Posts Tagged ‘General’

An unusually small (doubly) aromatic molecule: C4.

Tuesday, March 15th, 2022

When you talk π-aromaticity, benzene is the first molecule that springs to mind. But there are smaller molecules that can carry this property; cyclopropenylidene (five atoms) is the smallest in terms of atom count I could think of until now, apart that is from H3+ which is the smallest possible molecule that carries σ-aromaticity. So here I have found what I think is an even smaller aromatic molecule containing only four carbon atoms. And it is not only π-aromatic but σ-aromatic.

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First came Molnupiravir – now there is Paxlovid as a SARS-CoV-2 protease inhibitor. An NCI analysis of the ligand.

Saturday, November 13th, 2021

Earlier this year, Molnupiravir hit the headlines as a promising antiviral drug. This is now followed by Paxlovid, which is the first small molecule to be aimed by design at the SAR-CoV-2 protein and which is reported as reducing greatly the risk of hospitalization or death when given within three days of symptoms appearing in high risk patients.

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The chemistry of scents: Vetifer oil.

Sunday, February 28th, 2021

I have occasionally covered the topic of colours here, such as those of flowers and minerals, since it is at least possible to illustrate these using photographs or colour charts to illustrate the theme. But when Derek Lowe took a break from his remarkable coverage of the COVID pandemic to highlight a recent article on the active smelling principle in Vetifer oil[1] I could not resist adding a tiny amount to his must-read story.

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References

  1. J. Ouyang, H. Bae, S. Jordi, Q.M. Dao, S. Dossenbach, S. Dehn, J.B. Lingnau, C. Kanta De, P. Kraft, and B. List, "The Smelling Principle of Vetiver Oil, Unveiled by Chemical Synthesis", Angewandte Chemie International Edition, vol. 60, pp. 5666-5672, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.202014609

Question for the day – Einstein, special relativity and atomic weights.

Saturday, July 25th, 2020

Sometimes a (scientific) thought just pops into one’s mind. Most are probably best not shared with anyone, but since its the summer silly season, I thought I might with this one.

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A tourist trip around London Overground with a chemical theme.

Saturday, August 29th, 2015

Most visitors to London use the famous underground trains (the “tube”) or a double-decker bus to see the city (one can also use rivers and canals). So I thought, during the tourism month of August, I would show you an alternative overground circumnavigation of the city using the metaphor of benzene.

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A congruence of concepts: conformations, configurations, amides and enzymes

Sunday, February 9th, 2014

This is the time of year when I deliver two back-2-back lecture courses, and yes I do update and revise the content! I am always on the look-out for nice new examples that illustrate how concepts and patterns in chemistry can be joined up to tell a good story. My attention is currently on conformational analysis; and here is an interesting new story to tell about it.

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A curly-arrow pushing manual

Wednesday, December 4th, 2013

I have several times used arrow pushing on these blogs. But since the rules for this convention appear to be largely informal, and there appears to be no definitive statement of them, I thought I would try to produce this for our students. This effort is here shared on my blog. It is what I refer to as the standard version; an advanced version is in preparation. Such formality might come as a surprise to some; arrow-pushing is often regarded as far too approximate to succumb to any definition, although it is of course often examined.

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Molecular Matryoshka dolls

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

A Matryoshka doll is better known as a Russian nesting doll. They can have up to eight layers. Molecules can only emulate two layers, although see here for a good candidate for making a three-layered example (the inside layer is C60, which itself might encapsulate a small molecule. See also  DOI: 10.1021/ja991747w). These molecular dolls can be created out of quite simple molecules. Here I explore just one, and focus on what is happening inside!

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Secrets of a university tutor: (curly) arrow pushing

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

Curly arrows are something most students of chemistry meet fairly early on. They rapidly become hard-wired into the chemists brain. They are also uncontroversial! Or are they? Consider the following very simple scheme.

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And now for something completely different: The art of molecular sculpture.

Sunday, October 17th, 2010

Chemistry as the inspiration for art! The inspiration was the previous post. As for whether its art, you decide for yourself. Click on each thumbnail for a molecular sculpture (the medium being electrons!). (more…)