The Laboratory

How does temperature affect the glow of luminol and can you briefly explain to me why the glow stops after roughly 30 seconds? Thank you so much!

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:30:47 -0800

Certainly. Increased temperatures tends to quench the glow of fluorescent compounds. This is because the temperature increases the kinetic energy of the molecule, and because the molecule moves faster, the efficiency of the photon releasing decreases, resulting in a diminished glow. As for why the glow stops after 30 seconds, I can’t give a definite answer without knowing more about the circumstance. It could be that the reaction temperature was higher than normal, making the reaction run faster. It could also be that the luminosity dropped off after 30 seconds and could no longer be seen. It’s hard to say.

Somebody actually asked me how luminol reacts with blood, and as...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 06:21:16 -0700

Somebody actually asked me how luminol reacts with blood, and as my close friends know, a single question is enough to set me on a massive lecture. Many thanks to the Anthro Med Library for their wonderful picture of the oxidation (electron loss) of luminol, which, if anyone is curious, is used in an article on a “Chemiluminescence Assay of H2O2 Production by Neuroblastoma Cells Stimulated with High Potencies of the Cytotoxin TNFalpha”, of which I have only a vague concept of what that means.

But what we’re concerned with is luminol. Essentially, a testing kit for blood is a solution of luminol, a strong base like potassium hydroxide, and hydrogen peroxide. What I mean by “strong base” is that in water it completely breaks up into a positive potassium ion (K+), and a negative hydroxide ion (OH-). Luminol reacts with hydroxide in an equilibrium reaction to remove the H from the two -NH groups, making two -N- groups. There is an equilibrium with this molecule (called a dianion because it has two negative charges) and another, where the negative charges are on the two oxygens.

Hydrogen peroxide decomposes slowly into water and oxygen, which means that over time the luminol solution will go bad, because oxygen reacts with the second dianion to make the “amino phthalat” seen in the opening image, which releases nitrogen gas and a photon (which is what the hv means). When the solution is sprayed onto blood, however, the iron in hemoglobin (the molecule in blood that moves oxygen) catalyzes the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide, so suddenly there’s a lot of oxygen that can react with the dianion. Lots of oxygen means lots of the “amino phthalat”, meaning lots of photon. All the CSI guys have to do now is close the shutters and find the glow.

It’s not perfect, mind you. Many other metals catalyze the reaction, copper, manganese dioxide, to think of two, and certain chemicals (like bleach) can make the reaction go as well.

This post is brought to you by M. Alice, who probably now knows that I’m much better at chemistry than the history of Renaissance authors.

Today I got asked by a friend about why I like chemistry so...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:21:00 -0700

Today I got asked by a friend about why I like chemistry so much. I’m going to be using this video to explain.

If you’re just watching this video like I did at first, watching all the pretty colors whiz by, the guy is making luminol, which is a florescent dye that many of you may know is used by the guys on CSI. If you’re curious as to why it reacts with blood, I can talk about that in another post dedicated to luminol, but this post is more for why I like chemistry and how this video relates.

This guy states at the beginning that the process he is using is much less efficient, both in cost and in yield, than a similar process using specialized chemicals. The main difference, however, is that all of the materials he uses can be found or synthesized quite easily. The hardest to find is hydrazine, which he has made in a previous video that I also quite like. In short, he’s doing this to prove that it can be done, and that is a sentiment I, and numerous other chemists, can get behind.

Secondly, one of my favorite part of chemistry is looking at all of the complex molecules reacting with each other and making other complex molecules. Sometimes it can get tedious, as when a certain reaction demands that you boil it for over an hour during a single step, but on the whole it’s amazingly fun. Even the tedious parts are alright at the very end when you get your product and you fall to the ground in praise to the gods of Chemistry.

The best part of chemistry, however, is the subtle risk you take with some of the more exciting reactions (read: the ones that can seriously harm you). It just gets the blood boiling. It’s a better high, and more addictive, than methamphetamine [citation needed].

Latest in Red Hawk Manga

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:47:00 -0700

I belong to the grand manga scanlating conglomerate that is Red Hawk Scans. RHS is currently comprised of Red Hawk Neo, and a group of my own creation under a similar banner, Red Hawk Paleo. I created RHP half to get Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase finished on the internet, and three-quarters to enact a grand scheme to get the pink “Partner” title on the RHS forums. If only I were kidding.

RHS and RHN produce a number of series, far too many to talk about in one post. It’s too many for me to be expected to keep track of, and so I’ll talk about the four I’ve read most lately: Bakuman, The World God Only Knows, Beelzebub, and Hayate the Combat Butler, starting with Bakuman. Bakuman is about a mangaka pair: Moritaka, the artist, and Akito the writer. By this time in the manga, they’ve creating several successful manga, and are working with the anime for their series “Reversi”. Unfortunately, the title is writen with backwards R’s so I always read it as Yaeveyasi. In any case, Moritaka’s girlfriend is a voice actress, and enters to work in the Reversi anime as the heroine, and to eliminate accusations of favoritism, the application is made public between the twenty voice actors. Long story short, she wins, and the marriage pact made by Moritaka and Azuki is sealed (when the anime airs). The final chapter is Akito convincing their editor to let them finish the manga before the anime starts. Not the best chapter, but in comparison to the previous chapters, it’s understandable. What I hope happens, however, is that Akito gets such a good idea for the second part of Reversi that they go to the editor and beg to ignore there previous pleas to end Reversi. After all, I do remember back in the mists of time, some agreement that they wouldn’t end any more series. If any readers can enlighten me as to how this would work here, I would be very appreciative.

Beelzebub has the two child-rearing badasses going on a dinner date (?) with Aoi (in love with Oga), and Hilda (possibly in love with Oga). The other CRB whose name I didn’t consider important enough to remember or look up, is now in love with Aoi, and his little sister, Chiyo, has fallen in love with Beel. Oy vey. Oga shows up with the two girls, and in typical shounen fashion, is entirely oblivious to why CRB is angry at him for bringing two beautiful (?) women to dinner, one of whom is referred to as Oga-bride. I’ll give you a hint, it’s not Aoi. The chapter finishes off with Oga getting confused and deciding to go immediately to dinner. Good job, Oga. I think what’s going to happen is that either gang war in the restaurant, or Aoi is really awkward and everybody misunderstands everyone else.

Hayate the Combat Butler is it’s usual hyperactive self, hopping from a sub-arc about Hayate’s problem with going to an expensive yakiniku restaurant when he is broke to a chapter about the ~~five~~ three Baka Rangers trying to decide which was the smartest by who can make the most popular video. One tries to make a video about a plant and tears off it’s stem; another tries to incubate unfertilized eggs; and the last one makes an impressive-looking Rube-Goldberg machine that releases its balloons prematurely. Hayate decides that they are all equally stupid, and is swiftly smited. Really, anything could happen in the next chapters, considering how random the latest chapters were.

Finally, TWGOK is ramping up the Ayumi capture arc with this latest chapter. After Chihiro reveals that Keima is a lying dirt-bag to Ayumi, Ayumi runs out of the house, followed closely by Keima. Now outside, Chihiro reveals to Haqua that this was her way of resolving the love triangle and helping Ayumi to get her love. Then it kinda gets out of control. Keima shows up on a horse and promptly falls off after asking her to come with him. Ayumi tells Keima to propose to her, and he does. OTP much? Then they go to Ayumi’s house, and Keima asks for their blessing, also adding that he felt he had to, considering he “stole Ayumi’s first time”. This is hilariously misunderstood by the father. They flee to the roof, and Ayumi tells Keima to say that he loves her. Chapter end. Geez, what a cliffhanger. I’m a bit splotchy with my prediction for this one, because I really don’t know what would happen. I’m basically just throwing things against the wall to see what sticks. Three options I see: Keima is taken away before he says anything; Keima either avoids saying it or straight out denies it; or Keima says that he loves her. I think I’ll pick what’s behind the first door, Jim.

TL;DR: There is no TL;DR. Read the whole thing.

Burst Like a Blood Sausage

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:57:21 -0700

Burst Like a Blood Sausage:

If you guys know anything about Wasteland, then you’re understandably excited for the return of the series with the newest product in the series: Wasteland 2. This is what brought us such titles as Fallout and Fallout New Vegas, both games that I quite enjoyed, despite the quite large age gap between the two. I might even go so far as to call the “Free to Play” MMORPG/FPS/Gardening-Simulator game Fallen Earth to be one of it’s intellectual spawn.

After a good twenty two years since the last game, fans are understandably eager to get their grubby claws at it. I, for one, already have my troglodyte-esque claws pre-curled for the release so I can just go to the store and sort of lower my claws onto the package and leave. Aberrations aside, fans have even more to be excited for, as there is a $400,000 chance that multiple Obsidian employees will aid in crafting the Wasteland 2 game. Chris Avellone, a writer and currently product director for the Fallout: New Vegas add-ons, is already ear-marked to lend a hand, and many others on the Obsidian team are surely tearing at the leash to go help inXile.

This is sure to go through with no problems, considering that as of writing, $1.75 million have already been pledged on Kickstarter (which is also hosting the wonderful The Elephant Book series), with 17 days left for Wasteland 2 to reach the required $2.1 million for Obsidian to help out inXile. A more interesting scenario would be if the $2.1 million dollars isn’t reached. Chris and his boys would be devastated if they didn’t get to go over to inXile to play. Which means they would have to go incognito (because inXile is just too much fun not to), and all be referred to in the credits by aliases.

But that scenario probably won’t happen. Wasteland 2 is a magnificent cash cow. According to Forbes, it’s such a cash cow, the developers are considering changing the name of the game to “Surabhi” to reflect that.

Just kidding. Probably.

This is one of the more boring bits of this page, but I thought...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:33:02 -0700

This is one of the more boring bits of this page, but I thought it was interesting. This is a video about the phenomenon of “supersolidity”, where solids (particularly helium) don’t move as one mass, like nearly every other solid does. For a low-tech image, imagine shaking a disk of helium-4. Because this is hypothetical, your hand doesn’t immediately freeze because helium-4 is solid only at extremely low temperatures ( Beween 0 and 1 degree K, and perhaps pressures greater than normal atmospheric). When you shake it in one direction and stop it abruptly, most of the molecules will stop as well. A few of them, however, around 1% according to the study, will move a bit further, breaking and remaking the bonds between clusters of helium-4 molecules like it ain’t no thang.

Is it earth-shattering? Not by any stretch of the imagination, no, considering that scientists aren’t entirely sure it actually exists, but it does expand on how we think things work. The bigger question is whether or not we’re right. Here’s hoping we are.

The Elephant Book Campaign Is a-Go

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:00:15 -0700

So, most of you guys reading this probably won’t know who M. Alice LeGrow is, and that’s fine. Those of you who do can tune out for a bit. LeGrow is an American mangaka who wrote the OEL manga “Bizenghast”, one I quite like, under Tokyopop. Now that Tokyopop US is dead, she’s working on a new project, “The Elephant Book”.

Some of you will mention “Wait a minute, wasn’t that the book on Winston’s (the headmaster’s) desk in that one flashback with Addie Clark?” You’re quite vigilant, hypothetical reader, and someone else who may or may not be your’s truly also mentioned that. This new book may or may not be related; LeGrow is being quite tight-lipped about the whole affair. However, if you guys contribute to the Kickstarter, this up-and-coming series will fly up in the air (junior birdmen!). The radio bemba also whispers that you can get swag for contributing. Delightful goodies. So hop on over to her site at www.bizenghast.com and give it a looksie. I’m almost definitely positive you won’t be disappointed.

malicelegrow:

IT’S OFFICIAL, WE HAVE KICKSTARTER!!!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2040427557/the-elephant-book-graphic-novel

Donate now for unbelievably great justice and receive cool swag in return!

Please pass along to your friends, blog, tumblr, probation officer and fellow mafiosos! I’ve only got 31 days to raise the entire total, or the project will not get funded! THANK YOU!!!