chemistry in the briny deep ... sort of

When I was a graduate student I simplified a synthetic route and foolishly included an interesting conjugate addition of a cuprate. Eventually I got the details worked out, but spent quite a bit of time learning the intricacies of the voodoo that is copper chemistry. Ever since then I've read Bruce Lipshutz papers when they pop up. He has always seemed to do interesting chemistry, whether mundane or exotic, and does a halfway decent job of explaining the practical aspects of the methods.

Nothing pisses me off like some fucker publishing an incredibly skewed "new" method, that is just a rehash of someone else's work, and a quick perusal shows it is just a series of incredibly loaded substrates with no real utility.

So today I was in the midst of catching up on my reading that has piled up over the last few days, and there is a Lipshutz paper in the Org Let ASAPs for 12-23-08. It's basically about a surfactant type ligand for RCM catalysts, something I would have normally blown right by, but since it's Bruce I figured I would check it out. Nothing really struck me until I got to this:

Seawater? Hells yeah!

This has to be the stupidest/most awesome thing I've seen in a paper in a while. I can only imagine what the discussions leading up to that reaction involved.

This reaction works so well that I don't even need HPLC water, tap water works!
Screw tap water, try it in that dirty muck-filled bowl you jokingly refer to as a coffee cup.
Better yet how about in a can of Coke or a beer?

Eventually settling on something that is only just outside the line of reason.

It reminded me of a joke a long time ago between me and some post docs in the group about quenching reactions with pee. If you actually did it, how would you write it up properly? What sort of comments would acccompany the standard notebook boilerplate? "Next time clamp chair" or perhaps "I can't quench it when you're watching"?

Texas is big, real big

I just found out that there is a Texas A & M in Doha, Qatar. I suppose it makes sense that strong american programs want to expand to magnet areas like Education City, but it just seems odd to me that a state school, with its parent state as part of it's name no less, is in another country.

the Palin goodness just won't stop

The GOP should just come right out and sell her as both hotter and less evil than Cheney, and stop trying to actually make her seem like a good candidate on her own talents.

Package Of Bacon Forces Evacuation

Could anything possibly be as bad ass as this headline? I think not.

Oddly enough this pork related attack had nothing directly to do with vegans, Jewish people, Muslims, or any other swinophobes.

the delicious offender being removed by a properly trained professional

Apparently the representative who's office was attacked with nitrated goodness, has some constituents who feel signing the $700 billion bailout is pork barrel spending. Interesting because a spokeswoman said "... he (Boehner) has spent his career fighting pork barrel spending.".

And the best part: no injuries were reported.

politics 3: Sarah Palin with a vengeance

Apparently Governor Palin has some fans and enemies out there. Who knew?

Here is a lovingly crafted depiction of her devotion to our great country and its freedoms:

all she needs is a can of light beer to complete her ensemble

And here are some fun factoids from Rolling Stone magazine.

I have no idea of the veracity of the claims, but I love the fact that they have political commentary at all. Sort of like looking for the hottest new jams in the Wall Street Journal. I suppose it should be "teh hawtest nu jamz", or some such thing, actually.

miracles of modern science

I just read an article that came out in nature a few months back, that is so intriguing I had to share. I unceremoniously ripped it off and have it here for your viewing pleasure.

Nature, 2008, 453, 267

There are so many wonderful things in this teeny article it's hard to know where to start! In ongoing research to reduce the failure rate of condoms, which seems hover at the 1% mark, a team developed a testing device to more closely mimic real world conditions. The novel machination's aptly named 'thrust-hole' is adjustable to, presumably, mimic the differential in opening aperture one might encounter with differing partners and/or orifices.

To determine the type of failure that was in need of alleviation 972 condoms with breaks that had been returned to the company were examined. What a fun job, isn't science neat?

Politics - Part 2

This is the funniest thing I have seen in quite a while.