The spectacular reaction of alkali metals with water was poorly understood despite being a staple of chemistry classes The neurologist and celebrated author Oliver Sacks, who is also a chemistry enthusiast, described the phenomenon as chemistry with a vengeance. Credit: Tor Paulin/Flickr Its the classic piece of chemical tomfoolery: take a lump of sodium or potassium metal, toss it into water and watch the explosion. Although this piece of pyrotechnics has amazed generations of chemistry students, until now it has been misunderstood, a paper inNature Chemistryreveals. The explosion, say Pavel Jungwirth and his collaborators at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, is not merely a consequence of the ignition of the hydrogen gas that the alkali metals release from water. That may happen eventually, but it begins as something far stranger: a rapid exodus of electrons followed by explosion of the metal driven by electrical repulsion. The neurologist and celebrated author Oliver Sacks, who is also a chemistry enthusiast, described the phenomenon as chemistry with a vengeance in his bookUncle Tungsten.He wrote of how, as a boy, he and his friends bought a lump of sodium from the local chemicals supplier and dumped it into the Highgate Ponds in … Continue reading →

Canadian Society of Chemistry's 2014 Fred Beamish Award was awarded to Professor Juewen Liu The 2014 Fred Beamish Award was awarded to Professor Juewen Liu (Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo). The Award Lecture titled "Lanthanide-dependent RNA-cleaving DNAzymes as metal biosensors" is published today in the Canadian Journal of Chemistry. Sponsored by the Canadian Society of Chemistry (CSC) Analytical Chemistry Division, the Fred Beamish Award is presented to an individual who demonstrates innovation in research in the field of analytical chemistry, where the research is anticipated to have significant potential for practical applications. Dr. Juewen Liu is a professor of chemistry at the University of Waterloo. He is also affiliated with the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) and his current research involves biosensor development using DNA for target recognition. Professor Juewen Liu's lab has successfully accomplished the task of carrying out combinatorial selection to isolate lanthanide-dependent RNA-cleaving DNAzymes. They have developed a group of new DNA probes that are highly sensitive and specific to lanthanide ions. Lanthanide ions are known as "industrial vitamins" and they increase materials performance with a small amount of doping. These new DNA probes can potentially be used to develop a biosensor array for lanthanide and … Continue reading →

Ive been through three chemistry explosions. A flask of oxygen and acetylene blew up. The second involved molten sodium on water. The third involved hydrogen, which lifted the airship Hindenburg, burning in that disaster. All were at age 12. All produced immense explosions that totally consumed the scientific apparatus. Theres a moral to this tale. Children should be supervised when playing with exciting but dangerous stuff. So should grown-ups. Financial derivatives create exciting profits for Wall Street. They also create dangerous political contributions. Theres the rub, as Hamlet said. After the Constitution was drafted, Ben Franklin told a bystander that America would have a democracy if you can keep it. So, have we? Welcome to the tragedy. If you voted for Republicans, you voted to gut trade unions, which used to support the Democrats financially. And you voted for a conservative Supreme Court. It gutted the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law, an issue right there. (Sharper Focus, Guns are People, April 3, 2014) Political campaigns now cost millions. Hence, Bill Clinton had no alternative but to accept Wall Streets money simply to stay in the game. But he who pays the piper calls the tune. Clinton had made a bargain … Continue reading →

You remember the sodium demo from chemistry class: Just a small chunk of the pure metal dropped into water causes a great big flash and bang. You might even remember your chemistry teacher's explanation for why. But there's always been a missing piece of the puzzle, which scientists have finally figured out using high-speed video cameras. Sodium is one of the highly reactive alkali metals. In its pure form, the soft, shiny metal reacts in water to form sodium hydroxide and hydrogen gas. Oh, and lots of heatenough that the hydrogen gas ignites. That's the flash and bang for you. That's probably what your chemistry teacher told you, but Pavel Jungwirth of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic was puzzled by a couple more things. Only the surface of the sodium reacts with water and wouldn't the hydrogen gas envelope the sodium chunk and slow the reaction? So of course, he pulled out a high-speed camera. Emily Conover of Science explains what happened next: The cameras captured a never-before-seen effect. Less than a millisecond after the reaction begins, tens to hundreds of spiky metal protrusions pierce the water... The spikes appear, the researchers deduced, because when electrons flee … Continue reading →