9/24/2012 - Amygdalin

I thought I would have had time to post some reactions but being back at school, combined with my handicap only leaves me exhausted, tired, and sore once I get home.  But here I present the molecule Amygdalin.  I am currently reading this spectacular book Guns, Germs, and Steel (I definitely recommend it), which is about the evolution of civilization and why different civilizations grew to dominate over others.  The author Jared Diamond talks about how crops were domesticated and noted that wild almonds are toxic, so I decided to investigate what the toxic component was.  And that brought me to this molecule.  The metabolism of this molecule releases that Cyanide group, creating HCN, making it very toxic to humans.  This has been used in a number of cancer treatments, and subsequently derived into other molecules to enhance the effect.

Starting a New Semester

I'm starting my last semester (the semester that should have been last year but unfortunately some idiot drove his mini van into me) tomorrow.  I'm very excited to finally finish this very prolonged degree, but it is also stressful in a way because I really can't choose between going to grad school or going into industry straight off (where before it was grad school, grad school, grad school), either way I am aiming on going into the Cosmetics industry. This website here has really inspired me into learning more and more about cosmetics and the chemistry behind it. For my last semester I am taking Natural Synthesis (chemistry of natural chemical reactions), Bio-inorganic chemistry, and Food Chemistry.  So expect many future posts to be related to these topics.

9/2/2012 - Cleaning Glue Goop

Recently I decided to take off a sticker that I applied to my laptop a while ago, but unfortunately it left a pretty icky residue that I couldn't seem to remove.  So my girlfriend suggested that I buy Glue Gone, but me being me I decided it would be a good idea to investigate what exactly Glue Gone is.  It came apparent that it was made of various natural oils (particularly citrus oils) and works by the means of dissolving the bonds that the adhesive has made to the surface.  This leaves the goop floating on a thin layer of oil and now easy to remove.  So in my ecstatic excitement of learning something new I decided to try and remove the adhesive with olive oil with a tiny drop of lemon juice.  This method worked wonders in it's efficiency as I was finished cleaning in under a minute. So for all of those DIY cleaning products people out there, here is your technique for cleaning residual adhesive.