Kasey Clear inspires some future chemists!

On Wednesday, organic chemistry professor Kasey Clear led activities for a group of elementary students to engage them in chemistry.  This was conducted at the Center for Civic Innovation, right across from our Center for Civil Heritage in downtown South Bend. Clear used dry ice to increase the carbon dioxide content in water, thus acidifying it, which the children could observe from the color change of a pH indicator - after having used the indicator themselves to test the pH of common items in the home. For more information on the Center for Civic Innovation please click on the link below. The two pictures shown above were taken from the Center's Facebook page which is also listed below.

Center for Civic Innovation (main web site)

Facebook page: Educational Programs at the ND Center for Civic Innovation (Facebook page)

Crocheted protein structures

Ilona Lehman, a pre-nursing major in Dr. Marmorino's second-semester chemistry course (C102), was inspired by the beautiful images of proteins in the textbook and class to crochet examples of the four levels of protein structure.  Thank you so much for these lovely and creative illustrations!

Top image: Primary structure is the sequence of amino acids in a polypeptide chain. Each blue knot represents an amino acid linked to the next by a peptide bond.  

Middle image: Secondary structure is the local folding of the polypeptide chain into regular structures such as the alpha helix illustrated by the twirling dark pink yarn and the beta-pleated sheet illustrated by the zig-zagging light pink yarn. In both cases, hydrogen bonding (in white) stabilizes these local structures.

Bottom left image: Tertiary structure is the overall three-dimensional shape of a single polypeptide chain shown here with dark pink alpha helices, dark blue sheets, and cyan random coils.

Bottom right image: Quaternary structure describes how multiple polypeptides interact to form a single protein. The example shown here is hemoglobin with four subunits (folded chains) each given a different color. Hemoglobin carries oxygen in our red blood cells from the lungs to the tissues - one oxygen molecule for each subunit.