The BBC TV quiz series Mastermind was first broadcast in the UK in 1972, the same time I was starting to investigate the mechanism of diazocoupling to substituted indoles as part of my Ph.D. researches. The BBC program became known for the catch phrase I've started so I'll finish; here I will try to follow this precept with the project I started then.

You might have noticed the occasional reference here to the upcoming centenary of the publication of Gilbert N. Lewis’ famous article entitled “ The atom and the molecule “.[cite]10.1021/ja02261a002[/cite] A symposium exploring his scientific impact and legacy will be held in London on March 23, 2016, exactly 70 years to the day since his death. A list of the speakers and their titles is shown below;

The layout of floor 2 of the chemistry department here contains a number of small rooms which function as tutorial areas. Each has a (non-interactive) whiteboard used by students and tutors for, inter-alia , thought-showering. It was in one such room that I found myself with three colleagues this monday afternoon. We soon all sensed something not quite right about the room;

In answering tutorial problems, students often need skills in deciding how much time to spend on explaining what does not happen, as well as what does. Here I explore alternatives to the mechanism outlined in the previous post to see what computation has to say about what does (or might) not happen.

This reaction emerged a few years ago (thanks Alan!) as a tutorial problem in organic chemistry, in which students had to devise a mechanism for the reaction and use this to predict the stereochemical outcome at the two chiral centres indicated with *.  It originates in a brief report from R. B. Woodward’s group in 1973 describing a prostaglandin synthesis,[cite]10.1021/ja00801a066[/cite] the stereochemical outcome being crucial.

Steve Bachrach on his own blog has commented on a recent article[cite]10.1002/anie.201505934[/cite] discussing the structure of the trimer of fluoroethanol. Rather than the expected triangular form with three OH—O hydrogen bonds, the lowest energy form only had two such bonds, but it matched the microwave data much better. Here I explore this a bit more.

In Jingdezhen an Imperial Kiln was built in 1369 to produce porcelain that was “white as jade, thin as paper, bright as a mirror and tuneful as a bell”. It’s the colours of the glazes that caught my eye, achieved by a combination of oxidative and reductive firing in the kiln, coupled with exquisite control of the temperature.

This comes to you from China, and the city of Suzhou. To set the scene, cities in China have a lot of motorbikes. Electric ones. With their own speed units, a % of Panda speed. Msny msny people ride bikes such as these; some even manage three passengers, or several boxes of shopping. And the streets will have dedicated lanes for them, although you do need eyes in the back of your head to spot their silent (often 15 kph) approach.

A fascinating re-examination has appeared[cite]10.1002/anie.201505482[/cite] of a reaction first published[cite]10.1002/ange.19600721210[/cite] in 1960 by Wittig and then[cite]10.1002/jlac.19646790106[/cite] repudiated by him in 1964 since it could not be replicated by a later student.

How does an anaesthetic work?