#ChemMovieCarnival: Aaaand ACTION!

See also Day 2 and Day 3!

[Quiet on the set!]

We've set the stage, fixed the makeup, and turned on the cameras.

[Places, everyone!]

Who's up for Scene 1 of the Chem Movie Carnival?

1. First, viajamos a España, where contibutor Isi seeks some...relief, using Biuret adducts to detect would-be pool pissuers, err, "yellow-handed."
Film: Torrente 2: Misión en Marbella

2. Next, we'll stay in Europe and visit blog stalwart V. Saggiomo, who's donned some shades and a mullet to talk about everyone's favorite uber-resourceful agent MacGyver. Serious question at the end: what would MacGyver actually do with Parafilm? (besides fix everything)
TV Show: MacGyver

3. Jumping across the pond, we visit Chemjobber, on his [secret location deleted] rural soundstage in Somewhere, USA. Based on his post, I'm pretty sure he's either a) currently tunneling out of a bunker, or b) considering opening up a nanobrewery. Either way, there need to be more distillations run on movie sets!
Film: The Great Escape

4. If you dare, step into the ring with Andre the Chemist. He's got a bone to pick with a certain science-y, "not good, but not bad" comedy starring David Duchovny (note to self: must watch this movie). Andre picks up on several cover-your-eyes leaps of scientific faith, including nitrogenous life and the wrong anti-dandruff shampoo.
Film: Evolution

5. Glen Ernst reviewed Flubber, err, another famous Disney movie where a floating, bouncy polymer took center stage. Glen decries improper PPE, plays up Dr. Boom, and has an open contest to sniff out potential Texas carbons on a set design...
Film: The Absent-Minded Professor

6. Beth Halford, C&EN reporter extraordinaire, would like you to know that the only rule about Chem Movie Carnival is that you don't talk about Chem Movie Carnival. 
Also, I really hope I never spill lye on my hands, or meet Tyler Durden.
Film: Fight Club

7. Do you have a mechanical heart slowly killing you from the inside? Well, if so, Collapsed Wavefunction has just the thing! Pavilion blueprints, meta-palladium, and a do-it-yourself particle accelerator! (Snarky butler not included)
Film: Iron Man 2

8. YO, JOE! (Well, OK....Co-braaaa!) Over at Behind NMR Lines, Andrew muses on sinking ice, city-eating nanobots, and the ever-expensive line items on Cobra Commander's Excel spreadsheet. Maybe he could just hire himself some better scriptwriters... (Hsss! Destro! Hsss!)
Film: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

9. Gee, I forgot that Batman / Iceman / the Saint used to build giant lasers at a school for geniuses. Lucky for me, Sarah Cady to the rescue! Love to get some P-Chem up in this Carnival, although someone's gonna have to explain to me what an "argon matrix" really is. 
Laser popcorn, anyone?
Film: Real Genius

More to come tomorrow...Stay tuned!

Travel Channel Chemistry

The dry cleaning bills must have been
a nightmare.
Source: Travel Channel

Somehow, I missed one of the recent Mysteries at the Museum episodes in last month's holiday hullabaloo. Did you catch it?

Featuring Jennifer Landry, Director of the Chemical Heritage Foundation museum in Philadelphia, the piece profiles young W.H. Perkin as he isolates and later conquers fashion with his revolutionary synthetic dye, mauveine.

I'm grateful to have more chemistry-themed shows appear on TV, but I do have one tiny quibble: do you suppose a dye chemist would have such crisp white sleeves?

Check it out, and let me know what you think.

There's Always Next Year?

Just found out that I won't be hosting the upcoming PBS series "The Mystery of Matter - Search for the Elements." The project director, Stephen Lyons, kindly wrote this message to anyone who sent along an 'audition' video:

Although I'm a little disappointed, I realize the gig will go to someone truly awesome, and there's other chemical video contests to enter while I wait for my big break.


Maybe next time, I'll wear a nicer T-shirt...