My name is Jingjing Wang and I worked as a Plant Pathology and Cereal Breeding Assistant at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Brandon Research center for my summer Co-op term. I was assigned to a project looking for barley strains with resistant genes using RT-PCR data. During my work term, I received training in WHMIS, DNA extraction, operating RT-PCR instrumentation and lab sterilization practices.

My daily work was to perform DNA extractions of various barleys and to screen the resulting genetic material by running it through the RT-PCR. Subsequently, I organized the results and made a conclusion for each run.

Jingjing at work.

In addition to working in the lab, I also did field work. This meant that I had a really good combination of theoretical and practical experience, which gave me a better understanding of my work in the molecular lab. At the research center, I not only picked up technical skills, but also professional skills. I learned how to work with my group efficiently and how to map out tasks.

All in all, the Brandon Research Station is a really nice place to work. I am thankful to all the Chemical and Biosciences Technology instructors at Red River College for helping me learn the skills I needed to get this position.

The nitrous oxide molecule.

Anyone perusing our Chemical of the Week molecules may notice that many pharmacologically active molecules are very large and complex. However, this is not always the case. An interesting exception is nitrous oxide, also known as dinitrogen monoxide. The nitrous oxide molecule is made of only two nitrogen (N) atoms and one oxygen (O) atom and so is very simple.

Nitrous oxide works as a general painkiller and anaesthetic and was first used in dentistry in the 17th and 18th centuries. Interestingly, it is still used today in modern dentistry and some medical procedures. This chemical has a side effect of inducing a supposedly pleasant feeling of euphoria and hence is frequently known by its slang name of “laughing gas.”

Although it is a simple molecule, nitrous oxide appears to produce its effects on the body through a complex series of processes, involving the inhibition of ion transport and other mechanisms. Not that many medical procedures that were popular two hundred years ago are still around, so nitrous oxide deserves some admiration, if only for its longevity!

With the (relatively) warm weather here, it’s a good time to look at sunscreen chemicals! Avobenzene (IUPAC name 1-(4-Methoxyphenyl)-3-(4-tert-butylphenyl)propane-1,3-dione) is a popular ingredient of sunscreens. It is part of the “Helioplex” sunscreen system marketed by Neutrogena. Like almost all sunscreen compounds, it contains benzene rings, since these are good at absorbing UV light. In the case of avobenzene, it absorbs a wider range of UV light than many other similar chemicals and so is well-suited for its purpose of shielding us from the sun. One deficit of avobenzene is that it tends to break down rather rapidly under UV light, so it is normally packaged together with another chemical to help it stay stable. In the case of Helioplex, the compound oxybenzone is used. 

The avobenzene molecule.

Each year the Chemical and Biosciences Technology second year students perform an independent research project. A fascinating array of different projects are presented, and this year was no exception. The topics ranged from the environmentally-friendly extraction of pharmaceuticals from water solutions to a search for antibiotic-resistance bacteria. The most fragrant project, though, was performed by Kaarina, Hazel and Amanuel (shown here in the lab.)

Our popcorn team!

This project was looking at an ingredient in microwave popcorn. Specifically, they were searching for diacetyl, a chemical ingredient that occurs in butter and other foods and is sometimes added to give popcorn an artificial “buttery” smell and taste. Unfortunately, there have been concerns that inhaling diacetyl vapours during heating of microwave popcorn can be hazardous to your health. The RRC team wanted to see if buttery popcorn still contained this chemical. A number of sophisticated analytical methods were applied to look for diacetyl, including mass spectrometry but, perhaps fortunately, none was found in any of the store-bought popcorn samples. The clean bill of health was a welcome result, since the team had a number of left over bags of popcorn which are still being enjoyed in the department!

Since the invention of gunpowder in China over one thousand years ago, much human ingenuity over the years has gone into devising ways to make things explode. The current epitome of this search for bigger and better explosives is CL-20. It was developed in the 1980’s at the U.S. Naval China Lake research facility in California. It’s currently being investigated as a component of new high energy plastic explosives.

The CL-20 molecule.

There are a few interesting things about CL-20. One is that it has an almost unpronounceable formal name; 2,4,6,8,10,12-hexanitro-2,4,6,8,10,12-hexaazaisowurtzitane (you can see why they named it CL-20!). The second is that it is the world’s most powerful non-nuclear explosive. This explosive energy is provided by the high concentration of nitramine functional groups as well as, to some extent, the appreciable ring strain in the molecular structure.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is a federal government agency which has a mandate to investigate chemical accidents. Unfortunately, the CSB has no shortage of work, since there is apparently an endless supply of such accidents in the U.S. (and elsewhere, of course). The good news is that often these incidents provide valuable insights into safety issues and can serve as useful learning tools. The CSB has done a great job of investigating a wide variety of workplace accidents, from small to large scale, and producing very high quality videos which provide unique insights into the causes of these accidents. In my Laboratory Safety course, I often use these videos to highlight a range of safety concerns and encourage my students to identify the root causes of the incidents and determine what could have been done differently.

An image from a CSB video.

Anyone with an interest in chemical or industrial safety might want to spend some time on the CSB website, especially on the video section, which currently hosts about 50 videos on subjects as diverse as reactive hazards, static electrical discharge and combustible dusts. – Michael Judge.

Aspartame is the commonly used name for the artificial sweetener N-(L-α-aspartyl)-L-phenylalanine, 1-methyl ester. It was discovered when a chemist working in the Searle labs in 1965 accidentally ingested some and realized it tasted sweet. The chemist at the time was working on drugs to control ulcers! It is formed by making the dipeptide of two amino acids and then producing the methyl ester of that molecule.

The aspartame molecule.

It is about 200 times sweeter than sugar and so can sweeten foods without adding a lot of calories, since little is required. Aspartame is very widely used today for numerous foods and beverages, although not without controversy.  For decades, there have been concerns and even conspiracy theories associated with the use of aspartame, and it has been claimed to cause numerous health problems ranging from simple headaches to cancer. Many studies over several decades, however, have consistently shown that aspartame is safe at normal levels of ingestion and it continues to be approved for use by the FDA, the EU and other worldwide regulatory agencies.

Heroin is a member of the alkaloid family of chemicals (which normally contain a somewhat basic nitrogen group). It is produced by chemical modification of morphine; the principal opiate obtained from the poppy plant. The synthesis of heroin from morphine is actually fairly simple and involves the acetylation of two hydroxyl groups, hence heroin is also known as diacetylmorphine.

The heroin molecule. Note the two acetyl groups on the left.

Heroin was synthesized and produced commercially in the late 19^th century by the Bayer company in Germany and was intended to be a non-addictive substitute for morphine, which was a common medical ingredient at the time. The name “heroin” was meant to reflect the chemical’s heroic properties (an early attempt at branding!). As we all know, this idea didn’t work out so well, since heroin is actually extremely addictive. In fact, heroin is about twice as powerful as morphine, possibly because it is less polar and can more readily move into the brain once it enters the body. The dangers of heroin were quickly recognized and it was banned quite soon after it became available (in 1924 in the U.S., for example).

With the warm weather still here, Californium is a good choice for the element of the week! This element was first created in the labs of the University of California, Berkeley in 1950 and is named after the balmy State of California. That was in the good old days when, if you made it, you got to name it! Californium is produced by bombarding other elements (such as curium) with subatomic particles.

U of California researchers work with Californium in the ‘60s. Note the snappy attire!

The 252 isotope of this element is a very powerful radioisotope, emitting millions of neutrons per second. It has several practical applications, such as providing the initial radiation input for the start-up of nuclear reactors.

Californium has the distinction of being perhaps the most expensive commodity chemical on earth. The price in 1999 was $60 per microgram, or $60,000,000 per gram, which is about two million times more expensive than gold.

Kevlar is the DuPont brand name for an aramid (aromatic amide) polymer first developed in 1965. The para orientation of the benzene substituents in the repeating unit allows a high degree of hydrogen bonding between polymer chains in this material. As a result, the polymer in the solid phase forms rod-like liquid crystal packing structures. Spun fibers of this material are exceptionally strong; Kevlar has about eight times the strength of steel on a per-weight basis.

The molecular structure of Kevlar.

The synthesis and processing of Kevlar is difficult, since a solution of concentrated sulfuric acid is required to dissolve the polymer, and consequently the price for this polymer is quite high. Nevertheless, it’s unique combination of strength, low density and flexibility have led to numerous applications, including body armour, bridge cables and the roof of Montreal’s Olympic stadium.