Blogaversary
Feb 18, 2010: Wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my career. I wanted to teach, but after two years of failed academic
Read moreThe World’s Cheapest Molecular Model Kit
I see a lot of students who have trouble visualizing how molecules appear from different directions. Probably the best way to solve this problem is
Read moreThe Principle of Least Effort
It’s a common misconception that the sciences are impersonal and somehow “less human” than, well, the “humanities”. I beg to differ. Is there any trait
Read more“Make All The Necessary Mistakes As Quickly As Possible”
The beginning of a new semester is a quiet time. Time to resolve to do things differently. Try and fix problems from last semester to
Read moreFare Thee Well, Oh Cats of Jerusalem
Our contracts have ended and the wife and I have moved from Jerusalem to small town Ontario, somewhere between Lebanon and Carthage. A little over
Read morePutting Diels-Alder Products in Perspective
One of the things I like about teaching is that it helps me realize some of the things I take for granted that newcomers find
Read moreThe Ups and Downs of Cyclohexanes
Drawing cyclohexane chair forms can be a tricky business. While it’s often intuitive to pick out which groups are up and down when they’re axial
Read moreIntroduction to Oxidative Cleavage Reactions
The four posts on acid-base, substitution, addition, and elimination covered the 4 main reactions in organic chemistry I. In this second series of posts we go beyond these to introduce a
Read moreExploring Resonance: Pi-acceptors
Resonance In Organic Chemistry: What Are “Pi Acceptors” Last time we saw that π donors are atoms capable of forming a new π bond with
Read moreIn Summary: Evaluating Resonance Structures
The Four Key Factors In Evaluating Resonance Structures Not all resonance forms are of equal importance. So how do we evaluate how “important” each resonance
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