THE
BEAKER
Volume 7 Issue 4
March 2015
Bonding Students to
Chemistry & Biochemistry
Connect with us!
Click on the icons!
Editor-in-Chief: Annabelle Cantu ▪ Co-Editor-in-Chief: Lori Digal
Staff:Alexis Camacho, Osiel Ramirez, Briana Nickol, Laura Leyva, Ana
Perez, Shannon Thoene, Vivian Chen, Elizabeth Sebastian, Lanz Kim
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The Beaker
Volume VII Issue IV
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Events and Announcements .......................................1
Professor Spotlight: Ms.Bernal.......................................3
Chemistry History............................................................6
Chemistry For Today's World........................................7
Chemtertainment......................................................9/11
Announcements............................................................10
Volume VII Issue IV
The Beaker
Event
2014 Announcements
By: Annabelle Cantu
U n i v e r sDeadlines:
ity Deadlines
University
Career Developement Center
• 3/16: Fall 2015 classes available online!
• 3/16: Class Validation Available (on
mycsulb)
• 3/31-4/3: Spring Break
• 3/16 @ 12:00pm: Job Search Going
Nowhere?
• 3/17 @ 2:00pm: LinkedIn Lab: Building
your Profile
• 3/18 @ 3:00pm: Thinking of Changing
Your Major?
• 3/19 @ 2:00pm: Communication Etiquette:
Cover Letters & More
• 3/23 @ 12:00pm: Leveraging your
Strengths
• 3/24 @ 4:00pm: Resume Writing for
Education Careers
• 3/25 @ 1:00pm: Kohl’s Dress for Success
Seminar
• 3/26 @ 4:00pm: Prepare for the Job Fair
• 3/27 @ 12:00-4:00pm: Education Job Fair!
At USU
Seminar Series
• 3/18: Elizabeth Jarvo, UC Irvine –
Mechanism-Based Design and
Development of Nickel-Catalyzed
Reactions Stereospecific Cross-Coupling
Reactions
• 3/25: David A. Tirrell, Cal Tech –
Allergan Distinguished Lecturer Series
• 4/15: Andrew Udit, Occidental College.
Virus Nanoparticles That Perturb
Coagulation
[All events are held in BH-250 unless
otherwise noted]
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Volume VII Issue IV
The Beaker
Event
2014 Announcements
U p c o m i n g Co n f e r e n c e s
• 3/22 – 3/26: 249th ACS National Meeting & Exposition in Denver, Colorado –
Accommodations, abstract submission, and registration opens December 15th! More
info: http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/meetings/spring-2015.html.
Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society
An on-campus organization that helps undergraduates reach their educational and career goals in the
fields of chemistry and biochemistry, we offer field trips, community services, and outreach
opportunities for our members to gain hands-on experiences in the chemical sciences!
• Friday mornings from 9:30am-10:30am: SAACS Coffee and Donut hour! At
MLSC patio
• 2nd General Body Meeting: March 23rd 6:00-7:00pm, location TBA
Get on our emailing list!
[email protected]
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Volume VII Issue IV
The Beaker
FACULTY
SPOTLIGHT
Ms. Elaine Bernal
Organic Chemistry & Chemical Communications
By: Briana Nickol
Edited By:Annabelle Cantu and Alexis
Camacho " A key to unlocking the chemical phenomena”
I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Ms. Elaine Bernal an
Organic Chemistry and Chemical Communications instructor here at
CSULB. She attended UCLA for her masters in materials engineering,
and CSULB for her masters in educational technology. Currently she
is in her second year of working towards earning her post-doctorate
degree in the educational leadership program here at CSULB. Ms.
Bernal’s research focuses on faculty development, specifically teachers
who are in the sciences and professional development. She provides
instruction to faculty so that they can teach and work more efficiently
with students, and be in-tuned to what students need and what they
are going through in their academics, and careers.
Ms. Bernal wanted her profession to include chemistry because she found math and science to be
enjoyable and fascinating in high school, and led her to become more curious about the world and how
things functioned to make it what it is. She likens chemistry to cooking in that you take individual
elements or ingredients, mix them together and see what is produced. Her undergrad schooling focused
on inorganic chemistry classes and organic chemistry classes, but also physical chemistry, quantum
mechanics, and materials engineering classes. She describes it as feeling like taking on a double major
status with all the classes and work that come with a science major. Besides school, Ms. Bernal also
made an effort to go beyond school courses and involve herself in other campus activities such as
resident-tech and RA duty at her dorm at UCLA, student services, as well as internships at a local
engineering firm.
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Volume VII Issue IV
The Beaker
While it was difficult, she described it as, “all part of the struggle that was worth it in the end because
it helped prepare me for a higher education setting and being able to teach chemistry and how to work
with students.” She decided to become a teacher after realizing she liked working with students and
wanted to apply it to her major. She currently teaches at long beach and chose the campus because it
was close to her home and where she grew up. This was also her way of giving back to the community
that helped her realize her passion and ability. Her advice for students is that they should always stay in
communication with their professors. Keep in touch and don’t let teachers assume stuff about you.
Make an effort to develop a relationship with a professor and go beyond the classroom: learn the
material and get to know the person teaching it. She also says do not be afraid to talk to the faculty and
ask them about what they do, as people love talking about themselves, and try to see if their research is
a fit for your interests and goals. If it fits, learn from the experience and then implement the skills you
learn from that experience.
Ms. Bernal does not currently run a lab, but rather open to collaborations in the future. She is also
not published as of now, but she is looking forward to it soon as her current research focuses on
education for elementary school students involving the group, engineering is elementary program. The
program is a part of the new generation science standards for teaching elementary school students
engineering concepts of testing, designing, and implementing them into their work. Apart from her
work, she believes that districts and cities should provide local hands-on groups to help expose kids to
sciences and that are affordable, accessible, and cover a wide range of themes and topics, from
chemistry to engineering to biology. The programs should also encourage parents to get their kids
involvedand spark an interest the kids to learn.
To date, her biggest accomplishment is not the research itself, but the partnerships and people
she is fortunate enough to work with at the university and outreach programs. The most difficult thing
so far for her in her career is figuring out how to get people onto the same page and how to work as a
team, because collaboration between colleagues is the foundation for group projects and research.
As a female scientist, Ms. Bernal thinks that now is a great time for women in the sciences, but
women are still a minority, and this needs to be addressed early on in life in order to get them
interested in the sciences. There needs to be outreach programs to elementary and middle and high
schools in the area and give them exposure and education to the sciences that go beyond the classroom.
A depiction of Ms.Bernal teaching
(artist: Elizabeth Sebastion)
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Volume VII Issue IV
The Beaker
Fun Facts
• She was born in Philippines, and moved to
the United States at age 7
• She loves music, specifically progressive rock
and Metallica, and playing the piano
• Favorite movies are too numerous to count,
but she did settle on the Breakfast Club, and
the recently release Lego Movie.
• Her favorite author is Gabriel García
Márquez, who wrote, Love in the Time of
Cholera.
• If she could be any element, it would be
titanium because her wedding ring is made
from a titanium alloy, and if she could
combine any two organisms DNA they would
be a horse and rhino DNA to make a unicorn
5
"Women in science"
(artist: Elizabeth Sebastion)
Volume VII Issue IV
The Beaker
THIS MONTH IN
CHEM HISTORY
By: Osiel Ramirez
• February 2 – Ray McIntire (August 24, 1918 - February 2 1996) passed away. He was a
chemical engineer who is credited with inventing the material known as Styrofoam, or by its
proper chemical name, polystyrene foam. He accidentally formed this new substance when he
added isobutylene under pressure in search of producing a rubber alternative.
• February 4 – The first time an artificial synthesis of a radioactive substance was performed. In
the year 1936 of the same day, it was John Jacob Livinggood that first performed this synthesis
by using deuterons to bombard bismuth, creating the isotope Bismuth 210.
• February 8 – Dmitri Mendeleev (February 8, 1834 – February 2, 1907) was the famous Russian
chemist that developed the original periodic table of elements that became the model for
today’s modern periodic table. In addition, he is also responsible for bringing the Metric System
to Russia, while he was head of Russia’s Bureau of Weights and Measures.
• February 10 – Ira Remsen (February 10, 1846 – March 4, 1927) was the chemist who
discovered the sweetener, saccharin. He found out that the sweetness was caused by an
oxidation of o-toluenesulfonamide and therefore proceeded to name it saccharine.
• February 11 – Josiah Willard Gibbs (February 11, 1839 – April 28, 1903) was the American
chemist that related chemical, electrical, and thermal energy and their capacity to be able to
perform work later on. The relation of these potential energies would later be known as Gibbs
free energy in his honor.
• February 19 – Roderick MacKinnon (February 19, 1956 - Present) is an American biochemist
that received half of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on ion channels.
Specifically, his worked detailed how the proteins that controlled cell potentials of the cells
generated nerve impulses by opening paths in the cells membranes, so as to allow ions to carry
electrical charges across the cells.
• February 19 – Svante Arrhenius (February 19, 1859 – October 2, 1927) was the famous
Swedish chemist and physicist who is considered to be one of the founders of physical
chemistry. His more well-known contributions include the Arrhenius equation and the theory
of electrolytic dissociation, which earned him the 1903 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• February 21 – Carl Peter Henrik Dam (February 21, 1895 – April 17, 1976) was a Danish
biochemist who discovered vitamin K, after he isolated the vitamin needed to produce blood
clotting after chickens would begin hemorrhaging and bleeding uncontrollably after starting a
cholesterol free diet. This work was what allowed him to receive half of the 1943 Nobel Prize in
Medicine.
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Volume VII Issue IV
The Beaker
THIS MONTH
IN FOR
CHEMISTRY
TODAY'SYWORLD By: Briana Nickol
By: Osiel Ramirez
Biologics Making Headway
Breakthroughs in scientific research are ongoing, even in places unfamiliar to the
general population. Most of us are familiar with pharmaceutical drugs, their generic counterparts,
and how both are produced the same way and use the same active ingredients. But a new field,
particularly known as biologics, is making headway in the United States as a major competitor in
the medicinal market. Instead of synthetic drugs produced from chemical compounds, biologics
are protein based from DNA in living organisms, which are specified to respond and target certain
molecules in the body that help or hinder the production of certain compounds. These biologics
treat cancer, autoimmune diseases, and many other illnesses. Despite the potential and proven
success of biologics, they can be expensive to make because they are highly complex structures. In
order to combat the price and start competition to lower costs, consumer manufactures have come
to produce biosimilars, replicas of biologics. The goal is to see lower prices, similar to the
production of generic drugs. Now how is this different from drugs and their generic counterparts?
Generic drugs are produced in nearly identical ways to the name-brand drug, and also contain the
same active ingredient, a synthetic chemical compound. Biosimilars differ in that they are
produced from living organisms, so no two products are alike, nor are they produced the same way
via different companies. Recombinant DNA is selected from an organism and then reproduced in
a
live
culture,
then
harvested,
purified
and
stored
for
transport.
Because of lengthy procedures and testing, biosimilars have not been available in the United Sates
until this year, with the introduction of Zarxio (filgrastim-sndz). This biosimilar has shown to
boost white blood cells in cancer patients, similar of its counterpart in testing. Currently, more
biosimilars are under review by the FDA, but futhrer tests and studies need to show these
biosimilars are as effective as their biologic counterparts, as well as similar in safety and sideeffects.
Websites:
http://buildingbiologics.com/index.html
http://www.novartis.com/newsroom/media-releases/en/2015/1900097.shtml
http://cen.acs.org/articles/93/web/2015/03/Food-Drug-Administration-Approves-First.html
Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYz9BvLRbqJMcpLVH4rSdMetUzgZ2CxR
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Volume VII Issue IV
The Beaker
THIS MONTH
IN FOR
CHEMISTRY
TODAY'SYWORLDBy: Lanz Kim:
Political Climate
Osiel Ramirez
In light of climate change, things are not looking up. Half of our government denies
man’s involvement in accelerating this global phenomenon, or that climate change exists at all. A
brief summary of climate change can be explained by the greenhouse effect. As Ultraviolet
radiation from the Sun passes through the atmosphere and hits the surface of the earth, the
wavelength increases enough to pass to the other side of the visible light spectrum and become
infrared radiation. UV radiation has enough strength to typically break bonds as one photon’s
energy levels can excite molecules to higher energy states leading to bond fission. However, IR
radiation is generally strong enough to only vibrate molecules. Because of this, reflected IR
radiation is absorbed by the atmosphere and subsequently have a warming effect.
Certain gases have higher global warming potentials (GWP) than others, with Carbon dioxide as
the standard with a GWP of one. These gases, unfortunately, support a very essential need in
human life as they are used for refrigeration. However, there is recent news that is more uplifting.
The Environmental Protection Agency, through its Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP)
approved of five products to replace the current refrigerants. Ranging from personal to industrial
uses, Ethane, Isobutane, Propane, HCF-32 (difluoromethane) and the hydrocarbon blend R-441A
will replace current refrigerants with GWPs of 1400 to 4000. The approved gases has GWPs
ranging from 3 to 675. Although not a perfect solution, this is a step into the right direction.
Websites:
http://cen.acs.org/articles/93/i10/Climate-Friendly-Refrigerants.html
http://www.buildings.com/article-details/articleid/18655/title/new-refrigerant-options-approved-by-theepa.aspx
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/1691E88E1FBE79FE85257DFC0057AA19
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Volume VII Issue IV
The Beaker
3
C CHEESY CHEMISTRY COMIC
2
Artist: Vivian Chen
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Aero.!.!
l . The chemistry of compounds of carbon
~. A method of dating- measuring the age of materials that contain matter of living origin
9. Th@ amount of .!Ub!ltanc@ p@r unit velum@ in a .!elution
10 . A rr.ethod of investigating nuclear SPINe'
11 . A unit of pr@!l.!Ur@ @xpr@!l.!@d in m:roBg
12 . A conical qlass l aboratory flask with a narrow nec k
Down
2 . A r@action wit n oxyg@n wit n t h@ production of h@&t and light
3 . The proportions in which elements form corr.pounds
5. A branch of physical chemistry concerned with t he study of rates of chemical reactions
6 . pV•K
7 . A suspension of small particles of a solid in a liquid formed by a cherr,ica! reaction
8 . A liquid capable of dissolving other materi a ls to form a solution
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Volume VII Issue IV
The Beaker
NAME THAT MOLECULE
-I am an alkaloid compound
-I belong to the family of purines
-I am naturally produced by various
plants
-When I am purified, I have the
color white and I am very bitter
-I can be an addictive stimulant
-I have pharmacological uses
Who am I?
?
?
?
?
? ? ??
? ?
Last Issue's Molecule: Ethyl Formate
Announcements
SAACS NEEDS YOUR HELP!
HSCI room 326 is currently under renovation to
provide a space for student-use. This newly
refurbished room will allow a place for fellow
students to study, hold meetings, etc. If you have
any furniture, appliances or any other essentials
that you would like to donate for this room please
email SAACS or The Beaker.
[email protected]
[email protected]
Ideas for donations include: a microwave, refrigerator, office supplies,
stacking chairs, tables, desks, etc.
10
Name:
Name That molecule!
1
2
4
3
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Across
2. The sugar in fruit! Look at molecule 5.
4. You wash your hands withthis everyday. Not a
fancy term. Look molecule 13.
6. Look at molecule 1
7. This molecule is in your DNA. Look at molecule 7.
10. Look at molecule 8.
13. It’s in your oranges! Hint: It’s an acid! Look at
molecule 4.
15. It is also known as drinking alcohol. Look at
molecule 3.
16. It’s healthy oil that reduces the risk for heart
disease. Look at molecule 12.
Down
1. Look at molecule 9.
3. It’s a fancy molecular name for chocolate. Look at
molecule 11.
5. A major neurotransmitter for your muscles.
8. The regular table sugar. Look at molecule 6.
9. Chemical that makes you feel happy. Look at
molecule 14.
11. Chemical released in brain that gives us feelings of
joy and motivation. Look at molecule 15.
12. Look at molecule 2
14. This molecule in your RNA. Look at molecule 10.
2
3
4
1
6
5
7
9
8
10
12
13
15
14
16
11