<![CDATA[ADVoscience - Hobby]]>Thu, 27 Jun 2024 19:52:30 +0800Weebly<![CDATA[Oranges and Lemons - Optical Isomerism]]>Sat, 17 Nov 2018 03:48:02 GMThttps://advoscience.weebly.com/hobby/oranges-and-lemons-optical-isomerismOh my god! It's my first post in ages!
I'm really sorry I haven't posted at all recently, I've been under a lot of pressure with work from school, especially with this anodising project...

Anyway, back to oranges and lemons...

I read the other day that the only reason that oranges and lemons taste and smell different it to do with different proportions of the two optical isomers of limonene, the molecule responsible for the taste and smell of quite a few different citrus fruits (but mainly oranges and lemons)!

That's so cool!

Yeah! When you think about it, oranges and lemons are quite different. Most people would happily eat a slice of orange but very few would do the same with lemon, their tastes are very different.

But... What are optical isomers?

When you have a carbon atom with 4 different functional groups, you have two possible arrangements for the functional groups that are different. They're actually the mirror image of each other, which is why they're called optical isomers. Here's and example:
Picture
The optical isomers, more commonly called enantiomers, are mirror images of each other but are not the same. In the case of oranges and lemons, it becomes much more difficult to see because of the size of the molecule, but here it is.
Picture
The carbon that has the 4 different functional groups is called a chiral carbon or chiral centre, because these optical isomers can also be called chiral molecules.

A brief bit of history

The existence of optical isomers was first discovered in 1848 by Louis Pasteur, while he was studying tartaric acid, a byproduct of wine making. His discovery stemmed from a discovery made earlier that century by a french physicist named Jean-Baptiste Biot. He discovered that Tartaric acid was optically active.

What does optically active mean?

If a solution or substance is optically active, it means that it rotates the plane of light going through it by a certain angle. What Jean-Baptiste Biot discovered when he shone a ray of polarised light (light that oscillates on only 1 plane) through tartaric acid, was that it rotated the plane of light by 12 degrees. No one knew why this phenomenon occured until Pasteur discovered that the acid produced two different types of crystal. The two crystals were mirror images of each other.
Picture
Pasteur called them chiral crystals from the greek 'kheir' for hand, and deduced that the molecules that make up these crystals must also be chiral. Chiral molecules are still commonly called left and right handed today due to their resemblance to the left and right hand (mirror images of each other).

Thalidomide

The existence of chiral molecules was not widely considered important (generalisation) until a drug called thalidomide came around. Although there's a good chance you've heard the story before, it's quite important today in the pharmaceutical industry and drug discovery.
Thalidomide was a drug designed to prevent the morning sickness that comes with pregnancy, and it did it very well. To keep it short, the problem was that thalidomide has two enantiomers that were produced in equal quantities when the drug was manufactured. One enantiomer prevented morning sickness very well with few side effects, while the other enantiomer caused birth defects. Almost 10,000 babies were born with deformed limbs, and less than 40% of these children survived.

I think this topic is pretty interesting

I don't know about you but the fact that just the different arrangements of functional groups around an atom can have such a huge effect on the properties of the molecule as in the cases of limonene and thalidomide, is amazing. Those two aren't 'freak' cases either, there are plenty of other examples like glucose and carvone (spearmint and caraway).

I hope you enjoyed reading this

Christmas holidays are coming up for me and although I'll be studying for my IB mock exams, I also hope to post a few more articles here. Even though I don't have time to write many posts here, I try to keep posting interesting science on my social medias so if you want to stay up to date, follow on my social medias.
]]><![CDATA[The Chemistry Of Chocolate]]>Mon, 27 Aug 2018 22:42:12 GMThttps://advoscience.weebly.com/hobby/the-chemistry-of-chocolateChemistry and chocolate! the 2 best things in the world!
Sorry physics. And Johnny Marr. And ice cream. Sorry...

It can't be that complicated can it?

You'd be surprised! Chocolate is an incredibly versatile thing!

But all chocolate is literally the same...

Sure, they are 'all the same' to you because chocolate is mainly sold in bars and that's what people mainly eat, and those chocolate bars are mainly made from the same type of chocolate. The aim of chocolate bars is to be a solid at room temperature, but to melt in your mouth. Making this type of chocolate involves some cool chemistry.

Chemistry? But chocolate is a food...

So what? Literally everything is chemistry anyway. Moving on though, everything starts with the cocoa bean in the cocoa pod on the cocoa tree. If you were to try a cocoa bean (not suggested) you would find that it tastes nothing like chocolate at all. This is because there are a number of chemical changes that need to occur within the beans to get the flavours going. This starts with picking all the pods and then literally throwing them on the ground in a pile to rot and ferment for two weeks.

Read more to learn about the interesting and unusual properties of chocolate...

Chocolate is ... Fermented?!?!

Yep, you bet. During the fermentation stage, the pile of pods begins to heat up, which 'kills' the seeds so they don't germinate into cocoa plants :(. More importantly though,  it chemically changes the chemicals in the cocoa beans to give rise to our beloved chocolate flavours. These chemicals are fruity tasting esters that are created from alcohols and acids that are created by enzymes acting inside the cocoa beans. These reactions are dependant on a huge number of factors from the weather to the air temperature and even the general weather and height of the piles. These are of course closely guarded secrets (shh). This is why decent chocolate costs a bunch, because to make a decent chocolate, you need a great cocoa farm with a nice temperature and all sorts of different factors need to be controlled to get the best flavour.

So chocolate is just a fermented cocoa bean brick? Eww

Umm no if it was like that then no one would eat it. After the pods have been fermented, the pods are whacked (ouch) with a hammer and the beans are removed. They're then dried and roasted, just like coffee. Again, the roasting sets of more chemical reactions (I told you everything is chemistry) that give rise to the nutty, earthy and almost meaty flavours of chocolate. This happens because the carbohydrates within the beans begin to decompose (fall apart) because of the intense heat. This is basically the same thing as what happens when you put sugar in a pan, it caramelises (yum). In the case of the cocoa bean though, this reaction happens inside the bean, turning it brown like what happens when you roast coffee beans. This reaction creates nutty, caramel flavours.

So where does the meaty flavour come from? I swear chocolate doesn't taste meaty

The meaty flavour happens because of yet another reaction, this time at a higher temperature. This temperature is called the Maillard reaction, which occurs when a sugar reacts with a protein. Cocoa beans actually contain a large amount of protein because they're seeds, they've got to provide all the proteins for the baby cocoa plant (that has now been roasted :( ) up and running. When the beans are roasted in temperatures above 160 degrees C, the proteins and sugars react with the esters and acids produced earlier in the fermentation process, to form a whole load of nutty and meaty flavour molecules (yum!).

So chocolate is just a fermented roasted bean brick? hmm...

Nah. If you grind up these beans, and add it to hot water you have the first drinking chocolate ever made. A Dutch company (yay) then thought hey, lets press this powder to make it finer for drinking. When they did this, a whole bunch of cocoa butter came out which is an ingredient you might recognise from the ingredients of your average chocolate bar. From this pressing, thy also got a nice find cocoa powder which was much nicer than before. Then they thought hey, what if we mixed the cocoa butter and cocoa powder back together, add a heap of sugar and make it into a bar?

You lied, there isn't that much chemistry in chocolate :(

Nope I didn't lie you just didn't read till the end (tsk tsk). Even though the chocolate bar had been invented, it hadn't been perfected yet, even with 30% sugar content it was still to bitter, and was missing a key ingredient, milk. This key ingredient is the reason why chocolate tastes different in different countries around the world. The Americans remove some of the fat from their milk with enzymes, so their chocolate tastes cheesy and almost rancid, the British do it differently, adding sugar to milk and creating a sugary milk concentrate that is then added to chocolate. Other European countries add milk powder, giving their chocolate a fresh dairy taste with a more powder texture (and all because of milk!).

Ok so where's the chemistry???  >:(

Ok ok ok!!!! Chocolate is full of cocoa butter, one of the finest of all vegetable fats. It also happens to contain natural antioxidants which makes the cosmetic people happy, but also means that cocoa butter has quite a long shelf life. This cocoa butter has a lot to do with the texture and melting point of the chocolate. The main components of cocoa butter are triglycerides, and they readily form crystals which are what give chocolate its mechanical strength. As in other compounds, the molecules of triglyceride have a bunch of different options on how to arrange themselves into crystals. Type I and II crystals are soft and mechanically soft and unstable and if given the chance, will transform into denser type III and IV crystals. Type I and II crystals are mainly used to make chocolate sauces because of their low melting point. Type III and IV crystals are soft and crumbly. If you've ever left a chocolate bar in your bag and eaten it later, you'll find it's probably soft and crumbly :(. Chocolate makers want to avoid these type III and IV crystals because they don't snap, and will melt in your hand (not ideal). Unfortunately for them, they're the easiest crystals to make. Type V is the ideal crystal that you'll find in any well treated chocolate bar. It's the densest type of crystal that has a melting point of 34 degrees C which is ideal.

If type V crystals are the hardest to make, how to CHOCOLATIERS make them?

Black magic. Nah just kidding. The crystals are made in a process called tempering, where the molten (or melted??) chocolate is poured into a mold with a 'seed' of type V crystals. The chocolate solidifies onto this seed, and rapidly forms type V crystals before type III and IV even get a chance to get going.

That's it for now!

Hopefully you enjoyed this post! I'm planning to write a second post on the psychoactive components of chocolate, another interesting bit of chemistry. Don't go eating chocolate bars hoping to get a high from them, you'd have to eat 12 chocolate bars to get the same effects as just drinking a cup of coffee. You'd probably die from diabetes before you got high. Anyway.

Over and out :)

]]><![CDATA[Anodising Aluminium: The Guide I wish I had]]>Sun, 19 Aug 2018 06:59:49 GMThttps://advoscience.weebly.com/hobby/anodising-aluminiumWhat is anodising?
Aluminium reacts with the air to form a natural layer of aluminium oxide which provides it with  decent corrosion resistant surface. Anodising is the process of artificially thickening that layer for dyeing, extra gluing strength or just for increased corrosion resistance.
<-- This is what dye anodised aluminium looks like (cool hey!!)

For a chemistry experiment I'm trying to anodise aluminium

From what I'd seen on YouTube it looked quite simple. I can tell you now it isn't as easy as it looks. After 4 months of research, I think I've found out everything about how to do it and decided to share the information so it's all in one place :).

Read more for my own guide of how to anodise in the lab or at home

Method

Degreasing:
The very first step is to remove all and any grease from the surface of your aluminium. The 'quality' of the surface is very important when anodising. To do this, you can either get a commercial aluminium degreaser solution, or you can do it yourself. If you have access to a lab, then a good way to clean is to dip your aluminium piece into a non etch alkali.

What's a non etch alkali?

It's just an alkali that doesn't react with the aluminium itself. This way, it removes the trash from the surface but doesn't affect the aluminium surface.
Etching:
The naturally occurring oxide layer must be removed before anodising. To do this, the aluminium is etched in sodium hydroxide for 8 -10 minutes. The sodium hydroxide reacts with the aluminium and strips the surface ready for anodising.
Desmutting:
The surface has been stripped down by the sodium hydroxide, but some of the compounds formed in the reaction of the aluminium and sodium hydroxide are insoluble and stick to the surface. The only way to remove this is to put the piece of aluminium in a desmutting solution. These can be bought commercially online, or made in the lab. Nitric acid is a good desmutting solution. You should be able to see a big change in the appearance of the surface before and after desmutting.
Anodising:
Finally, anodising! Well I must warn you this part is also complicated. Anodising is ideally done at 20 degrees C. Even though the room temperature may be 20 C, you still have to be careful that your anodising solution doesn't go above as when the electricity runs through it, it will heat up. Your anodising solution should be 15% sulphuric acid.

What about the amps and volts?

Your amperage should ideally be 1 - 2 Amps per square decimetre of surface area. This gives you a pretty big range to play around with. The voltage range is also quite big, 12 - 24 volts. As long as you stick within those ranges you should be good.

How long?

The anodising should go for 20 - 40 minutes. This is another variable you can play around with. The lower amperage you use the longer you should run it for though. This doesn't mean that if you have a voltage that is less than 1 amp per square decimetre, that you can just run it for longer and it will be fine. No. You can't do that

​Why?

The oxygen formed on the surface of the aluminium by the electricity that builds up the oxide layer is fighting against the sulphuric acid. If the amperage is too low, the sulphuric acid will dissolve the aluminium oxide faster than the electricity creates it. Extending the time won't make any difference.
Neutralising
After your piece has been anodised for 20 - 40 minutes, there's no doubt it will be completely covered in sulphuric acid. This will continue to eat away at the surface unless you get rid of it. The easiest way is to neutralise it in a base that won't react with your piece. The easiest and most effective solution for the job is a solution of bicarb soda. If you don't neutralise the acid on the surface, it will affect the dyeing of your piece and the overall anodising finish.
Dyeing
Because of the nature of the anodised surface, your piece can be dyed quite easily. To do this you have 2 options. Either you can spend a fortune on industrial anodising dyes that are almost invincible, or your can buy (specific) fabric dyes that will dye the aluminium well, but may fade over time. I have gone the cheap route because I'm poor and used fabric dyes.

Which fabric dyes can I use?

Firstly, do not even try dylon brand dyes. They DO NOT work. There is only one line of dylon dyes that work and it's a line that basically no longer exists because no one bought it. If you do want to try it, the only one I've heard that works is the Dylon Multi-purpose dye range.
From experience, Rit dye is a very good dye for anodising. Almost every single dye in their range works well, although colours may not come out as they look on the bottle for the simple reason that they're meant for dying clothes not aluminium.
The dye should ideally be heated up to 50C to work at it's best but a lot of people (including me) don't bother.
Sealing:
The anodised surface needs to be sealed regardless of whether you've dyed it or not. I you don't seal it, it will degrade quickly and easily. The sealing process is surprisingly easy. You can either boil the part in a professional sealing liquid, or in regular water for 20 minutes to an hour. Simple as that.

And that's everything I wish I knew 5 months ago

It took me a lot of research, trial and error to find all of this out so I thought that compiling everything I have found out would hopefully help the next person who attempts to do the same.

Over and out :)

]]><![CDATA[Semiconductor Doping]]>Thu, 16 Aug 2018 12:45:37 GMThttps://advoscience.weebly.com/hobby/semiconductor-dopingWoah woah woah slow down. What even are semiconductors?
They're the materials that transistors are made from. Transistor are the little guys that power your phone and laptop, and are the little guys that sent man to the moon. If you read my previous post you'll know the interesting story of how semiconductors came about. Today however I want to talk about doping

Doping? You mean like... drug doping??

Actually, you can kind of put it that way if you want, I'll explain why but first we need to start off with the basics. Silicon bonds like this and forms a 'square' lattice.

Read more to learn about the technology behind every single one of your electronic devices...

This lattice is pretty nice and organised. All the electrons are bonded and it's all nice and organised. Shame if something were to.... completely destroy that! Along comes Antimony (Sb). Or for that matter, any other element with 1 more valence (outer shell) electron than Silicon like phosphorous. The antimony atoms manage to replace some silicon atoms in this lattice. When they bond though, there is 1 spare electron and like in graphite, this electron is loose and free to roam around.

This addition of impurities into the lattice is called doping

This particular doping of silicon is called n type doping, the n standing for negative, and negative because the dopant (impurity you added) gives extra electrons to the material.

Cool... uh, is that it??

Nope! You can also p dope or positive dope silicon too. Instead of adding an element with 1 extra valence electron than silicon, you add an element with 1 less valence electron than silicon. This is usually boron. Doing this means that there is 1 less electron and this forms a theoretical 'electron hole', a spot where an electron is missing.
This lack of electrons, or 'excess' of electron holes puts a positive charge on the material, hence it is p doped silicon.

Awesome! What can you use it for?

Well as I said before you can use it to make transistors, these guys.

WHat's so cool about them?

They can do 2 different things. They can act as a switch and as an amplifier. It takes a really small current at one end (the base) and produces a much bigger electric current from it (through the collector and emitter). Transistors use the same mechanism to work as a switch, a small current flowing to one end of the transistor produces a big current from another end of the transistor.

Why is that so important?

A transistor can either be on; with a current running through them, or off; without current running through them. This means they can store 2 numbers; 1 and 0. This is the basis of all modern computing, ones and zeros. Binary code. Everything is powered by these little doped semiconductor sandwiches.

Hope you found this post interesting!

Over and out :)

]]><![CDATA[how were semiconductors invented?]]>Wed, 15 Aug 2018 11:43:34 GMThttps://advoscience.weebly.com/hobby/how-were-semiconductors-inventedBut firstly, what even are they?
Semiconductors are basically a class of materials that have a level of conductivity between conductors and insulators, hence the name. They form the core of most modern electronics, including transistors which are 'powering' the device you're looking at this article on.
Picture

Read more for the whole story...

How did they arise?

This is another interesting story that came from a book called The Disappearing Spoon which I recommended you read in a previous post. The modern semiconductor based electronics arose in 1945 at Bell Labs in the US. A man named William Shockley was trying to build a silicon amplifier to replace the vacuum tube in computers. Vacuum tubes were fragile, hard to work with and prone to overheating. Even though the vacuum tubes were incredibly annoying, engineers needed them in computers because nothing else could do the double job of amplifying weak electronic signals, and acted as a diode, a one way valve for electricity to pass through.

Shockley knew that semiconductors were the way forward, but after 2 years of work, frustrated, he dumped the project onto two younger scientists, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. Bardeen and Brattain were best friends and a perfect match, Bardeen was the brains and Brattain was the hands of the joint. They immediately decided that Silicon was far to brittle and hard to purify to make an amplifier. They finished building the world's first solid state amplifier, from germanium, in 1947.

​Shockley, who was in Paris at the time, was jealous. He quickly rushed back to Bell Labs to wedge himself into the world of transistor technology. When pictures were taken, Shockley pushed himself between Bardeen and Brattain. Later, he fired Bardeen to take over work on the transistor. Brattain later quit the job. 

SO, why do we have silicon and not germanium semiconductors today?

As the semiconductor industry boomed engineers kept trying to develop silicon semiconductors. Why? Even though germanium conducts electricity better than silicon, it also generates a lot of unwanted heat which caused germanium semiconductors to stall when they overheated. More importantly, silicon is the second most common element on earth behind oxygen, and is incredibly cheap.

At a semiconductor meeting that same year while scientists were discussing the unfeasibility of silicon semiconductors, a cheeky engineer from texas instruments stood up and announced to the crowd that he had one in his pocket. He gave the crowd an incredible demonstration. He took out a germanium transistor run record player and put a record in it. When it was playing he lowered it into a vat of boiling oil. As expected, the germanium transistor overheated and spluttered out. He then replaced the transistor with the silicon one from his pocket. This time when he lowered the record player into the boiling oil, the music continued playing.

In The end, bardeen, brattain and shockley all won the nobel prize in 1956 for their contributions

]]><![CDATA[Blood Moon 27/07]]>Fri, 03 Aug 2018 20:36:45 GMThttps://advoscience.weebly.com/hobby/blood-moon-2707What the heck is a blood moon, sounds dangerous...
It's just a cool name for a lunar eclipse. Why blood moon you ask? Because during a lunar eclipse the moon goes a dark shade of red, which I suppose you could call blood red.

Spooky... But what's a lunar eclipse?

Well usually, the moon is being shone on by the sun, which makes the moon a bright white.

Woah woah woah,  but if the sun is shining on the moon when why isn't the whole thing white?

Because the moon goes around the earth which goes around the sun, it's quite difficult and rare (ish) to get the entire moon shining white. Here's why.
Picture
We see the moon when the sun is shining on it. The sun shines on only 1 side of the moon at a time because it's physically impossible any other way. Depending on the positions of the earth, moon and sun at a certain time, we see different amounts of the moon shining white at different times as shown in the diagram above.

Cool! But you still haven't told me, what is a blood moon and how does it work? (and I still haven't found what I'm looking for.. <-- Credits to U2)

Ok ok. Well a blood moon is when the earth comes directly between the moon and the sun so no light can shine on it. This is quite rare because of how far away the earth is from the sun. For a blood moon to occur, the moon must be in the earth's shadow, which is a very small area of the sky. The earth's shadow is called the umbra.
Picture

I see.... But what's the penumbra?

It's the area where only some of the light is blocked, and the moon appears a little dimmer than normal. But it's not as interesting as the umbra so I'll move on.

So, what was so special about this eclipse?

Well for starters it was a total eclipse and not a partial eclipse. This basically means that the entire moon went red and not just a little slice. Then compounded on top of this rarity was the fact that this eclipse occured when the moon was very far away from the earth. This meant that this eclipse was the longest eclipse of this century. Cool hey!

I was very lucky to see it!

I watched it from Amsterdam, where the moon was barely above the horizon when the eclipse started. This meant that I missed the beginning of the eclipse because it was obscured by trees and buildings so I couldn't see it. grr. But as the eclipse progressed the moon rose above the trees and I was able to see the maximum of the eclipse and the ending of the eclipse. Unfortunately though, I only had my phone on me so the pictures aren't that good.

Here's a better photo taken by someone with a better camera

Picture
The lunar eclipse was one of the coolest things I've ever seen, I highly suggest you try to see one. Check this website to see when you can see the next one in your country!

That's All for now, hope you found this post interesting :)

Over and Out :)

PS: Feel free to comment or send me any cool pictures you got of the eclipse :P

]]><![CDATA[Graphene]]>Sat, 09 Jun 2018 16:00:00 GMThttps://advoscience.weebly.com/hobby/grapheneI used to wonder, what can we even use graphene for? A sheet of carbon only an atom thick, what use is it if it's so small? But actually I'm starting to realise it's possible applications. I watched a video on carbon nanotubes and just when I thought there were no more surprises, I find that rolling carbon nanotubes up in different ways gives you different electrical conductivities! Just by changing the rolling a little bit, you can create a semiconductor, a metal or a half metal!
Picture

This makes me super excited!!!
I'm so excited! And I just can't hide it!
Hehe. Back to my point, this is very exciting! This means that from 1 element we can make conductors, semiconductors, and half metals!

Wait, what on earth is a half metal?

Now this is something that's super cool. A half-metal is any substance that acts as a conductor to electrons of one spin orientation, but as an insulator or semiconductor to those of the opposite orientation.

Just one problem, Graphene isn't magnetic :(

But maybe we can make it magnetic? Well here's where I get super excited again! If you add hydrogen to the graphene lattice it makes it magnetic! Here, just watch the video!

makes me wonder, Maybe in 50 years we won't be complaining about limited oil resources, we'll be worrying over limited carbon resources. Graphene and Carbon Nanotubes are pretty promising

Over and out :)

]]><![CDATA[Realisation]]>Sat, 09 Jun 2018 02:33:33 GMThttps://advoscience.weebly.com/hobby/realisationI've been thinking a lot about plastic recently
Sounds weird but I'm starting to realise how big of a problem plastic is. It started when I scrolled through my twitter feed and saw the following from New Scientist
One third of all plastic in the open ocean comes from microfibres shed from washing our clothes
This really amazed me. Whenever I think of plastic in the oceans I think of plastic bags and bottles, but I had never thought about microplastics. They must be incredibly hard to remove. Sure, you could run a really fine filter through sea water but then you'd catch everything else too like the plankton and other natural components of the ocean. So how can you remove such small plastic particles?

And then there's bottles.

Reusable plastic bottles. Seems like an easy fix. Use a reusable one. But that reusable bottle is still plastic too! When it breaks it still ends up in a landfill or an ocean. So use a metal one. This is where another tweet, again from New Scientist, really blew my mind
You'd need to use a steel water bottle 500 times for it to be better than a plastic one
I had always thought metal was the answer, but I'd never stopped to really think about it, but now it seems almost obvious. The amount of energy that goes into extracting metals from their ores is huge. Take iron, you need to extract the iron ore out of the ground which takes tremendous amounts of energy, then try and purify the ore, and then put it into a blast furnace to make the pure iron, which uses tons and tons of coal/coke which gives off tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide
Plastic bags are used for 12 minutes on average, then stay on the earth for almost 500 years

It's not as easy as it seems

How would you remove plastics? Drag a massive net through the ocean? That would take out all the animals too, and a lot of plastic is no longer just on the surface, quite a bit of it has sunk down to the sea bed too.

Food for thought

Over and out :/

]]><![CDATA[Dipping your fingers into Sodium Hydroxide]]>Fri, 08 Jun 2018 13:36:09 GMThttps://advoscience.weebly.com/hobby/dipping-your-fingers-into-sodium-hydroxideI did it :0
Curiosity is a bad bad thing sometimes. When I dipped my fingers into the hydroxide it became slimy and I realised that the hydroxide was literally reacting with the fats in my skin and making soap.

Huh?

An oil (triglyceride) will react with a strong base to form a soap, in a saponification reaction. It's quite an interesting area actually. The triglyceride breaks up into a glycerol and 3 fatty acid molecules, the negative fatty acid molecules then ionically bond with the Na+ from the base.
Another interesting thing I learnt (from an amazing book called Napoleon's Buttons), is that different bases make hard and soft soaps which is cool. Potassium soaps are hard and Sodium soaps are soft. I don't know why that's the case but I intend to find out! :0

I know, i know this is super random but i thought it was interesting

Over and out :)

]]><![CDATA[Best books to read and series to watch if you love science (like me)]]>Sun, 03 Jun 2018 05:26:58 GMThttps://advoscience.weebly.com/hobby/best-books-to-read-and-series-to-watch-if-you-love-science-like-meI'm always on the lookout for scientific content.
That's just the way I am, but it took me a while to find the best books, series, documentaries and more. Now, I'm going to share what I've found to be the best of the best in terms of interesting science stuff! Hope you agree!

BOOKS!

Don't hate on books guys, they're pretty amazing sources of information.

NAPOLEON'S buttons

This is one of the best books I've ever read. It mixes Chemistry and History in a way I never thought was possible. I've never enjoyed History, and was reluctant to read this book when I first bought it but trust me on this, it's well worth it. The chapters tell the story of lots and lots of different molecules in a easily readable way. It was absolutely mind blowing to read (and see!) how tiny differences in the structures of molecules could so drastically change how the molecule acts! This book is written so almost anyone with a basic knowledge of chemistry can understand it.

RATING - 10/10                   AGE - 15 AND UP

Seven brief lessons on physics

This is a book that you can definitely judge by its cover, it's a really beautifully made book. This book is very thin and small but it contains some very interesting and beautifully written paragraphs about physics. This book is not quite as accessible as others, you will need a little prior knowledge of Einstein's theories and general physics but it is definitely worth it. I highly recommend this book to anyone who finds the mysteries of physics interesting. My only problem with this book is that it's too short. But if you like physics or just science generally then it's definately worth it.

RATING - 9/10                   AGE - 16 AND UP

The DISAPPEARING spoon

Never could I have possibly thought the periodic table was so interesting until I read this book. In this book, Kean writes about each and every element's story in an incredibly interesting way. The best thing about this book is that it doesn't go through the periodic table in order, it instead is written in a way that flows from one element to another seamlessly. This book is very accessible to anyone and everyone, and isn't hard to read at all. I really love how it's written in a way that allows 13 year olds and up to read it, but still makes it interesting enough for older people to read too. Overall, just another amazing book. Worth every penny.

RATING - 10/10                   AGE - 13 AND UP

Stuff matters

Another incredible book. This book is all about materials science. Reading this book makes you realise the huge role of materials in our everyday lives! Miodownik explains the molecular reasons for the properties of materials, how they're made and how they were discovered. This is an incredibly interesting book and I really really really suggest you read it if you like Engineering, Physics or Chemistry, although you can of course read it if you like Biology :). This book is very well written and is accessible to everyone.

RATING - 10/10                   AGE - 14 AND UP

Series and documentaries

Another amazing place to find information. Also an excuse so your parents let you watch TV.

Genius Season 1 - Albert Einstein

A truly amazing series. It could actually qualify as a drama series. This series is all about Einstein's life and work. The thing about this series is that it's not just a bland explanation of his work and theories, it also incorporates his personal life too. This series is very accessible to anyone, and you don't need to know much at all about his work to be able to watch this series. This series is available on National Geographic and on DVD. For me (being a nerd) I wish this series was a bit more about his work and (a little) less about his personal life

RATING - 9/10                   AGE - 14 AND UP

Everyday Miracles - BBC

Yep! This series is by the same guy who wrote Stuff Matters. It's a really interesting series about material science, and the materials that shape our world today. There is only a small overlap with the book so I 100% suggest you check it out! My only problem with this series is there are only 2 episodes.

RATING - 9/10                   AGE - 13 AND UP

Inside Einstein's mind - NOVA
NOVA is an amazing place for science documentaries and series. Inside Einstein's Mind is a documentary about how Einstein thought of and proved his theories. I highly suggest it for keen physicists, but of course if you love science then you can also watch it. You will need some prior knowledge of Einstein's theories to watch it, but it is still a very easy to understand series.

RATING - 10/10                   AGE - 15 AND UP

Youtube Channels

Who doesn't love YouTube?
A great channel for anyone who loves Chemistry (me). NileRed makes lots of cool chemicals from chemicals that are readily available at a pharmacy or supermarket. He also does an Edible Chem series where he makes chemicals used in food and tries them. This channel is my personal favourite.

RATING - 10/10                   AGE - 15 AND UP

MinutePhysics

MinutePhysics is the perfect channel for anyone who loves physics (duh). MinutePhysics often uploads videos on interesting topics in physics like particle physics, quantum physics and relativity as well as many more. His videos are generally very easy to understand with little prior knowledge required.

RATING - 10/10                   AGE - 14 AND UP

Veritasium

This channel is guaranteed to spark curiosity (I can vouch for that). Veritasium often uploads videos about concepts and laws in physics. My favourite videos from him are his videos on transistors and magnetism. Incredibly interesting. I strongly suggest you check out his channel!

RATING - 10/10                   AGE - 14 AND UP

That's it for now!

I'll keep updating this with more stuff as I discover it. Let me know if you have any suggestions of good books to read, series and documentaries to watch or youtube channels to subscribe to!

over and out :)

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