X-Files' Freezing Catalyst: Digging Deeper

A random Friday afternoon link at Chemjobber's place clued me into Mitch's post, about a random NMR encountered in an old episode of '90s sci-fi classic The X-Files. By some odd coincidence I, too, was watching the episode sometime in early April, though I didn't get my notes and pictures together in time. Alas.

(Before we get too hung up on the episode's premise - that in 1996 computational chemists at MIT were performing in silico calculations on a "catalyst" intended for rapid body freezing - let's also remember that this episode shows us protagonist Lisa, a wunderkind doctor / chemist / radiologist, strutting out of her lab sans questioning after her patient spontaneously combusts!)

Now, to the structure of "Compound X" - I took a close-up of the computer terminal Lisa's working on, right around 17:00. Yes, folks, that's 1,2-dichloro-1,1,2,2-tetrahelio-ethane. Carbon-helium bonds can't exist, shout the skeptics? Well, 1993 marked production of the first He@C60 clathrate (story here), and friend of the blog Henry Rzepa had a theoretical paper in 2010 discussing charge-shift C-He bonding. True, isolable heliocarbons are still at large, for anyone seeking a high-risk, high-reward tenure project [ducks].

Molecular modeling has always looked best on Macs. There, I said it.
Fox Broadcasting Corp.

In his post, Mitch calls attention to the NMR, though I found the second analytical spectrum more entertaining, since it has an actual reference printed across the top. Turns out the producers did their homework for this one - this spectrum is an example of spectral linear combination to quantify small amounts of metabolites in blood plasma - good call!

Real science! In a sci-fi show! Who knew?
Fox Broadcasting Corp.

Back to the (flimsy) plot: certain details are over-the-top cheesy, like the "hand scanner" Jason uses to access his facility - it looks like it was built from an old dot-matrix calculator screen screwed into a subway post:

State-of-the-art security for the "MIT Biomedical Research Facility"
Alternate caption: I spent a weekend building this prop, and they used it for 4 seconds of footage.
Fox Broadcasting Corp.

The writers have also presaged the warm-liquid-goo-phase meme from Austin Powers, as the antidote to the freezing catalyst seems to be epinephrine, DMSO, electroshock...and complete-body immersion in a human-sized deep fryer:

Warm liquid goo phase - Complete!
Fox Broadcasting Corp.

Spoiler alert - the concluding scene, a conflagration in the "MIT computer mainframe," would likely have set the Schrock and Buchwald groups back quite a number of years.


Finally, I'll leave you with a silly futuristic quote: "The technology to engineer [Compound X] is still 5, 10 years away..." Sorry, Dr. Lisa - it's been 23 years since this episode aired, and to my knowledge, we're still not making per-heliated small molecules. Maybe check back in another three decades.

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If you enjoyed this post, try some of the others in the Chemistry Movie Carnival from 2013.

Presidential Chemists

From an astute commenter in the 2015-2016 Bumper Cars post, we hear about Prof. Andrew Hamilton's appointment to serve as the next President of New York University (NYU). Congrats!

I'm sure chemblogosphere NYU alums Phil Baran and ChemBark are overjoyed.

Readers, how many chemists now serve as chancellors, provosts, or presidents at academic institutions?

Here's who I know about today - I'll add more as I hear about them in the comments.

Eva Åkesson - Uppsala University
Vicki Colvin - Brown University
David M. Dooley - University of Rhode Island
Marye Anne Fox - UC San Diego
Andrew Hamilton - New York University
Wolfgang Herrmann - TU Munich
Peter Schreiner - Justis Liebig Universitat, Giessen
John D. Simon - Lehigh University
H. Holden Thorp - Washington University in St. Louis
Mark Wrighton - Washington University in St. Louis

The Simpsons: Just Like "Cooking"

Ever have that feeling like you somehow missed the boat? 

Back in 2011, TV sitcom stalwart The Simpsons aired Episode #491 (NABF20), entitled "The Food Wife." I caught it in reruns for the first time tonight. Aside from the hilarious send-ups of celebrity chefs and uptown foodies, the episode turned a truly dark corner when it compared molecular gastronomy to...cooking methamphetamine. 

Really, it's true - Gothamist and Esquire both scribed pieces about the show last year.

Credit: Simpsons Wikia | 20th Century Fox

Breaking Bad gives its swan song later this year. We know Walter and Jesse's lab work has truly permeated pop culture when references pop up on prime time comedy cartoon shows.

And how often do you get to see Homer Simpson stumble around a garage lab*? Priceless.

*(Even one that doesn't make any practical sense; are those goofy cones supposed to be filters? And why do TV writers always think we connect reflux retorts with 'mad scientist'-esque glass tubing?)

Cool Science - N.dG.T.

Meet Neil deGrasse Tyson.

He's the director of the Hayden Planetarium. He's appeared on The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He answers astronomy questions posed to him by random netizens on reddit, and gives dozens of public talks to school kids.

Noted science writer Carl Zimmer has recently written a fairly glowing profile of him, that appeared in a well-read magazine.

He hosts episodes of NOVA for PBS, and Fox will re-boot Cosmos with him in front.

But it was his AP stock photo (see right) from this NPR book review that drew my eye - when's the last time being a scientist looked so cool?