UC San Diego is Ranked 2nd in the Nation in Washington Monthly New College Rankings

http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/09-09CollegeRankings.asp

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_09/019738.php

The comments that various visitors left on the second link are quite “interesting” to say the least. I think anyone that subscribes to John Henry Newman’s The Idea of a University http://www.newmanreader.org/works/idea/ would agree that popular rankings such as U.S. News are offensive and don’t take into account the effectiveness of the institution in terms of intellectual and cultural enrichment. I do not mean to say that Washington Post’s rankings are superior in every way, however I do appreciate their alternative approach. As a former U.S. Marine and a student of a field that attempts to merge right and left brain thinkers, I wholeheartedly agree with one of the reader’s comments below:

So not allowing the ROTC on campus makes you a bad public citizen? Maybe those campuses don’t believe in encouraging military recruitment (especially during a period of wasteful, unjust war)? IIR, public universities allow ROTC because they have no choice, whereas privates like Harvard can afford to deny them.

Also, I don’t like the idea that a university’s public worth is measured by how many Ph.Ds and scientists it creates — first, it discounts the amount of good that liberal arts majors do, even if they only earn a B.A. or an M.A., and encourages an even greater shift of scarce resources from the humanities to the sciences. Why must Washington Monthly participate in the devaluing of right-brain thinkers? We already suffer enough on the income scale.

Chem 1 complete

I completed a 5 week accelerated Chem 1 lab followed by a less accelerated 8 week Chem 1 lecture. I encountered a lot of brute force memorization of different constants and could barely recall their proper usage now.

The number one lesson I can take away that I would like to share with you is do NOT, I repeat do NOT waste you time in an “intro to ____” class at the community college level. You are much better served buckling down and studying on your own over the break via self help books, videos from TTC (The Teaching Company), or a tutor. Barron’s “Forgotten___” series of books is a much better alternative. They publish Forgotten Calculus, Forgotten Chemistry, Forgotten Algebra etc.

Save your time and money!

First we have to tell you what a constant is. Simply put… A constant is a number or measurement that is always the same. No matter where, when, or what condition. When you have a formula which asks for a constant it is always the same number. Here are some examples…

	6.02 x 1023 NAME: Avogadro’s Number WHAT: It tells you the number of atoms in a mole or the number of molecules in a mole of a substance.
	9.1×10-31kg NAME: Mass of an Electron WHAT: We talk about electrons spinning around the nucleus of an atom. Well the me is the mass of one of those electrons.
	1.675×10-24g NAME: Mass of a Neutron WHAT: In the nucleus of an atom there are neutrons and protons. A neutron has this much mass.
	1.673×10-24g NAME: Mass of a Proton WHAT: In the nucleus of an atom there are neutrons and protons. A proton a mass of this amount.
	6.63×10-34Js NAME: Planck’s Constant WHAT: Max Planck figured out that energy can be gained and lost by an atom. He used this constant to figure out how much energy. The “J” stands for Joules.
	3×108m/s NAME: Speed of Light (in a vacuum) WHAT: Scientists figured out that light always travels at the same speed in a vacuum. The number is really 299,792,458 meters per second, but we abbreviate it.
	9.8 m/s2 NAME: Acceleration of Gravity of Earth WHAT: What if you drop a ball from a height? It speeds up as it falls. The amount it speeds up (acceleration) is because of gravity.
	1.66×10-27kg NAME: Atomic Mass Unit (also called a Dalton) WHAT: It is 1/12 the mass of a Carbon-12 atom. It is the basis for figuring out the mass all other atoms.
	1.6×10-19C NAME: Charge of an Electron WHAT: This is the charge of one electron flying around the nucleus.
	.082 Latm/molK 8.3 J/molK 1.987 cal/Kmol NAME: Universal Gas Constant WHAT: This constant is used in the Universal Gas Law “PV=nRT”. It has the same value for all gases. You use a different value depending on what measurements your formula uses.

As I push through my pre-med courses I often stray off course and contemplate the other possible career choices that my academic path might serve. One of these is veterinary medicine.  I found this comprehensive veterinary medicine career guide, enjoy!

long due update…

After my experience this Spring semester, I would advise that if you intend to take an intro to chemistry or chem 1 level class that you familiarize yourself with the following:

1. Stoichiometry

2. Polyatomic Ions

I gave up some easy points one exams simply because I could not remember what the requested polyatomic ion was. Take the screenshot from one of my exams as an example, I did all the work exactly like this except in my case I spelled out ammonium instead of using (NH4) which as a +1 charge. Not knowing the components of the polyatomic ion or it’s charge prevents you from  balancing the equation properly. (click here for a tutorial on balancing equations)

3. STANDARD to METRIC CONVERSIONS!!!! (look through my old posts on the subject)

I just completed the Spring semester and have one week of rest until Summer starts. I will be taking an accelerated Chem I/II w/lab sequence. This will cram 32 weeks of instruction (2 semesters) into 9 weeks of Summer. I will be attending class/lab Mon-Fri from 7 to 3 and will be working quite hard to fit my training schedule around school.

The Intro to Chemistry class I just completed this Spring was very disappointing, I decided to withdraw from UCSD for the Spring quarter and take equivalent classes at a local community college. Unfortunately for me I never took chemistry in High School, which was more than 7 years ago, so I had to take an intro class as a prerequisite to Chem 1 & 2. The class started with some very basic principles and seemed to be building upon it self quite logically until about half way through there was a sudden lost of congruence, which was probably more an effect of the professors failure to teach the book out of order and amend his own material. It just seemed like a hodgepodge of loosely related concepts in an effort to expose the student to as many concepts as possible. It seems quite evident that the majority of community or junior colleges teach their classes this way, they seem hard pressed to force students into intro classes and prerequisites under the false claim that they are doing so in the students best interest to set them up for success rather than failure once they transfer. In reality they are more concerned about how they are perceived by higher institutions since these transfer students are a direct reflection of the JC (junior college) system since this affects funding and the air of prestige or ranking of the corresponding JC.

Long story short I felt that the class was a sad waste of 16 weeks and I would have been better served testing out of it and paying substantially more to take the equivalent class at UCSD. I would have enjoyed the higher emphasis on quantitative analysis and conceptualization than the associates tech school “get you into the work force as soon as possible” feel of the JC lecture and lab.

I first encountered Neuroplasticity in V. S. Ramachandran’s book, Phantoms in the Brain. Don’t be intimidated! The author wrote most of the book in layman’s terms and leaves most of the technical details in footnotes.

The author teaches at UCSD, but I also found two classes that either use the book or elaborate on concepts of the book at other universities.

One is intro to Neurobiology @ Cornell Univeristy http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/bionb2220/Resources.htm

The other is Neural Plasticity in Learning and Development @ MIT http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Brain-and-Cognitive-Sciences/9-301JNeural-Plasticity-in-Learning-and-DevelopmentSpring2002/CourseHome/index.htm

From Scientific American
People who suffer from certain illusions, such as sensations from a missing limb or a conviction that look- alike impostors have replaced one’s parents, are often treated as psychiatric cases or neurological curiosities. Ramachandran, a brain researcher, sees them instead as “our guides into the inner workings of the human brain.” He tells the stories of several such people and what their illusions suggest about how the brain works. Along the way the reader learns of Charles Bonnet syndrome, the vivid visual hallucinations experienced by some blind people (James Thurber probably among them); hemineglect, a condition that often follows a stroke in the right brain and causes the patient to be profoundly indifferent to objects and events on her left side; and pseudocyesis, or false pregnancy. Ramachandran thinks the line of research he describes may reach an epochal goal–the answer to “a question that has been steeped in mysticism and metaphysics for millennia: What is the nature of the self?

Chemical Nomenclature

Chemical nomenclature is an important aspect of chemistry.   Therefore, it is essential to be able to go between name and formula easily.  Historically, chemistry has been plagued with common names.  Chemicals were named whatever someone wanted to call them.  With rare exception, we don’t use common names anymore.  However, there are two chemicals that you must know that use common names. They are water (H2O) and ammonia (NH3).  Most people at least know the formula for water, if you don’t, you do now!
The names of the elements are common names.  There is no system to their names so you just have to learn them.  There is also a small group of compounds that exist as diatomic molecules.  That is they exist with two of the same element in the compound.  For these compounds, the name of the compound is the same as the name of the element because the compound only contains that element.  They are shown below:

Name                Formula

Hydrogen             H2
Nitrogen             N2
Oxygen             O2
Fluorine             F2
Chlorine             Cl2
Bromine             Br2
Iodine                 I2
Astatine             At2

One good way to remember them is they are all of the —gens. (Hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and the halogens (F2, Cl2, Br2, I2, At2).
Nowadays, however, there is a system for chemical nomenclature. It is called the IUPAC (International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry) systematic nomenclature.  It is important to learn this system so you become fluent in the language of chemistry.  This handout is designed to help you.

Chemistry class is really taking it’s toll. I never realized how much math was necessary, it seems that the class has involved nothing but analysis in conversion from various systems of measurement. I plan to write about quantitative composition later this week. Until then check out this amazing historical library of anatomy illustrations. It’s so interesting to see previous generation’s interpretations of physiology.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/historicalanatomies/browse.html

Walter Reed to close?

A Hospital Closes Because Staff Don’t Want To Walk Too Much?

Apparently WRAMC is built on land owned by the District of Columbia. In an effort to subsidize the over-budget subway system, the city purposefully disallowed sufficient parking spaces to be built on the WRAMC site. The idea was to force staff to take the subway to WRAMC. The closest subway is a 20 minute walk from the hospital.

I’m not interested in the argument set forth by the author but more so by the closure of Walter Reed. I am 100% for green efforts especially for federal services but considering that the medical staff is on their feet all day long makes for a compelling argument to make the hospital more accessible. I’m not so sure the author of this article understands what is physically required from the staff and patients.

Let’s continue to refresh some basic principles In chemistry. The ionic compound is a chemical compound in which ions (An ion is an atom or molecule which has lost or gained one or more electrons (An electron is a subatomic particle. Carrying a (-)negative charge, it orbits an atom’s nucleus and is bound to it by electromagnetic forces.) are held together in a lattice structure by ionic bonds

• It has a mass that is minuscule in comparison with even the smallest of atoms, coming in at about one thousandth the size of the tiniest atom.
• It is a basic unit of nature, meaning it cannot be broken down into smaller units.
• It plays a starring roll in many of the interactions we see on a daily basis. For example, electrons are partially responsible for the fact that we can stand on a flat surface and not sink right through it. This occurs as the result of the mutual repulsion of the electrons in both the ground and a person’s shoes. We also depend on electrons for electrical current to power electronic devices. Even televisions rely on electrons to function properly.

Usually, the positively charged portion consists of metal cations (cations are positively charged ions) and the negatively charged portion is an anion or polyatomic ion. Ions in ionic compounds are held together by the electrostatic force between oppositely charged bodies. Ionic compounds have a high melting and boiling point, and they have a high hardness and are very brittle.

Had my first chemistry exam today. This was entirely too easy of test to do as poorly as I did. I definitely did not study sufficiently this week as I’ve been distracted by physical therapy and getting the biomechanics on my race bike dialed in. Here is a sample question from today’s exam:

A 450.0g piece of iron (sFe = 0.473J/gºC) was heated to 275ºC and put into 650g of water.  If the final temperature of the mixture was 45.0ºC, what was the initial temperature of the water?

For this problem you need to have committed a comonly used formula to memory.

mFe*sFe*(Tf- TiFe) + mw*sw*(Tf – Tiw) = 0

Basically matter or “m” of iron (symbol Fe) times specific heat or “s” of iron times (final temperature minus (-) intiail temperature) or what is called change in temperature (delta t)

Plus (+)

matter of water etc. etc. So Fe being iron w being water.

We then work the problem out algebraically inputing the known values from the question into the forumla

450.0g(0.473J/gºC)(45.0ºC -275ºC) + 650g(4.184J/gºC)(45.0ºC – Tiw) = 0

212.9J/ºC(-230ºC) + 2720J/ºC(45.0ºC – Tiw) = 0

-48970J + 12200J – (2720J/ºC) Tiw = 0

73400 J  =  (2720 J/ºC) Tiw

Tiw = 27ºC