Breaking Bad, the video game

As a chemist, Breaking Bad is a pretty fun show to watch. Not only is the protagonist a chem teacher, but they sneak in little nuggets of real science here and there. Brian Anderson made this parody of a Breaking Bad video game based on the style seen in the various LEGO games.

Pulley

Our next simple machine is a pulley (here by Evilnurn). A simple pulley changes the direction of a force transmitted by a cable as that cable moves around the circumference of the pulley. For instance, you could attach a rope to a rock and loop the rope over a pulley above you. If you pull down with a force of ten pounds, the result will be an upward force of ten pounds on that rock.


If you loop back and forth between two or more pulleys, you create a block and tackle (here by Louise Dade). This gives you a mechanical advantage. For instance, if there are two parallel stretches of rope, as in the model below, if you apply ten pounds of force in pulling the rope, twenty pounds of force will be exerted to lift the load. BTW, you never get something for nothing - you have to pull the rope twice as far to get double the force.

Lever

I was going to move on to the next simple machine, but Bobofrutx just posted this great example of a lever.

Wheel and axle

Next up in our look at simple machines is the wheel and axle. As with the lever, there is a relationship between the amount of force applied along the edge and the radial distance. Therefore a large wheel can be turned with relative ease, and yet be used to lift a large weight, as seen in this medieval crane by Stephle59.

Simple machine: lever

A simple machine is a mechanical device that changes the direction or magnitude of a force. Classical and Renaissance scientists defined six different ones. A lever (here by Linda Hamilton) is a rigid rod that pivots on a point called the fulcrum. In a class 1 lever, when a downward force is applied on one side of the fulcrum, an upward force results on the opposite side.



It also makes a difference how far the point of force application is from the fulcrum, as the actual term to be considered is torque, defined as the amount of force times the distance. The longer the lever, the greater torque can be produced, so that very large objects can be moved, as shown here by Ringleader. Archimedes supposedly said he could lift the earth if he were given a long enough beam and a place to set the fulcrum.

LEGO math fun

LEGO is great for teaching kids math concepts. I've used stacks of Duplo bricks to practice addition - i.e. 'put the stack of two bricks together with the stack of three bricks, and how tall is the tower?' And I've previously noted helping my daughter learn her 2x multiplication table. Here Erin from the So you call yourself a homeschooler blog is using stacks of bricks to teach fractions.

Apollo 13

CustomBricks has a look back at the Apollo 13 service module as the astronauts leave in the command module for their return to Earth.

Gear up

A gear is a simple machine, where two or more wheels have teeth, or cogs, that fit together so that when one turns, the teeth fit together so that the other turns as well. In this way, rotational torque is transferred from one axle to another. These axles can be parallel to each other, or, as in this case by Legohaulic, at an angle. If the gears have different diameters, they will rotate at different speeds.

Argon

Argon (here by the One and Only Mr R) is an element with the atomic number 18. It is a noble gas, which means it does not enter into reactions to form compounds with other elements (hence the name, derived from the Greek word for lazy). Argon is the third most abundant gas in the earth's atmosphere, after nitrogen and oxygen.

Breaking Barium

As a chemist I really like the show Breaking Bad, whose logo (here by Lego Junkie) involves the atomic symbols for Bromine and Barium. There are a little over a hundred different types of atoms, known as elements. What differentiates one element from another is the number of protons in the nucleus, and the arrangement of electrons and bonding properties are related to this. Bromine is an element with 35 protons in the nucleus. In the elemental form (that is, when it's just by itself and not combined with other elements to make compounds) it forms diatomic molecules - two bromines connected to each other. Br₂ is largely a liquid at room temperature. It reacts readily with other compounds in a number of ways, including both radical and ionic reactions. Barium has 56 protons in the nucleus and is a metal. It easily loses two electrons to become a positively charged species in various ionic compounds.

Greenhouse effect

TheBrickAvenger teaches us about the Greenhouse effect. Light energy from the sun (in yellow) hits the earth, warming it. The earth then radiates heat (red arrows), but rather than directly escaping into space, a good portion of this heat energy coming up from the earth is absorbed by gases such as CO2 in the atmosphere. These gases then radiate energy - some up into space, but other energy back down towards the earth.

Happy Pi Day

Man, I've got to turn in my geek card. I completely missed that today was Pi Day. In my defense, I never know what the date is. MCLegoboy built this pi. It'd be really cool if he used exactly 314 bricks.

Hydrogen

MOCathalon is an annual LEGO building contest with a series of categories. One of this year's categories is 'Just teach it!', and Finn Tegotash built a chemistry class.

Okay, class, we're going to continue with our examination of the periodic table.


Hydrogen is the simplest element, with only one proton and one electron. In molecular form it exists as H2.


Since it is the lightest element, and since gases take up the same volume of space regardless of their mass, the same volume of hydrogen is much lighter than the same volume of air (a mix of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water vapor, and some other things). Therefore, a balloon filled with hydrogen floats.


Hydrogen reacts with oxygen to make water. This reaction gives off a lot of energy. It is an exothermic process. Boom!

Be relative, my Friend!

GoRiLLaWeR made this awesome Einstein.

De revolutionibus orbium coelestium

As you know if you've been to Google, today is the 540th anniversary of the birth of Nocolaus Copernicus. He was the Polish astronomer most responsible for the heliocentric view of the universe. That is, the idea that the earth and the planets orbit the sun rather than the sun and the planets orbiting the earth. This motion is demonstrated by an orrery, a mechanical model of the solar system that shows the relative motions of the celestial bodies. V&A Steamworks made a great LEGO Orrery, and you can even see it in action.

Pythagorean treehouse and the island of Cartesia

You simply have to watch this video on the Pythagorean LEGO trick.

Electron Transport Chain

ATP is the cell's currency of energy. To make ATP takes energy, though. In order to do this, energy is used either from sunlight in photosynthesis or from chemical reactions in respiration to move electrons across a membrane via an electron transport chain, here illustrated by Medieval Guy. When you move negatively charged electrons across the membrane, though, you create an imbalance of charges. In order to bring charges back into balance, positively charged protons flow from one side of the membrane through the other, and the movement of these is harnessed by ATP synthase to produce more ATP. BTW, I was at UCLA in 1997 when Paul Boyer was awarded the Nobel for his role in the elucidation of the ATPase mechanism. I was also there in 1995 when UCLA won the NCAA basketball championship. On one of these occasions there was a reception hosted by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. On the other occasion there was mini riot in Westwood Village of drunken college students. Can you guess which was which?

Reflection

Dave Shaddix made this mosaic based on a famous photo of Buzz Aldrin during the Apollo 11 mission.

How big is space?

I ran across a fun feature on BBC-Future, called How Big is Space? It's essentially a huge graphic, that as you scroll down takes you further and further away from the Earth's surface. It actually reminds me a lot of the classic Powers of Ten video you may have seen in school (and if not, go watch). The reason to note this here is the entry that comes in at 24 km from the Earth's surface, noting the Canadian minifig space flight.

Genome sequencing

Your genome is the sequence of nucleic acids found in your DNA. This sequence is the template for your proteins, and basically makes the blueprint that makes you a human and not, say, a tree. Knowing the genomic sequence for an organism has many applications, from basic research to applied medicine. For instance, you could identify some bacteria by its sequence to diagnose a disease, or you could find out if a person has the markers for some inherited disease. A number of companies have developed laboratory instrumentation for genomic sequencing, such as the Life Technologies Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine. Torsten Seeman built a LEGO rendition for his son.