Osborn,+Ethan

=An Invisible Fire= Throughout the reading of the article, I had several flashbacks to good ol' Honors Chem. My first flashback occurred when ions were mentioned. "Hey! I remember that from Honors Chem!" said the announcer voice inside my head. "Ions are charged atoms, right?" he added. And as I read on I realized I was correct. My second flashback occured when it was mentioned that the flouride ion can hold an electron more strongly than any other ion. I had to subdue the urge to shout out "High and tight in the upper right", one of Mr. William's many useful expressions. After dutifully searching for more things I remembered from my former chemistry experience, I thought I was out of luck. Then I saw that the acid's name was hydroflouric acid, and remembered that this means that the acid is hydrogen plus the element it derives it's name from. This means hydroflouric acid's formula would be HF, and would have no charge as it has the proper number of electrons (eight) in it's outer valence. Sure enough this was mentioned about a paragraph later, and I felt like an accomplished chemistry student.

There were a few things in this article that I did not know before reading, however. The first of these things was that hydroflouric acid could pass through skin easily due to its neutral status. While I knew that it was neutral I did not know that this could effect how it moved through the skin. While not so much chemistry related as biology related, I did not know how important calcium and magnesium were to the body, and the devastating effects of not having them in abundance. I was most fascinated, however, with the fact that hydroflouric acid is not a strong acid. It's not due to the strength of the acid but its neutrality and the nature of flourine by which it causes so much damage. The article was a good read overall.

Ethan, Awesome job! Glad you got some "warm fuzzies" upon your recollection of H Chem days :). Well written post! 5 huge stars! MW

=Einstein's Miraculous Year= For this fabulous article on Einstein, the well-known (yet I feel sometimes misunderstood) physicist, I was asked to find three VIP's and one MVP. My first VIP was the fact that Einstein's work became a springboard for the work of other scientists. Being able to not only further his own work but also the work of other, all from the things he did in 1905, makes him a historically significant scientist. My second VIP was Einstein's solidification of emerging atomic theory. The fact that he was able to convince skeptical scientists of the time shows the magnitude of his intellect, and once again makes him significant. My third VIP was Einstein's postulate of special relativity. While I don't fully understand it, it is obviously a very significant step in modern physics and as it says, set up a framework for his later work. But my MVP, or Most Valuable Point, was Einstein's explanation of the photoelectric effect. The fact that he was able to deduce that light of different frequencies has different energies is incredible, and the fact that later his explanation was unshakable says something about the magnitude of his work. Plus, he won a Nobel Prize for it!

Ethan, Looks good! Glad to see you worked through the writer's block. :) Kind of late though - real late actually - 3 stars. MW

=Polymers in the Field= I found this article's writing dry at best, but I most certainly powered through it and found some very interesting and pertinent information. The most interesting thing I learned in this article was about vulcanization of polymers. While not only being quite a fun word to use, the process is very interesting. While I don't know much about polymers, the process of cross-linking these chains seems like quite the important one. The more pertinent information has to do with the temperature of the turf. Being that 55C is quite warm, I found it disturbing that the turf could get this hot. But I would have never thought of the long-lasting effects of spraying water on this turf. Not only does it immediately lower the temperature of the field, but because of water's high heat capacity it makes the field more resistant to temperature change. This isn't something I would have thought of, but that's why I'm not the chemist/expert and person who did think of that is! The danger of bacterial infection is still real, though, and somewhat scary.

Ethan, Again you show your creative writing style. Well done but sadly quite late. 3 stars. MW

=Salting Roads= The salting of roads is a topic that has always intrigued me, yet I knew the simple explanation of "it keeps them from freezing" and was very satisfied with knowing just this. This article introduced me to many interesting facts which I've selected as my VIPs and my MVP. My first VIP does not directly relate to the salting of roads, yet I found it interesting anyway. That is the point that when you cool a solution, only the water molecules freeze, albeit at a lower temperature, and you can use this to "purify" aqueous solutions. The second most important point that I found was that salting roads has a practical limit of -10C. This makes sense that we were trying to get the "slurry" in our lab experiment down to -10C, then. This is also interesting because it means that in communities where it gets below -10C, the use of salt is impractical and silly. My final VIP is that the number of dissolved particles that determine how much extrapolation of boiling and freezing points will occur. This is applicable in the salting of roads, as MgCl2 and CaCl2 can be used in place of salt (NaCl) with more efficiency and potentially less environmental damage. My MVP may seem much simpler than my VIPs, but I found the MVP in this article to simply be the fact that highway workers use salt, and in turn chemistry, to keep the roads from freezing and keeping them safer for us. Clearly, an understanding of chemistry can better one's understanding of the world and make all of our lives better. It is no wonder it is such an important science to study.

Ethan, Good post and almost on time this time! You hit all the main points! 4 stars. MW

=Pool Chemistry= 1. How many times a day do you have to test for pH, and is it normally too high or too low? What are the most common 'fixes' which you use?

2. What sort of filters are used in Central's swimming pool?

3. What types of disinfectants (chlorine or non-chlorine) are used in the CYHS pool? Do you find these to be the most effective? Why?

Ethan, OK. Now answer the questions! 1/2 way home. 5 stars. MW

=Flaking Away= Corrosion is a subject that most of us seem to be familiar with in this day and age. It is a pain in the rear of car (and bicycle) owners everywhere. One fact that I did know before reading the article was that those living along the coast had to deal with more rust than those living in the interior United States, due to the salt air. I did not know however that this was because of the electrical conductivity of the salt air. This is interesting, but makes sense I suppose when one thinks about it. I also knew before reading the article that iron existed in its oxidized state in nature and had to be converted to a pure state before being used. It seems as if we spend quite a lot of money "de-rusting" iron that is simply going to rust up again. But such is life in the 21st century. I also knew that paints were used to stop rusting, but did not know that paint was more high-tech these days than simply a barrier for the iron. I'm not sure if I like the idea of "smart paint" (if was truly intelligent) but having that sort of protection is wonderful. Paint is obviously a much cheaper alternative to a solid gold car which, as the article states, would easily smash in a collision. Could that car not also melt due to the high temperatures given off by cars? It seems that way. Galvanization was a term I was familiar with, but I did not know the how and why of it. I think it's interesting that we're able to use it as a "sacrificial anode" to protect the iron below. I'm not sure who thought of that exact application but they were certainly thinking! I learned quite a bit from this article, although I understood the basic concepts, I was able to deepen my knowledge of electrochemistry and it's modern applications.

Ethan, Well written as usual! 5 huge shiny stars. MW