[ccs2cool]

For my high shcool chem class we have to do a project on a "cutting edge" or current chemistry topic. we are supposed to shadow or interview an  employee of a chemical related industry or do an interactive project with someone in the chemical industry. im not really sure where to start or what topic would be good to do and what industry i could look into for an interview. if you have any ideas please reply to this. i live near stanford and san francisco if that helps
thanks

[Mitch]

Can you tell us what major cities you live by?

[Donaldson Tan]

I can think of some well-documented cutting edge chemistry..

1. assembly of nano-structures via directed intermolecular bonding
2. DNA Replication (after-all life sciences is in the hots now)
3. laser cooling

[Username]

I second that geodome, life sciences would be quite an interesting topic and should be of enough edge cutting.
But if you're not into that field of chemistry why not have a look at the newly discovered type of carbon? There's a link to an article about this topic in the news forum on this site.
Looks like there are already some ideas of what to do with this new type of carbon.

[Scratch-]

Laser cooling? I've read about cooling spacecraft with lasers in science fiction but not in real life. Do you know a good site that explains this?

[Donaldson Tan]

I dont know any good website to explain laser cooling, but I can reveal u the tip of the ice berg. Temperature is dependent on the average kinetic energy of the particles in the system. If you can reduce the kinetic energy of the particles, the temperature of the system would drop. Laser cooling involves using laser to bombard particles with sufficient energy to stop them from moving significantly, hence bring about the cooling effect.

[Scratch-]

Neato, I want one.  

[Corvettaholic]

Is it like putting some boulders on the freeway to slow down traffic? So you just zap an atom headon with a laser and get it stop moving forward so freakin fast... I'm sure its more complicated than that, but simple is best for understanding concepts.

[Scratch-]

Thats what it sounds like to me.

[gregpawin]

I think its more like a dampened oscillation: like using your hands to stop a tuning fork... or someone could correct me here.Either way, kinda sounds more like physicas to me.

[Scratch-]

Sounds confusing... Anyone care to enlighten me?

[Corvettaholic]

Oh I think I get it! OK, here we go: take Mr. Atom of whatever element, and he's vibrating like crazy, right? Vibrations are kinetic energy, and thats related to temperature. So, you pound said atom with a laser, and the goal is get it to vibrate less, which means less energy, which means temperature goes down. And like Greg said, it would be like grabbing something thats vibrating, grab it real tight, and YOU will vibrate a little bit but eventually the thing you're grabbing will stop shaking. As far as HOW you would pick the right laser and actually hit a tiny itty bitty atom, thats beyond me. I'm thinking maybe whatever atom they're using is isolated by a magnetic field. I remember reading about some scientists who made a bose-einstein condensate hover in midair with a magnetic field as they pounded it with lasers.

[Scratch-]

So they just run an interference pattern with heat instead of light/sound.

[Donaldson Tan]

BTW the total KE of a particle not only include the rotational kinetic energy, but also the translational kinetic energy

[chemicalLindsay]

I know some recent chemistry projects .
There are three that I know.

1.Intelligent polymers.They are polymers that "react to their surroundings" not meaning that they are reactive but meaning they have some pretty cool properties.Like they can expand and contract from different currents and voltages,can conduct electricity,can change colours with different voltages,some are photovoltaic,thermostatic(react to heat)and they are all very cool.they even made knee pads for the sydeny roosters (footbal) out of them and they would tell the player every time his knee bent too much when landing.The reason I heard of why they conduct electricity and mover and change colour ETC is because every second or thid monomer of the polymer is an ion and that explains why it stretches,contracts,changes colur,conducts electricity ETC.Thats about all I can remember from the lecture but you could get a bit of imformation from the site that I cant remember.Look just go to google and search for intelligent polymers and you should get one (hint the aussie site is heaps good with lots of information and pics)

2.Now the second one is the electronic ink and i have already posted about that under citizen chemist so you can look at it.
3.Lastly thare is the article about how they are generating electricity from water (It doesent involve turbines or generators its completely revolutionary).

Post if you want the articles on both no 2 and 3