Personal Log, Stardate: Mole Day

Well, I certainly 'fished my wish' for this carnival! Only two days in, and I've already compiled the requisite 10 entries for my own post. So, here goes...

Your current job: I'm a medicinal chemist at a (very) small startup company. How small? Let's just say that everyone at the company still fits around one table for lunch.

What you do in a standard work day: Like many folks at small companies, there's hardly a 'standard' day; I rapidly shift between lab and non-lab responsibilities. For instance, in the past month, I've written grants, met with vendors, fixed small equipment, scaled-up our final product, drafted provisional patents, tested new routes, and (nearly) finished our safety handbook. 

Never relaxing, but never boring.

What kind of schooling / training / experience helped you get there? Since I use the #phdlife hashtag from time-to-time, it shouldn't surprise you that I have my doctorate. But let me tell you why I went back to school. I had been working as an RA at a medium-sized biotech back in the "boom years." Every Friday, the Ph.D. chemists would meet in a conference room, and emerge with fresh data and synthetic ideas. 

Patriots coach Bill Belichick
attended Wesleyan around the time
Max Tishler became a chem professor

I wanted to be like them. 

[Soapbox Moment] - I can't recommend enough actual lab work as an intern or undergraduate assistant. Without that experience, I'd never have become a chemist.

How does chemistry inform your work? My nose often points into the pages of Aldrich, Alfa, Fisher, Green & Wuts, and Silverstein & Webster. Reaxys and the primary literature feel like best friends. Thick binders of NMR and HPLC data festoon my top shelves. I'm known to doodle structures on nearby scrap paper, so don't throw away anything on my desk, please!

Finally, a unique, interesting, or funny anecdote about your career: Gosh, lots of 'em. Moving shaky mercury-filled Schlenk lines on rusty old elevators (not recommended). Nearly catching myself and a balance on fire during my first week as an intern. Grading huge stacks of tests while blaring terrible pop music and noshing on pizza.

Here's one I suppose informed the theme of this carnival: my High School chem teacher was also one of our football coaches! So, periodic trends in class, linebacker drills on the field.

One more - Didja see the post title? I still recall one of my early "Aha!" moments as the ST:TNG episode "Night Terrors," where the alien race describes hydrogen as "eyes in the dark, one moon circles" (one proton and one electron). Must have really stuck with me!

Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of...Sunscreen?

Actual AP headline yesterday: "Banana Boat recalls sunscreen due to fire risk." CNN, ever one for a scare, upped the ante with their headline: "Sunscreen could burst into flames on skin." (emphasis mine). Did I miss the part when sunscreen formulators started including white phosphorus in the mix?!?

Kidding aside, I'm not talking about "toxic chemicals" here; sunscreen already occupies a special place at Just Like Cooking due to the clouds of chemophobia swirling around it. The fire risk appears to involve two factors: engineering and consumer usage. An Energizer Holdings* corporate spokesman said the canister spray valve applies too much product, which leads to longer-than-average drying times. The exacerbating factor? Customers suffering burns engaged in barbecuing and welding immediately after application.

Well, what is so flammable about spray-on sunscreen, anyway? The ingredients list shows all the usual suspects: UV blockers, vitamins, surfactants, and polymers - none of which are particularly flammable. Two components catch my eye, though: isobutane and SD Alcohol 40. One commonly finds isobutane, the simplest branched hydrocarbon, in refrigeration coils and aerosol products. It could certainly ignite, but high volatility means that most of it flies away mere seconds after you spray it on. SD Alcohol 40**, however, is almost straight ethanol, and makes up a large portion of the overall spray. It would also fit the bill for physical properties: boils at 173 deg F, vapor pressure 40x lower than isobutane. A fog of ethanol slowly evaporating from your arms certainly invites ignition.

*Fast fact: Did you know Energizer Holdings owned Banana Boat? I didn't. They also apparently make shaving creams and tampons. Huh.

**The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) actually tightly regulates specially denatured (SD) alcohols for use in lotions, oils, creams, and sprays. Here's the page for blend "40." I was rather surprised to find out that sunscreen actually contains trace amounts of complex alkaloids: quassin, brucine. The bitter taste and side effects discourage drinking SD-40 for recreation.

"Hot Rocks" Cause Injury, Mystery

As reported on Yahoo / GMA (video), and by the ever-vigilant Jyllian Kemsley over at Safety Zone, a real-life chemical mystery is unfolding. A few days ago, a California couple strolled the beach with their kids, and pocketed a few interesting-looking rocks they had found. Later that evening, the rocks caught fire while in Lyn Hiner's pants pocket, with a "...bright, intense flame," that, according to reports, couldn't be patted or smothered out. The resulting fire hospitalized both wife and husband with severe burns.

Source: AP

So, the question remains: what was on the rocks? The orange substance, found on green and gray surfaces, may indeed be "phosphorous" [sic], as mentioned by a mildly chemophobic (nearby nuclear plant, firing range?!) Associated Press report. A local geologist commented that the orange coloration is "...not natural, it's human made." With some imagination, you could probably come up with a few phosphorus alternatives (looking at you here, ExploSci!).

Pyrophoric Metals - Finely dispersed powders of magnesium, zinc, or thermite could certainly react with a little acid or moisture. However, these don't fit the bill as "orange substances."


Flash powder - Often used in special effects and flares. This blend of oxidizers and reactive metals would have to have been intentionally placed on the rocks, since they wouldn't have remained stable for long, out in the open air.


Reactive Groups - Many organic groups react with violent decomposition or exotherms when sparked, touched, or heated. Although certainly far-fetched, someone fooling around with picrates, nitrates, or perchlorates could have inadvertently doped the stones in question. There's at least a few dozen of these salts around, and many (iron perchlorate, mercury fulminate, ammonium picrate) may actually be orange or yellow-colored.