This is still my job hunting experience:

I have spent a bit too much time lately looking over my life. Where I’ve been…where I’m going. Here’s another question I have pondered over the years:

I think the answer is “no.” Although it did mean I graduated. Unfortunately the cool research I did has been perfectly useless in finding a job.

Just when I thought I would have a reprieve from the Friday sex post… No seminar this week, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t homework. Now don’t let your mind run too far. This homework is all about looking at your ideas and thoughts around sex and having discussions with others. Frankly, I’m tired of talking about it this week. I did my homework. I have analyzed the parts we were assigned. I figured out my “act.” What I pretend about sex. What I hide. Enough! After a discussion this morning with a friend, I’m not feeling all that great about the whole thing. Honestly, if all I get is to be fully present then my seminar was well worth it. Like many women, I often have other thoughts pop into my head at the time. They could be as mundane as the mental list of things that I need to do, the cobwebs that need removed from the ceiling (cleaning…never ending), or thinking “this isn’t working.” We have just started the seminar so what to do about those things we’ve all found out about ourselves hasn’t been addressed. It will be.

The picture above is the molecular structure of sodium ethyl xanthate (SEX). Really…What did you think I would post?

This is probably not a regular Wednesday feature, but I came across this article about flame retardants and cats that I found interesting. I have several. None have thyroid disease that I know of. Apparently lots of cats are getting thyroid disease, and scientists have linked it to flame retardants in furniture. The compounds polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Another source of PBDEs is in canned fish/seafood flavored cat food, such as salmon and whitefish. Cat diets based on fish-flavored canned food could have PBDE levels 12 times as high as dry-food diets. Cats may get more than 100 times greater dietary PBDE exposure than American adults. Another reason to be careful of what you feed your pets. Of course, humans have high PBDE exposure as well. It appears that we are killing ourselves–and our pets–with the chemicals we have used.

This article can be found online in the semi-monthly journal, Environmental Science and Technology, from the American Chemical Society.

Part of graduate school includes a Friday afternoon seminar, affectinately known as “colloquium.” I think most schools put them on Friday afternooons at 4 pm. We were supposed to go. I know plenty of people who didn’t. I didn’t. They couldn’t require that you go–just suggest that you attend. These seminars are the most boring in the world, unless a graduate student was giving one. These poor visiting professors had very little clue on how to present data so that everyone stayed awake. It didn’t help that these seminars are held in a lecture hall in the dark. Here’s something that would have kept us busy though. I might have attended more seminars…well, maybe not.

Yes, you can own your own element from the periodic table. Well, you don’t actually get any of that element, but you do get to help graduate students at Western Michigan University. The fund is an emergency fund to allow students to continue their studies when faced with serious financial problems. The first student to receive funds needed to travel abroad for a family funeral. The prices of the elements aren’t cheap. They range from a minimum of $500 to a maximum of $10,000. There are plenty of elements left.

Element Fundraiser 

A bee makes less than one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its entire lifetime. I find that amazing. I buy large jars of honey several times a year. What a thought–how many bees it takes to make 16 ounces of honey?

There is a biochemistry process in gettng that pollen into honey. Honey is about 80% sugar, 17% water and the rest are trace compounds that give the honey its color and flavor.

Here’s how it’s done:

First the bees drink the nectar, which gets mixed with enzymes in their stomach-like sacs. At the hive, the bees pass the material to house beens who remove some of the moisture content by ingesting and spitting it back up. I think that’s a bit gross…but I will continue. These house bees put the mixture into the honeycombs. The bees then fan their wings to further reduce the moisture and then put a wax cap over it. The enzymes produce many sugars and acids in the honey. The most important enzyme is invertase which splits the sucrose molecules into fructose and glucose.

Honey has a pH of 3.8 to 4.0, which puts it on an acidic scale. As a comparison, your stomach acids have a pH of 1, while water is typically around pH 7. The acids found in honey are formic, acetic, butyric and lactic. The trace compounds found in honey are potassium, iron, manganese, copper and silicon. There is also aobut 1% nitrogen from proteins. The flavors in honey are affected by the volatile organic compounds that are found in flowers.

Scott from Oregon said he liked science, so here is a bit of practical chemistry you can use. As I’m sure everyone knows, silver tarnishes. It drives me nuts because it’s so hard to remove by typical means: pastes and scrubbing. However, with some items readily available in your kitchen, you can remove tarnish without scrubbing.

You will need:

• a rectangular or square glass dish
• aluminum foil
• baking soda
• water

Boil enough water to cover whatever silver items you have. You can turn them as the tarnish is removed if they are rather large. You may want to consider lining a rather large dish (must be ceramic or glass) or sink for large items like teapots. Add baking soda. You should use a cup of baking soda for each gallon of water. (4 cups water, 1/4 cup baking soda)

Line the dish with aluminum foil. Make sure it goes up the sides. You can use more than one sheet.

Pour boiling water into the dish. Place tarnished silver items in the pan. They must touch the aluminum foil. Wherever they don’t touch aluminum foil, the tarnish will stay.

This is a simple oxidation-reduction reaction. It is also an electrochemical reaction.

3 Ag2S	+	2 Al		6 Ag	+	Al2S3
silver sulfide		aluminum		silver		aluminum sulfide

The tarnish is the silver sulfide. As the reaction progresses, you will see the aluminum darken (aluminum sulfide is being formed). This method converts the tarnish to silver and does not remove any silver, unlike abrasive cleaners. This method works very well for intricate designs.

See, chemistry can be fun!