Heavy Metal, Baby!

Note: ***CHEMISTRY WEEK*** is coming to a close. (Aww shucks! I have about 3 more posts to do! I may post 1 next week as a part of my normal posts)There's a chemistry lesson given in this post. I am double posting today, about a personal "experience", so a post will follow this one sometime today.

One of the more "interesting" experiences I've ever had in my scientific career is working with moisture- and air-sensitive materials. The most craziest thing about Organic chemistry is that air and water are enemy #1. I've also had experience with Organometallic chemisty, which is essentially organic chemistry combined with inorganic chemistry (think of inorganic chemistry as "metal" chemistry if you want).

Metals that we are familiar with, and use on a daily basis: iron, copper, nickel, silver, gold, platinum, mercury...

A couple of metals that I've worked with on a regular basis are sodium and lithium. You will see these below in the periodic table in the 1st column in yellow. (Na = sodium; Li = lithium).
Now, I don't plan to talk much about the periodic table. Just know that all of the elements are arranged by "family" and that all elements in a column is related. I'm just interested in that FIRST column that is in bright yellow above in the periodic table, where it begins with "H" (hydrogen), and continues with "Na" (sodium), "K" (potassium), and so on...

Now sodium ("Na") is a familiar metal... We are always told that we shouldn't have too much sodium in our diet. But we don't "eat" sodium metal. We eat Sodium chloride, that is, SALT.

Sodium chloride, in itself, is safe, to the point where we can eat it.

Here's the kicker: Sodium by itself is dangerous. Chlorine by itself is dangerous.

Chlorine, "Cl" above (element 17 in the periodic table above), is not a metal, a green poisonous gas. This is the reason for all those warning labels on the back of household cleaning products which say "DO NOT mix bleach". Because mixing the cleaning product with bleach may cause a reaction to produce chlorine gas. And you don't wanna be breathing that in, babes!

Now sodium "Na" metal is a whole nother animal. It is also extremely dangerous.

Sodium melts and catches fire when it comes in contact with water.

You may say... "Yeah, right". Well check out the following pictures.

Well, I found a few pictures for you.

Here is a demonstration of someone dropping a chunk of sodium with water. (I actually think this chunk is TOO BIG to be fooling with, but whatever. They worked it out.) Note: That is not me dropping that chunk into that water. My guess is that it's some adventurous white man, lol.

Once the chunk of sodium is dropped in the water, it begins to melt and bubble. The white stuff that is produced is sodium hydroxide, a compound real similar to lye.
Well, the reaction is exothermic. That means it gives off A LOT of heat. Hydrogen gas is produce, and the heat causes the hydrogen gas to ignite.
And ignition means "FIRE", babes.

GLORY!!!

It burns itself out pretty quickly, so that's all good.

But the problem becomes, as you go DOWN that first row in a periodic table, the fires produced when the metals react with water become more violent, more explosive in nature.

So, "Li" kind of just sizzles and skittles around on the surface of the water. There is some fire, but not bad.

"Na", Sodium metal does what it does, as seen in the pictures above.

"K", Potassium metal, gets a little worse. Let's just say, dude better stand his a$$ back a couple of feet.

"Rb", Rubidium metal, gives much worse fires, and an explosion to boot. Dude better drop a chunk of rubidium in the water and run for the frickin' heels.

"Cs", Cesium metal, well, it gives a crazy explosion. And dude used a chunk of sodium above. How about he better not do that? How about he better use the a piece of cesium no bigger than a tear drop?

If a tear drop-size piece of cesium is dropped in that bowl of water above, the explosion would've been so forceful as to break the glass.

"Fr", Francium metal, the last metal in the family... well, we won't talk about that. You can't even order francium metal, and if you do, somebody is looking at you REAL hard. You probably gotta sign all kinds of paperwork.

Why?

Because you're getting over into hydrogen bomb making issues then. And you don't want the Feds on you about THAT.

Nope. Not a good look seeing your behind face down on the ground in handcuffs. Or, it really ain't a a good look seeing you walking around with severe burns and no appendages because you had the notion to drop a piece of francium in some water, man.

For this reason, the metals just described must be store in non-air atmospheres (like, under nitrogen or argon gas) or stored under mineral oil. The big thing is to keep air away from these metals. Sodium "Na" metal will only corrode a little when it stands in air. You can actually see it go from shiny to white, if you leave a chunk just sitting on the counter. But as you go down the periodic row of that family, let's just say, you better not let it even come in contact with air, because the water vapor in the air is enough to cause ignition...

Well, your friendly neighborhood Oldgirl, has had or been around some "metal misadventures". (Yeah, that's what we will call them.)

LadyLee has even caught fire! (Imagine that!)

So... stay tuned for that... I may not get to it this week, but I am double-posting today, with a post leading up to that. (Don't worry, it is a short story). I can mix my "fire" posts in with next weeks normal post...

So stay tuned for my next post later today.

Until then, I found a very accurate youtube video which describes and demonstrates what i just talked about very nicely. These fellas use, metals dropped in bathtubs to uh, get there point across.

What Is That????

Sometimes when I come in late to work, or come back to work from some activity, people like to run up on me.

I mean, it's weird walking up on a crowd of folks, and everyone's looking at me.

"There's LadyLee. Come here, LadyLee, we have to show you something..."

This particular day, my fellow Docs (Dr. Sunshine and Dr. Hazel Eyes) and myself had made a run over to Spel.man College to have lunch and conversate with some young ladies, rising seniors, who were interested in careers in science. I balked at the idea at first, as I didn't feel like going anywhere giving no complicated chemistry talk. But this was just a little free lunch and question and answer session. And a chance to get away from the lab AND still be on the clock, lol.

It was a nice sunny day. "Dr. Sunshine" even let me drive her sleek Navigator. (This was not a good thing, as it caused me to ponder, have strange and intersting thoughts of having my own SUV. Hmm. I don't need to drive nobody's big trucks ever again!)

But I came back to the work that afternoon, and our group super-hero,Hen-Dog, said something strange:

"Lee, go put your stuff down. Let's go to the sample prep room. I want you to see something."

I peered at him curiously. I have to watch him. He might be trying to trick me or something.

"Come on, girl!"

I turned to Lady X, the youngest member of our little group, and she was staring at the two of us. "Lady X, what is he talking about?"

"Girl. . ." She shrugged and turned away.

I squinted hard at Hen-Dog. You have to watch Hen-Dog. He's just a bit. . .adventurous. (Yes, that's a good word for him.)

So we left our cubicle area, and walked down the hall back towards our labs.

We walked into the sample prep lab, and there was a large wrinkled brown paper bag sitting in the middle of the table.

"Go look in that bag," Hen-Dog said.

"No," I quickly said. I backed up towards the door, and the doorjamb hits me in the back.

"Girl, go look in the bag!"

"Hell no!" I said in my most unconvincing Miss Sophia way.

Hen proceeds to walk over to the table and shake the bag.

"Dude, that don't mean anything." I wasn't falling for no crazy trick. I had visions of whatever was in the bag jumping out and biting me.

He puts his face down in the bag. "See, there's nothing bad or anything. Come look at this."

I cautiously walk towards the bag and look inside. I shook the bag to make sure what I was looking at WAS NOT moving. I picked up one of the things and threw it on the table.

"Man, what is that????"

"It's something that came in for us to work on," he said.


"Why is it all hairy like that?"


"I don't know. It's some type of fruit."

We got a good laugh out of that. That is some strange looking ish.

I went and talked to "Lady X". I thumbed through her paperwork.

"Lady X, I know you were tripping out when you saw that."

She just shook her head, and groaned. (She spooks easily like me,lol.)

Turns out that that strange furry thing was a fruit called rambuton.

Now, being the closet phytochemist that I am, I always go look up strange stuff. As a matter of fact, my boss likes to call me and ask me about strange fruits and vegetables, and their characteristics. If I don't know, then I'll go track it down. And that's what I did with our little strange fruit here, the rambuton.

It's actually a popular fruit over in Southeast Asia, one of the most popular actually, and it is widely cultivated in many countries. It is also one of the top tropical fruits produced in Hawaii.
Yeah, that's all good, that it's popular and all that. But uh, I don't see myself craving those. Can you imagine saying:

"Mama, you going to the store? Bring me back some rambutans!"

Uh, no. But they are used in various food products, like jams and jellies.

"Mama! Bring me back some rambutan jelly!"

N'awl. That don't sound right either.

But I have a love of the phytochemistry and the health benefits of strange fruits and vegetables. I couldn't find much on the chemisty of it, which means it's not well studied. But I do have a few little fun facts for you.

Now, this is one fruit where many parts of the fruit tree are useful. A tea made from the roots of the tree is helpful for getting rid of fevers. You can also grind up the leaves and use those as a poultice. The bark of the tree is useful as an astringent for problems of the tongue. And the actual fruit is good for helping with digestion problems. It is also good for dialrrhea problems.

Whoever thought something so furry could be so useful? No wonder it's so popular in other countries.

Like I said, I couldn't find much chemistry on it (which makes it HIGHLY interesting to me). But I found out that this fruit has a seed in the middle. How did I find that out?

From our super hero, Hen-Dog.

"I tried one, Lee," he said.

"What it taste like?"

"Taste like a grape. And it has a big seed in the middle."

That doggone Hen-Dog will test out ANYTHING. He's not afraid of anything (This is why he's our super-hero.) One day, I brought in a drink I found made from rose petals and he was bold enough to take a sip... Dude will do anything!

Ahhhh... That seed, 'tis interesting. It contains a large amount of tallow, which is a type of fat used to make candles, soap, lubricants, all kinds of stuff like that. The testa of the seed (the hard outer coating) contains toxic chemicals.

Hmm... I don't think I will fool with that. How many times have you eaten fruit and swallowed some seed?

I'm sure that it's not enough toxicity in that seed to take me out, but uh, why don't I stick to my trusty apples and oranges...

I've seen these at my local farmer's market recently, over on the exotic fruits aisle. Didn't see all the shoppers crowding around them, though.

Yep. I think I'll stick to my trusty apples and oranges.

lol!

(But it is an interesting looking thing, isn't it?)

Light it up!

Note: With any story I tell during ***CHEMISTRY WEEK*** there will be a short chemistry lesson. This is for background purposes, so you'll understand what I'm talking about. Don't worry though, it will be something you can relate to:)

One of my first mishaps in the chemistry lab occured waaay back in 1989, and involves the compound to the left, which is called a diox.etane. Now you may not have heard of it, but you have seen them.

Remember those "glow in the dark" necklaces and bracelets you use to buy when you went to the amusement park or fair back in the day? (Do they still sell those?)

Well, you notice how those necklaces glowed, and then they started to fade?

The chemicals responsible for that are dioxe.tanes.

A better example: remember those fireflies we use to catch in Mason jars when we were little?

The chemical that caused them to light up is a diox.etane.

So I think you get the picture. Diox.etanes are a type of chemical compund that give off light.

The scientific term for this phenomena is chemiluminescenc.e (for the fireflies light, it is bioluminescenc.e.

Another point of interest: The compounds are also known as a type of peroxide.

Now, we all use hydrogen peroxide at home. I use it as an astringent, and I suppose you do to. But, what we use at home is 3% peroxide, 97% water. This is enough to give that "bubbling" effect that we see when we place it on a cut. It is essentially reacting with the cut.

But peroxide/water mixtures are available in different concentrations, but not to the general public though. Why?

Well, a mixture of 30% peroxide/70% water REALLY reacts with the skin. Let's just say that if you get some on your skin, it sounds like chicken frying in grease. (Not that dramatic, but that was the term I used for it, as you can hear the sizzle). The skin blisters and turns white and stays that way for a few days.

A 90% peroxide/10% water mixture - well... that has to be kept really, really cold. If I'm remembering correctly, at least -10 degrees celcius.

If it heats up to room temperature, it is EXPLOSIVE.

Uh, and that is bad.

Enough of the chemistry lesson.

My story. (Don't worry, it is short).

So...

When I was in undergrad, I did research in a lab that specialized in making new and interesting dioxet.anes. I was making 2400 bucks per summer doing this. (I was 19 and 20 at the time, and making that much money over the summer? You couldn't tell me I wasn't RICH!!)

Anyway, I made many of these and we did experiments to test the rate at which they decomposed, i.e., gave off light. That is what was happening with those glowing necklaces we bought at the amusement parks: the chemical in them was decomposing.

The issha with what I was doing is that we only made a small amount of these compounds at a time, only a few milligrams (even though these were usually thick liquids, think of it being no more than a pinch of salt.)

So, I had this conversation with my advisor one day.

"Dr. B, I need more of my diox.etane to test. It looks like I'm going have to do the reaction at least 5 times."
He leaned back in his chair and thought about it for a minute. "You don't have time for that. I need those for this paper I'm trying to get out."
"Well, it's only safe to make a little at a time," I said. I felt funny reminding him of this, as he was one of the pioneers in the field of dioxe.tanes.
"You can make a lot of it. Make about 3 grams of it."

I just stared at him. I really wanted to run from the room. One of the ingredients for making the dioxeta.nes was that frickin' 90% peroxide solution. I didn't want no parts of having that ish out of the deep freezer for too long.

"Dr. B, are you sure about that?"
"Yes, LadyLee. You can do that. I made about 6 grams once when I was at Har.vard."

I didn't really care about no dayum Harvar.d. I was more concerned about not blowing myself up.

"Are you sure," I repeated.
"You can do it, LadyLee. Just get it done."

I was apprehensive about it. We talked a bit longer about precautions (he knew I had a tendency to be a skeptic about stuff in general). But if I kept everything REAL cold, it would be all good. I discussed it with my lab partner Timmy-Tim (Cowgirl Cre's hubby). He has always been my lab road dog, and he thought I could do it.

If Timmy-Tim said I could do it... well, I could do it!

So, I did made a large batch of diox.etane. Incidently, you have to do this reaction in total darkness. But we got tired of that after awhile, and figured out how to do it with one of those red lights you use for developing photos. So, I hooked up my red lights, and did my reaction.

It went well enough and the final product looked good. It was a thick green gooey solution that looked like clear snot. Yeah, it looked okay. I made sure to keep it in a deep freezer, all nice and cold.

I was in the lab one day with this Indian dude. He was watching me fool around with my three grams of diox.etanes. I would remove the vial from the freezer, get a little with a dropper, then put it back up.

Well that ish heated up, I suppose. It couldn't have been no more than a few degrees, maybe 0 degrees.

It instantaneously went from snot green to black. There was a big flash of light.

Then it started spewing smoke. Thick white noxious smoke.

The Indian dude looked at me. I looked at him.

He yelled. "RUN!", then took off running.

I hesitated, but took off after him. I think I knocked over a chair in the process of getting out of the lab.

Man, when it was all said and done, that one little vial of solution smoked out the whole area. I think we were at the end of a hall and could just see thick white smoke at the other end. I thought the poor indian guy was going to have a heart attack. Me, well, I went and found a payphone. I remembered that my Mama was getting off from work around that time. She always hit past downtown past my school on her way home.

"Hey Lisa, what's going on," she said.
"Ma, pick me up on your way home."
"Why?" she asked.
"Don't worry about that. Just pick me up."

She picked me up. That was a Monday I believe. Heck, I think we stopped by the liquor store to get some beer or something. I was a nervous wreck. I told her what happened, and as I expected, she didn't understand.

I didn't go back to school for 3 days. Had decided that I would never go back. (Too much beer drinking, I suppose, caused THAT attitude.)

Timmy-Tim called me at home and we talked.

"Dr. B. said come back to school," he said. "He said we still love you."
"N'awl man! And you know what? He said it would be alright, and it wasn't."
"We still love you. Come back to school."

Well, after much coaxing, I did indeed show back up at school.

Anyway, we talked about that for a long time. I was really going off on the indian dude ("Man, how you gonna just take off running and leave me behind like that?"). The indian dude looked at me sideways for awhile after that. All, I know, he was older than the rest of us, maybe in his 40s, and he was a fast runner.

There was much discussion about what happened. Turns out, any bit of impurity, say a speck of dirt or something, causes these sensitive dioxetan.es to spontaneously combust or something like that.

*LadyLee giving Dr. B. the evil eye*

But I learned a big lesson: better follow directions, and don't do crazy stuff, even if the advisor says it's alright. I learned from that to stand my ground when I didn't feel comfortable doing certain things in the lab...

But that still didn't keep other mishaps, worse ones, from happening over the years...

Hmmm...

I am the Ultimate Nerd. . .

Every time I clean off the hearth of my fireplace, I have a certain memory that makes me smile. . .

That's because I can't help but think back to something that happened many years ago at the fireplace. Not my current fireplace, but at another.

In fact, I think of it everytime I see a fireplace.

It's burned into my memory.

And it makes me think of how much of a frickin' nerd I am.

~~fuzzy black lines, fade to black~~

The year was 1994. I was in graduate school at E.mory at the time. I lived out in Lithonia, an east Atlanta suburb, with a couple of friends.

I was excited because I was going to see my man that night. He lived way out in Vinings, a west Atlanta suburb, some 45 minutes away. This was nice, because our schedules were so different (he worked at night and I was in school all day). So whenever he had a night off, we would hook up. Plus, his roommate was out of town, which meant we had the apartment all to ourselves.

It was a bittercold night. I don't remember the day, but I remember that I had an old '73 Nova, and I really had to crank up that 20-year-old heater in that old car, just to keep warm (I had a big hole in the floorboard of the car, and air would rush in, you see). So when I got to his place, we decided to get a fire going and to watch television. He even cooked dinner for the two of us.

Those were the good ol' days, several years before we got married.

We were sooo young. Soooooo in love. ~sigh~

So, we'd been watching television, and we'd been drinking beer and wine. (I have NO idea how I ended up drinking wine, because I was not a wine drinker. I preferred beer, Boones, and malt liquor. Shoot, maybe it was that Strawberry hills Boones in my wine glass,lol). SOMEHOW (lol) we ended up on the floor in front of the fireplace fooling around.

One thing led to another, and we ended up making love on the floor in front of the fireplace. It was good, I must say, especially after spending 12 hours that day in the lab. I was a happy chick (maybe it was too much wine, lol).

There was no soft music. We were bootleg, you see. That means getting it on in the indigo glow of the television set.

So we're laying there afterwards, wrapped up in a tacky bedspread, basking in the afterglow, you know, talking, kissing and what not. . .

Then,

all of a sudden. . .

I sat straight up.

"What's wrong?" my man asked.

I pointed hard at the fireplace. He had placed my glass of wine over on the hearth of the fireplace. I frantically pointed at the glass, but was not immediately able to find the words.

"What's wrong?" he asked again.

"GET THE WINE!" I yelled. "GET THE WINE!"

"Why?" he asked. By this time, he was sitting up too, looking at me like I was crazy.

"It's too close to the fireplace!"

He looked at the glass then back at me. "No, it's not."

By this time, my heart is beating real fast and I'm really panicked.

"The ethanol!" I screamed. "Ethanol catches fire!"

"What?" he said.

"Wine contains ethanol! And ethanol catches fire! Move the wine before it catches fire!!"

"It's okay," he said. "Look, it's far enough away. And there's not even that much in the glass. It won't catch fire."

"No it's not okay! Ethanol, ethanol boils at. . .Ethanol boils at. . ."

Then I started crying REAL hard.

"I, I, I can't remember the boiling point of ethanol!!!"

I remembered my man snickering at the time, and he layed back down.

"Acetone boils at 56 degrees," I said through all my crying and hard gulps of air. "And ethanol boils at. . . I CAN'T REMEMBER THE BOILING POINT OF ETHANOL!"

He sat back up again and put his arms around me. He was doing his best to hold back his laughter.

"It's not funny. The wine is too close to the fireplace!!"

"Okay Lee, I'll move the wine." He reached over me and carefully picked up the wine glass and placed it on the coffee table. "Okay calm down now, the wine glass is on the coffee table. See? Look at it. It's alright now."

I looked from the wine to the fireplace, then back to the wine. I stopped crying. He laid me back on the floor and patted me on the head. I was a sniveling mess the rest of the night, scared that he'd put the wine back on the hearth of the fireplace.

That next morning, when I was getting ready for school, he asked me if I was alright. And he had that look in his eye, like he was doing ALL he could not to bust out laughing.

He walked me out to the car. I remembered it was around 5:30 a.m., and all was quiet outside.

I sat in the car, my hands firmly gripping the stirring wheel. I wouldn't even look at him. "Go head on and laugh," I said.

He leaned in the window and gave me a kiss on the cheek. He stood back up and got his laugh on. "It's alright. You just a nerd, that's all."

Yes I am... the ultimate nerd.

My man picked on me for a LONG time about that incident, even had the nerve to tell his friends about it. THEY even laughed at me.

And even though I didn't find it funny at the time, I can laugh about it now. . .

I talked about it with some of my fellow students at school the day after it happened.

After that, for a long time, the big joke was "What's the boiling point of ethanol, LadyLee?"

**LadyLee kicks the HARD eyeroll.**

Hmm. . .

Looking back, I wonder why I was so distraught?

Maybe school was stressing me all out. Maybe it was the mishaps in the lab... Or maybe I was just really concerned about that wine igniting from a spark from a flame. Maybe I was just drunk, and feeling uh, a bit TOO good, lol. I don't know.

One thing I can say for sure after THAT ... I am the Ultimate Nerd.

Fun Facts about LadyLee. . . Chemistry Style!

Like I said, this week is ***CHEMISTRY WEEK***

'Tis a chance, you see, for me to post a few of the stories I've had in cue for a while. Time to flush them out for the world to see.

Now here's a warning:

ALL of the stuff posted this week may not be funny to you, but it is funny to us chemists. We have little "war stories" we like to tell each other. I'm not sure how this all originated, but it's a chemist thing.

(Don't say you weren't warned, mayne.)

But this year is the 10th anniversary of my getting my Ph.D., and I thought I would commemorate it in some way.

So you may read some of the stuff that I write this week and see **crickets**, or be like, "Yo, that ain't funny. Not funny at all. That sounds DANGEROUS."

But realize, it is funny to us chemists. Like in any profession, some things are just funny amongst people in that particular profession.

And since this here is my blog, I wanted to post a few stories and other chemistry related things.

But some "fun" facts about me before we proceed...


1. So I graduated some 10 years ago in 1998. My Ph.D. is in Organic Chemistry, specifically Organic synthesis. More specifically, Drug design and structure-acti.vity relationships. Easiest way of explaining it. . . You can give me a chemical structure of a compound (say coc.aine, for instance), and I can deconstruct in my head and come up with a number of ways to synthesize it. Plus, I can come up with ways to tweak it's activity, i.e, add things to it to make it weaker. . . or stronger.



(Hmmmm.... I bet that little co.caine thing got your attention. Let's not talk about that. Let's move right along.)

So I'm bizarre. I think in structures. Anytime I hear the chemical name, I have a picture of it in my mind. I am constructing and deconstructing. Weird, but I can't control it! LOL LOL LOL

Now what made me go to school for this? Nope, wasn't no burning desire or passion for chemistry. (Eww. I shiver at the thought.) I liked it and all, for sure. But it helped that the programs pay all tuition AND give a fat stipend. (Little known fact: this is the case for most scientific disciplines. Gotta coax peeps into doing it.) So I went to school with no worries of student loans, free of charge. And that's a GOOD thang! (Ain't NO way I'd go through all that ish and have to pay for it. Chemistry is HARD. Are you kidding me??)

2. After the Ph.D., some people do what's called a Postdoctoral Fellowship, or what we call a "Post-Doc". This is a fellowship, lasting 2 years or more, where you get further training in your area of study. I ditched the whole organic synthesis thing, and did something a little different: I got a Post-Doc working with ter.mites down in New Orl.eans. Interesting, grinding up those suckers and figuring out what makes them tick. I studied wood chemistry, and why ter.mites liked certain woods and hated others. I figured out ways to separate those chemicals from the wood and test them with the termites. So as a result, I have a lot of entomology (study of bugs), analytical chemistry (opposite of organic synthetic chemistry), and microbology (study of microbes and fungus) experience. OH JOY!

Those were some of the WORST years of my life. Not a good look being one of a few blacks in that building. I KNEW that I was black when I was there. GEEZ. We won't go into all that.

But I was useful. I coauthored a couple of papers during my 2.5 year stay. And having an organic chemist around is a good thing. I was able to find other organic chemists in other parts of the world who had rare organic compounds we needed for our ter.mite studies.

"That's not available, LadyLee!" my boss would say.

"No sir. Everything's available! Someone has that compound in the bottom of their freezer somewhere!"

**Boss is silent and red-faced as LadyLee hands him the email address of some obscure organic chemist over at some obscure college in Italy**

3. So currently, I work in food chemistry. Some folks who know me know what I do, and I won't detail it here. It involves regulatory chemistry, which was a BIG gear shift from research based chemistry. I mean, I had to change my thinking something drastic. I somewhat like what I do, but it bores me, and my boss knows this (which is funny). I make good money, so I will hold tight for a minute (but I think about other ventures... hmm).


4. I am a closet phytochemist, i.e., I LOVE thinking about the chemical components and properties of plants, fruits, and veggies. There are a couple of phytochemistry posts coming up this week, hopefully. I would LOVE to get an associate professorship somewhere and teach it and have my own research group. (I even co-authored a paper a while back involving canta.loupe response to ultraviole.nt light (i.e., simulated sunshine) in a journal called Phy.tochemistry a few years ago. So you know... there is an interest there.)

But uh, I have to wrap my head around the 20% salary cut I would take if I stopped doing what I do now to go and teach.

But I think I like phytochemistry because it encompasses ALL the different areas of work and research I've been involved in over the past 18 years (geez, has it been THAT long?!)

Hmmm... An Oldgirl has to get her faith straight. I REALLY have to work my faith out concerning such.

Really though.

5. One of the most rewarding things I've done is go to schools and talk to kids about chemistry, or do demonstrations. I haven't done that in a good 7 years or so, and I do miss it. I've even taught chemistry classes for 6 and 7 year-olds. (Yes, there is such a thing. What didn't I know about such programs as a child?)

It bothers me that I don't see many black kids in such programs. It is something else when a black parent walks up and say how they are SO glad that their child gets to see one of "US" teaching. It means a lot to them. There are a lot of programs out here for our kids that we don't know about. And we have some smart kids, so come on, parents... Get your kids in some of these programs.

6. I have some experience dealing with moisture-sensitive compounds, i.e., stuff that catches fire if it gets in contact with water, air, and what-not. One of the more interesting projects I've worked on is compounds that give off light when they decompose.

Sometimes ish can go wrong with air and moisture sensitive stuff. It makes for some interesting fire stories...

So there are a few fun facts about the Oldgirl...

"You're such a nerd, LadyLee!!!" you may say.

Yes.

Yes, I am. . .

And, doggonit, that's why we're having **CHEMISTRY WEEK**

LOL!!!

Now enough of my background...

On to the funny-funny...