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Proton Bank In Crisis: Fate of Mechanisms Uncertain

Proton Bank In Crisis: Fate of Mechanisms Uncertain

April 1, 2013

NICOSIA, Cyprus – The banking crisis in Cyprus deepened over the weekend, as the Proton Bank, a lender with 31 branches in Greece and Cyprus, announced that it was  on the brink of insolvency. After poring over the bank’s ledgers this weekend, European regulators concluded that the bank’s accounts are hopelessly out of balance. Exasperated [...]

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Khan Academy Gets Serious About Organic Chemistry

February 5, 2013

Readers might recall that a few months ago I went through and summarized all 73 of the Khan Academy organic chemistry videos. Going back to the KA site two weeks ago I was surprised to note that  big changes have been effected on their organic chemistry home page.  The organization of the main page has changed [...]

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SN1/SN2/E1/E2 Decision Mind Map

November 16, 2012

Courtesy of Dave Blackburn, an organic chemistry instructor “who is giving an exam on this today”, here is a mind map of all the different concepts covered in the discussion on SN1, SN2, E1, and E2 reactions. What’s interesting is that this mind map really boil the “SN1/SN2/E1/E2″ decision  down to 3 options: SN2 reaction [...]

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Success Stories: How Stu Aced Organic Chemistry

Success Stories: How Stu Aced Organic Chemistry

October 29, 2012

I recently got an email from a reader, Stu (not his real name) who told me he got an A in Organic Chemistry 1, and was on pace to do the same in Org 2. I asked him if he’d be willing to share with the readers of this blog how he did it. I [...]

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A Friday SN1 Haiku

October 26, 2012

Loyal reader Dave sent this in via the comments, and I thought it deserved a wider distribution: ————— Some of my students challenged me to do the upcoming class in haiku. Since a fractional distillation lab is pretty dull to supervise after everyone is up and running, I put the introduction to SN1 in haiku [...]

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I CN ANSRR YOR QWSTYUNS… CZ I M XPRT

April 1, 2012

I AM  ANSWR REAL QWESSTONS PPL HAVE ABOUT ORGNIC CHMISTYR   Q. Is there a difference between these two molecules? One has CH3 and the other has H3C   NO THEY R THE SAME  H3C  AND CH3  THE SAME THING Q. What about these ones?   SAME TOO JUST WITH ONE ON RIGHT HIDDEN HYDRGNS [...]

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Reaction Friday will return…

Reaction Friday will return…

February 3, 2012

… as will regular posting – next week. Organic chemist Brian Coppola of the University of Michigan recently won a $275,000 teaching award from Baylor University. The press release and his presentation are in the link below. Chemist Brian P. Coppola Wins Prestigious Teaching Award (University of Michigan) The hour-long talk is extremely good. Coppola [...]

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(Belated) Thanks for a great 2011… How Can M.O.C. Help you in 2012?

January 6, 2012

Sorry it’s taken so long to get back in the swing of things. I’ve just returned from some time Up North. What do a bunch of Canadians do when it’s –15°C outside in late December? They invite their family and friends over for a pond curling tournament! This was the cap to a great 2011. [...]

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Organic Chemistry Is Shit

Organic Chemistry Is Shit

November 18, 2011

I’m going to forego Reagent Friday today to talk about something important. Some days you might feel like you can’t escape organic chemistry. You leave the lecture hall and have to study but you wonder if this subject will ever go away. It is driving you insane and you need to make your true feelings [...]

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ChemTube 3D

November 3, 2011

One of the things about this blog is that the content is pretty static. There’s just pictures and text. This is probably my own bias, because I’ve never had a problem learning things through reading. However the other day I got an email from a student: The biggest roadblock I am facing is with media/technology. [...]

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