This past week our department celebrated National Chemistry Week. Mole Day was on Wednesday October 23 (10/23) as usual and those who woke up early were able to celebrate at 6:02 AM as well as 6:02 PM. Professor Rizk’s upper-level biochemistry lecture went outside to illustrate just how large is Avogadro’s number (nearly one trillion trillion) which tells how many units are in one mole of a substance. A tablespoon (14.8 mL) of water is about one mole of water. This means that there are close to one trillion trillion water molecules held in that tablespoon. The tablespoon itself (around 300 g) would be about 3 moles of silver - or nearly 3 trillion trillion silver atoms if it were made of pure silver.
On Friday at noon, the newest faculty member of our department gave the second talk in this year’s Dean’s Seminar Series. Professor Clear’s talk was titled Approaches and Application for Synthetic Lipid Receptors and he gave the audience an introduction to the goals and methods of his past and planned research. Although Clear is pressed for time in his first semester with a new teaching load and advising responsibilities, he has already attracted students to his research in his organic chemistry group. In the evening, the faculty and some students officially welcomed Clear to the university with a dinner party at LangLab.
National Chemistry Week ended with hands-on mini-experiments for kids on Saturday at the River Park Branch Public Library. Students from the IUSB Biology and Chemistry Club once again volunteered their valuable time to foster scientific interest in the younger generation.
National Chemistry Week ended with hands-on mini-experiments for kids on Saturday at the River Park Branch Public Library. Students from the IUSB Biology and Chemistry Club once again volunteered their valuable time to foster scientific interest in the younger generation.
