INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR PHILOSOPHY OF CHEMISTRY
Never knew about existence of such a journal. Found about it while reading an article in Angewandte Chemie. You can read it free of charge at www.hyle.org .
March 21, 2007
March 5, 2007
New blogs!
“ I really enjoy reading the chemical blogsphere and can’t stay away anymore. My God, look at all these links on your sidebars! I want to join. May I?
A little about this, a little about that, but mostly around organic chemistry as I can see, smell, taste (yes, I do that) and feel it. Naturally, I’ll try to make it interesting and, you know, discussible. I made up my mind about it quite a long time ago, but it is well-known that when you see a white piece of paper in front of you, it’s hard to go on beyond first lines. Even after such strong incentive as learning about my friend and ex-labmate (unfortunately, “ex”) Tynchtyk’s blog - Transition State - several months have passed. I also could have written some loud words like “stimulation of international communication in chemical science”. Could.. have… written?”
I am glad to bring to your attention a new blog which promises to be very interesting…funny…and… organicky. http://liquidcarbon.livejournal.com is waiting for you…
You may find http://jungfreudlich.de interesting and funny, too.
March 2, 2007
Bad news from the application front…
Just received this letter, tonight after a loooong work-day:
“Dear Mr. Amatov:
Your Application for Admission to the Graduate School in the Department of Chemistry for the Fall Term 2007, has been carefully considered by a committee of faculty members from the Department. I regret to inform you that it is not possible to recommend approval of your application. Admission is very competitive and the number of new students we can admit is limited by the size of our stuff and research facilities. We have acted on your application as promptly as possible, and we hope you will be successful in gaining admission elsewhere.
Sincerely yours,
……………………… ”
February 8, 2007
Back from Kyrgyzstan!
I am back from a loooooong break. Sorry for not blogging for more than a month.
As was noted in my last post I went home for a month and spent 3 weeks of my monthly stay in Kyrgyzstan teaching Organic Chemistry to a group of six brilliant highschool students that came to my former school from four regions of the country.
It was fun to try to cover all aspects of Organic Chemistry in 3 weeks ( beginning with alkanes, going throungh modern Organic Synthesis and ending with spectroscopic methods of structure determination), especially if your students are only beginners in Organic Chemistry.
Hearing when they call you ”Agai, agai!” (i.e. “Teacher, teacher!”) was strange but pleasant at the same time.
Here are some shots from the event(sorry for the quality of the pictures, they were taken by a telephone camera) :
(Kaynar, “Yours truly”, Zamir, Shergazy, Kuban and Furkat(sitting) and Sabyr(not shown))
”Agai”
What a post without chemical structures and other chemical stuff!!! Here are some problems that I gave my students during quizes and ”exams” :
Another one:
Although I was lazy and didn’t post during that time I kept reading the blogosphere and here is a problem inspired by a beautiful post from PsiPsi :
December 23, 2006
Hiatus
Happy holidays Fellow Chemists!
Like most of you I am going to winter holidays hiatus as soon as the examinations end.
I am looking forward to go home because I haven’t seen my parents, my brother, my sister and other relatives since February 12, 2006.
During this time I am planning to organize a training camp for young chemists and train them for Chemistry Olympiads(IChO and International Mendeleev Chemistry Olympiad(IMChO)). Last year I enjoyed teaching at my former highschool and as a result, one of my students won bronze medals at IMChO in Armenia and at the IChO in Korea. This year( in collaboration with one REAL teacher) I want to gather the most promising students from all regions of Kyrgyzstan.
Best of luck to everyone in the New Year!
