Entropy

I find that the best way to separate the glycerol from the biodiesel is to use a sep funnel and give it time due to the equilibrium solubility issue. As you drain off excess glycerol, more of it will come out of the biodiesel, improving the quality.

Hydrogen bonding is a critical component to stable secondary protein structure, although this generally applies to the backbones interacting more so then the functional groups. The above picture shows that pretty readily. Polar, positive and negative residues will generally be interacting or not interacting with whatever the protein happens to be in (if in solution/water, they will interact with the water, if in a hydrophobic environment, they will interact with each other). Things like cysteine can often interact with other cysteine amino acids to form di-sulfide bonds. Another factor is pH. This has a huge effect on the positive and negative residues, and controls what particular state they are in due to their weak acid/base nature. It can shift hydrogen bonding networks and how they interact with water and with each other. I hope this helps.

It would probably be easier to remove oxygen by blowing nitrogen (or even better Argon) over the wine to remove oxygen.

This is the course description of the 300 level genetics course I took as a college student.

http://www.gradschools.com is a good website. Here's a link to your particular major. http://www.gradschools.com/Subject/Medicinal-Chemistry/257.html I hope this helps.

My current employer would like me to begin doing science based podcasts. Does anyone else here do podcasts? Any suggestions? Also, what science based podcasts do you listen to? I'm looking for some ideas before I go about this.

I've wanted to be a scientist for a very long time. In high school, I decided that biochemistry is where I wanted to be. I got my BS in biochem and decided I wanted to go to grad school to get a PhD. I ended up with my MS after 2 years due to major burn out. I'm still interested in getting a PhD and lecturing at a university, but the amount of time it takes and the dedication is huge. At this point lecturing at a community college is fulfilling, but I can forsee in the future getting bored talking about elementary chemistry. That may push me to going back to grad school.

I'm not sure how it would do that, since that's pretty much the fully oxidized state of Cr as far as I know (I could be wrong, but I've never seen a more oxidized state then that). Not to mention that the article mentions a mixture of gypsum and wax, which makes me think a coating is more of the idea. This seems much more plausible to me.

Biofuels are probably the connecting thread between oil based vehicles and electric vehicles. There's a large push for ethanol around here, largely because of the corn production. Honestly, I feel cellulosic ethanol has the most potential, largely because it can be developed out of waste material. Making something out of nothing is generally a winning situation. However, it does require more initial prep before it can be turned into ethanol. Corn is not as advantageous as sugar cane (which is what Brazil uses primarily) due to it's lower sugar content. We may see a dynamic shift from corn's use as a primarily food crop and develop into a fuel crop. Advances to increase sugar production in the corn at lower cost will have to happen it seems.

Interesting....

Perhaps a course in biophysical chemistry might be more useful to you. Learning about how proteins fold and function seems to be what you are most interested in. That's a large part of what is covered. It doesn't require as much calculus (generally 1 semester at most) and you end up doing a fair amount of computer modeling.

Physical chemistry can help with how you view the molecules moving. At least that's what it did for me. It also taught me the limits of equipment. You might find the concepts taught in P-chem to be useful for developing different/better equipment for what you want to study.

Kind of missed the whole "proteome" part.

I'm not sure what all the requirements are to get into PA school, but those I do know who have entered it, generally had a BS degree in Biology, Chemistry, Biochem or the like. My understanding is that it was similar to a master's program (took 2 years IIRC). I would contact schools that you are interested in. Here's a link to help you track down schools near you so you can check out what there requirements are. http://www.gradschools.com/Subject/Physician-Assistant/315.html

Are you talking about forming a peptide bond between these 2 amino acids? Or are you talking about having the side chain from arginine interact with the carboxyl end of the glycine?

It has to do with the situation. If hydrogen bonding networks established are unable to be interrupted then the proton will remain attached to the amino acid. Protein shape can also have an effect. If the shape is such that it shields the side chains from outside effects, then the proton will be unable to leave.

It could also mean that the peptides they were dealing with were amino rich. For example: they could be made up of predominantly lysine and arginine.

IIRC you can also use "tags" for specific proteins or nucleic acids during purification. There are several different ways to do it, but one common way would be to biotinylate (use of biotin as a tag) your molecule (protein, DNA, etc) of interest and then use avadin to select it from the rest of the cellular "stuff". Another favored method will use anti-bodies. This is generally done for difficult to isolate or unstable proteins that don't do as well with normal methods of protein purification. It's generally quite expensive and labor intensive.

Microbrewed beer is my downfall. It's very rare that you won't find a 6 pack of something or other in my fridge (currently Dogfish head 60 min IPA) Also have a decent selection of single malt scotch. I don't smoke regularly, known to have a cigar couple of times a year. Caffeine is my preferred drug of choice. Food is a little more complicated. I try to limit sweets and fats, but I have good days and bad days like everyone else.

They are expensive, unfortunately, I've been completely unable to find books that cover the material appropriately for a better price.

The good thing about taking courses in America is the government does provide money for students to take courses. Generally the books to my courses run around $120 and lab manuals run about $130. My students do best when they attend lectures and read out of the book. Although, as a student, I generally did very little reading out of the book.

I agree. This is where I go to first to find quality peer reviewed articles.

It is also important to pick a book based on how the material is presented. Picking a book based on cost is a terrible way to approach a subject. If I pick a book that is above the student's ability to understand, it will be completely worthless to them. Correct. Often professors can get free books if they are interested in adopting it for a course. I've never had to send one back because I've decided not to use it.

Hello, I'm Entropy, and at one time I was a real scientist. My favored field of study is biochemistry (protein kinetics were my specialty) but now I teach chemistry at a relatively small community college.