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Science in Informal Language by Students at Bowdoin College - Brunswick, Maine

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Chemistry

The Positive Side of Proton Transfer

February 24, 2017 By Holly Rudel '17

The Positive Side of Proton Transfer

For the past year, I’ve been studying the mechanisms of proton transfer in Professor Kana Takematsu’s physical chemistry lab at Bowdoin College. Physical chemistry is a branch of chemistry that is based largely on mathematical properties, and as such is often feared by even chemistry majors. Breaking down chemistry from the macroscopic to the microscopic and studying molecules and atoms at their fundamental level is hard to grasp. But this fundamental nature of physical chemistry is precisely why I love it. Underlying all chemical reactions are interactions between positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons and if the interaction is favorable, a reaction will occur. Studying proton transfer, occurring on the nanosecond timescale, is thus hard to imagine, but super important to understanding chemistry between all sorts of more complex molecules, especially in biological systems.

[Read more…] about The Positive Side of Proton Transfer

Filed Under: Chemistry

Playing With Pyridines

December 29, 2016 By Danielle Haas Freeman '17

Playing With Pyridines

During the past summer and current academic year, I’ve been working in Professor Dharni Vasudevan’s environmental chemistry lab at Bowdoin College. For those in the Chemistry Department, this means that I’m part of “Team Dirt”: My senior research project is all about soil. Sometimes, when I’m explaining my research to non-scientists, saying “My research is about soil” is as far as I get. Sometimes this is all my audience really cares to hear, and a more in-depth description would be wasted. In more receptive company, I find myself grappling with the level of chemistry background of my audience as I try to explain what about soil I am actually researching—an interesting dilemma to find myself in considering that barely a year ago I was still struggling to understand my own project as I applied for summer fellowship to do research with Prof. Vasudevan. [Read more…] about Playing With Pyridines

Filed Under: Chemistry, Environmental Science

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  • Environmental Science (4)
  • Health (1)

Authors

  • Leah Alper '17 (1)
  • Karen Chan '18 (1)
  • Danielle Haas Freeman '17 (1)
  • Alex Poblete '17 (1)
  • Holly Rudel '17 (1)
  • Luke Scheuer '17 (1)
  • Sam Shaheen '17 (1)
  • Jade Willey '17 (1)

Recent Posts

  • Perusing the Pancreas
  • “Cooking” in the lab
  • Solving the Chemical-Dirt Dilemma
  • Pharmaceuticals on the Soil, Oh My!
  • The Unexplored Role of Water in Biochemical Reactions

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