I will answer chemistry questions

[bitcoinbear]

How do you make Am241 more powerful? Enough to give cancer

I am not sure where you are going with this? You want to use americium as a poison to give somebody cancer? Seems rather malicious.

Quick look at wikipedia "Because of the low penetration of alpha radiation, Americium-241 only poses a health risk when ingested or inhaled." Make your victim swallow it? Hide it in their cigarette so they inhale it - actually that would be pretty sneaky. If they get cancer they will just explain it away as a result of the smoking, nobody will know you got them with a radioactive isotope!

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Disclaimer: This post was made in jest. I do not advocate hurting other people, even if they do have horridly stinky bad habits like smoking.

[Thursday]

Awesome thread.  Now we just need a Physicist and Biologist to start there own.

How do I make the tritium vials in my watch glow brighter? 

Would my watch register on a gieger counter? 

What's the most interesting thing about Chemistry?

What's the best way to refine Gold?

Is breathing helium bad for you?

What's the heavy gas that makes your voice deep?

[bitcoinbear]

How do I make the tritium vials in my watch glow brighter? 

Would my watch register on a gieger counter? 

What's the most interesting thing about Chemistry?

I am honestly not sure how you would make your watch glow brighter. I will have to look into that. I will also look into the watch and the geiger counter.

The most interesting thing about chemistry? Depends on who you ask. I like the part of chemistry where you make useful stuff, which is probably why I ended up as a synthetic organic chemist. (Right now at work I am working on making OLED materials for displays, polyurethane adhesives for constructing cars, and a couple of compounds for agricultural use.)

What's the best way to refine Gold?

I don't know a whole lot about metal refining, but here is a process to make pure gold:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wohlwill_process

Is breathing helium bad for you?

What's the heavy gas that makes your voice deep?

Breathing helium is only bad in the way it reduces the amount of oxygen you get. If you only breath helium for a long enough time you will pass out and then die. But taking a breath of helium out of a balloon to make your voice sound funny will not hurt you.

The gas that lowers your voice is sulfur hexafluoride. (actually there are other gasses which will work, but this is the one people use because it will not harm you.) Helium raises the voice because it is lighter than air, molecular weight of 4 instead of 32 (oxygen) and 28 (nitrogen). Sulfur hexafluoride has a molecular weight of 146. The gas laws tell us that all gasses have the same number of mols per volume at a given temperature, so the density of each gas is a function of the molecular weight. The voicebox vibrates at the same rate, but when sound waves go from a less dense gas into a more dense gas they go up in frequency and so sound higher. The reverse happens when going from a dense gas into a less dense gas.

[mintymark]

> Is breathing helium bad for you?

While I agree with everything you said, how about impurities that normal helium (such as "Balloon Gas") may contain?

I suppose it is pumped and compressed by lubricated pumps and contains a certain amount of oil-as-vapour. Would this be bad for you and is it even true?

What other impurities might commercial Helium contain ?

[Peter Lambert]

> Is breathing helium bad for you?

While I agree with everything you said, how about impurities that normal helium (such as "Balloon Gas") may contain?

I suppose it is pumped and compressed by lubricated pumps and contains a certain amount of oil-as-vapour. Would this be bad for you and is it even true?

What other impurities might commercial Helium contain ?

My guess is that you breath as many contaminants walking beside a busy highway as you do from sucking a balloonful of helium. People suck lungfuls of tobacco smoke daily over the course of decades before they develope lung cancer, so I doubt the traces of things in a balloon would do anything noticeable.

[NorthChileanG]

Well, the (pseudo)ephedrine question seems popular... Lets reverse it for fun and profit: what could be effective means to significantly hinder or stop  easy removal of hydroxyl from any ephedrine stereoisomer and still keep reasonable bioavailability and vasoconstrictive properties for typical use?

[jaywaka2713]

I will donate to you just for providing this service to us. It won't be much, but hey, this stuff doesnt exactly come free (college is expensive!). Thanks for your service!

[Peter Lambert]

Well, the (pseudo)ephedrine question seems popular... Lets reverse it for fun and profit: what could be effective means to significantly hinder or stop  easy removal of hydroxyl from any ephedrine stereoisomer and still keep reasonable bioavailability and vasoconstrictive properties for typical use?

Yeah, I don't think that would work. These small molecules are very specific shapes to fit into the receptors in the body which lets them act as drugs. If you change the structure, it will drastically change the bodies response. Just look as pseudoephedrine and methamphetamine, they only differ by a single atom (pseudoephedrine has one more oxygen) but have very different bodily responses. Any molecule you could build which the body could convert back to pseudoephedrine, it would be at least as easy for a "chemist" to reverse the change.

[NorthChileanG]

Well, the (pseudo)ephedrine question seems popular... Lets reverse it for fun and profit: what could be effective means to significantly hinder or stop  easy removal of hydroxyl from any ephedrine stereoisomer and still keep reasonable bioavailability and vasoconstrictive properties for typical use?

Yeah, I don't think that would work. These small molecules are very specific shapes to fit into the receptors in the body which lets them act as drugs. If you change the structure, it will drastically change the bodies response. Just look as pseudoephedrine and methamphetamine, they only differ by a single atom (pseudoephedrine has one more oxygen) but have very different bodily responses. Any molecule you could build which the body could convert back to pseudoephedrine, it would be at least as easy for a "chemist" to reverse the change.

 Might it be, that indirect approach can be considered - typical ephedrine use has quite strict temperature, pH and other environment limits, that human body dictates. Lets say the molecular structure is unchanged but there are added substances, that for example are inert at body temperature but react unfavorably over 60c and reduce drastically possible methamphetamine production. I am sure purification by different ways is possible but if main goal is to rise production cost beyond usability for "chemist", what could be possible approaches?

[Peter Lambert]

Well, the (pseudo)ephedrine question seems popular... Lets reverse it for fun and profit: what could be effective means to significantly hinder or stop  easy removal of hydroxyl from any ephedrine stereoisomer and still keep reasonable bioavailability and vasoconstrictive properties for typical use?

Yeah, I don't think that would work. These small molecules are very specific shapes to fit into the receptors in the body which lets them act as drugs. If you change the structure, it will drastically change the bodies response. Just look as pseudoephedrine and methamphetamine, they only differ by a single atom (pseudoephedrine has one more oxygen) but have very different bodily responses. Any molecule you could build which the body could convert back to pseudoephedrine, it would be at least as easy for a "chemist" to reverse the change.

 Might it be, that indirect approach can be considered - typical ephedrine use has quite strict temperature, pH and other environment limits, that human body dictates. Lets say the molecular structure is unchanged but there are added substances, that for example are inert at body temperature but react unfavorably over 60c and reduce drastically possible methamphetamine production. I am sure purification by different ways is possible but if main goal is to rise production cost beyond usability for "chemist", what could be possible approaches?

I think answering this would require more understanding of the biochemistry involved in the interaction between the pseudoephedrine and the body than I currently have. My guess is that there is some receptor in the body which has an active site which binds to pseudoephedrine, so I doubt you could change the shape of the pseudoephedrine and still have it work the same. If just one end of the molecule is binding, then perhaps you could add something to the other end of the molecule which would prohibit it from being turned into methamphetamine, but I kinda doubt that. Just mixing another chemical with the pseudoephedrine will also not work, people are already doing some sort of separation to get the pseudoephedrine out of the pills.

Basically, you will just have to admit there is no way to completely stop people from doing something you do not want them to do. Until people stop wanting to do drugs there will be a market for drugs, and if there is a market for drugs there will be people who will find ways to make them. The only solution is to teach people correct principals and they will correct their own behavior.

[Matthew N. Wright]

Here's a chemistry question:

How can I get Scopolamine to work without killing my victim being harmful and how much should I use to sufficiently convince them to empty their bank account into mine properly test the supposed mind-control effects? (Also where can I buy it in the form of an aerosol spray or blow dart?)

[Peter Lambert]

Here's a chemistry question:

How can I get Scopolamine to work without killing my victim being harmful and how much should I use to sufficiently convince them to empty their bank account into mine properly test the supposed mind-control effects? (Also where can I buy it in the form of an aerosol spray or blow dart?)

That is not a chemistry question, that is more of a medical question.

[Matthew N. Wright]

Here's a chemistry question:

How can I get Scopolamine to work without killing my victim being harmful and how much should I use to sufficiently convince them to empty their bank account into mine properly test the supposed mind-control effects? (Also where can I buy it in the form of an aerosol spray or blow dart?)

That is not a chemistry question, that is more of a medical question.

Good point. I'll cross-post in the "Medical Consult" thread.

[Peter Lambert]

Here's a chemistry question:

How can I get Scopolamine to work without killing my victim being harmful and how much should I use to sufficiently convince them to empty their bank account into mine properly test the supposed mind-control effects? (Also where can I buy it in the form of an aerosol spray or blow dart?)

That is not a chemistry question, that is more of a medical question.

Good point. I'll cross-post in the "Medical Consult" thread.

But to answer your question, you just have to have a low enough dose for the drug to not kill the victim. From the article you linked, typical doses are very small, on the microgram level.

Administering this against somebodies will is dangerous and should not be done.

[bitcoinbear]

I will donate to you just for providing this service to us. It won't be much, but hey, this stuff doesnt exactly come free (college is expensive!). Thanks for your service!

Thanks for the good word

Bump for anybody interested?

[cp1]

What is the pH of a 10^-9 M solution of HCl?

[bitcoinbear]

What is the pH of a 10^-9 M solution of HCl?

In water? About 7.

To get more accurate than that would depend on the temperature and amounts of trace impurities like the carbonic acid that forms from the CO2 in the atmosphere.

[cp1]

Damn, that's one of my favorite trick questions.

[tkbx]

How was oxygen and potassium's date?

[cp1]

It was OK?