Natural Science Forum / Chemistry / General Chemistry / October 2004

I was just talking to a friend about eating sodium metal (which I got the idea
from here) and he said when he was a high school student a friend of his
swallowed an aluminum-coated Sodium tablet. A couple of minutes later he held a
lighted match in front of his mouth and burped a ...

My name is Marco Bouwkamp and I am a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell
University. At the moment, I am looking for funding opportunities for a
second year, but I run into the following problem: most of the US grants
are for US citizens only (and I am Dutch), and most of the European ...

When two thiols oxidize to form a disulfide:
R-SH + R'-SH ---> R-S-S-R' + 2H+ + 2e-
should one expects this to be favoured at alkaline pH because H+ are
released?  I haven't been able to find any info on the chemical mechanism

any ideas, what it may be? msds is not revealing too much...

At what temperature will naphthenic oil turn to coke? At what
temperature will paraffinic hydrocarbon oil turn to coke? I do not
want this to happen to my oils, and is there a source I can quote the
temperatures from? Thank you.

I need to build a lab scale trickle filter bed to model a larger
system.  I want to find out how I can calculate how large the model
needs to be so that the wall effects don't alter the way the water
flows too much.

Does anyone know any natural chemicals that cause hunger? Is there any way to
ingest these chemicals by mouth or injection, thus being able to eat alot when
going to parties or all-you-can-eat dinners? That would be cool.

I tried to create a new weapon of mass destruction but the Radon atoms
got angry when I tried to mate them with Promethium atoms and now they
are chasing me...
What can I do now?

I am looking for information about recommended storage times for
different crude oils.
The general idea is our refinery is switching to heavier crude oil
stocks, like it is happening at present in a large number of

If you want shitty teachers in science, spend $23,000 a year
to go to Widener University in Pennsylvania. So long as the professors
are Jews, the Administration loves them. The fact that they are
the worst teachers around doesn't seem to matter. The Administration

I'm new to the group, but I have a question.  I've been charged with
the task (as part of a course)of determining how the oxidation and
reduction potentials for compounds with the general formula CnH2n vary
as a function of the length of the attached chain.  My initial plan for

*** Any assistance in research would be considered.
New polymer (poly-nitrosyl-acetylene) is designed to use in solid
state battery which would have up to 2000 Wh/kg energy storage
capacity with metals such as Li , Mg , Al ,...

Black powder is used as a propellant for bullets, as well as for
fireworks and rocketry. Use these instructions for science, not
practical application!
Difficulty: N/A

Dear Mr. Farooq,
I've enjoyed reading your posts on sci.chem.. You are an enlightened
individual. I am glad to discover a critically minded scientist living
in what I consider a dictatorship. You are from Pakistan correct? You

Next time when no one is looking, blow-dry the drain hole on the sink in a
public restroom. Make sure you do a damn good job at doing so!! Then shove as
much sodium metal as you can get into the drain, and run!