Chem 201 Archive – Alan Shusterman

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  • Anticrastination anyone?

    Procrastination is a problem. I have trouble dealing with it. Everyone that I know suffers from it. (Actually, “suffers” is the wrong word; “complains” would be more accurate. Procrastination can be a good thing, but if you find yourself complaining about not getting around to things, you have a problem.)

    How do I procrastinate? Two ways. First, I don’t do things that I need to do. Second, I siphon my time into other things that don’t help at all. So what can I do? Fight back. Become an Anticrastinator.

    Today’s At Reed describes two computer programs, Freedom and Anti-Social (no joke!) that can help you anticrastinate more effectively. These programs won’t make you do the stuff you ought to do, but they can keep you away highly distracting time siphons.

    You might also be interested in signing up for one of the anticrastination workshops offered by Student Services. The complete schedule of academic workshops is posted here; RSVP encouraged, but drop-ins are welcome.

  • New Homework Signals New Direction

    I have just posted a new homework assignment: HW #6. You can download it from the homework page.

    This assignment signals a switch from an emphasis on modeling to an emphasis on chemical transformations. It is essential at this point that you adjust your study techniques so that you learn about transformations from several angles:

    • knowing what to expect from certain reactions (fill in the product)
    • knowing how to bring certain transformations about (fill in the reagent)
    • knowing how to produce desired materials (fill in the starting material + plan a synthesis)
    • knowing how to rationalize why things are the way they are (draw a plausible mechanism).

    I hope that the new direction in homework assignments will encourage you in this.

    A Study Guide and Solutions Manual essay that is particularly worthwhile: 5.2 How to Study Organic Reactions (p. 70). I hope you will incorporate the suggestions that this essay makes into your study habits. Some other valuable essays:

    • 5.3 Solving Structure Problems (p. 74)
    • 11.1 Learning New Reactions from Earlier Reactions (p. 211)
    • 11.2 Common Intermediates from Different Starting Materials (p. 211).

  • Pharmaceutical Companies Develop Better Placebos

    I’m sure you are all familiar with the “placebo effect”, the ability of an inactive substance to produce biological effects. The usual explanation is that the placebo substance activates the patient’s “belief” that a treatment is being received and this belief, somehow, has restorative powers.

    The placebo effect is too strong to ignore so when pharmaceutical companies test new drugs they divide the patients into two groups: one that receives the drug and one that receives a look-alike placebo. It isn’t enough for the candidate pill to do something, it must actually be better than the placebo in order to receive FDA approval. The truly amazing thing is that, according to this recent Wired article by Steve Silberman, it appears as if placebos are getting harder and harder to beat.
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  • Unsaturation Number (textbook error)

    Chapter 4 introduces so-called “road map” problems. Problem 4.51 & 4.52 are typical examples. A “road map” problem gives you some information about the composition of a molecule and its chemical behavior (what you can turn it into, how you can make it from other substances). Your job is to figure out the molecule’s structure.

    A key step in the solution of a “road map” problem is to calculate the molecule’s unsaturation number (also called “degree of unsaturation” and “number of units of unsaturation”). Loudon explains how to perform this calculation in section 4.3 and I won’t cover this material in lecture. I do want to call your attention, however, to an error in the book. The term “2C” should appear only once in equation 4.7 (compare equations 4.5, 4.6, and 4.7).

    FYI – I learned a slightly different (but mathematically equivalent) equation as a student: U = #C + 1 – #H/2 + #N/2.

    Whichever equation you learn, notice that:

    • the number of oxygens does not affect the unsaturation number
    • #H represents the number of hydrogens plus the number of halogens.

  • Vaux Swift Watch 2009

    This has nothing to do with o chem, but watching 5000+ small birds fly
    into a chimney (they sleep there) is one of the most fascinating and FREE displays of
    urban wildlife you will ever see and it coincides with the start of the
    school year. I try to catch it at least a few times every year and I
    will be there tonight. Here’s some helpful info for swift viewing:

    Directions: The chimney is located at the west end (hilly side) of Chapman Elementary school. The school is located next to a park on NW 25th between NW Pettygrove & NW Raleigh. After you see the swifts, you can walk over to NW 23rd for dessert – many many establishments will be happy to serve you between 7-9 PM. Map
    Best viewing: Get there about 20 minutes before sunset and watch the birds collect and feed. It takes awhile for all of them to go into the chimney so you’ll be there after sunset (full moon tonite). Most people watch from the hillside on NW Pettygrove.
    Portland Audobon web info

  • Study Guide for chapter 1 is online

    I posted the study guide for chapter 1 yesterday but forgot to tell anyone. Maybe you’ve seen it already? You can follow this link or the one on Study Guides page.

  • Study Tips '09

    (updated version of post from Aug 20, 2008)

    An idiosyncratic assortment of suggestions and observations based on 23+ years of teaching.

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  • Four Unsolved Problems

    (initial version published Aug 20, 2008)

    Once you get used to them, you may find that the problems
    in your textbook have a game-like quality. If you make the right mental
    “moves”, you will nearly always solve the problem. It’s a nice way to
    get started thinking about organic chemistry, but not terribly realistic.
    Modern organic chemists spend most of their time working on problems that can’t
    be solved     just by making the right moves. These problems are both scientific
    and technological and if we ever solve them, we will change how the entire world thinks and lives.
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  • The Joys of Being a Chemistry Student

    (first published Aug 20, 2008)

    My first genuine taste of organic chemistry came in my sophomore year
    of college (73-74). I studied from a large (1000 page) textbook not too
    different from yours. There was a lot to remember, but I was doing
    alright until the second quarter when a subtle and unannounced change
    in the book quite threw me.
    (more…)

  • Have tunes? Gotta dance?

    Piles of paper surround me. Wrapping paper for presents. Your exams and lab reports. (Not to worry, no one in the family received socks wrapped in a lab report.) And it’s snowing. So what do I do?

    What would anyone do?

    Surf for distractions, of course.

    A student emailed me this song from Science Groove: Hooray for NMR Spectroscopy! (http://www.science-groove.org/Now/Hooray_lofi.mp3)

    I also watched the winners of Gonzo Labs & AAAS/Science magazine 2009 Dance Your Ph.D. Contest. My personal faves: the Sue Lynn Lau & group on the left (good music, joyful sunshine, capoeira moves) and Vince LiCata with red-shirted subunits on center right (watch for Old Man Winter as a cryogenic cooler). Check it out!

    Maybe Reed should have a “Dance Your Non-dance Thesis” contest? (To make this fair, dance majors would have to sing their theses.) Got any nerdy web material to share? Post a comment or just say “hi”.