Category Archives: Science

Learning about our world.

Global Women’s Breakfast @Brockport

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DON’T FORGET! Stop by the Smith Lounge (if you happen to be on the Brockport Campus) Tuesday the 12th at 8:30 AM for breakfast and networking. Bring along your friends and be sure to post to your social media sites #GlobalBreakfast #IUPAC100 #ACS.

On February 12th, 2019, we’ll be hosting a Breakfast honoring women in Chemistry. During the breakfast, we’ll have time to talk about the women who have won nobel prizes in Chemistry and – in honor of the 150th anniversary of the periodic table – the women who are credited with discovering elements.

Want to know more about what this event is and why it’s important? See this editorial by Marcy Towns in the Journal of Chemical Education. (I’m not sure if it is behind a paywall.)

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Restoring the periodic table

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I came across this video on the interweb; it’s an interesting overview of paper-restoration process applied to an historical periodic table from Germany. There is at least one error in the dialog; perhaps you can spot it?

The chemistry involved in restoring a print of the periodic table

There are some neat lesson-plan hooks in this video, if that’s your thing. What chemical property is the conservationist trying to adjust? What chemical(s) are used to do this? What two elements play an important role in paper restoration? Additionally, where do these elements appear on the (current) periodic table? Does that surprise you? Can you propose a chemical reaction that is happening during the restoration process?

Getting Ready for #IYPT2019

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The New Year is upon us, and it’s a year that I’ve been waiting for, since it is the 150th anniversary of Mendeleev’s discovery of the periodic properties of the elements. Discovery is probably not the right word here, since other scientists had not only organized the elements in tables but also recognized their periodic properties. That said, Mendeleev is typically credited with the discovery because of what he did with the table of elements: he predicted the properties of undiscovered elements.

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My first paper on 3D printing is published

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Before leaving Chicago State University in 2017, I took a sabbatical to explore a very different avenue of research from which I was originally trained.  I became interested in learning how digital fabrication tools, such as 3D printing, can be used to create inexpensive or customized scientific instrumentation that could be used for education or specialized research applications.  Now at The College at Brockport, I’ve finally put together my first 3D printed scientific instrument, which was recently published in the journal HardwareX.  The article, OMIS: The Open Millifluidic Inquiry System for small scale chemical synthesis and analysis, is open access, which means that anyone can read and download the article by heading here.

I’d like to think that when people do something important (like publish an article) they get interviewed.  Unfortunately, it’s that time of the semester where students are so stressed out, the last thing they want to do is talk to professors about anything other than “what’s on the test.”  So, if I were to give an interview, here’s the questions I’d answer (and ask) about the paper.

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Show your spirit – periodically

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It’s Homecoming weekend at Brockport and Mandy, the voice-activated periodic table is showing off her school pride with green and gold periodic trends!

The four blocks of the periodic table.

OK, perhaps her colors are a little bit off, but give her a break; she’s a periodic table for crying out loud.  Does your periodic table have this much school pride?

Atomic weight – green is light and gold is heavy.