The research on the cooling law began with an article by Newton published in 1701. Later, many studies were performed by other scientists confirming or confuting Newton's law. This paper presents a description and an interpretation of Newton's article, provides a short overview of the research conducted on the topic during the 18th century, and…

We developed a modular pair of experiments for use in the undergraduate physical chemistry and biochemistry laboratories. Both experiments examine the thermodynamics of the binding of a small molecule, eosin Y, to the protein lysozyme. The assay for binding is the quenching of lysozyme fluorescence by eosin through resonant energy transfer. In…

There are relatively few experiments describing the NMR properties of bis(amine) iron(II) phthalocyanine complexes. Several features make this experiment attractive: First, it nicely illustrates the diamagnetic anisotropy phenomena, providing both students and teachers an opportunity to gain insight into aspects such as phase correction and…

A robust and reasonably simple experiment is described that introduces students to the visualization of nanoscale properties and is intended for a first-year laboratory. Silver nanoprisms (NPs) that display different colors due to variation of their plasmonic absorption with respect to size are prepared. Control over the size of the silver…

An advanced undergraduate laboratory experiment is outlined which uses a dye laser to map out the chromatic dispersion curve of a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) optical fibre. Seven different wavelengths across the visible spectrum are employed using five different dyes. The light pulse is split into two pulses, one to a nearby photodetector and…

The typical experiment to measure the oxygen content in the atmosphere uses the rusting of steel wool inside a closed volume of air. Two key aspects of this experiment that make possible a successful measurement of the content of oxygen in the air are the use of a closed atmosphere and the use of a chemical reaction that involves the oxidation of…

Laboratory experiments that focus on protein folding provide excellent opportunities for undergraduate students to learn important topics in the expanding interdisciplinary field of biophysics. Here, we describe the use of Stern-Volmer plots to determine the extent of solvent accessibility of the single tryptophan residue (trp-59) in unfolded and…

In this laboratory experiment, students obtain information about the structure of a host-guest complex from the interpretation of circular dichroism measurements. The value and sign of the induced circular dichroism (ICD) on an achiral chromophore guest when it complexes with a cyclodextrin can be related to the guest penetration and its…

We propose a series of experiments involving balance readings of an object naturally floating or forced to be partially or fully immersed in water contained in a beaker sitting on an electronic scale balance. Students were asked to predict, observe and explain each case. The teacher facilitated the learning by asking probing questions, giving…

In 1990, a woman was wrongly convicted of poisoning her infant son and was sentenced to life in prison. Her conviction was based on laboratory work that wrongly identified ethylene glycol as present in her son's blood and in the formula he drank prior to his death. The actual cause of the infant's death, a metabolic disease, was eventually…

Much of our understanding of metabolic pathways has resulted from the use of chemical and isotopic labels. In this experiment, a heavy isotope of carbon, [superscript 13]C, is used to label the product of the well-known RuBisCO enzymatic reaction. This is a key reaction in photosynthesis that converts inorganic carbon to organic carbon; a process…

This exercise provides students hands-on experience with the topics of glycosidation, hemiacetal and acetal formation, proton nuclear magnetic resonance ([superscript 1]H NMR) spectroscopy, and kinetic and thermodynamic product formation. In this laboratory experiment, the methyl acetal of ribose is synthesized, and the kinetic and thermodynamic…

This paper presents low-cost experiments for a control systems laboratory module that is worth one and a third credits. The experiments are organized around the microcontroller-based control of a permanent magnet dc motor. The experimental setups were built in-house. Except for the operating system, the software used is primarily freeware or free…

Anaerobic metabolism is recruited in vertebrates under conditions of intense exercise or lowered environmental oxygen availability (hypoxia), typically resulting in the accumulation of lactate in blood and tissues. Lactate will be cleared over time after the reoxygenation of tissues, eventually returning to control levels. Here, we present a…

Alcohol-based hand-rub sanitizers are the types of products that hospital professionals use very often. These sanitizers can be classified into two major groups: those that contain a large quantity of thickener, and thus are a gel, and those that contain a small quantity of thickener, and thus remain a liquid. In an effort to create a laboratory…