Happy International Year of Chemistry! 1-1-11 marks the start of a year-long focus on the “achievements of chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind”, with the theme “Chemistry—our life, our future”.
The American Chemical Society has launched an online tool to help us learn more about these achievements and contributions. “365: Chemistry for Life” […]

Sounds like Washington, D.C., was the place to be just a couple weeks ago. The USA Science & Engineering Festival was held on the National Mall, among other locations over the weekend of October 23 and 24, 2010. From their Website, the mission of the festival is “to re-invigorate the interest of our nation’s youth […]

A recent article in the New York Times (http://nyti.ms/93t30y) gives a recipe for making edible nanostructures. It requires sugar (gamma-cyclodextrin), a salt (potassium benzoate), 190 proof ethyl alcohol, and water. The recipe involves mixing the sugar, salt, and water in a small glass or plastic cup, placing the cup into a larger glass, cup, or […]

A report published in Nature last Thursday, August 4, describes the success of the computer game Foldit, which is designed to encourage people to contribute to research on protein folding and at the same time have fun. (The Nature article is restricted to those with subscriptions, but a layman’s description is here.) The success of […]

from Erica K. Jacobsen, JCE High School Editor
We had the opportunity to see an acquaintance’s baby a few weeks after he was born. A couple months later, we ran into the family again, and it was a shock to see how large he had grown in that time. It reminded me of the years when […]

from Erica K. Jacobsen, JCE High School Editor
Ever experience the phenomenon that occurs once you’re interested in or working on a particular topic? Suddenly, all sorts of examples related to that topic pop up unexpectedly in your everyday life. The examples may have even been there all the time, but you didn’t really notice them. […]

from Laura Slocum, JCE High School Associate Editor
Summer is really here though it seems like school just ended, and I just finished going through the turmoil of choosing textbooks once again this year. My school changed its online book vendor, so each instructor had the option of making changes in course textbooks. Perhaps “turmoil” is […]

The dictionary definition of science begins something like this: The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena. Notice that all the nouns are derived from verbs: observe, identify, describe, investigate, and explain. This implies strongly that science is more a process than a body of knowledge. Only later do we find: […]

One trillion dollars. That’s a lot of money. It’s what the U.S. government is likely to spend to shore up (bail out) financial institutions that got into trouble through their own excesses. European governments are likely to spend a similar amount in a similar cause. It is also what we owe to China in the […]

from Laura Slocum, JCE High School Associate Editor
I am on a “teacher’s high” right now! I can’t thank you—my chemistry colleagues—enough. This past week my AP Chemistry students started a lab that is often referred to as the “Green Crystal Lab”. It involves the synthesis of solid K3Fe(C2O4)3·3H2O (green crystals) and can be followed by […]