Periodic Tabloid

Today CHF’s Board of Directors gathers in Philadelphia for an intensive day and a half of meetings. The board is made up of 16 individuals who fall into one or more of the following categories: eminent scientists and engineers; business leaders; scions of important cultural organizations; generalist wizards.

Today Periodic Tabloid welcomes Lauren Zalut, guest blogger and Alfred Nobel fan from the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia. A short biography of the prize founder, much in the news lately, after the jump.

If you are alive, chemistry is part of your life. As such, I’ve always been surprised that people are put off by it. Until I read “Chemistry: All About You.” This outreach website almost turned me off chemistry.

We've been buzzing about personalized energy ever since MIT’s Dan Nocera came by CHF to discuss a fascinating technology called the “artificial leaf.” What’s it all about? An explanation after the jump.

I had the privilege last week of attending the annual Artefacts conference in Leiden, Netherlands. Artefacts is a group of historians and curators in the history of science and technology that seeks to promote the use of objects in historical study. The conference was lively and full of engaging discussion – made all the more poignant by the fact that our host, the Museum Boerhaave, is under threat of closure.

It is an article of faith among scientists that undergraduate students benefit from participating in research. But wouldn’t it be nice to know what students themselves expect to obtain from a research experience? And wouldn’t it also be nice to know whether their experiences match their expectations? A recent study from the University of Georgia attempts to answer these questions.

In the days before pre-packaged cake mixes and electric mixers, baking a cake was an arduous process. Pretend you're living more than a century ago. How long do you think you can hand-blend ingredients without tiring? Ready your biceps, everyone. There's a long road ahead.

Books with the word “chemistry” in their title often sell poorly, though books that include lots of chemistry often end up doing well. Take, for example, Deborah Blum's The Poisoner’s Handbook, Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, or Sam Kean's The Disappearing Spoon: all bestsellers. So what’s in a word?

The newest episode of Distillations focuses on a much loved childhood favorite: dinosaurs. It seems that popular perception of these Mesozoic monsters is in for yet another momentous change. But how are we just now figuring out that many of these dinosaurs were feathered?

Arturas Zuokas, the mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania, won the 2011 Ig Nobel Peace Prize for "demonstrating that the problem of illegally parked luxury cars can be solved by running them over with an armored tank."