Friday Science: Research

Here is an example of the type of real research that our government should be supporting.  It is basic research.  I get so tired of people criticizing basic research because they are ignorant of the importance. (I am not completely sure why solvate is used here,  I even looked it up in case I was screwing it wrongly)

Solvated Past the Finish Line

Jake Yeston

As concerns mount about the adverse impact of atmospheric CO₂ on climate, there is increasing interest in diverting some of the greenhouse gas toward use as a feedstock for the industrial preparation of commodity chemicals. One promising reaction in this vein is hydrogenation to formic acid (HCOOH). This process is enthalpically favorable, but the entropic penalty for turning two gases into one liquid molecule pushes the overall equilibrium back toward the reactant side. Amines can deliver an enthalpic kick by deprotonating the acid. Schaub and Paciello found, however, that when trihexylamine is used as a base for ease of product isolation, the kick isn't quite vigorous enough. Adding a diol solvent inches the reaction over the line to thermodynamic favorability, presumably by stabilizing the ionic products through hydrogen bonding.

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 50, 10.1002/anie.201101292 (2011).

Pliny the Elder was not a crackpot.  He was a thinker and a problem solver.  Although Sig Freud was crackpot, he investigated the cause and effect of social interactions and how it drives the personality.  That kind of application had never been done before.  Da Vinci said we could fly, so did Icarus.  It took four hundred years to fly after Da Vinci mostly because of ignoramuses saying things like "If God had intended us to fly we would have wings".  Iggys only use their brains to subjugate people and stop up the flow of free thought like a turtle in a sewer hole.