Operant and classical conditioning are major processes shaping behavioral responses in all animals. Although the understanding of the mechanisms of classical conditioning has expanded significantly, the understanding of the mechanisms of operant conditioning is more limited. Recent developments in "Aplysia" are helping to narrow the gap in the…

The sequential-injection analysis (SIA) is an approach to sample handling that enables the automation of manual wet-chemistry procedures in a rapid, precise and efficient manner. The experiments using SIA fits well in the course of Instrumental Chemical Analysis and especially in the section of Automatic Methods of analysis provided by chemistry…

The National Research Council's (NRC, 2005) publication "America's Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science" provided the impetus for this study. In the NRC report, the experiences of high school students nationally are described along with recommendations for improving and supporting these experiences. Since the NRC report was…

Empirical correlations are a practical means of providing approximate answers to problems in physics whose exact solution is otherwise difficult to obtain. The correlations relate quantities that are deemed to be important in the physical situation to which they apply, and can be derived from experimental data by means of dimensional and/or scale…

A hands-on project was developed to educate new chemical engineering students about the types of problems chemical engineers solve and to improve student enthusiasm for studying chemical engineering. In this project, students studied the phenomenon of carbonated beverages going flat. The project was implemented in 2003 and 2004 at Kansas State…

A common undergraduate chemical engineering experiment has been modified for on-line operation over the Internet. By adopting rapidly changing Internet and object component technologies, we developed a novel approach combining the Internet and regular laboratory equipment. The client-server applications use a Visual Basic and Labtech programming…

Bacterial conjugation is a genetic transfer that involves cell-to-cell between donor and recipient cells. With the current method used to teach students in genetic courses at the undergraduate level, the transconjugants are identified using bacterial physiology and/or antibiotic resistance. Using physiology, however, is difficult for both…

Kinetics constitutes a core topic in both the lecture and laboratory components of lower- level chemistry courses. While textbook examples can ignore issues of time, temperature and safety, the laboratory can not. Reactions must occur slowly enough to be detected by students, occur rapidly enough for data collection in the few hours assigned to a…

This article presents the development of a carbon dioxide fountain. The advantages of the carbon dioxide fountain are that it is odorless and uses consumer chemicals. This experiment also is a nice visual experiment that allows students to see evidence of a gaseous reagent being consumed when a pressure sensor is available. (Contains 3 figures.)…

Mass spectrometry is a widely used and versatile tool for scientists in many different fields. Soft ionization techniques such as matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) allow for the analysis of biomolecules, polymers, and clusters. This article describes a MALDI mass spectrometry experiment designed for students in introductory…

Experience in using a user-friendly software, Mathcad, in the undergraduate chemical reaction engineering course is discussed. Example problems considered for illustration deal with simultaneous solution of linear algebraic equations (kinetic parameter estimation), nonlinear algebraic equations (equilibrium calculations for multiple reactions and…

I present a proposal for a laboratory practice to generate and analyze data from a saturation equilibrium binding experiment addressed to advanced undergraduate students. [[superscript 3]H]Quinuclidinyl benzilate is a nonselective muscarinic ligand with very high affinity and very low nonspecific binding to brain membranes, which contain a high…

Advances in the field of molecular biology, powered by a technological revolution, have increased dramatically over the past decades. Notable developments such as the cloning of adult sheep, the sequencing of the human genome, and the production of genetically modified organisms capture the attention of biologists, their students, and the general…

We hypothesize that cultural narratives such as myths and folktales are more likely to achieve cultural stability if they correspond to a minimally counterintuitive (MCI) cognitive template that includes mostly intuitive concepts combined with a minority of counterintuitive ones. Two studies tested this hypothesis, examining whether this template…

The use of biocatalysis and biotransformations are important tools in green chemistry. The enantioselective reduction of a ketone by crude plant parts, using carrot ("Daucus carota") as the reducing agent is presented. The experiment introduces an example of a green chemistry procedure that can be tailored to fit in a regular laboratory session.…