RNA mediated gene interference (RNAi) is now a key tool in eukaryotic cell and molecular biology research. This article describes a five session laboratory practical, spread over a seven day period, to introduce and illustrate the technique. During the exercise, students working in small groups purify PCR products that encode "in vitro"…

Plant families are the level of the taxonomic hierarchy that many biologists use to organise their understanding of plant diversity. Consequently, from many perspectives, it is very useful to be able to recognise the major plant families "on sight". To this end numerous books and web sites have described and illustrated plant families,…

The unusual thermal behavior of rubbers, though discovered a long time ago, can still be mind-boggling for students and teachers who encounter this class of polymeric systems. Unlike other solids, stretched elastic polymers shrink upon heating. This is a manifestation of the Gough-Joule (G-J) effect. Joule in the 1850s studied the thermal behavior…

We investigated introductory physics students' mental models of sound propagation. We used a phenomenographic method to analyze the data in the study. In addition to the scientifically accepted Wave model, students used the "Entity" model to describe the propagation of sound. In this latter model sound is a self-standing entity,…

Effective physics instruction benefits from respecting the physics ideas that introductory students bring into the classroom. We argue that it is similarly beneficial to respect the teaching ideas that novice physics instructors bring to their classrooms. We present a case study of a tutorial teaching assistant (TA), Alan. When we first examined…

This article describes the Bologna Process, an effort by a consortium of nearly 50 European countries trying to standardize the higher education system in Europe. Starting from a nonbinding agreement (the 1999 Bologna Declaration), the Bologna Process involves a voluntary joint venture for the construction of a European higher education area…

This undergraduate organic laboratory experiment complements previously described and popular experiments on hydration of 1-hexene where students experimentally establish the Markovnikov regioselectivity of alkene hydration. In this experiment, students explore not only the regiochemistry but also the stereochemistry of 1-hexene hydration and…

The depolymerization of the plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE) is described in this laboratory procedure. The transesterification reaction used to depolymerize PET employs a highly efficient N-heterocyclic carbene catalyst derived from a commercially available imidazolium ionic liquid. N-heterocyclic carbenes are potent nucleophilic…

Environmentally benign chemistry is an increasingly important topic both in the classroom and the laboratory. In this experiment, students synthesize divanillin from vanillin or diapocynin from apocynin, using horseradish peroxidase and hydrogen peroxide in water. The dimerized products form rapidly at ambient temperature and are isolated by…

This experiment describes the reaction of palladium(II) chloride with 1,5-bis(diphenylphosphino)pentane by grinding the two powders together in the solid state. The product is the precursor for the metalation reaction at one of the methylene carbon atoms of the ligand's backbone. The final product is known to be a catalyst for Suzuki-Miyaura…

We report a simple, inexpensive, visual, and environmentally friendly S[subscript N]2 reaction appropriate for the second-year organic chemistry laboratory that illustrates stereospecificity, dependence of water solubility on the state of ionization, optical activity, and effect of diastereotopic protons in [superscript 1]H NMR spectroscopy. The…

A second-year organic chemistry laboratory experiment to introduce students to general concepts of medicinal chemistry is described. Within a single three-hour time window, students experience the synthesis of a biologically active small molecule and the assaying of its biological toxicity. Benzodiazepine rings are commonly found in antidepressant…

In this series of experiments, we mimic a small-scale ethanol plant. Students discover that the practical aspects of ethanol production are determined by the quantity of biomass produced per unit land, rather than the volume of ethanol produced per unit of biomass. These experiments explore the production of ethanol from different sources: fruits,…

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) has become an important optical biosensing technology in the areas of biochemistry, biology, and medical sciences because of its real-time, label-free, and noninvasive nature. The high cost of commercial devices and consumables has prevented SPR from being introduced in the undergraduate laboratory. Here, we present…

Introductory organic chemistry is often perceived as inaccessible by students. This article describes a method used to link organic chemistry to everyday experience, asking students to explore whether fragrant molecules are also aromatic in the chemical sense. Students were engaged in this activity, excited about their results, and performed well…