• Week 10
  1. Examine your own immediate environment for diversity of species - Mushrooms in the Market

  Shiitake Shiitake are one the most popular mushrooms in Japanese cooking, and are also well known outside of Japan. They are available fresh or dried, with the latter being soaked in water before being used. Shiitake mushrooms can be found in various dishes such as nabe (hot pot) dishes, boiled dishes and tempura.

  Maitake Maitake mushrooms are another very popular mushroom in Japanese cuisine. They grow in large colonies and are sometimes referred to as the king of mushrooms.

  Bunashimeji Bunashimeji is another very popular, cultivated mushroom.

  Matsutake Matsutake are highly priced gourmet mushrooms, that cannot be cultivated and are available only in autumn. They are found under pine trees (matsu), and are most valuable when picked just before surfacing with the umbrella still closed. Matsutake are enjoyed in various ways such as grilled or cooked with rice.

  Nametake/Enoki Even though they look differently, nametake and enoki are actually the same mushroom. The yellow nametake is the wild version and a popular ingredient for miso soups and noodle dishes, while the white Enoki is the cultivated version and is often found in hot pot dishes.

  Hiratake Hiratake is the Japanese name for oyster mushrooms. There are many cultivated varieties of hiratake, some of which look quite differently from each other. Eringi is a popular example of a cultivated hiratake.

• 2. The virtual cell structure : The virtual cell structure was almost like an orchestra including many musicians playing in harmony

Week Six

1. Halogen of the week - Flourine

Fluorine is the chemical element atomic number 9 represented by the symbol F.

Fluorine forms a single bond with itself in elemental form, resulting in the diatomic F2 molecule.

F2 is a supremely reactive, poisonous , pale, yellowish brown gas.

Elemental fluorine is the most chemically reactive and electronegative of all the elements.

It will readily "burn" hydrocarbons at room temperature, in contrast to the combustion of hydrocarbons by oxygen , which requires an input of energy with a spark. Therefore, molecular fluorine is highly dangerous, more so than other halogens such as the poisonous chlorine gas.

Drugs are often fluorinated at biologically reactive positions, to prevent their metabolism and prolong their half-lives.

2. Alchemy - science, magic , art or all three? All three :*) It is very similar to see how magicians artists, and scientist add and conduct their alchemy. A little of this a little of that magicians may just be hiding their hands or another middle process while they do and artist may be doing by adding other substances or eliminating pieces from a chunk. However, they all meet the ancient meaning of 'Alchemy ' - the yearning to make something different than it was before.

Week nine

Assignments for Week Nine - The Chemistry of Life

• The ethics of “gene therapy”

I have strong dislikes of anything that is manipulated when it comes to gene. I believe whatever happens to the gene. The most natural way is to let it be. However, if it helps the ones to recover from severe diseases. I am with the opinion that it should be promoted.

• Animation of General, Organic and Biochemistry

I picked several ones but the one about Lipids was interesting. There were so many names we meet everywhere these days - books, magazines, journals...... such as fatty acids and that they are divided in saturated and unsaturated , oleic and linoleic acid, prostaglandins, explained why the prolonged use of aspirin is inhibited to those who have stomach ulcers, that waxes are an ester of a fatty acid and a long chain of alcohol, that sphingolipids are not derived from fat and the nerve tissue is made of this especially the myelin sheath, also that in people 25 % of all the lipids are sphingolipids. The

LDL effect of gene coding that allows too much cholesterol to the plasma and that the excess cholesterol gets accumulated on the arteries resulting in atherosclerosis

• Definitions of the “Chemistry of Life”

- I like the definition below the most. " bridge between biology and chemistry that studies how complex chemical reactions give rise to life. "

Week Seven

1. Alkali Earth Metal of the Week : Magnesium

the symbol is Mg, the atomic number is 12 and the common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust, where it constitutes about 2% by mass , and ninth in the known Universe as a whole. This preponderance of magnesium is related to the fact that it is easily built up in supernova stars from a sequential addition of three helium nuclei to carbon (which in turn is made from three helium nuclei). Magnesium ion's high solubility in water helps ensure that it is the third most abundant element dissolved in seawater.

Magnesium is the 11th most abundant element by mass in the human body; its ions are essential to all living cells, where they play a major role in manipulating important biological polyphosphate compounds like ATP, DNA, and RNA. Hundreds of enzymes thus require magnesium ions in order to function. Magnesium is also the metallic ion , and is thus a common additive to fertilizers. Magnesium compounds are used medicinally as common laxatives, antacids (i.e., milk of magnesia ), and in a number of situations where stabilization of abnormal nerve excitation and blood vessel spasm is required (i.e., to treat ecamplasia ). Magnesium ions are sour to the taste, and in low concentrations help to impart a natural tartness to fresh mineral waters.

2. Avogadro's hypothesis

It's amazing how Avogadro discovered that the equal volumes of gas , at the same pressure and temperature , include the equal numbers of molecules is amazing. Moreover it is amazing that it took fifty years before Avogadro's work was recognized. It was also surprising that Avogadro made the distinction between atoms and molecules and again was pushed into the dark recesses of chemistry libraries and ignored.

3. What is a mole ? the amount of substance of a system that contains as many elementary entities such as atoms, molecules, ions and electrons.

Week Eight

1. Semiconductor of the week : Silicon

A semiconductor is a material that has an electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator, that is, generally in the range 10³ siemens per centimeter to 10⁻⁸S/cm. Devices made from semiconductor materials are the foundation of modern electronics, including radio, computers, telephones, and many other devices. Semiconductor devices include the various types of transistor, solar cells, many kinds of diodes including the light-emitting diode, the silicon controlled rectifier, and digital and analog integrated circuits. Solar photovoltaic panels are large semiconductor devices that directly convert light energy into electrical energy. An external electrical field may change a semiconductor's resistivity. In a metallic conductor, current is carried by the flow of electrons. In semiconductors, current can be carried either by the flow of electrons or by the flow of positively-charged "holes" in the electron structure of the material.

Common semiconducting materials are crystalline solids but amorphous and liquid semiconductors are known, such as mixtures of arsenic, selenium and tellurium in a variety of proportions. They share with better known semiconductors intermediate conductivity and a rapid variation of conductivity with temperature but lack the rigid crystalline structure of conventional semiconductors such as silicon and so are relatively insensitive to impurities and radiation damage.

the symbol is Si and atomic number is 14. Silicon is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon. As the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, silicon very rarely occurs as the pure free element in nature, but is more widely distributed in dusts, planetoids and planets as various forms of silicon dioxide (silica) or silicates. In Earth's crust, silicon is the second most abundant element after oxygen , making up 25.7% of the crust by mass.

Silicon has many industrial uses. It is the principal component of most semiconductor devices, most importantly intergrated curcuits ormicrochips. Silicon is widely used in semiconductors because it remains a semiconductor at higher temperatures than the semiconductor germanium and because its native oxide is easily grown in a furnace and forms a better semiconductor/dielectric interface than any other material.

In the form of silica and silicates, silicon forms useful glasses, cements, and ceramics. It is also a constituent of silicones, a class-name for various synthetic plastic substances made of silicon, oxygen, carbon and hydrogen, often confused with silicon itself.

2. General Chemistry - Balancing equations tutorial : Very lovely and good for newbies :)

3. The Chembalancer

Thank you Chembalancer for reminding how a lot of we are talking about and popping up cool tips like 'Silicon caulk is used to seal around the bathtub and sink to prevent leaks' :)

Week Five

1. Inert (Noble) gas of the week : Helium

• Atomic number : 2
• Symbol : He
• Atomic mass : 4.0026
• Colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inertmonatomic gas
• Boiling and melting points are the lowest among the elements
• exists only as a gas except in extreme conditions.
• Next to hydrogen , it is the second most abundant element in universe, and accounts for 24% of the elemental mass of our galaxy.

2. The colors in my own kitchen

Green - Broccoli , cabbage , celery

Blue - Blueberries

Red - Raspberries, Strawberries

Yellow - Lemons

Purple - Purple onions

Brown - Korean and Japanese Miso

White - Natural Vanilla Greek Yoghurt

3. Reading the " Colors of the minerals "

It was very interesting that to discover that to a novice observer color is not a good property but more of a confusion in identifying minerals !

Also, the fact that the atomic bond is the culprit of absorbing and emitting wavelengths and therefore making the mineral show the certain color it is.

Discussion Question: Just how close are we to a Green Economy?

Above is a diagram of the pillars of Sustainable Energy

Just how close are we to a Green Economy ? We have a long way to go, that's for sure. However, we are in that direction and that mere fact is good news. There is a more collected public opinion that we want to be green and the companies we buy products to be more green too. Therefore, companies are initiating in investing in green technologies they wouldn't start because of the initial cost and trying to reduce waste. We may not be close now but if we are heading in this direction we are getting there. Keep it up !!!