Elements 114 and 116 are Officially Recognized

In June the NY Times reported that IUPAC has officially recognized the existence of elements 114 and 116.  Their discovery was first reported in 2004 and 2006.  For now their names will be Ununquadium (symbol Uuq, Latin for 114) and Ununhexium (Symbol Uuh, Latin for 116).  Eventually they will receive official names and symbols.  These things take some time, so check back in about 5 years and I should have the official names.

More images from the intersection of Art and Science

These appeared in the NY Times and come from Princeton University's Art of Science Competition.

Science meets Body Art

The NY Times science section had this spectacular gallery of science themed tattoos.  The tattoos come from a variety of sciences and math.  Definitely worth checking out.  And NO, I am not advocating you go out and get a tattoo.

News flash: Science is a Hard Major

Came across this in the paper this weekend.  It turns out science is a hard major.  Actually this has been known for a long time.  What surprised me is the very high percentage of students who start out as a science major, but never get a science degree, or even any degree at all.  This is not something that is lost on my colleagues at Schoharie, and we will be making a push to have the school board require four years of science.  Not sure if it will happen, but we are going to ask and make a case for it.

Unununium, I hardly knew you

Names for elements 110, 111, 112 have been officially approved.  I stumbled upon this article in the NY times today indicating that the general assembly of IUPAC (the international union for pure and applied chemistry) has officially approved the names for elements Ununnilium, Unununium, Ununbium.  These names are simply the latin names for 110, 111, and 112 respectively.  Once an element is discovered and is confirmed the element's temporary name is simply the latin name of its atomic number.  Then a (long) process begins to give the element an official name.  For example, elements 110, 111, 112 were all discovered in the ealry 1990's.  Their proposed names were accepted in the early 2000's, and on 1 Nov. 2011, those proposed names were officially approved.  I suppose you would like to know the official names for these elements?  Well, for that you must read the article (or look at a periodic table).  I will tell you, however, that they are named after the city in which they were discovered, and two famous scientists.  Their symbols are Ds, Rg, and Cn.

Reminder to Students

Given you have yet another long weekend, and the correlation between long weekends and assignments that have been "forgotten", I wanted to give you the following reminders:

Regents Chemistry:

Period 2 - labs 4 and 5 are due Monday, 7 November.

Period 4 - labs 4 and 5 are due Tuesday, 8 November (No, period 2 I do not like them better, they performed these labs the day after you did).

AP Chemistry:

Molecular Geometry take home test is due Monday, 7 November.

ALL STUDENTS: First Quarter officially ends on 10 November.  If you have any backwork or assignments, it MUST be taken care of by the close of business on Monday, 7 November.  This will give me the time I need to grade your back work!

Imagine the hysteria. . .

. . .if this were to happen in Dec. of 2012.  It does not sound like the asteroid will be visible to the naked eye, but if you are interested in this sort of thing, it may be worth it to you to dress your eye up with the lens of an optical telescope - a basic one should do. I would love to hear from anyone who spots it.  In fact, I would love to hear from anyone.