aj47

I have a really bad phobia of cotton wool. Seriously just the thought of its texture makes me uncomfortable.

Simple question but how are the non radiocative compounds carcinogenic e.g. benzene. What property is it that gives rise to cell mutation ?

Or better, pro plus pills. At reading festival i ended up taking 24 in a few hours by absentmindedly poping one every time i felt tired. I ended up getting heart palputations, the shakes and a comedown for a bout 24 hours afterwards. Trust me it wasn't as fun as it sounds.

My parents are both teachers and some of the things they have change in thier lessons are just ridiculous. For example the blackboard has to be called the chalk board as it can be percieved as being racist, You can't tick and cross question papers, wrong questions have to be circled. and when answering questions you should pick people boy-girl-boy so it isn't sexist. It really is getting too far, they need to bring back the cane to level things out or the next generation will be a bunch of wimps.

Wouldn't that be such a good job, just experimenting on bubbles every day. Have you watched the video though, the children aren't very enthuastic, most of them just looked confused. Damn unappreciative kids.

Does that apply to when you find a green bit on a crisp aswell?

I have eaten raw potatoes several times (don't ask why) and you just get horrible indigestion. Apart from that i was fine though.

Another point, my mum always tells me if you eat kidney beans before it has been soaked over night, it is so poisonous it could kill you. Not sure how true this is though, Anyone wanna give it a go?

As very few foods are made up of one chemical, I would assume that it is the hundreds of other compounds in foods that inhibit any reaction taking place as any potentialy reactive chemicals would be in such low concentrations it would be unlikly to happen. Still though you would think at least one combination would react eh.

The reason I asked this question is becasue i see it mentioned all over the media with people giving facts like ''top scientist says smoking cannabis just once a week can cause phycosis'' (headline i saw the other day). To me making the subject so publicised when there is almost no scientific evidence backing it up is crazy. Its like people linking the statistics that most heroin addicts have tried cannabis and automaticaly creating a new anti drug campain to children saying, 'cannabis is a gateway drug and one joint and the next day you'll be sitting in a gutter with a needle in your arm'.

I understand that the arguments for the connections are based on observational evidence but i was wondering if there has been any conclusive evidence from a neurological point of view? On hearing about the connection I first assumed that the connection was due to cannabis acting on dompamine receptors and the fact that an imbalance of dopamine can casue schizophrenia. However I can't find anything backing up my assumtion and as my understanding of neurology is limited i'm assuming im wrong.

My brain hurts from lack of paragraphs

Anyone? Also is MSG in any way related to the neurotrasmitter Gluamate?

I know there is much debating on whether cannabis can cause the onset of schizophrenia but what are the scientific reasons for the claims?

Do you think the fact that human have evolved to laugh, smile, cry, blush etc etc have any evolutionary importance in survival rates?

Well all the courses i've looked at cover all aspects of chemistry in the first year then you get to narrow it down and by the third year you specialise on a particular area. I considered going into a specialised area staright away but decided it was better to leave my options open as I enjoy aspects of all areas of Chemistry. Also i found A levels only really gave me a basic insight in to the different areas of chemistry so its way to early for me to narrow down to my preferred areas.

I'm in my last year of A levels and I am in the process of applying to do chemistry at degree level. I have been looking at the entry requirments for each university and apart from Oxford and Cambridge they are all BBB or lower which I find suprising. As i'm sure i will get BBB this gives me a lot of options (i think). Do any of you have any advice on where to go and what the degrees are like etc? I was thinking about about UCL and Sheffield but I can apply for 6 so I still have four to go. Ah yes also as drinking is almost as important as the studys, i'm basing my decsion on how good the social life is so i'm more inclined to go to a big city.

Aha thanks for the links YT and ecoli, it explains alot. Although one question YT, some one said in the thread that capsaicin works by causing the release of calcium. I'm assuming that the calcium ions enter the synaptic cleft of the heat nerves and cause more action potentials to be sent to the pain sensory part of the brain?. If so why would this kill the cell or is there a different mechanism taking place. And wait reading the thread i have yet another question, Do any of you know how salt and MSG work in enhancing flavours? Also is MSG in anyway connected to the neurotrasmitter glutamate? Sorry for the over abundance of questions but I find this subject really interesting.

ah ok thanks, so no Chemical reactions rate is completly independant of temperature, right?

So using 0 as the rate order is just an approximation?

If a chemical reaction has an order of zero it means the reaction rate can be independant of temperature. This got me thinking and the only reactions i could think of that this was true for was radioactive decay. What I don't understand is how the rate of a chemical reaction can stay constant under different temperatures. Surely all molecules gain kinetic energy from heat so therefore all reactions are speeded up by an increase of temperature. Can someone explain this to me as i'm sure i'm missing out something really fundemental. thanks.

thanks, an interesting article on wikipedia .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin

Just a quick random question. Is there a certain chemical or group of chemicals that are responsible for making food hot(spicy) and why does it stimulate pain receptors in our mouth when as far as i can see it cannot cause any damage to your body?

As our sanity partly relies on the balance of neurotrasmitters relased in our brain, taking substances that stimulate the release of neurotrasmmiters or act in the same way can cause a lot of problems. Although this most drugs only have a temporary effect on the levels of seretonin, dompanine etc and the real damage is on the effect that is has on your organs if taken in excess.