Soda vs Pop

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The Pop Vs Soda Map

One thing I usually forget when I go on vacation to western New York is that I’m in “pop” country; “soda” means club soda. If it comes up, I make the mistake once, and then I remember … until the next trip. I grew up on the other side of the state, in “soft drink = soda” country. However, I don’t recall it being so much an issue in some other map areas — they’ve got Orlando, Fl as a “Coke” area, and The Willamette valley in Oregon looks like it’s supposed to be a “pop” area. (Orlando has so many resettled folks, though, that there are lots of ways that it doesn’t seem like the south. Get outside of town, though, and that can change in a hurry)

The largest linguistic difference I recall from CorVegas was “sack” instead of “bag” at the grocery store.

Who's the Fairest Helium Atom of Them All?

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Smoothest surface ever is a mirror for atoms

Metal materials reflect helium atoms much better but are harder to bend precisely into the right shape. Now materials scientists from the Autonomous University of Madrid led by Amadeo Vázquez de Parga have combined silicon and metal to make what they say is the smoothest surface ever made.

They made the near-perfect mirror by coating a thin layer of lead onto a silicon surface. This is not straightforward, because when a very thin metal layer is deposited onto a flat silicon surface it usually forms an uneven coating of differently sized bumps that perform badly as a mirror for helium atoms.

They're There, and You're Not

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In a similar vein to finishing last in the Tour de France, there’s a website chronicling the last-place finishers in the Olympics. DFL

And if you’ve asked yourself, “Self, I wonder if I could compete in the Olympics?” The answer is almost certainly not.

During the 2006 Winter Games, I embarked on a study of the qualifying rules — how hard, I wanted to know, was it to qualify in each sport? As it turned out, very hard. Quotas on the total number of competitors per event. Minimum standards, including a certain number of points earned in international competition. And, even in the more open events, a basic requirement that you be a bona fide competitor with a record of participation. (I didn’t have time to check the summer events this time around, but I imagine the situation would be similar; apart from the wild card lottery, which is very limited in scope, it’s very very hard to get to the Olympics.)

These people are very talented, and train really long and hard. Even the ones who finish last.

What's the Rolls Royce of Chemistry?

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Disciplines of chemistry as retail chains. The IKEA of Chemistry

Total Synthesis- The Wal-Mart of Chemistry. Okay, before I alienate my tot. syn. friends with this one, let’s think about it. Typically, when modern reactions are developed, they are almost immediately put to task in syntheses of natural products, as proof of their usefulness. People go to natural products in a pinch, typically cause they have nowhere else to go. Much like Wal-Mart. Both Wal-Mart and total synthesis labs are open 24 hours. Also, both have gathered quite a bit of controversy in their exploitation of labor…

I Am Iron Man

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The Periodic Table of Comic Books

Click on an element, and find a listing of some comic books in which that element was used/mentioned, with scans of the pages.

I was previously unaware that there was a Ricky Nelson comic, nor that he claimed to be fascinated with the subject of the atomic world and nuclear fission. Too bad he didn’t know a proton from a protein.

This comic book is an obvious attempt to cash in on Ricky Nelson’s immense popularity in the late 1950’s. His All-American image was cultivated and his musical career was nurtured in the Nelson family television situation comedy, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which ran on the ABC Television Network from 1952 until 1966.