Of the many things I posted, I never had the chance to write something about my direct scientific activity. Recently I worked on optical properties of polyenes. A paper has been published recently on Journal of Chemical Physics. Another one is submitted right now, and a third is in preparation.
Molecules interact with light. This should [...]
Category Archives: Chemistry
Nonlinear optics with polymers
December 19, 2009 – 10:44 am
Successfully obtained “primordial RNA” in lab conditions
November 25, 2009 – 3:39 am
A groundbreaking paper “Generation of long RNA chains in water” from Costanzo, Pino, Ciciriello and Di Mauro on Journal of Biological Chemistry proposes conditions for the obtainment of complex RNA chains from cyclic nucleotides. The proposed conditions are typical for the pre-biotic Earth: hot springs and puddles with water at moderate temperature (40 to 90 [...]
The scale of things
October 30, 2009 – 9:34 am
This is a very interesting application that should convey you an idea of the size of small things: from a coffee bean down to a small carbon atom. It pairs with this movie about the size of planets and stars. Fascinating and humbling.
A molecular structure image resolved for the first time
August 29, 2009 – 10:23 am
This article at New Scientist brought me that fascinating excitement of what you already know, but you really get to see for the very first time. A group at IBM Zurich was able to produce incredibly resolved images of pentacene. Meet the pentacene in traditional chemical structure:
And compare it with “its photo“. Amazing! Of course, [...]
Let’s burn water
March 20, 2008 – 11:31 pm
So, apparently you can burn saltwater (1, 2, 3, 4) by irradiating it with radiofrequency, weakening the hydrogen-oxygen bond to break it, and igniting the hydrogen and oxygen gas you obtain. The burning flame can then be used to produce electricity.
My proposal is therefore the following: let’s power the RF generator with the electricity produced [...]
Triboluminescence
February 19, 2008 – 8:44 pm
A few days ago I received a letter. While opening it, I was able to spot a considerably bright blue luminescence coming from the line where the glue separated. I heard many times about this phenomenon, but never able to witness it. It is called triboluminescence, and arises by charge separation created by the mechanical [...]
