Three new posts and National Chemistry Week Continued!

This past week was National Chemistry week! I got to present at a poster session last night in honor of it-the same poster i presented in park city. I bribed my students to come by offering them extra credit. My ploy worked, and I was busy the entire two hours.


In honor of Chemistry week, I have come up with some chemistry words that we chemists use on a regular basis to teach you all and how you can use them in regular every day language to feel all smart and cool like me (or just to feel like a nerd).

1. Deuterated- well have you all heard of Hydrogen? Deuterium is a kind of Hydrogen, but it's heavier. When we deuterate something we replace hydrogen with it's chubby relative deuterium. How you can use Deuterated in a sentence:
A. Wow, that movie was totally deuterated (heavy).
B. My cat has gotten really deuterated.

2. Volatile- this word is used to refer to liquids that evaporate really quickly or really unstable at room temperature.

A. She ate her Halloween candy as if it were volatile (going to disappear fast).
B. My friend is pregnant and looks really volatile (unstable at room temperature), like she might throw up.

3. Equilibrium- this is basically when things become balanced or meet in the middle (kind of)- when there is no net change in a system.

A. I think my weight has reached equilibrium because I have not weighed differently in years.
B. I swear my old evil neighbor has reached equilibrium in age- he just won't die!

4. Radioactive- unstable elements that emit radiation and could cause cancer as well as other problems.

A. That guy is radioactive (emits radiation and causes problems).
B. I swear my kids are radioactive, they emit all sorts of radiation and get me sick with stress, worry and colds.

5. Redox- short hand for reduction and oxidation, this is a type of chemical reaction. It involves something gaining and something losing electrons.

A. I honestly think that the whole process of the stockmarket is Redox (someone is always gaining and someone is always losing).
B. When my husband and I go on a diet I am the ox in Redox ( I am gaining and he is losing).

I hope you all found this as entertaining as I had fun writing it. Now you can all be wicked smart and use your new-found vocab to wow someone in your next conversation- or just to be white and nerdy like me:) Happy national chemistry week everyone!.