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Here is the chemistry of every classic horror movie’s most crucial element: FAKE BLOOD.

Is Poisoned Halloween Candy a Myth? 

Every year around Halloween, we hear the same concern: you gotta check the candy for poison because strangers put laxatives in Tootsie Rolls, Razor Blades in Apples and drugs in Snickers. 

Where did this fear come from?

The truth is out there.

Mischmetal

You’ve seen this metal mixture in action before in movies. It’s used on film sets when two swords clash in a fight or when a car grinds against a metal rail during a car chase. The mixture of 35% lanthanum, 63% cerium, and smaller percentages of neodymium, praseodymium, iron, and magnesium is called mischemetal, and it produces showers of bright white sparks when struck with an abrasive object or scratched with a blade. Cerium is the main element responsible for the sparks because it oxidizes rapidly when exposed to air. A large piece of cerium–or a cerium alloy such as mischmetal–forms a passivating oxide layer that protects the bulk of the metal. But striking the metal liberates tiny pieces with exposed cerium metal surfaces that react with oxygen in the air, get hot, and glow.

Credit: Andres Tretiakov @Andrestrujado/ezgif.com

Quest for the golden flask

The solid coating this round-bottom flask isn’t actually gold, but it could prove valuable one day. Jan Griwatz, a graduate student at Justus Liebig University Giessen, made the compound, 6,7-dimethyl-1,4-naphthoquinone (structure shown), as the first step in a new synthesis of materials that could be used in flow batteries—energy storage devices with enough capacity to power several houses. Effective flow batteries could store solar and wind energy for use after the sun goes down or the wind stops blowing. From this molecular building block, Griwatz hopes to quickly make several varieties of anthraquinone materials and see which work best in flow battery applications.

Submitted by Jan Griwatz

More Chemistry in Pictures and C&EN stories:

Fikile Brushett: The Baron of Batteries

HEY!  WE HAVE A NEW HISTORY SHOW!

If you’re curious about where it all comes from, then this is the show for you. Each week on YouTube and Facebook, host Danielle Bainbridge will give you the perfect dose of weird history. Scary clowns, cannibals, hashtags, national healthcare system, memes, you name it! 

The fun starts on Tuesday September 5th. Reblog if you’re as excited as we are! 

Ceramics: Lanthanum hexaboride

A refractory ceramic material with a high melting point (over 2200C), lanthanum hexaboride, or LaB6, is a naturally purple-violet ceramic when the samples are stoichiometric, though boron-rich varieties are blue.

Insoluble in water and hydrochloric acid, lanthanum hexaboride’s most valuable properties are its low work function and high electron emissivity, as well as its ability to be stable in vacuum. The work function is loosely defined as the minimum energy needed to remove an electron from a solid to a point in the vacuum immediately outside the solid surface, which makes LaB6 an ideal material in applications that require loose electrons. 

Because of these properties, LaB6 is mainly used as a hot cathode, often in the form of single crystals or as coatings. These hot cathodes are used in electron microscopes, microwave tubes, electron beam welding, and more. While tungsten filaments are often also used for these applications, LaB6 is many times “brighter” (has a higher current density) and has a much longer lifetime. Similarly, other hexaborides (such as cerium hexaboride) also have low work functions, and are occasionally used as well in these applications. Another application for LaB6 includes as a standard for x-ray powder diffraction to calibrate diffraction peaks. 

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“Ain’t no party like a Chemistry party because a Chemistry Party don’t stop.”

From flatscreen TVs to your smartphone—the element boron deserves more attention

Each time you watch sport on a flatscreen television, or send a message by touching your smartphone screen, give thanks to an unsung hero of the periodic table: boron.

Boron, often wrongly labelled a “boring” element, plays a versatile role in our lives.

It’s the key ingredient in borosilicate glass, which is known for its exceptional resistance to thermal change and chemicals, and its ability to withstand impact. This means glass cookware can go into a hot oven straight from the freezer, and that lab equipment such as beakers and test tubes can withstand corrosion.

Neodymium magnets, in which boron plays a role in the formation of the crystal structure and retaining magnetisation, are among the strongest permanent magnets commercially available. Boron is also used to prepare detergents, buffer solution, insecticides, insulation and semiconductors.

Australia’s soils can be deficient in boron, and boron-containing fertiliser is used to help with root growth and flowering.

Submit your best shots to our 15th Annual Photo Contest, open now!

Photo of the Day: 2017 Totality Diamond Ring

Photographer caption: This eclipse photo was taken during the end of totality in Montgomery City, Missouri.

Omeprazole (C17H19N3O3S) is a drug used to treat acid reflux, stomach ulcers, and indigestion. Under standard conditions, it is a white powder that is sparingly soluble in water.

Omeprazole acts as an irreversible proton-pump inhibitor. It binds permanently to active H+/K+-ATPase systems found in the stomach lining, preventing H+ ions from being shuttled into the stomach. This causes a reduction in gastric acid production.

Being lipophilic, it is readily absorbed by the parietal cells of the stomach, where it undergoes an acid-catalysed rearrangement to form a sulfenic acid, which exists in equilibrium with the sulfenamide. The sulfenamide, which is the active form of the drug, can then react with a cysteine residue in the ATPase to form a covalent bond with it.

As active H+/K+-ATPase pumps are activated upon consumption of food, omeprazole should only be taken on an empty stomach, and food should only be taken 30-60 minutes after.

Proton-pump inhibitors should only be taken in appropriate doses when needed, as they have been shown to interfere with absorption of nutrients since gastric acid is essential for the digestion of food and release of nutrients.

Omeprazole can be synthesised via a multi-step process from 2,3,5-trimethylpyridine.