The mix of guided-inquiry and design based experiments is feasible to do in introductory organic chemistry lab courses. It can provide students with experience in two parts of experimental chemistry such as the significance and careful analysis of experimental data and the design of experiments.

The glycated hemoglobin blood test, usually designated as the A[subscript 1c] test, is a key measure of the effectiveness of glucose control in diabetics. The chemistry of glucose in the bloodstream, which underlies the test and its impact, provides an illustration of the importance of chemical equilibrium and kinetics to a major health problem.…

Guided-inquiry experiments also known as discovery-based experiments, which combine the pedagogical advantages of open-inquiry methods with the practical advantages of expository experiments, are described. Unlike open-inquiry or problem-based experiments, guided-inquiry experiments could be readily adapted to large laboratory sections and induces…

A regioselective, safe and efficient method for the synthesis of vanillin from 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde is being described. The vanillin derived from the process is cheap and can be used as a flavor or in the paper industry.

Discusses the metallotherapy approach to viral infection, cadmium poisoning and Wilson's disease. Presents a plan for progress in metallotherapy through more education, more basic research, and more epidemiological studies. (GS)

Translates the recollections of Hermann Staudinger on the discovery of macromolecular structure. This is the second of a two part series. (DS)

The GC-MS profiles of whole body extracts from the nurses and foragers of Apis mellifera ligustica bees was compared, which showed that the extracts of foragers (older bees) contained levels of ethyl oleate (EO) almost three times than found in nurses (young bees). The results show that the ethyl oleate plays a key role in the bees' mechanism of…

The environmental fate and behavior of different organic pollutants based on the qualitative analysis of thermodynamic and kinetic data is presented. The Fugacity model allows the use of different partition constants in an easy way, to determine the distribution of chemical between different phases in equilibrium of an environmental system.

Coumarin (2H-1-benzopyran-2-one) and its derivatives constitute a fascinating class of organic substances that are utilized industrially in areas such as cosmetics, food preservatives, insecticides and fluorescent laser dyes. The product can be synthesized, purified, and characterized within two hours with benefits of microscale reactivity being…

There is a widespread belief among the public and even among chemist that plants do not contain cholesterol. This wrong belief is the result of the fact that plants generally contain only small quantities of cholesterol and that analytical methods for the detection of cholesterol in this range were not developed until recently.

The biosynthesis and mode of action of a class of compounds called lantibiotics, a peptide with antibacterial activity against multi-drug resistant bacteria as well as food-borne pathogens like Listeria monocytogenes and Clostridium botulinum is described. These peptide-derived compounds are especially interesting because they could be used as…

Using animated computer-generated graphics to assist instruction has recently attracted the attention of educators and educational researchers. The specific focus of this study is to compare the influence of animated visuals with static visuals on college students' understanding of organic reaction mechanisms in chemistry. This study also focuses…

Many students perform extraction experiments without connecting relevant molecular features to corresponding macroscopic features. Two versions of an Organic Extraction Simulation, one with text "captions" and the other with "narration" accompanying the animation, were developed based on a cognitive view of multimedia learning.…