He Watches Over Us

First a few words about spectroscopy. That link has a cool animation of what looks like Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon album cover where a prism splits a beam of white light into the colors of the rainbow--the spectrum (pl = spectra) of white light.
Early chemists used colored lines in spectra for the identification of materials when placed in flames.* The flame spectra of individual elements lack the full spectrum of the sun, and more or less resemble a bar code, that is, the spectra have one or several discrete lines separated by spaces. The discrete lines are a “fingerprint” or spectroscopic signature, unique for each element. With that brief introduction, we go back in time to 1868:

On 18 August 1868, a total eclipse of the sun was visible in India, and a number of scientists went there to make observations of the solar prominences. One who examined photographs of the spectra was Joseph Norman Lockyer (1836-1920) who although a civil servant at the War Office had already in his spare time done valuable work in astronomical spectroscopy.
Lockyer was particularly interested in a so called D3 line in the yellow region of solar spectra that had been obtained during the eclipse in India. It was known that the well-known sodium D line was in fact two lines close together, called the D1 and D2 lines. The D3 line could not be obtained from any substance in the laboratory, and Lockyer boldly suggested that it was caused by a new element, found in the sun but apparently not on earth. He gave this new element the name helium, from the Greek helios, the sun.
~The World Of Physical Chemistry, Keith J. Laidler

Lockyer’s hypothesis illustrates one of two ways to advance a theory in science: The first is to amass so much data that the subsequent explanation almost sounds obvious; the second is to boldly assert something with little or no support, and await experimental confirmation.

Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen. Where it does occur naturally on earth, it originates from the radioactive decay of heavier elements. The bulk of our domestic helium supply comes from deposits underground found with gas and oil. Helium is a non-renewable resource: even if made synthetically using radio-decay processes, the supply could not meet demand: link. We recognize helium's use in filling balloons but it is also used in welding and to replace nitrogen in synthetic breathing gas for deep-water diving because its lower solubility in blood minimizes occurrence of the often fatal "bends." However, its greatest use is in liquefied form to cool instruments and for cryogenic research. I used to use lots of it to cool the NMR supercon magnets found associated with nearly every modern chemistry lab.

Helium sits atop the northeast corner of the Periodic Table. From that vantage point, it is possible to look downwards through the eastern border of the chart all the way to the bottom. The elements directly beneath He are the so-called noble or inert elements on account of their general failure to interact chemically with other elements. The other related elements were all given Greek names: Neon (new), Argon (inert) Krypton (hidden), Xenon (strange), and Radon (named after radium but with its suffix changed to conform to the others). The discovery of the noble elements at first confounded the construction of the table--was there another family further to the right? But it was eventually recognized that the noble gas family perfected an understanding of the physical nature of the elements (more on that when we get to Lithium next).

So how many helium balloons would it take to lift a man? Mythbusters apparently did this experiment (I didn’t see it) with helium weather balloons and used about 45 of them, and their balloons were 2.5 meters diameter. I once tried to fill one of those inflatable love dolls (a gag gift) with helium to get it to float for a Halloween party- it didn't work. :(
________________________
*Robert Bunsen was a 19th century German chemist interested in the flame emission spectra of the elements--guess what he invented?

H Is For Humble Hydrogen

The sun consumes about a half billion tons of hydrogen every second, fusing mass into helium and radiating the excess as energy. We just sit back on sunny days and bask in the afterglow of the nuclear holocaust at a very safe distance, thinking nothing of it. Our nonchalance towards any solar dimming is justified by considering that the sun should last another 5 billion years or so.

Hydrogen fuel cells (chemical, not nuclear) are already used in spacecraft, and modern rocket engines burn liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. But back on earth, there is talk of using hydrogen as an energy source to replace hydrocarbon fuels. Hydrogen gas burns cleanly, as the very name reminds us: hydrogen = water generating; the catch is that hydrogen gas has to be made because little is found naturally on earth.

By far the cheapest way to make hydrogen gas is from natural gas, CH₄, using a process that co-produces CO₂ (the carbon atom has to go somewhere). But another little appreciated fact is that a big consumer of hydrogen gas is the fertilizer industry—hydrogen is used to make ammonia from nitrogen—and another big user is the food industry—it is used it to hydrogenate vegetable oils. Any large-scale diversion of existing hydrogen to transportation fuels will ultimately raise the price of food via the costs of ammonia fertilizer and food processing costs. Sound familiar?

What’s really needed is a new and different way to cheaply make hydrogen gas—something like the efficient photolysis of water or the electrolysis of water using electricity from nuclear power plants. Both technologies exist, but they are economic nonstarters. For my money, I’d rather see cars run on methane, rather than going through the additional process hoops of converting the methane to hydrogen gas. A similar argument holds for bio-fuels, which I will discuss when I get to carbon and oxygen.

Hydrogen is the most promiscuous chemical element, pair bonding with nearly every element and even forming special bonding threesomes called hydrogen bonds. Hydrogen bonds are the principle force binding the two strands of DNA together. Arguably, hydrogen bonds are present at the conception of human life: when the two single strands of DNA, one from the mother, one from the father, join for the first time, those strands are united by about 3 billion hydrogen bonds. Each one is worth a small amount, but together, summed over the entire double helix, amounts to a formidable binding glue.

The themes of family and weak and strong chemical forces reminds me of some lines from the David Lynch movie “The Straight Story." Richard Farnsworth says (while demonstrating with sticks):

When my kids were young I played a game with them. I'd give each of them a stick. One for each of 'em, and I'd tell them to break it. They'd do that easy. Then I'd tell them to make one bundle of all the sticks and try to break that. And course they couldn't. I used to say that was family, that bundle.

Elemental Musings

The other day, my son asked me what makes fireworks different colors. "It's the elements" I explained: "different chemical elements in fireworks give different colors when they burn." Fortunately, I remembered* a couple of examples: red (strontium), blue (copper), and green (barium). Because he has a periodic table on his wall, those names were at least familiar to him.

I googled up a cool spiral version of the Periodic Table of the Elements (the original is here. I like this chart because the spiral line tracks the series of the known elements, ranging from 1 to about 107 (there are actually now 118 elements). Also, the radial arrangement indicates some of the “rhyming” between related elements (so-called periodicity).



Mentally uncoil the spiral and imagine a number line beginning with 1 (hydrogen), continuing with 2 (helium), then 3 (lithium), etc., and ending at 118. This is the alphabet of matter--just as 26 characters are the alphabet of our language. But just as the alphabet alone cannot capture the compositional richness of language--words, sentences, paragraphs, and books--the elements alone cannot capture the richness of the physical world. And yet the table of elements is still a marvel to contemplate.

*Added: a website link that tells you how to color flames with common household materials: Link.

Father and Son

Hollywood Homeschooling

I've begun something I'm dubbing "Hollywood Homeschooling." The idea involves influencing my 10 year old son's weekend movie viewing choices (he only watches TV on weekends, and prefers to read during the week). And don't think I'm encouraging couch potato habits- he does have sports activities.

We don't have expanded cable, which seems to have swallowed up most of the movies I saw as a kid. However, Netflix offers many of them for rent. I've been picking one movie a week, and so far he has been very receptive.

Movies watched so far:

The Great Escape (1963)
The Guns Of Navarone (1961)

Movies in queue:

The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
Where Eagles Dare (1968)
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Zulu (1964
The Blue Max (1966) BTW, can anybody recommend a good DVD educational series on WW I?

You can tell I have a little theme going, and I'm reaching back into my memory, recalling what I watched in TV reruns when I was that old.

Which movies do you remember watching as a kid?

Tourette's Euchre

We love the card game of euchre around my neighborhood. The game has declined in popularity in the United States since the 19th century, when it was widely regarded as the national card game (according to Wikipedia).

Everybody I know who plays euchre is from a Midwestern state like Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa or Michigan. Also, the game is considered a bit déclassé, which IMO is all the more reason to like it.

We call it Tourette's euchre because we like to swear a lot during games. We play against the neighbor couple, who are both younger and better looking than we are. Sometimes, we swap partners, or play boys against girls. The jokes and innuendo would make even Trooper York blush. Of course, everything is on the up and up, because we really do respect each other's boundaries.

Trannys Scare Me

So the entire transmission of my car needs to be replaced. I'm without a car in southern California until Friday! I used to DIY a lot of car maintenance (I once rebuilt a Ford Big Block V-8), but transmissions always intimidated me. As for getting around, there are alternatives: today I jumped on my bike and pedaled to the commuter train station (they have special places for bikes on the train). Then I pedaled to work from the train station.

Biking and taking the train doesn't save any time, but it sure saves aggravation. I’m thinking of parking the car for a while when I get it back.

The View From My Throne

Coming Soon!