Just thought it will be fun to share these poems about the central science by Mala L. Radhakrishnan with everyone. She's now an assistant professor at Wellesley. I first posted one of her poems in my blog:
http://takchek.blogspot.com/2005/07/outside-norm-overqualifiedunderpaid.html
from here:
http://www.technologyreview.com/article/14688/page4/
Amalgam in the Middle By Mala L. Radhakrishnan
Silicon was faithfully teased each day
In school when atoms would line up to play:
Metals in one line, nons in the next,
But which line should it join? All were perplexed.
Like a metal, it was shiny,
But its conductivity was tiny.
Its band gap was too far from little,
And unlike metals 'twas rather brittle.
It clutched electrons way too tightly,
So metals teased it daily and nightly.
Yet nons would also jeer and nettle,
"You dress and look just like a metal!"
What pain since it did not conform!
No box for it to check on forms.
Few atoms could know the lonely void
That it knew as a "metalloid."
But sili did not yet know 'twas able
To be popular with the rest of the table.
Its half-filled shell did place it where
It had some four electrons to share.
While greedy nonmetals weren't willing to spare
And metals were willing to give anywhere,
Sili's electrons were things to be earned,
But they bonded with skill that couldn't be learned.
Once other elements saw this fact,
Moles of them came 'round to react.
O2 was the first to ask it on dates,
And others joined in to make silicates.
The former outcast whose hopes had been bust
Now was key in forming Earth's crust!
The pariah that had been given the hand
Was now in every grain of sand.
Soon, silicon was lionized;
Its band gap was of perfect size
To dope with nearby brothers and sisters
And make computers from transistors.
As if its utility has not yet impressed us,
It's also in quartz and glass and asbestos!
And silicon's used in chemical plants
To make lubricants and breast implants.
Sili, its fourteen electrons so strong,
Proved all of its doubtful peers to be wrong
When it managed to move all the way out to Cali
And founded its very own aptly named valley.
The ugly duckling of the table,
Silicon simply couldn't be labeled.
So if you feel you don't fit in,
Think of silicon and don't give in.
By Mala L. Radhakrishnan
I used to sleep 'til my electrons would drool
At P-32 element-ary school.
The things we were taught were just totally boring.
A mole of us atoms would always be snoring.
But one thing I learned there I've kept to this day:
"Soon, my students you'll beta decay
To become more mature and to capture the label
Of "S-32", and then you'll be stable.
And when that time comes you will celebrate
'Cause you will be ready to graduate.
So look around now, and count every peer.
Today there's a mole, but you'll soon disappear."
So I watched as my friends around me decayed.
I felt left behind, slow and dismayed.
Abandoned by those who were thought to be deft.
In two weeks there was but half us of left.
Meanwhile I'd hoped to impress my young lass
But was now in the bottom half of the class.
I spent all my class time planning to court her,
But remained, two weeks more, in the leftover quarter.
By two weeks more yet, and I still hadn't parted.
Now six weeks had passed since this challenge first started.
What was my problem? I kept losing faith.
The fraction of atoms left was one-eighth.
Another two weeks and my hope for love waned.
One sixteenth of a mole of us atoms remained.
My lass had now probably found a new mate.
By the time I escaped here, it would be too late.
So I studied the past eight weeks with great courage.
And suddenly a pattern started to emerge.
I realized, from evidence existential
That the decay of the class size was exponential.
See, every time two weeks came and then went,
The class size went down by fifty percent.
'Twas one mole times e to the minus kt,
Where k was ln 2 over 2 weeks, you see.
And "t" was the time in units of weeks
Since the teacher that lesson one fine day did speak.
This equation did serve as a useful tool;
I could predict, at time t, the number in school.
But then it happened - I had my decay!
I was S-32, and I liked it that way.
Success carried with it the sweetest aroma,
My electrons excited as I got my diploma,
Which oddly contained a most curious addition.
It read: "You've earned honors and recognition
For insightfully doing the mental athletics
Of uncovering the inherent first-order kinetics."
When my love saw this honor she screamed out loud,
"Oh, my brilliant darling, of you I'm so proud!
Your wit has won over my heart in a snap.
Let's let our orbitals overlap!"
So the one thing I learned from that school, 'twas the worst,
Is 'tis not about who's quick or who finishes first.
Everyone matures at different rates.
(But those who know learn chemistry will always get dates!)
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 2006, 34 (1), 34
Poem: Party of 5.55 * 101 mol/L
The water house had a party one night
With three different compounds they chose to invite.
Hexane and sugar and salt were the three
Who were kindly requested to RSVP.
All three on the guest list were pleasantly stunned
To be asked to the luxury beaker of fun.
They said yes and asked if alcohol was permissible.
Of course, said the water, 'cause we are both miscible.
The sugars came first in a big silver spoon,
A bunch of sweet friends who had come just to swoon
Over H2O guys who made their spines tingle.
As soon as they got there they split up to mingle.
Soon they were uniformly spread all throughout,
Surrounded by waters who'd dance and shout,
You're so nice and polar - of you we're quite fond.
Let's have a good time as we hydrogen bond!
Their H's and O's were dangerously close;
The entropy of the universe rose.
Needless to say, amid all the men,
The sugars didn't find each other again.
Next came the salts who were in for a ride -
Married couples of sodium and chloride.
The current crowd made each question its mate
And the salts began to dissociate.
The waters surrounded the split apart ions
As if they were outfits divorcees could try on.
Their hydrogens pointed at negative chlorides
While oxygens stood by the sodium's sides.
What was the cause of each sudden divorce?
Well, entropy was the main driving force.
As the night went along and the dating evolved,
Both sugar and salt were completely dissolved.
The last bunch to come was the hexane crowd.
They weren't expecting a party this loud.
The bonding and moshing and lust made them shout,
This is not what chemistry's about!
They huddled together to avoid the hysteria,
Minimizing their contact surface area.
The waters were too busy H-bonding to care,
To give up these bonds for some oil's not fair.
So to their own kinds were such compounds loyal.
Polar liked polar and didn't like oil.
The two didn't mix, but this we expect;
It's called the hydrophobic effect.
Unfortunately, society's a lot like chem.
People hang out with others like them.
By fighting our ignorance this issue we'd solve,
And most of our problems would simply dissolve.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 2005, 33 (5),356
Poem: Ethanol, my children!
Edward Ethanol had nothing to fear
As he floated around in that bottle of beer.
The water was cool, and nowhere in town
Were there enzymes that could ever break him down.
His two carbons free, his hydrogens strong,
His dangling -OH sang a peaceful song.
His life was one of bliss and elation,
Thanks to a process we call fermentation.
But one day the cap on his world had been popped;
The bottle was almost entirely flip-flopped.
He fell down a passage and started to shiver
When he saw himself headed straight for a liver!
A sign read: All alcohols, please be advised,
Beyond this point you'll be oxidized.
Soon he was looking right in the face
Of alcohol dehydrogenase.
The enzyme cut off his hydrogen pair,
And Ed shouted out, Now, that's just not fair.
You may have made acetaldehyde,
But if I were you, I would run and hide!
A second enzyme was to speed up the rate
Of turning Edward to acetate.
But, luckily, Edward saw a sign:
The enzyme is busy. Please wait in line.
It turned out the beer had too many vandals;
There was more aldehyde than this enzyme could handle.
So Edward now had some time to be free,
And he began to go on his vengeful spree.
He sailed through the blood and pillaged and plundered.
The helpless victims hopelessly wondered
Why cells around them started to die
While the overworked enzymes started to cry.
At the end of the day, Ed claimed he had won.
He wreaked tons of havoc and even had fun.
All of this destruction was simply to say,
Cut off my hydrogens and you'll have to pay!
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 2005, 33 (6), 419
Poem: Organic matchmaker
I'd really given it all that I had,
Flirted at bars, wrote a personal ad.
But every molecule I would encounter
Seemed wrong for me once I had learned all about her.
Some looked attractive, happy, able,
But upon reacting we'd soon be unstable.
Every time a reaction would start,
Thermodynamics soon pushed us apart.
But I knew there was one right fish in that sea,
Someone who'd surely react with me,
Proceeding forward spontaneously
With a highly negative delta G.
But finding that someone? My odds were pathetic.
So the issue I faced was mainly kinetic;
'Twas like two lovers apart, in seclusion,
And forced to meet by random diffusion.
Yet even they wouldn't have it as rough.
With us, meeting was just not enough,
Since we had the added obligation
To collide with proper orientation.
And oh, how I longed for reactive involvement,
So lonely, surrounded by aqueous solvent.
Then one day - 'twas no way that I could mistake her -
Along came my magical matchmaker.
A monstrous enzyme whose active site
Could hold two molecules nice and tight
Like a loveseat; we'd perfectly fit, in fact,
Positioned just right to quickly react.
The enzyme was meant just for me and my match,
To her both my partner and I could attach,
And she helped me react with my ultimate mate
By stabilizing our transition state.
Said she, Mine's the best occupation;
Reducing energies of activation.
And then, she said, Thanks. 'Twas fun.
My job as your catalyst has now been done.
So if you're out to react with a purpose,
Try the enzyme dating service.
'Tis true that I found mine by accident;
She came, she helped and back she went.
But maybe an enzyme can help you too,
Can help you meet the one for you,
Creating a setting fit for a kiss,
Resulting in thermodynamic bliss!