Astronomy Picture of the Day Stellarium It's Okay To Be Smart What's new | Updates on my research and expository papers, discussion of open problems, and other maths-related topics. By Terence Tao Empirical Zeal 15 Awesome Chemistry GIFs You don’t need to watch Breaking Bad to know that chemistry is pretty awesome. Below, we explore our favorite 15 chemistry GIFs and the science behind them (when we could figure it out): Melting Metal With Magnets The Science: The copper wire has a significant amount of AC electricity running through it, causing it to act like a really strong electromagnet. Orange LED Light In Liquid Nitrogen The Science: When an LED is immersed in liquid nitrogen, the electrons lose a lot of thermal energy, even when the light isn’t turned on. Awesome Chemistry GIFs: Heating Mercury Thiocyanate Hydrogen Peroxide Catalyzed By Potassium Iodide
Backing out of the nanotunnel In the world of biomolecules such as proteins and the hereditary nucleic acids DNA and RNA, three-dimensional structure determines function. Analysis of the passage of such molecules through nanopores offers a relatively new, but highly promising, technique for obtaining information about their spatial conformations. However, interactions between the test molecules and the proteins used as pores have so far hindered quantitative analysis of the behavior of even simply structured molecules within nanopores. This problem must be solved before the technique can be routinely used for structure determination. The nucleic acids RNA and DNA both belong to the class of molecules known chemically as polynucleotides. "Nanopores are increasingly being employed to investigate the secondary structures of RNA and DNA," Gerland points out. Thanks to a clever change in experimental design, the impact of these factors has now been minimized.