gardevoir]

march 21, 2023 - tuesday week 3

tuesday is my busiest day because all of my classes and all of my extracurriculars meet, but i think i've got everything taken care of so i can go to sleep right when i get back to the room!

i did some annotations on the research paper that i'm summarizing for research rotation, and we had a lecture on how to properly do a research proposal. it sounded really daunting but i'm kind of excited to work more on what i think i want to do for the independent research section of the class!

i also transferred my anatomy notes. we finished our first section (basics of animal form and function) yesterday and started our animal nutrition unit! it's a really interesting class, and iirc we're actually starting with wet labs tomorrow!

song of the day: father by the front bottoms

[lilacthebooklover]

have to do a triple chem paper tomorrow and can i just say that paper 2 is a godsend compared to paper 1. fractional distillation? reversible reactions?? freaking potable water? i think i might be in love.

[natscbi]

introduction post 3.0

♣️ my “name” is “kaz”, i’m a chemistry* “student” doing a masters at cambridge university & serial language learner

♣️ focusing on (high beginner?) korean. when i’m bored i swap to (modern, beginner) greek

♣️ been learning them on and off since july 2022 and august 2023 respectively

♣️ previous languages: spanish (5 years), italian (2.5 years), german (long time)

♣️ future languages: BSL (did a little in lockdown) japanese (never started)

♣️ lean towards organic & materials chemistry, biomaterials, & some inorganic (but i’ve also done plenty of physical chem)

♣️ completed my bachelors in summer 2024

some other info:

i’m bi / queer

semi confirmed neurodivergent

music preferences: alt pop/rock/kpop/2010s nostalgia

yes i use duolingo bc i’m busy. also ttmik for korean. also music / social media / youtube / random online research

i have historically been pretty bad at keeping a studyblr going. i Am Trying to post regularly

*first year natural sciences: maths / physics / chemistry / materials. second year natural sciences: double chemistry / materials. third year chemistry

asks and messages are welcome!

only ways to get blocked are being a creep / bigot / bot, or having zero posts & no description

[savagebeautyqueen]

Chemistree

[veiledviking]

Guess it’s study time.

[whozkay]

sunday studies

🧪⚗️ chemistry, my biggest enemy

[er-cryptid]

Patreon

[silverfroot]

Eugenol (clove essential oil) turned into a yellow salt after reacting to an alkaline solution.

[wiinding]

Any chemistry learners out there?

My courses really lack some detailing and I'm still waiting to receive my damn textbook so I was wondering if any of you had some favorite ressources to learn, pick from in the meantime 👍

[brokoala-soup]

when your dad is a ketone and your mom is an alcohol but then you're just alone

[sleepy-gardevoir]

december 6, 2023 - wednesday week 2

went on a grocery trip and proctored an exam for the pledges of my fraternity today! also got some stuff done for the pharmacology assignment due tomorrow, and finished a couple of physical chemistry assignments.

trying to take advantage of my free time to get back into reading - have been chugging through the audiobook of i'm glad my mom died by jennette mccurdy (which i highly recommend) and trying to finish up my read of the crow by alison croggon (which i started in august).

song of the day: dark green water - great grandpa

[cysticnotes]

I look at this one uh from time to time -

[beakers-and-telescopes]

OKAY THIS ARTICLE IS SO COOL

I'm going to try to explain this in a comprehensible way, because honestly it's wild to wrap your head around even for me, who has a degree in chemistry. But bear with me.

Okay, so. Solids, right? They are rigid enough to hold their shape, but aside from that they are quite variable. Some solids are hard, others are soft, some are brittle or rubbery or malleable. So what determines these qualities? And what creates the rigid structure that makes a solid a solid? Most people would tell you that it depends on the atoms that make up the solid, and the bonds between those atoms. Rubber is flexible because of the polymers it's made of, steel is strong because of the metallic bonds between its atoms. And this applies to all solids. Or so everybody thought.

A paper published in the journal Nature has discovered that biological materials such as wood, fungi, cotton, hair, and anything else that can respond to the humidity in the environment may be composed of a new class of matter dubbed "hydration solids". That's because the rigidity and solidness of the materials doesn't actually come from the atoms and bonds, but from the water molecules hanging out in between.

So basically, try to imagine a hydration solid as a bunch of balloons taped together to form a giant cube, with the actual balloon part representing the atoms and bonds of the material, and the air filling the balloons as the water in the pores of the solid. What makes this "solid" cube shaped? It's not because of the rubber at all, but the air inside. If you took out all the air from inside the balloons, the structure wouldn't be able to hold its shape.

Ozger Sahin, one of the paper's authors, said

"When we take a walk in the woods, we think of the trees and plants around us as typical solids. This research shows that we should really think of those trees and plants as towers of water holding sugars and proteins in place. It's really water's world."

And the great thing about this discovery (and one of the reasons to support its validity) is that thinking about hydration solids this way makes the math so so so much easier. Before this, if you wanted to calculate how water interacts with organic matter, you would need advanced computer simulations. Now, there are simple equations that you can do in your head. Being able to calculate a material's properties using basic physics principles is a really big deal, because so far we have only been able to do that with gasses (PV=nRT anyone?). Expanding that to a group that encompasses 50-90% of the biological world around us is huge.

[solpadeinedelusions]

a good start of the week😘😘😘

ngl the multitasking is gonna make me fail

[chemblrish]

8 October 2024

The sky this morning was absolutely spectacular. My new professors seem great. It makes me really happy - even if also introvertedly tired - to see my course mates every day. Being in my final year of bachelor's feels so absurd but it's actually happening and I still can't believe it! One last year before everything changes forever