hope everyone had a toy filled week where you remembered that all kinds of cool stuff is due to chemists making cool stuff. yesterday was national mole day, naturally. see one mole is 6.022 x 10^23. so on october (10) twenty-third (23) of every year is mole day... and all true supporters observe it at 6.02 am in the morning.
on another fun chemistry note, the chemistry ignobel prize this year: Edward Cussler of the University of Minnesota and Brian Gettelfinger of the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin, for conducting a careful experiment to settle the longstanding scientific question: can people swim faster in syrup or in water?
REFERENCE: "Will Humans Swim Faster or Slower in Syrup?" American Institute of Chemical Engineers Journal, Brian Gettelfinger and E. L. Cussler, vol. 50, no. 11, October 2004, pp. 2646-7.
if you're like me you probaby are thinking isn't this more physics or fluid dynamics? but whatever, they don't stick on technicalities at ignobel. further, it is very important to know that swimming in syrup isn't any slower or faster than swimming in water.
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