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JCE ChemEd Xchange provides a place for sharing information and opinions. Currently, articles, blogs and reading lists from ChemEd X contributors are listed below. We plan to include other items that the community wishes to share through their contributions to ChemEd X.

Chemistry no mystery; or, A lecturer's bequest. Being the subject-matter of a course of lectures, delivered by an old philosopher, and taken in short-hand by one of the audience, whose name is not known

Hal Harris | Fri, 05/25/2012 - 14:12

I have in my library several chemistry textbooks from before 1860, but "Chemistry No Mystery" is not one of them.  Reflecting as they do an approximation of the chemistry known at the time, they provide insight about the history of both science and pedagogy. I learned about this one from my friend Ron Perkins, a skilled chemical demonstrator, and "Chemistry No Mystery" is the most demonstration-oriented of the old textbooks I have seen.

The Artificial Leaf: Daniel Nocera's vision for sustainable energy

Hal Harris | Sun, 05/20/2012 - 11:19

MIT’s Dan Nocera (soon to be Harvard’s) gave a seminar in our department about a year and a half ago, and I heard him speak again in ACS President Bassam Shakhashiri’s ”Presidential Symposium on Catalysis” at the Spring national meeting in San Diego. The chemistry he described is a beautiful example of how fundamental research can potentially impact the lives of billions of people. Dan and his research group have discovered what appears to be an inexpensive, self-healing, air-tolerant catalytic system to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. We have seen before grand announcements about photocatalytic water-splitting systems, but this one appears not to suffer the fatal flaws of the others – requirement of pure water, expensive ingredients, and short duty cycles.

The Climate Fixers

Hal Harris | Thu, 05/17/2012 - 15:32

Suppose that the earth’s atmosphere continues to warm, beyond the levels that we know are already inevitable.  Suppose that the arctic permafrost melts, releasing millions of tons of methane, which is about thirty times more effective at warming than is carbon dioxide, as well as much CO2 as is already in the atmosphere. Within a few years, the mean temperature rises by five degrees Celsius or more, sea levels rise, crops fail and millions starve.

Welcome JCE Web Software Subscribers

ChemEd X Admin | Wed, 05/02/2012 - 08:25

JCE Online offered subscription-based access to a collectiion of titles named JCE Web Software. You can find the JCE Web Software collection at the LEARN menu item in the site menu bar. Access to the titles in the collection is still restricted to JCE Web Software subscribers.

Effective Peer Review

Arrietta Clauss | Fri, 04/27/2012 - 16:07

All academics are encouraged to become reviewers to keep abreast of new developments in their field, to help shape the direction of their discipline, and as their scholarly responsibility. The article has many more details and is worth a quick look.

Flip Flop Fly Ball: An Infographic Baseball Adventure

Hal Harris | Wed, 04/25/2012 - 14:00

What is this?  Art? Humor? Sports? Math? – or all of the above? With baseball season starting, I found it irresistible to recommend “Flip Flop Fly Ball”, which reminds me in some ways of the beautiful series of graphical exemplar books by Edward Tufte, and in others of Michael Lewis’ MoneyBall (the book, more than the movie, although the movie was ok).

Migrating Chemistry Comes Alive!

ChemEd X Admin | Fri, 03/09/2012 - 09:38

Chemistry Comes Alive! is JCE's outstanding collection of chemistry videos and images. This collection of 1,800 videos and thousands of images presents the chemistry as the star of the show. Migrating all of this great content into JCE Chemical Education Exchange is one of our first priorities.