A team from the University of Pittsburgh's McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine has shown the potential for clinical use of the drag-reducing polymer (DRP) poly(N-vinylformamide), or PNVF. The high molecular weight PNVF is shown to reduce resistance to turbulent flow in a pipe and to enhance blood flow in animal models and it also…

The absorption of beta rays from a radioactive source in different materials was investigated by the use of a simple setup based on a Geiger counter and a set of absorber sheets. The number of electrons traversing the material was measured as a function of its thickness. Detailed GEANT simulations were carried out to reproduce the obtained…

Capturing students' interest in science at the junior levels is crucial to not only improving the uptake of science at senior levels but to promoting science literacy in all students in order to prepare them for a society that is very science and technologically driven. This paper presents nanotechnology as an emerging science that is both factual…

A series of interactive, instructional units have been developed that integrate computational molecular modelling and visualization to teach fundamental chemistry concepts and the relationship between the molecular and macro-scales. The units span the scale from atoms, small molecules to macromolecular systems, and introduce many of the concepts…

Background: Tuberous sclerosis (TSC) is a multi-system disorder caused by heterozygous mutations in the "TSC1" or "TSC2" gene and is often associated with neuropsychiatric symptoms, including intellectual disability, specific neuropsychological deficits, autism, other behavioural disorders and epilepsy. Method: Here, we review evidence from animal…

The Celsius and Kelvin temperature scales, we tell our students, are related. We explain that a change in temperature of 1 degree C corresponds to a change of 1 Kelvin and that atoms and molecules have zero kinetic energy at zero Kelvin, -273 degrees C. In this paper, we will show how students can derive the relationship between the Celsius and…

A force spectroscopy model experiment is presented using a low-cost tensile apparatus described earlier. Force-extension measurements of twisted rubber bands are obtained. They exhibit a complex nonlinear elastic behaviour that resembles atomic force spectroscopy investigations of molecules of titin, a muscle protein. The model experiments open up…

Quantitative analysis of carbohydrates is a fundamental analytical tool used in many aspects of biology and chemistry. We have adapted a technique developed by Mathews et al. using an inexpensive scanner and open-source image analysis software to quantify amylase activity using both the breakdown of starch and the appearance of glucose. Breakdown…

The experiment described here for advanced inorganic chemistry undergraduate students includes a solvolysis reaction of [CoCl(NH[subscript 3])[subscript 5]][superscript 2+] in nonaqueous (H[subscript 3]PO[subscript 4]) medium, followed by an alternative way of using ion-exchange chromatography based on the capability of changing the charges of the…

The electrochemical synthesis of transition-metal acetylacetonates described here can form the basis of assisting in the transformation of an entry-level laboratory course into a research-like environment where all members of a class are working on the same problem, but where each member has a personal responsibility for the synthesis and…

Two experiments are described in which students explore phase transitions and critical phenomena by obtaining compression isotherms of phospholipid monolayers using a Langmuir trough. Through relatively simple analysis of their data students gain a better understanding of compression isotherms, the application of the Clapeyron equation, the…

In this article, the authors describe an interconnected set of relatively simple laboratory experiments in which students determine the RNA content of yeast cells and use agarose gel electrophoresis to separate and analyze the major species of cellular RNA. This set of experiments focuses on RNAs from the yeast "Saccharomyces cerevisiae", a…

The electrochemical polymerization of aniline and pyrrole, and demonstrations of electrochromism and the polymer battery effect, are presented as demonstrations suitable for high school and introductory chemistry at the university level. These demonstrations promote student interest in the electrochemical preparation of conducting polymers, where…

An experiment is described involving the nitration of ortho or meta monosubstituted benzoic acids (XC[subscript 6]H[subscript 4]CO[subscript 2]H, X = Halogen, Me, OH, or OMe) and monochlorinated acetanilides with nitric acid to determine the regioselectivity of addition by [superscript 1]H NMR spectroscopy and molecular modeling. Students were…

A sorption experiment using a gas chromatograph is described that can help students understand the "molecular-shape selectivity" behavior of zeolites in the subnano regime. Hexane isomers are used as probe molecules to demonstrate the sorption phenomena. In the experiment, a zeolite adsorbs certain hexane isomers with molecular sizes smaller than…