Shenaniganology

Reblogged from scinerds

scinerds:

Watch a Live Feed of Tonight’s Northern Lights

Are you too far south or in too bright of a city to catch the spectacular auroras that have been streaking across the sky lately?

Not to worry. The Canadian Space Agency’s AuroraMAX Camera — located in the city of Yellowknife, near the Arctic Circle — can fulfill all your Northern-Light-viewing needs every night from now until late May (the camera shuts down during the Arctic summer, when the midnight sun prevents aurora viewing).

Read more on Wired

Source: ACS Molecule of the Week

Skatole, or 3-methylindole, is a foul-smelling constituent of mammalian feces; it is produced by the decomposition of tryptophan in the digestive tract. It has a floral aroma at low concentrations, contributing to the pleasant smell of flowers such as jasmine and orange blossoms. Skatole also occurs naturally in substances as diverse as beetroot and coal tar.

Note: Grey = carbon, white = hydrogen, blue = nitrogen

Reblogged from shychemist

shychemist:

thingsmissfrizzlewouldwear:

Things Miss Frizzle Would Drive

The car for those that LOVE chemistry far too much.

10 g Boric acid + methanol + a couple drops of concentrated sulfuric acid in a water cooler jug… Swirled around to produce flammable boric acid trimethyl ester, B(H3CO)3. Drop a burning splint and rapid combustion + a loud whoosh noise is what you get :) It’s green because boron compounds burn with a green flame.

Here is the production of the ester:

B(OH)3 + 3 CH3OH —> B(H3CO)3 + 3 H2O

Boric acid + methanol —> boric acid trimethyl ester + water

The reason for adding concentrated sulfuric acid is to shift the equilibrium to the right toward the ester because sulfuric acid is very hygroscopic (moisture absorbing) and it removes water from the system.

Reblogged from ikenbot

ikenbot:

Night Launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour

Reblogged from anewtonofscience

Here, two types of cells in the cerebellum are shown: glia and Purkinje neurons. The cells can be distinguished because of a method that relies on the body’s immune system and its antibodies — proteins that recognize and latch onto “foreign substances.” Biologists now use antibodies to reveal where certain proteins are found in the brain. Here, red is an antibody staining of a protein that’s found in glia cells, while green reveals a protein called IP3, of which Purkinje neurons are chockfull.

(Source: livescience.com)

Reblogged from scinerds

scinerds:

Physicists Discover Quantum Speed Limit

The speed of light is the cosmic speed limit, according to physicists’ best understanding: No information can be carried at a greater rate, no matter what method is used. But an analogous speed limit seems to exist within materials, where the interactions between particles are typically very short-range and motion is far slower than light-speed. A new set of experiments and simulations by Marc Cheneau and colleagues have identified this maximum velocity, which has implications for quantum entanglement and quantum computations.

Reblogged from 14-billion-years-later

(Source: 14-billion-years-later)