Adsorption

 Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms, ions or molecules from a gas, liquid or dissolved solid to a surface.

 Two adsorbate nitrogen molecules adsorbing onto a tungsten adsorbent from the precursor state around an island of previously adsorbed adsorbate (left) and via random adsorption (right)

Laurel water

 Laurel water is distilled from the fresh leaves of the cherry laurel, and contains the poison prussic acid (hydrocyanic acid), along with other products carried over in the process.

Canned Heat

 Sterno, a.k.a. Canned Heat, is a brand of jellied, denatured alcohol sold in a can and meant to be burned directly in its can. Its primary uses are in food service for buffet heating, in the home for fondue, and as a chafing fuel for heating chafing dishes. Other uses are for portable stoves and as an emergency heat source. It is also a popular fuel for use with toy and model steam and other external combustion engines. 

 

There are many instances of people drinking Sterno to become intoxicated as a form of surrogate alcohol. Since the alcohol it contains is denatured, Sterno is poisonous. Moreover, the methanol it contains can cause permanent blindness by destruction of the optic nerves. Bluesman Tommy Johnson alludes to the practice in his song "Canned Heat Blues" recorded in 1928. The blues band Canned Heat derived their name from the song. 

 

 

Silane

 Silane is an inorganic compound with chemical formula, SiH₄. It is a colourless, pyrophoric, toxic gas with a sharp, repulsive smell, somewhat similar to that of acetic acid.^[5] Silane is of practical interest as a precursor to elemental silicon. Silane with alkyl groups are effective water repellents for mineral surfaces such as concrete and masonry.

Cinnabar

 Cinnabar (/ˈsɪnəˌbɑːr/) or cinnabarite (/sɪnəˈbɑːraɪt/), from the Ancient Greek: κιννάβαρι (kinnabari), is the bright scarlet to brick-red form of mercury(II) sulfide (HgS). It is the most common source ore for refining elemental mercury, and is the historic source for the brilliant red or scarlet pigment termed vermilion and associated red mercury pigments

 

 

Nucleotides

 Nucleotides are organic molecules consisting of a nucleoside and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both of which are essential biomolecules within all life-forms on Earth. Nucleotides are obtained in the diet and are also synthesized from common nutrients by the liver.

Nucleotides are composed of three subunit molecules: a nucleobase, a five-carbon sugar (ribose or deoxyribose), and a phosphate group consisting of one to three phosphates. The four nucleobases in DNA are guanine, adenine, cytosine and thymine; in RNA, uracil is used in place of thymine. 

Homochirality

 

Homochirality is a uniformity of chirality, or handedness. Objects are chiral when they cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, the left and right hands of a human are approximately mirror images of each other but are not their own mirror images, so they are chiral. In biology, 19 of the 20 natural amino acids are homochiral, being L-chiral (left-handed), while sugars are D-chiral (right-handed). Homochirality can also refer to enantiopure substances in which all the constituents are the same enantiomer (a right-handed or left-handed version of an atom or molecule), but some sources discourage this use of the term.

It is unclear whether homochirality has a purpose; however, it appears to be a form of information storage. One suggestion is that it reduces entropy barriers in the formation of large organized molecules. It has been experimentally verified that amino acids form large aggregates in larger abundance from an enantiopure samples of the amino acid than from racemic (enantiomerically mixed) ones.

It is not clear whether homochirality emerged before or after life, and many mechanisms for its origin have been proposed. Some of these models propose three distinct steps: mirror-symmetry breaking creates a minute enantiomeric imbalance, chiral amplification builds on this imbalance, and chiral transmission is the transfer of chirality from one set of molecules to another.

 

chaperonin

 HSP60, also known as chaperonins (Cpn), is a family of heat shock proteins originally sorted by their 60kDa molecular mass. They prevent misfolding of proteins during stressful situations such as high heat, by assisting protein folding. HSP60 belong to a large class of molecules that assist protein folding, called molecular chaperones.

 

hydroxy

 A hydroxy or hydroxyl group is a functional group with the chemical formula -OH and composed of one oxygen atom covalently bonded to one hydrogen atom. In organic chemistry, alcohols and carboxylic acids contain one or more hydroxy groups. Both the negatively charged anion HO⁻, called hydroxide, and the neutral radical HO•, known as the hydroxyl radical, consist of an unbonded hydroxyl group.

 

 

zwitterion

 In chemistry, a zwitterion (/ˈtsvɪtəˌraɪən/ TSVIT-ə-rye-ən; from German Zwitter [ˈtsvɪtɐ] 'hermaphrodite'), also called an inner salt or dipolar ion, is a molecule that contains an equal number of positively- and negatively-charged functional groups. With amino acids, for example, in solution a chemical equilibrium will be established between the "parent" molecule and the zwitterion. 

 

• 

  Sulfamic acid isomers, with the zwitterion (right)

 

kinase

 In biochemistry, a kinase is an enzyme that catalyzes the transfer of phosphate groups from high-energy, phosphate-donating molecules to specific substrates.

 

Fractionation

 Fractionation is a separation process in which a certain quantity of a mixture (gas, solid, liquid, enzymes, suspension, or isotope) is divided during a phase transition, into a number of smaller quantities (fractions) in which the composition varies according to a gradient. Fractions are collected based on differences in a specific property of the individual components. A common trait in fractionations is the need to find an optimum between the amount of fractions collected and the desired purity in each fraction. Fractionation makes it possible to isolate more than two components in a mixture in a single run. This property sets it apart from other separation techniques. 

 Fractionation is widely employed in many branches of science and technology. Mixtures of liquids and gases are separated by fractional distillation by difference in boiling point. Fractionation of components also takes place in column chromatography by a difference in affinity between stationary phase and the mobile phase. In fractional crystallization and fractional freezing, chemical substances are fractionated based on difference in solubility at a given temperature. In cell fractionation, cell components are separated by difference in mass. 

 

quasicrystal

 A quasiperiodic crystal, or quasicrystal, is a structure that is ordered but not periodic. A quasicrystalline pattern can continuously fill all available space, but it lacks translational symmetry. 

 

bilayer

 

bilayer

• noun: bilayer (plural bilayers) Any structure consisting of two layers of molecules

Acid test

Acid test (gold), a chemical or metallurgical test which uses acid, now also used as a general term for "verified", "approved", or "tested" in a large number of fields.

metastable

metastable (not comparable)

1. (physics, chemistry) Of or pertaining to a physical or chemical state that is relatively long-lived, but may decay to a lower energy state when slightly perturbed or through a quantum transition.

Metastability describes the behaviour of certain physical systems that can exist in long lived states that are less stable than the system's most stable state.

The parameters of excited systems may reach and hold stationary values (a metastable state). But metastable states have finite lifetimes. After a (potentially very long) period of time, spontaneously or under an external action, the characteristic parameters of the state change again to relax to a more stable state.

orthohydrogen

Each hydrogen molecule (H₂) consists of two hydrogen atoms linked by a covalent bond. If we neglect the small proportion of deuterium and tritium which may be present, each hydrogen atom consists of one proton and one electron. Each proton has an associated magnetic moment, which is associated with the proton's spin of 1/2. In the H₂ molecule, the spins of the two hydrogen nuclei (protons) couple to form a triplet state known as orthohydrogen, and a singlet state known as parahydrogen.

Congener

Congener (from Latin congener "of the same race or kind," from com- "together" + gener-, stem of genus "kind") has several different meanings depending on the field in which it is used. Colloquially, it is used to mean a person or thing like another, in character or action.

In biology, congeners are organisms within the same genus. A related term -- referring to members of the same species -- is conspecific.

In chemistry, congeners are related chemicals, e.g., elements in the same group of the periodic table, or derivatives thereof.

In the alcoholic beverages industry, congeners, also known as fusel oils, are substances produced during fermentation

kinesin

A kinesin is a protein belonging to a class of motor proteins found in eukaryotic cells. Kinesins move along microtubule filaments, and are powered by the hydrolysis of ATP (thus kinesins are ATPases). The active movement of kinesins supports several cellular functions including mitosis, meiosis and transport of cellular cargo, such as in axonal transport. Most kinesins walk towards the plus end of a microtubule, which, in most cells, entails transporting cargo from the centre of the cell towards the periphery. This form of transport is known as anterograde transport.

Grayanotoxins

Grayanotoxins are a group of closely related toxins found in rhododendrons and other plants of the family Ericaceae. They can be found in honey made from their nectar and cause a very rare poisonous reaction called grayanotoxin poisoning, honey intoxication, or rhododendron poisoning. The toxins are also known as andromedotoxin, acetylandromedol, or rhodotoxin.