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What’s in a name?
Asprin – we are all familiar with this drug but it’s chemical name has an interesting history. It used to be called acetylsalicylic acid. Acetyl comes from Acetum, the Latin for acetic acid (which we...
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Alcohol / Ethanol
We are all familiar with ethanol, C2H5OH, the drug that society accepts the use of through drinks. I hope, we are also familiar with the many problems that it brings. Social problems aside, ethanol...
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Esters
An ester is formed from the reaction of an alchol with a carboxylic acid. They are named as followed: eg, Alcohol, Acid eg, Ethanol and Propanic acid Except the alcohol ends in -yl and the acid will...
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The Elixir of Life
It seems that water, laced with three amino acids has lead to a greater life expectancy in mice: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11482764 The paper obviously needs more research but to me, it does...
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Pineapples from Esters
This posting comes with the usual disclaimer – Please ensure you carry out a full safety / risk assessment before carring out this lab work. It is your responsiblilty to carry this out. Take 10 drops...
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Cod Liver Oil Weeds?
Genes from algae and fungus have been added to the genes in a common weed (thale cres) to allow the weed to produce omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids are fatty acids. The long chain omega-3...
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Traumatic Acid
Following on from yesterdays ‘Moronic Acid’, todays stupidly named molecule is ‘Traumatic Acid’ Image kindly reproduced according to the lisence at :...
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Funny named molecules (3) – Draculin
Draculin This is a real molecule! It is a protein found in the saliva of vampire bats and is an anti-coagulant that is 100 times stronger than the anti-coagulants used in medicine. Image kindly...
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Funny named molecules (5) – Quadratic acid
I promise you – no more after this one!! Quadratic acid – also known as squaric acid! Has the formula C4H4O2 Image kindly reproduced according to the licence at:...
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Boric Acid
Boric Acid is an element that has made its way into the limelight this weekend. Image kindly reproduced according to the licence at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Boric-acid-2D.png Image kindly...
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