THIS WEEK IN CHEMISTRY
12TH FEBRUARY 2017 – 18TH FEBRUARY 2017
Links to articles & studies for the featured stories are provided at: https://goo.gl/KyMU2H
CHEESE TASTE AFFECTED BY SALIVA COMPOSITION
New research has found your saliva composition can affect how
you perceive the taste of cheese. Those with a high saliva salt
content and high fat-breakdown activity perceived cheese flavours
as being more salty, more cheesy, and less fruity.
REASONS FOR NITROGEN’S STABILITY ExAMINED
Nitrogen is very unreactive, a fact that was thought to be due to the
strength of the triple bond between two nitrogen atoms. Analysis of
existing reaction data shows that the bonds between two nitrogen
atoms don’t contribute to stability as much as previously thought.
RESEARCHERS SUCCEED IN MAKING TRIAGULENE
Researchers succeeded in making an unusual and highly reactive
molecule, triagulene, 65 years after its existence was theorised. It
was made by manipulating single atoms. It’s hoped that triagulene
and similar molecules could one day be used to store information.
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS FOUND ON DWARF PLANET CERES
Spectra from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft show carbon-based molecules
are found on the surface of Ceres. The sensitivity of the spectra wasn’t
sufficient for individual compounds to be identified, but suggests
complex organic molecules are found throughout the solar system.
IMPROVING CARBON-13 NMR SIGNALS IN LIQUIDS
Carbon-13 NMR helps determine the structure of organic molecules.
A weakness of the technique is its low sensitivity. Workarounds exist
for solid samples, and now a refinement using nitroxide radicals helps
to boost the sensitivity in liquids by up to one thousand times.
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© Andy Brunning/Compound Interest 2017 - www.compoundchem.com | @compoundchem
Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence.
Liquid nitrogen photo: CC-BY licence, NASA/GSFC/Michael Weiss, https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa_goddard/5261882486
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