Will and Beyond - Posts by will

09/07/10 @ 2:44PM EST
posted by will

It's time for the war on vegans to make some moves. Have you heard of Meatless Monday? It's exactly what it sounds like, and I won't stand for it.

Starting next week, share all of your Meaty Monday exploits. Ideally they'll be gluttonous feats like we see on ThisIsWhyYoureFat.com, but any meat-friendly dish is welcome.

I don't have any pictures, as the fried chicken pictured here isn't the exact stuff I had last night, but expect to see my own pictures in the future.

[Photo: Flickr]

Battling vegans
One animal at a time
Carnivores unite!

Godspeed.

[Comments: 2][Tags: food, meaty monday, ranting]

Abstract of the Day: Deserted Graphene

09/03/10 @ 1:37PM EST
posted by will

Everything looks more epic with a desert horizon in the background, right? Also, excimer brought to my attention a great tumblr full of entertaining abstracts: TOCROFL. I can't be expected to keep up with them, so supplement your Will and Beyond reading.

(Also, as sam from everyday scientist points out, if you subscribe to any ACS journals via RSS, they switched over to using Feedburner, so you'll have to go through and resubscribe manually. They could have at least sent out a last warning post via the feed...)

[Image: Nano Letters]

Twirly 'neath blue sky
But where is the sand texture
Long ass graphene strain

Godspeed.

[Comments: 0][Tags: science, art, abstract of the day]

Laser Ablation

09/01/10 @ 10:28PM EST
posted by will

See all of those lines and dots? Made with lasers! This is NIST610, a standard containing traces of all of the rare-earth elements.

This is what we used for calibrating the ICP-MS, which allows you to get the relative ratio of elements in a sample, useful for verifying amounts within doped samples. You can see the plasma here.

Lasers are fun stuff
They make pretty lines and shapes
Expensive machine...

Godspeed.

[Comments: 0][Tags: science]

Excellent Food Combinations

08/26/10 @ 11:24AM EST
posted by will

Grilled Cheese and Nutella
Sausage and Nutella
[any food here] and Nutella
Bacon Explosion with Chocolate
Anything with Ramen
Ranch and Cookie Pizza

I've definitely eaten weird combinations than this, but that's all I can think of offhand. Yes, I realize most of those are just 'thing + chocolate', but that's what chocolate clam chowder reminded me of.

Anyone have any good ones?

[Photo: Surviving the World]

Yay weird food combos
Nutella improves all things
Corn water soup? Gross

Godspeed.

[Comments: 1][Tags: food]

Boston ACS: Day 4

08/25/10 @ 4:42PM EST
posted by will

And that wraps up ACS. (Technically it's still running Thursday, but not much is happening at that point.) Fun times. Nothing interesting was happening in inorganic today so I just went to a bunch of assorted talks.

Multiscale simulation of proton exchange membranes*
Preparation of polymers conjugated with p-extended quinone: Optical and redox properties of the polymers
Redox-driven structural folding and unfolding: Electronic communication between TTF units anchored onto a C₂-symmtric aryleneethynylene scaffold
Conjugated polymers that respond to oxidation with increased emission
Bitter, twisted truth of the hop
Dry water: Can we still make waves?
Nano Letters 10th Anniversary Reception

*This was actually meant to be a talk on carbon nanotubes, but apparently Grand Ballroom C and Commonwealth Ballroom C are different rooms. Sigh.

You can see above that they shut down the expo today, that was around 2pm (after I got some free lunch and more free swag thankfully). Tomorrow I plan to wander around Boston, hopefully the weather will cooperate.

At some point I might do some sort of wrap-up post, but we'll see.

Goodbye ACS
There were many many talks
And now I'm burnt out

Godspeed.

[Comments: 0][Tags: acs, science]

Boston ACS: Day 3

08/25/10 @ 10:45AM EST
posted by will

Not so many talks today, ended up sleeping in and spending more time at the expo:

Nanomaterials for energy storage
Chemical strategies in nanoscience
Some memories and then some new chemistry of single walled carbon nanotubes
Medicinal Chemistry Letters Reception
Various Poster Sessions

And while I was at the expo, I met up with my good friend E.J. Corey. I wonder if he was at the Plagiarism in the Woodward-Hoffmann rules talk yesterday?

The conference is definitely winding down, most of the relevant talks for me were on days 1 and 2, and even most of the more interesting interdisciplanary talks were earlier as well. It's been pouring down rain pretty hard all week, otherwise I'd be tempted to ditch out for some of Wednesday or Thursday to sightsee. Hopefully it will tone down a bit for Thursday.

Bit burnt out on talks
Got lots of free expo swag
Rain, rain, go away

Godspeed.

[Comments: 0][Tags: acs, science]

Boston ACS: Day 2

08/24/10 @ 5:17PM EST
posted by will

PhD Not quite as many talks as Day 1, but definitely some good ones.

Lanthanide-based hybrid nanoparticles for biomedical imaging
Naphthalimide sensitized lanthanide(III) luminescence
Room temperature colloidal synthesis of magnetic EuTe nanoparticles
All oxygen donor ligands as efficient antennae for lanthanide luminescence
Was plagiarism involved in the development of the Woodward—Hoffmann rules?
Physical properties of PbEuS nanocrystals
The Power of Procrastination
Sci-Mix Poster Session

A lot of relevant talks (found someone doing very similar stuff...) The talk on the Woodward-Hoffmann rules was really good.