Stuck in the middle with you.....

So, due to recent research efforts, the path to enlightenment - well, at least, reasonable progress on a project - has become clearer.  Of course, it entails going back and preparing otherwise identical samples, albeit with a different labeling scheme.  Naturally, this will require some optimization.

In other news, I've recently been inspired to think about how to characterize extremely nasty and messy mixtures of appallingly complex and egregiously sensitive molecules.  My initial thought was that I should just let other people do this sort of thing.  However, I had a number of uncharitable thoughts about certain areas of the research community and realized that I should think more carefully about this situation.   I then had the notion that I need to do what my blog name suggests and think about things with less than precise site-specific chemical resolution for a bit.  I can layer on some perfectly reasonable physical parameters and other particular measures of interest.   Some people will complain, but then again, there are always those sorts.

Another unrelated topic I've been pondering - just how "open source" is chemistry?  How many of us have data trapped in proprietary formats in backup discs or external hard drives?  How often have you had to grudgingly use readily available software in ways it should never be used since more appropriate software doesn't exist or is egregiously expensive for the extent one needs it? Any information, griping personal anecdotes,  or interesting reads on the topic would be appreciated.

That will be all for tonight, I'd say.

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Random Interfacial Griping

To no one in particular.....

1.) We teach a lot of very handwavy material in introductory general chemistry at the university level here in the US. It does not mean that such material never gets a proper treatment. One thing to keep in mind is that such a course is generally intended to appeal to a wide audience, frequently to no one's complete satisfaction. (Especially the premeds.)

2.) Who the frak wrote this Wikipedia entry? I emphasize the following:

Nitrogen-15 is frequently used in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), because unlike the more abundant splinless nitrogen-14, it has a fractional nuclear spin of one-half, which makes it observable by NMR.

Just so we are all clear - you can do ¹⁴N NMR. See, for example, the excellent webpage here for a bunch of references on exactly that. It's just that ¹⁴N is a quadrupolar nucleus (I = 1), which makes life a little more interesting, but is not everyone's cup of tea.

3.) Inverse problems can be challenging. Obviously.

And with that, I'm done. At least until next time! Read more!