hypervalent_iodine

Not a problem. Let me know how it goes.

I think that's bordering on a euthanasia debate.

Cannibalism can arise form more than just starvation and is not always perceived as such a 'terrible' thing. Some cultures, for instance, practiced endocannibalism as a form of funeral rite. In PNG, the Korowai tribe did just that so as to reintegrate the life energy of the deceased back into the community (supposedly - it has been the subject of debate). In New-Zealand, the Maori people used cannibalism to serve as a fear mongering tactic to scare opposing tribes during times of war by eating their prisoners. This was particularly prevalent when they first occupied New-Zealand and engaged in numerous bloody battles against the former natives, the Mori Ori (all of whom are now extinct). Also, I suspect that with some of the cases where a person resorts to cannibalism as a result of hunger, the person that they eat is already dead. This would certainly be considered a crime and morally offensive in normal circumstances, but outside of that I don't think it is so bad if the person they consume is already deceased (not by their doing). It is, however, a terrible thing where you get Hannibal Lecter type people who go around murdering people and eating the spoils.

I was helping my sister in year 10 with a very similar type of assignment not so long ago. In my search for an appropriate experiment for her, I came across this site: http://www.practicalchemistry.org/ Even though I ended up designing a completely different experiment for her that involved her visiting the local university for equipment and supervision, I found it to be a very good site for high school level experiments. If you have any questions or you like one of the experiments and feel like tweaking it a little (or you don't like any of them and want a different suggestion), you are most welcome to come back and ask us. Alternatively, if you have a particular interest in one or another area of chemistry and would like experiments to do with whatever that may be, I/we at SFN can probably come up something that would be suitable for you. Good luck!

I see very little use in the tennis match of insults that this is disintegrating into. Good luck with your research.

I know you don't plan to come back here, but I feel it necessary to make a few points for in case you do: 1. I have respect for backyard chemists. I do not have respect for backyard medical researchers. We have a number of backyard chemists in these forums who I have helped upon occasion and who I would gladly help again in the future. 2. You can't expect to come into a forum and haze over the details of research involving dangerous chemicals you expect us to advise you on. As I said, we have a responsibility in this forum and that encompasses whether or not we should provide people the means to make things they shouldn't be. It doesn't matter how noble you think your reasons are, we here don't know you from a bar of soap and are obligated to treat such questions with suspicion - especially when you can't or won't give us details on what it is actually for. 3. Being a PhD is not the 'be-all-and-end-all' for me. It consumes a great deal of my life but is simply a means to an end. 4. You claim to be a chemist and yet you don't know what NaOH is for? 5. You're right, I don't know what your past credentials are. I have no idea who you are at all. That's part of the issue here. 6. I wasn't referring to a standard, undergraduate level lab. I meant an actual research laboratory. I also never said it was substandard - I didn't even know what it consisted of until your post just now. All this lack of details on your part is what contributed to our skepticism - and if you think mississippi and I were the only ones, you'd be wrong. It comes down to this: you came to this forum asking us to advise on a synthesis for azoxymethane, a dangerous and potent carcinogen. You gave us no details of why you would need it. Upon further investigation into your thread from chemical forums, you appeared to have some idea of what you were doing, but not too much in the way of chemistry, which can be dangerous to say the least. The only hints as to what this was for was 'to cure cancer'. How you think cancer is so easy to cure is beyond myself and some of the others here. Statements like this: only make us further question your intelligence and ability to perform the task you are asking us to help you with. The bottom line is that if you act suspicious, we will treat you as such.

And so now we are back to the same question: are you doing this as a backyard job or are you not? Although you are correct in stating that an assumption is dangerous thing to be making, I think it is a safe bet to make that you are not doing this in a proper laboratory environment. If you were, you wouldn't need our help. PhD or not, you are clearly not a chemist and you don't appear to be doing this research via the appropriate medium. As such, I at least will not be assisting you. It's a matter of responsibility. I won't advise on a synthesis for illicit substances in a forum environment in the same way that I won't advise on a synthetic route to a particularly nasty carcinogen like azoxymethane. If you want to do this research, I suggest you get a job in a lab that is willing to supervise it. ETA: I don't advise on syntheses to illicit substances to anyone in most any environments... in case you were wondering

I suspect the insult might be lost in this day and age.

Soundoflight, I have found a forum you would suit better with your 'science' (read: word games): Linguistics Forum Go forth and prosper

This isn't really a phenomena limited to high school. You get told white lies an first and second year level university as well. It's just simpler. Going into more detail requires more time than a course often has and it is too much for people to comprehend at the end of semester. In high school, I was taught a little but about things that affect boiling points of water in my final year. Same deal with electron orbitals. In fact, I don't know anyone who was taught the 'solar system' model in high school. To be honest, going into too much depth about something like boiling points seems a little pointless and mundane. There are other more critical things that need focussing on I think.

I had blonde hair as a baby/toddler as well. My hair is currently near black (naturally).

I think it would be more beneficial if you walked us through your protocol here. You should also be able to post a simple reaction scheme easy enough. The files aren't that big. Also, I'm confused as to why you, a PhD student, would need to build your own IR for monitoring a reaction. TLC is your friend. It would be nice if you could post somewhere what your thesis is about and elaborate on how you think cancer is so easy to cure with limited funding. Im sure many here would love to hear your ideas, myself included. By all means, feel free to use the biology forum if you don't think that this thread is an appropriate place.

As I said in IRC, looks like a huntsman spider. We get them a lot in SE QLD, Australia. Supposedly you get them around where you are too. If it is a Huntsman, I would normally leave it be. Mostly because killing them means getting in close proximity to them and secondly, they don't really hurt you. They just chill out eating insects, which I'm okay with.

Must be a pretty awesome PhD project. You're curing cancer AND doing it on a tight budget. I was going to ask why no one else has thought of whatever it is you're doing before, but then I realised it was obvious - it's a government conspiracy and of course, the majority of scientists are too busy riding the 'government gravy train' to notice.

I normally do retrosynthesis manually, so I wouldn't know what to recommend to you. You should have access to Scifinder, being a PhD, so use that to find a synthesis. Also, out of curiosity, what's your PhD project on?

I got into science because I take enjoyment out of learning about things I didn't know about. Just because I've specialised into organic chemistry certainly doesn't mean that enjoyment has subsided.

So are we just rambling useless anagrams and definitions? Here's one for you: Science; noun. Not what you're doing.

A lot of proteins denature when subjected to heat. It's usually because the energy input breaks various weak electrostatic bonds keeping it together (H bonding, etc) as well as other types of chemical bonds, causing it to lose its form. The reason that egg proteins change in their morphology is, I think, because when it cools it refolds in a different way to what it was prior to heating. Reason for that would simply because the conformation probably falls in a localized energy minima - not necessarily as energetically favored as it was before, but low enough for it to be stable.

In my own personal experience, finding a spot in a research lab at the start of first year can be difficult. Where I went to university, I managed to secure a position at the end of first semester of my first year through an advanced studies program that I was a part of. I think the main thing in these cases is that you really need to show enthusiasm and a certain degree of intellect. The more you can impress people with willingness to do things and to learn, the more likely you are to score yourself a position in a lab. This is just from my own experiences though. I did three projects in undergrad, which I presented on for various conferances, and that was more or less how I was accepted in to them. Different universities, professors and institute will have different opinions on letting students loose in a lab. As Cap'n alluded to, some will have programs that facilitate student research. I would recommend talking to your university to seee if they offer anything like that and also speaking to professors that work in areas thy interest you about what they do (scientists LOVE talking about their work) and if they have any policy about first year students working in their labs. It's likely that if you do get a spot, you will be doing menial tasks to start with. That may change though.

That's all I needed. There is no need to get on your proverbial high horse though. I only expressed concern because you gave no details of why you wanted to make it or what level of education you have/what lab access you have. As I said, I'm skeptical of people who just join and post a thread wanted synthetic routes to dangerous compounds like that. We've had backyard chemists in here before wanting to blindly make chemicals to test ontheir friends - not something I agree with helping. Anyway, as I said, there are a lot of smart people in here who will help you. You should have access to Scifinder of you're with a university, so start there. Also, if you're doing this in the lab, why can't you just buy it? I can understand if it's an issue of price, Sigma has it listed as over $300/25mg. That's crazy. Mississippi, they use azoxymethane to induce cancer. It does a pretty bang up job of it too.

I have to ask a question. You say that people on other forums wouldn't help on the basis that they felt that 'medical research is too risky', so it follows that you intend to use your compound for some sort of medical purpose, yes? This is all well and good, but if you are a 'garage' chemist, then I'm afraid I will be telling you much the same thing. I have no problem with people who do back yard chemistry for the sake of their own interest, but I refuse to help such a person who then also intends to perform medical research with the products of their labor. It is reckless and daft. But, if that is not what this is, then welcome to SFN and you'll be pleased to note that we have a pretty good bank of synthetic chemists who float around here and who would love to assist. In regards to your question about Sigma Aldrich - being a huge company, I don't think they would store publically available synthetic routes for their compounds. It is too large of an ask I would think. Most synthetic chemists get their protocols from scientific literature and sometimes patents, though I personally loathe patent protocols. Unfortunately, if you don't have access to the necessary sites through a University, etc. you will find it impossible to get the papers you want without having to buy them at about $30 a pop - and I can tell you from experience that you will very rarely find the paper you want on first go. For synthetic protocol, SciFinder is a great starter to get the paper(s) you want. Again though, you need to purchase a license to access it if you aren't affiliated with a university, etc. And on another note, I just looked up the MSDS of azoxymethane to see what you were up against, safety wise. You do realise that if this compound so much as senses displeasure in you, it will give you cancer and you will die? An over exaggeration that I credit to uncyclopedia but you get my point. Edit to add: forget the first question, I got the answer from the other thread you posted in Chemical forums. So now I would really like to know if you are a backyard chemist? And another question (only answer if the previous answer is yes): specifically what kind of cancer research? What are you planning to administer the azoxymethane to? Sorry to berate you, but I tend to err on the side of caution when people ask for synthetic routes to particularly nasty chemicals like these.

Benzene and toluene are horribly toxic and DCM is not much better. I have to ask, is dissolving a plastic doll really necessary? In any case, err on the side of caution using these chemicals.

To be honest, you are best off looking for an article yourself via the websites listed in the above posts. This is simply because you are the dictator of what you find interesting or otherwise. I could send you a paper I find interesting, but chances are it will be of very little assistance to you, even ignoring the fact that I am a chemist and have zero interest in biology. Secondly, due to copyright restrictions, unless the paper is over 50 years old, no one here will be allowed to download it and send it to you. You may very well strike it lucky and find a paper you like the sound of and have access too. Starting with a general topic search in wikipedia could lead you to some good resources for you to start your search.

Would never have picked it.