bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Carbocyclic Ring Construction: The Nicolaou Synthesis of Myceliothermophin E
Authors: Taber Douglass F.
Published: November 2020

Nan Zheng of the University of Arkansas developed (Adv. Synth. Catal. 2014, 356, 2831) a Ru catalyst for the addition of an amino cyclopropane 1 to an alkyne 2 to give 3. The reaction proceeded with high regiocontrol, but only modest stereocontrol. Alain De Mesmaeker of Syngenta Crop Protection, Switzerland found (Tetrahedron Lett. 2014, 55, 6577) that the β,γ-unsaturated amide 4 worked particularly well as a precursor to the keteniminium that cyclized to give, after hydrolysis, the cyclobuta­none 5. Baeyer–Villiger oxidation of 5 led to 5-deoxystrigol 6. David Tymann and Martin Hiersemann of the Technische Universität Dortmund have been exploring (Org. Lett. 2014, 16, 4062; Synthesis 2014, 46, 3110) the intra­molecular carbonyl ene reaction as a tool for the assembly of highly substituted cyclopentanes, as in the conversion of 7 to 8. On oxidation, 8 was readily carried on to the alkene 9. James L. Leighton of Columbia University conceived (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 9878) the cascade transformation of 10 to 12. Deprotonation/silylation set the stage for Claisen rearrangement to give 11. The subsequent Cope rearrangement is an equilibrium process, driven by the ring strain of 11. K. C. Nicolaou of Rice University described (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 10970) the total synthesis of the cytotoxic tetramic acid derivative myceliothermo­phin E 15. A key step in the synthesis was the intramolecular Michael addition/ aldol condensation that converted 13 to 14.
Hydrothermal Conditions are Conducive for the Origin of Life
Authors: Deamer David W.
Published: November 2020

Alexander Ivanovich Oparin was first to consider the origin of life in strictly scientific terms. Oparin published The Origin of Life in 1924, in his native Russian language, and was active in the field for the next 50 years. During my initial field work in the volcanic regions of Kamchatka, organized with Vladimir Kompanichenko, we visited the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology in Petropavlovsk, and I happened to see the above quote painted on a wall near the entrance. Oparin’s proposal about how life can begin was intuitive because he had no experimental evidence as a foundation, but as our party rode in helicopters up and down the peninsula from one volcanic site to the next, I began to share his intuition. The focus of this chapter concerns the properties of water in contact with mineral surfaces heated by volcanism, inspired by what we saw in Kamchatka. Four billion years ago, as the global temperature decreased following the condensation of the ocean, there came a point at which the components required for the origin of life could assemble into systems of encapsulated polymers. Two alternative hydrothermal conditions have been proposed as sites where this could have occurred: salty seawater at submarine hydrothermal vents and freshwater circulating in hydrothermal fields associated with volcanic land masses. To weigh the alternatives, this chapter considers the chemical and physical properties of hydrothermal vents and hydrothermal fields and how each could contribute to the origin of cellular life. Questions to be addressed: What are the chemical and physical properties of hydrothermal vents? How do the properties of hydrothermal fields differ from those of vents? How are these properties related to the way that organic solutes can undergo physical and chemical interactions related to the origin of life? Suppose that an organic chemist decides to synthesize a new compound that involves making an ester bond. The chemist is provided with a solution of the two reactants such as acetic acid and ethanol, and then is given a choice: should the reaction be run in an ice bath or instead heated to boiling and refluxed?
Going It Alone
Authors: Rosenstein Donald L. , Yopp Justin M.
Published: November 2020

In the 2012 Olympics, the Jamaican national team set the world record in the men’s 4 × 100 meter relay race with a time of 36.84 seconds. In the individual 400-meter event held four days earlier, Grenadian sprinter Kirani James clocked in at 43.94 seconds to win the gold medal. Each race covered the same distance and was run on the same track, yet the two winning times were separated by more than seven seconds. The reasons for the faster time are obvious. As part of a team, sprinters are already in full stride when handed the baton and can run at top speed for shorter distances without having to conserve energy. Tasks are accomplished more efficiently when more than one person can share the work. Still, success depends on smooth transitions. The best relay teams place as much emphasis on passing the baton as they do straight-line sprinting. Eventually, they develop a rhythm and seamless exchanges become second nature. A similar dynamic had once existed between the fathers in our group and their wives when it came to raising their children. When they shared and coordinated responsibilities, parenting was a more efficient and successful team effort. Over the course of their marriages, these couples took on complementary roles in parenting their children and managing their homes. In one of the early meetings of the support group, Bruce described how he and his wife, Lisa, had developed a well-established division of labor throughout their fourteen years of marriage. Then it all went to hell. Lisa had already endured radiation therapy, chemotherapy, numerous hospitalizations, and the surgical removal of part of her colon that left her in pain and constantly fatigued. She had to lie in bed much of the day and rarely had the strength or energy to enjoy time with her children. She was desperate to feel better, and she and Bruce made an appointment for a second opinion. The consulting oncologist reviewed Lisa’s medical history, the most recent scans, and her long list of medications.
Nuclear Lattice Model and the Electronic Configuration of the Chemical Elements
Authors: Garai Jozsef
Published: November 2020

In the earliest days of science researchers were arguing philosophically what might be the reasonable explanation for an observed phenomenon. The majority of the contemporary scientific community claims that these arguments are useless because they do not add anything to our understanding of nature. The current consensus on the aim of science is that science collects facts (data) and discerns the order that exists between and among the various facts (e.g., Feynman 1985). According to this approach the mission of science is over when the phenomenon under investigation has been described. It is left to the philosophers to answer the question what is the governing physical process behind the observed physical phenomenon. Quantum mechanics is a good example of this approach, “It works, so we just have to accept it.” The consequence is that nearly 90 years after the development of quantum theory, there is still no consensus in the scientific community regarding the interpretation of the theory’s foundational building blocks (Schlosshauer et al. 2013). I believe that identifying the physical process governing a natural phenomenon is the responsibility of science. Dutailly (2013) expressed this quite well: A “black box” in the “cloud” which answers our questions correctly is not a scientific theory, if we have no knowledge of the basis upon which it has been designed. A scientific theory should provide a set of concepts and a formalism which can be easily and indisputably understood and used by the workers in the field. In this study the main unifying principle in chemistry, the periodic system of the chemical elements (PSCE) is investigated. The aim of the study is not only the description of the periodicity but also the understanding of the underlying physics resulting in the PSCE. By 1860 about 60 elements had been identified, and this initiated a quest to find their systematic arrangement. Based on similarities, Dobereiner (1829) in Germany suggested grouping the elements into triads.
The “Chemical Mechanics” of the Periodic Table
Authors: Ceulemans Arnout , Thyssen Pieter
Published: November 2020

In 1969, the centennial of Mendeleev’s discovery of the periodic table was commemorated by an international conference devoted to the periodicity and symmetry of the elementary structure of matter. The conference was held in the Vatican and brought together a selected audience of first-rate atomic and nuclear scientists. In 1971, the proceedings were published in a joint publication [1] of the Academy of Sciences of Torino and the National Academy in Rome. Among the many interesting contributions, the American cosmologist John Archibald Wheeler described a mind-boggling journey from “Mendeleev’s atom to the collapsing star.” According to Wheeler [2], Mendeleev was convinced that the atom is not “deathlike inactivity” but a dynamic reality and Mendeleev expressed his hope that the discovery of an orderly pattern would “hasten the advent of a true chemical mechanics.” This hope has certainly been met by Schrödinger’s wave mechanics, which provides an accurate tool to simulate the properties of the elements. However, the overall structure and symmetry of the periodic table continues to defy understanding. The quest for an effective universal force law at the basis of the mechanics of multi-electron atoms forms the topic of this contribution. The search for central force laws should start with Bertrand’s theorem in classical mechanics. In 1873, the French mathematician Joseph Louis Bertrand presented to the Paris Academy a short note [3, 4] on central force laws that give rise to stable orbits. For a proper understanding of the research question which Bertrand was addressing, we start from an everyday experiment. A mass attached to a string can easily be swept around in a perfectly circular orbit by simply pulling on the string. The only requirement is that the force should be fixed and directed toward the center of the orbit. If we want the mass to go faster, we simply have to pull harder.
Richard Abegg and the Periodic Table
Authors: Jensen William B.
Published: November 2020

The German chemist Richard Wilhelm Heinrich Abegg (Fig. 13.1), was born on 9 January 1869 in Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland) (1). He received his PhD in 1891 from the University of Berlin for work in the field of organic chemistry done under the direction of August Hofmann. He switched to the new and rising field of physical chemistry immediately upon graduation, doing postdoctoral work in the laboratories of Wilhelm Ostwald at Leipzig and Svante Arrhenius at Stockholm, as well as serving as personal assistant to Walther Nernst at Göttingen. In 1897 Abegg was appointed professor of chemistry at the University of Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland). In 1909 he moved to the local Technischen Hochschule, where he remained until his untimely death on 3 April 1910 at age 41 in a ballooning accident near Koszalin in what is now modern-day Poland. As might be inferred from his association with Ostwald, Arrhenius, and Nernst, Abegg’s research interests quickly focused on the newly formulated theories of ionic dissociation and chemical equilibrium, where he is credited with contributing to an understanding of the theory of freezing point depression and with writing two popular introductory textbooks on the use of the ionic theory and equilibrium in reinterpreting various traditional areas of chemical synthesis and analysis (2, 3). With the discovery of the electron in 1897 Abegg soon became interested in its use to rationalize various electrochemical phenomena and in its possible implications for both the periodic table and chemical bonding. That year he published, in collaboration with Guido Bodländer, his theory of electroaffinity in which he postulated that electrochemical half-cell oxidation potentials could be used as a measure of an atom’s attraction for electrons and that this, in turn, could be qualitatively correlated with periodic trends (Fig. 13.2) in such properties as molecular polarity, solubility, and the tendency to form complex ions (4, 5).
The Philosophical Importance of the Periodic Table
Authors: Weinstein Mark
Published: November 2020

The Centrality of the periodic table to chemistry is beyond dispute. What seems just as obvious to me is that the table should be seen to play an equally central role in the philosophical understanding of scientific inquiry. This may be a minority opinion; if we look at philosophical discussions of scientific issues broadly, such a view seems unsupported by philosophical practice. Philosophers have been exercised by the problematic aspects of science: revolutions rather than normal scientific practice; aspects of science that are conceptually problematic, for example, quantum mechanics; areas of science that include explanatory accounts that deviate from standard models, for example, evolutionary theory; or aspects of science that raise moral or social issues, such as the biomedical sciences. Chemistry, with a long track record of unsurprising growth, with myriad of applications taken for granted, and with a strongly supported and unifying theory may seem to be just too boring to exercise philosophers interested in resolving puzzles, developing surprising theories, and engendering novel insights. But as I will attempt to show, the most normal of normal sciences, physical chemistry with the periodic table at its core, offers a view of science relevant to central philosophical concerns. In what follows I will offer an overview of three philosophical areas for which the periodic table is salient, while indicating a logical image of a scientific structure of the sort that the table exemplifies. I look first at methodology, and in particular the role of counterevidence in evaluating generalizations. Second I look at how the table permits a reinterpretation of foundational epistemological notions of truth. Finally, I will look at ontology, how the table supports our commitment to the fundamental nature of reality. The basis of my analysis is a model of emerging truth (MET). This metamathematical model is available in a number of publications and I will include only its most basic elements in a technical appendix. In place of the formal construction I will offer the philosophical intuitions it encodes, intuitions that draw upon the structure of chemistry with the periodic table at its core.
Ethical Problem Solving
Authors: Kovac Jeffrey
Published: November 2020

An ethical problem is not like a mathematics problem or most science problems that have unique solutions that are either right or wrong. Instead, ethics problems are more like design problems for which several acceptable solutions can be found. Design problems are problems of making or repairing things or processes that satisfy human desires or needs (Whitbeck 1996). The most familiar example in chemistry is design of a synthesis, an example of process design. There is usually more than one way to make a particular molecule. Deciding on which method is “best” involves a large number of considerations, including cost of materials, yield, quantity and purity of product, safety, purification methods, and reaction conditions, among others. Two different chemists might choose two different routes based on individual considerations. For example, while one route might provide a higher yield but require an expensive piece of equipment, the second route has a lower yield but can be done less expensively. The chemist who already owns the specialized equipment will probably choose the first alternative, but a colleague whose research budget is limited might accept the lower yield to save money. In a second kind of synthesis design problem, the end use is known, but several molecules or materials might actually accomplish this goal. Drug design is a good example. A chemist might take on (or be assigned) the task of developing a compound that controls blood pressure by blocking an enzyme that constricts blood vessels. A number of compounds might work, and the “best” solution to the problem will depend on factors such as ease of synthesis and purification, cost, medical side effects, and safety and environmental considerations involved in the manufacture of the drug. In general, the design’s success depends on whether it achieves the desired end within the imposed criteria and constraints. There is a close analogy between design problems and real-life ethical problems. In an ethical problem, a chemist or chemistry student must devise possible courses of action, evaluate them, and then decide what to do.
Haida’s Song
Authors: Colby Jason M.
Published: November 2020

Haida Didn’t Know it, but Bob Wright was thinking of setting him free. A longtime attraction at Wright’s Sealand of the Pacific, the male orca had reached twenty-three feet, and despite being paired with several females, he had failed to impregnate any of them. In June 1982, the oceanarium’s director, Angus Matthews, proposed an exchange to the Canadian government. In return for a permit to capture two young killer whales in local waters, Sealand would release Haida to the wild. It was a bold plan, made possible by recent scientific breakthroughs. Using Haida’s own calls, researchers had deduced that he was a member of L pod, one of the three southern resident pods identified and named by Mike Bigg. But the orca’s training for release would begin only after Sealand acquired new whales. Following a successful capture, Matthews explained, the oceanarium would move Haida to a pen in Pedder Bay, where the long-captive orca could learn to catch live fish and make acoustic contact with his family. But Matthews cautioned that success would ultimately depend on the whale himself. “Haida will be given his own choice,” he emphasized, “of joining his old pod and becoming a born-again whale, or returning to his friends at Sealand.” In late August, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO, formerly the Department of the Environment) approved the project and assigned Bigg to supervise it. The respected scientist cautioned the public that there was no guarantee Haida would survive, but he argued that the release “needs to be tried.” Critics disagreed. Some accused Sealand of plotting to abandon Haida now that he had served his purpose. Likening the plan to “throwing out the family pet when it is no longer young and amusing,” one local woman warned that Haida’s “trust in humans will probably result in a bullet from a gun-happy fisherman.” The fiercest opposition came from Greenpeace, which denounced the entire proposal. Declaring rehabilitation “unlikely,” Greenpeace Canada president Patrick Moore argued that to move the imprisoned whale to a “halfway house” in Pedder Bay would be “to condemn him to death—alone.”
Introduction
Authors: Bennett Peggy D.
Published: November 2020

At the age of five, dear reader, I walked into my first- grade classroom and fell in love with learning. I must have become seriously smitten, for not one year since that time have I not been in schools . . . and it’s been more than sixty years! My passions have been consistent: education, learning, teaching. Teachers, students, schools. Scholars, writers, thinkers. Seeking, studying, wondering. Writing, speaking, mentoring. I remain committed to helping my fellow learners as we navigate our way through our lives. I did my first teaching as a fifth grader, when I showed a first grader how to tap- dance for the annual school play. Maybe that was when I got hooked on teaching. The majority of my career has been spent in university settings, guiding future teachers and working with children. Through it all, I have been consistently drawn to the nuggets. Whether I’m reading a book, listening to a lecture, or studying great thinkers, the small gems of wisdom I’ve found have always made me shiver. When I discovered a bit of simple wisdom, I felt it to my core. I would remember it. I would look for and ponder connections. I would begin to see its scope and profundity, and I would try to tell everyone about the idea. Those nuggets became my bedrock for trying to understand people. From my undergraduate days, I realized that I was pri­vately more passionate about studying and understanding peo­ple than I was about studying and understanding music, which I had thought would be my career. Early on, I knew that my des­tiny was not on the performance stage: it was in teaching, writ­ing, and mentoring. In the 1990s, after a year of extreme conflict and adversity, I decided I wanted to learn about mediation. I wanted to under­stand how we experience conflict and what we can do to resolve it. I became certified in basic mediation, family mediation, and victim- offender mediation. For seventeen years, I have volun­teered to mediate cases for Justice Court in Bozeman, Montana. Mediation continually teaches me about people: what hurts us, what threatens us, what reconciles us, what smooths our troubles.
Accepting change
Authors: Bennett Peggy D.
Published: November 2020

Transitions can be both exciting and frightening. A change may be our choice, yet we can still experience both opti­mism and anxiety, eagerness and resistance. We can fret about the results. We can become impatient. We can extinguish any pleasantness during the change by our worries about it. Sometimes a metaphor can help soothe the throng of emo­tions that come with change. The image can give us ways to interpret, understand, and reframe. In this case, the metaphor that mirrors the angst of change is the way a snake sheds its skin and then gains renewal. For snakes, shedding skin is a necessity: they must shed in order to grow. Snakeskin does not expand like our skin, so it becomes constrictive as the snake matures. Shedding also serves the snake by ridding it of troublesome parasites. There is no good way to hurry the process of shedding. The snakeskin comes off in one piece during a very slow, tedious pro­cess that may include going for a swim or rubbing against a log to complete the sloughing. The main action during this tedious change is simply waiting. Shedding can also be a somewhat dangerous time. As snakes shed their skin, their vision becomes increasingly cloudy. They begin to exhibit irritable, nervous behavior. They are more prone to strike out and be less “themselves.” The parallels seem obvious. Comparing nature’s way of adapting to shedding skin and accepting change may offer us some optimistic perspectives. A major frustration in schools is the constancy of change. Mandated curricular and procedural changes can be confusing, upsetting, and exhausting. There is often a period of time during a change when everything seems overwhelming. We resist, we complain, we consider early retirement. Some of us love change; some of us hate it. Resisting and griping tend to offer no power, and they just make us more mis­erable, more tense, and less secure. The image of skin shedding can help us adjust and accept. Change is a process that we cannot necessarily hurry or reject. While it is occurring, we may not see too well, we may exhibit irritability, and we may forget that “better” is on its way.
Honor in being honest
Authors: Bennett Peggy D.
Published: November 2020

• “You want my honest opinion?” • “I’m just being honest.” • “I’m going to be brutally honest with you.” For many of us, hearing these words causes us to brace for mean- spirited “feedback.” And when we are the one “being honest,” we may believe we have unfettered permission to hurt, harm, or embarrass . . . all under the guise of honesty. Too often, the speaker uses “I’m just being honest” to excuse himself or herself from a kind or tempered commentary. Think of the categories toward which this kind of brutal honesty is aimed: appearance, skills, integrity, home life, family members, level of education, and so on. What is honesty, anyway, and why do we use it to say and do harsh and hurtful things? Why do we give ourselves permission to be impolite and to degrade someone under the banner of “being honest”? The etymology of the word “honesty” may surprise you. In previous centuries, the original meaning had the same root as the word “honor”: good manners, elegance, decency. Imagine how our verbal interactions might change if our honesty became honorable action. Imagine how our vitality in schools may change when we aspire to interact with decency and good manners, to be honest with students as well as staff. Imagine how we might explain and demonstrate honor and honesty throughout our students’ time with us. • Rather than speak with unconstrained freedom to hurt and hinder, we would display honesty with honorable actions and elegant intent. • Rather than equate honesty with “truth” (whose truth?), we would use honesty as the opportunity to behave with decency and good manners. When we adopt such noble attitudes and behaviors, we feel vibrant. Our energy changes. Our sense of being both peaceful and powerful is clear. We know we are on rich, solid ground. Behaving the way we choose, rather than the way that feels most natural, is foundational to our own leadership, matu­rity, and ability to help our students grow and develop . . . . Perhaps we are closer to being honest with ourselves and others when we act the way we know is best for the situation and act the way we want to be rather than acting according to habit and what feels natural.
Freezing images
Authors: Bennett Peggy D.
Published: November 2020

Can you envision yourself in this scene? I saw her disdain for me pasted like an announcement on her forehead. She must have heard that I made some critical remarks about her presentation. Her icy treatment makes it clear that she is distancing herself from me. I veer off down another hallway to avoid her. We freeze images when we assume that a past encounter with someone is as foremost in their minds as it is in ours. The episode may have been recent or from the distant past. Yet we believe our awkwardness, anger, or warmth is as prevalent in the other’s mind as it is in ours. We think the warm smile signals that he remembers the won­derful conversation we had. That the grumpy look means she is still unhappy about my declining that invitation. That the chilli­ness in his greeting means he still resents my publicly challeng­ing his opinion. Fairly often, however, the person we have been avoiding may not even recall the encounter! The scowl or warmth we see aimed at us may have nothing to do with us! And it may not even be a scowl that we are seeing! Conjuring intent, good and bad, where there is none can become a habit. And the only way to clear the air is to commu­nicate, to ask. • “Am I sensing correctly that you feel awkward toward me because of our dispute at the meeting?” • “My memory of that argument still makes me uncomfortable. Can we talk about it?” • “By the way you were smiling and contributing to the discus­sion, you seemed in agreement with the points I was making. Am I interpreting that correctly?” Freedom is what we are after. Dispelling our own limiting beliefs releases and revitalizes us. Learning that we were wrong about our negative assumptions can bring about euphoria. Thawing those frozen images can reset us on a path of vibrancy in our school relationships.
Time to beware
Authors: Bennett Peggy D.
Published: November 2020

When we are vulnerable, it’s time to be extra cautious. Physically or emotionally, there are times when we know we are not at our best. We may be in pain, fatigued, fearful, or just out of sorts. It is a “beware time.” Imagine yourself at your best, descending a set of stairs. You hop from step to step. You move quickly and confidently. You don’t even look at the steps. You don’t hold on to the banister. You are extremely confident and efficient. Now imagine yourself injured or in pain as you descend a set of stairs. You are cautious. You cling unsteadily to the banister for support. You move slowly, placing both feet on one step before you move to the next. You are tense as you hold tightly to the person you have asked to assist you. You don’t take your eyes off the danger, looking at nothing but the steps you need to tra­verse. You use all your diminished strength to keep from falling. Your heart is racing. We all have occasions to experience confident freedom and cautious fear. Like navigating the stairs when we are impaired, we need to know when we are especially vulnerable. Vulnerability can cloud our awareness and distract our atten­tion. We can be prone to losing our patience, our temper, our composure. We follow a protocol for protecting a physical injury; protecting our spirit can be just as important. Our vulnerabilities wax and wane. Being aware helps us move into caution mode for a time, taking care to protect ourselves until it passes. Acknowledging your own “beware time” can be like wrapping yourself in a layer of protective padding or using a periscope to check out any risks hiding in the periphery. Your “beware time” may pass quickly or may amount to nothing. But naming it and being extra gentle with yourself can be a nice oasis of self- care and self- knowledge.
Sensory thresholds
Authors: Bennett Peggy D.
Published: November 2020

Pet peeves about others’ behaviors are normal. When a par­ticular behavior occurs daily in a classroom, however, it can drive a teacher (and students) to severe annoyance. The key to minimizing issues is remembering that our frenzy over someone’s quirky behavior is more often our problem than theirs. Our five senses function to orient us in the world, to give us information about what is happening outside our skin. Visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory senses work con­stantly to feed us information. When we have a “sensory sensitiv­ity,” we can become anxious and intolerant, often reaching our threshold quite quickly. Kinesthetic: leg jiggling, close proximity, itchy fabrics, touching and hugging, close talking, an uncomfortable chair, pain thresholds (squeezing a hand or shoulder), room temperature Auditory: gum popping, fingernails on metal or slate, loud throat clearing or chewing, scraping teeth on a fork, screech of tires and birds, loud talking, whispering, alarms and honking, pencil tapping Visual: messy desk, clashing colors, too much or too little decor, crooked picture frames, hair too long or too short, chairs not in alignment, too much light/ not enough light Olfactory: strong smells of raw onions, fish, sweat, old carpet, perfume Gustatory: texture and taste of squid, eggs, unbuttered toast The key to tolerance for our own sensory tipping points is to avoid blaming the offender. We acknowledge that these are our sensitivities, not everyone else’s. We choose wisely whether or not to reveal our sensitivities. Others often cannot imagine we have such strong aversions to sensations they like or do not even notice. And someone of any age may choose to use our sensitivi­ties to rile us. Take a deep breath and minimize your response with a bit of private humor: “I’ll just move over here to give you a bit more room.” “I’m going to pretend I don’t hear that sound.” “I will not threaten to nail his shoe to the floor to stop his leg from jiggling!”
Problem- solving
Authors: Bennett Peggy D.
Published: November 2020

Teachers are expert problem- solvers. Whether it is figuring out how to get shoelaces untangled or how to solve a thorny algebraic equation, teachers are industrious. Does anyone teach us how to solve problems? Maybe not. Our daily experiences and our diligent efforts to “figure it out” seem to be the most potent problem- solving skill builders. For some of us, problems make us eager; we treat problem- solving as a mystery, almost a game. Others approach problems like obstacles, deterrents to efficiency in learning and teaching. Asking for help can be one solution. Yet, as Curwin and Mendler advise in their seminal work describing discipline with dignity, be savvy about whom you ask for help: “Along with calming our­selves when angry, we need to be good at figuring out how to solve problems we have or that others try to give us. If we let other people give us their solutions, then they have power over us . . . . Each of us has the power to make our own decisions, and we need to decide who we will allow to influence us and who we won’t” (Curwin & Mendler, 1997, p. 94). The two authors also provide a succinct, six- step solution for problem- solving. The clear, practical advice may help those who struggle with this issue, at whatever age, in whatever setting. Techniques for Solving Problems: The Six- Step Solution 1. Stop and calm down. Pay attention to the signs that your body gives you when it feels tense. 2. Think. Consider your options. Think about the many different actions you can choose to take. 3. Decide. Choose a goal: what do you want to happen? Think about the consequences: what will happen if you actually do what you are thinking? 4. Choose a second solution, in case the first solution doesn’t work. Always have a backup plan ready. 5. Act. Carry out your decision. 6. Evaluate. Did you reach your goal? If the same problem occurs again, what will you do? Are there any people (par­ents, friends, teachers) who might help you as you figure out the best solution?
When we are what we do
Authors: Bennett Peggy D.
Published: November 2020

For some of us, teaching becomes a habit. Not only do we take our work (teaching) home with us, we also take it to banks, to restaurants, and on public transportation. We believe we are doing a valuable service by correcting others, suggest­ing alternative ways of doing something, and explaining an idea past the point of the listener’s interest. Some educators seem proud to announce that they are workaholics, that they never stop teaching. But is that a good thing? Buying a ticket for a movie, we take the opportunity to discuss the meaning of an unusual movie title with the young employee. A neighbor’s car won’t start, and we expound on the mechani­cal functions that could be at fault. A child is running around a restaurant nearly colliding with others, and we lean forward, in front of her parents, and suggest that she sit down at her table. Being a teacher prepares us for so many things in life. And vigorously aspiring to be our best is one of the habits of mind that we embrace. Yet it is worth asking if our “teacher self” is consuming us . . . and consuming our families and friends. Variety in interests and activities provides a reservoir and a respite from school life. These kinds of “vacations from teaching” do not diminish our vitality; they sustain it. Our families beg for our attention; we have no acquaintances beyond those at school; we have no interests other than our school work; we cannot silence our thoughts about school long enough to have interludes of other activities and interests; we assume others are as interested in our “school stories” as we are; we have no borders that separate our work from our non- school lives. When thoughts of school consume us, we may be exem­plifying the idea that “We are what we do.” Our identities and activities may not have developed beyond our “teaching self.” “Teaching is my life” is poetic. But, strictly interpreted, it is not necessarily healthy. What if spending time outside the arena of schoolwork and school relationships is one of the best ways to preserve or regain our vitality for school, our vitality for teaching? Our total commitment to our students and our teaching is admirable and noble. Yet the concerning word is “total.” When we offer ourselves a buffer between what we do and who we are, we pave the pathway toward a balanced, fruitful, and satisfying life. Someone once asked: “When we are what we do, then who are we when we don’t?” Hmmmmm . . .
Compassion fatigue
Authors: Bennett Peggy D.
Published: November 2020

Is it possible to care too much? Teachers care. We want the best for our students and colleagues and communities. Yet some of us may care too much about others’ feelings, personal struggles, and life challenges. When we absorb all the bad news, our lenses get foggy. We worry beyond the bounds of our abilities to help. We begin to believe that fixing the problem is futile, that we cannot make a difference in such a quagmire. We give our selves away. The helpers become the victims. Caregivers become needy of care. When compassion fatigue overwhelms, we must develop strategies for self- care. Maintaining strength to help others is necessary, even when that strength must include a professional distance, a sense of separateness. Self- compassion is necessary to maintain stamina and avoid compassion fatigue in schools. Cultivating a rich personal life may include pursuing personal, social, physical, and spiritual activities that calm us, inform us, and give us sustenance. We learn to care for ourselves in ways that matter.
Roots, Shoots, Leaves, and Grapes
Authors: Dalton David R.
Published: November 2020

As noted earlier and as anticipated by Charles and Francis Darwin it has been argued that plants sense the direction of gravity (gravitropism) by movement of starch granules found in cells called statocytes that contain compartments (organelles) called statoliths. The synthesis of statoliths appears to occur in the plastid (plant organelle) compartments called amyloplasts (Figure 7.1, 1). It has been suggested that this gravitropic signal then leads to movement of plant hormones such as indole-3-acetic acid (auxin) (Figure 7.2), through the phloem opposite to the pull of gravity to promote stem growth. Chloroplasts (Figure 7.1, 2) are cell compartments (plastids or organelles) in which photosynthesis is carried out. The process of photosynthesis, discussed more fully later, is accompanied by the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and inorganic phosphate (Pi) (Figure 7.3). ATP is consumed and converted to ADP and Pi in living systems. The cycle of production and consumption allows ATP to serve as an “energy currency” to pay for the reactions in living systems. Beyond this generally recognized critical function of chloroplasts, it has recently been pointed out that light/ dark conditions affect alternative splicing of genes which may be necessary for proper plant responses to varying light conditions. The organelles or plastids which contain the pigments for photosynthesis and the amyloplasts that store starch are only two of many kinds of plastids. Other plastids, leucoplasts for example, hold the enzymes for the synthesis of terpenes, and elaioplasts store fatty acids. Apparently, all plastids are derived from proplastids which are present in the pluripotent apical and root meristem cells. The cell wall (Figure 7.1, 3) is the tough, rigid layer that surrounds cells. It is located on the outside of the flexible cell membrane, thus adding fixed structure. A representation of a portion of the cell wall (as made up of cellulose and peptide cross-linking) is shown below in Figure 7.7. The cells will have different sizes as a function of where they are found (e.g., leaf, stalk, root), but in every case, the cell wall limits the size of the membrane that lies within.
Heating and Cooling of Food
Authors: Kelly Alan
Published: November 2020

As we have seen, heating of food is one of the oldest and most powerful ways of making food safe and stable, whether cooking a burger on a barbecue or pasteurizing juice, but is also a potentially highly damaging thing to do to many food products. So, it makes sense that a key principle of processing food is to understand how to control the flow of heat as precisely as possible. In Chapter 8, I introduced how we can maximize the efficient transfer of heat into and out of food in a kitchen in simple systems, like pots on stoves. In practice, in large-scale processes, to transfer heat efficiently from hot to cold, and in this way keep the lords of thermodynamics happy while minimizing damage to the food being heated, we need to use clever pieces of equipment, called heat exchangers (reflecting the fact that, just as the cold part of the system gets hotter, so the hot part gets colder in the deal; fair exchange is no robbery). To visualize a heat exchanger, imagine a simple metal tube, through which a cold liquid is flowing from one end to the other. Now surround that tube with a larger one, through which a hot liquid flows (as shown in Figure 11.1). The wall of the inner tube is exposed to cold on the inside and hot on the outside, and this temperature gradient is the pump that transfers heat across that wall, in nature’s obsessive quest for equality in all things temperature-y. So, now we have two tubes laid horizontally in concentric neatness, say with a hot and a cold liquid flowing in from the left-hand side; as they exit at the right-hand side, the outer hot liquid will be colder, and the inner liquid will have gained the lost heat and thus become hotter. If the tubes were sufficiently long, then both would come out at exactly the same temperature.
Squashing, Filtering, and Other Ways We Process Food
Authors: Kelly Alan
Published: November 2020

As I have discussed throughout this book, mankind has relied on heating to preserve and make safe our food for a very long time, even long before the science of how and why this works was understood. However, clearly using heat to process However, clearly using heat to process food is a rather blunt tool, sometimes as subtle in its effects as hitting it with a club or bat. Just as it kills bacteria, molds, and other microorganisms, it inflicts collateral damage on the sensory and nutritional quality of the food. The greater the level of kill, and hence stability and safety conferred, the greater damage to the “fresh-like” characteristics of the food has usually been caused. A question could then be posed as to whether, instead of applying such a crude and damaging (although undoubtedly effective) treatment, we could treat food with more of a surgical-scalpel or laser-focused treatment, which zoomed in on and very specifically destroyed the target microorganisms while leaving the surrounding food as little changed as possible. This is the target of so-called minimal (sometimes called invisible) processing, and today there are a range of technologies that have promise for achieving this goal. Indeed, because of the desirability of such an outcome, this has been thus one of the most active areas of research on food processing in recent years. We have encountered the importance of pressure several times already in this book, usually in how its manipulation can affect properties of water such as boiling. Pressure has another important application in food processing, though, in that it can replace heat as the physical force we apply to achieve desirable change in food. In food processing circles, high-pressure (HP) processing is often referred to as a novel processing technology, but in fact it has been around for quite a long time. Remarkably, around the same time that Pasteur was explaining how heat works in terms of preserving food, on the other side of the Atlantic an American scientist called Bert Hite at the West Virginia Agriculture Station was doing experiments on his own homemade pressure-generating apparatus.
The Kitchen and the Lab
Authors: Kelly Alan
Published: November 2020

To this point, my focus has been largely on the transformations and processes that convert raw materials and ingredients into packaged final food products, while considering the relationships between such a scale and what happens in the kitchen. I believe that food science is food science whether it happens on a 10-tonne scale in a factory or in a kitchen at home or in a restaurant. It is just a matter of scale. But is this really a defensible proposition? As pointed out several times already, all food products consist of a set of raw materials and ingredients, which we submit to a process or series of processes and then place in a package in which it should remain safe and suitable for consumption for a defined period of time. What about a meal? Ingredients and raw materials, check, just taken from a larder, fridge, or freezer. Processes? Check, just maybe a different set and scale, as will be discussed. Package and storage? No, but one could say the plate, room, atmosphere, and a million other elements of presentation of a dish at home or in a restaurant are the package. Likewise, being able to maintain a shelf life may not be a priority, but it is usually regarded as a good thing when safety for the eater is guaranteed, while we often hope that those leftovers we put in the fridge or bring home in our doggy bags will retain some form of safe edibility for at least a while. Food science is science above all else, whatever scale it happens on. In the kitchen, our raw materials, animal or vegetable in particular, are products of biology, while the reactions that take place on plate or during cooking (or other processing steps) are driven by chemistry, and physics determines what happens when we heat, cool, mix, or all the other things we do. Like I said in the Introduction to this book, even the humblest kitchen is a highly scientific environment, and every meal is an experiment.
A Symbolic Science Of Intelligence
Authors: Dasgupta Subrata
Published: November 2020

Human Problem Solving (1972) by Allen Newell and Herbert Simon of Carnegie-Mellon University, a tome of over 900 pages, was the summa of some 17 years of research by Newell, Simon, and their numerous associates (most notably Cliff Shaw, a highly gifted programmer at Rand Corporation) into “how humans think.” “How humans think” of course belonged historically to the psychologists’ turf. But what Newell and Simon meant by their project of “understanding . . . how humans think” was very different from how psychologists envisioned the problem before these two men invaded their milieu in 1958 with a paper on human problem solving in the prestigious Psychological Review. Indeed, professional psychologists must have looked at them askance. Neither was formally trained in psychology. Newell was originally trained as a mathematician, Simon as a political scientist. They both disdained disciplinary boundaries. Their curricula vitae proclaimed loudly their intellectual heterodoxy. At the time Human Problem Solving was published, Newell’s research interests straddled artificial intelligence, computer architecture, and (as we will see) what came to be called cognitive science. Simon’s multidisciplinary creativity—his reputation as a “Renaissance man”—encompassing administrative theory, economics, sociology, cognitive psychology, computer science, and the philosophy of science—was of near-mythical status by the early 1970s. Yet, for one prominent historian of psychology it would seem that what Newell and Simon did had nothing to do with the discipline: the third edition of Georgetown University psychologist Daniel N. Robinson’s An Intellectual History of Psychology (1995) makes no mention of Newell or Simon. Perhaps this was because, as Newell and Simon explained, their study of thinking adopted a pointedly information processing perspective. Information processing: Thus entered the computer into this conversation. But, Newell and Simon hastened to clarify, they were not suggesting a metaphor of humans as computers. Rather, they would propose an information processing system (IPS) that would serve to describe and explain how humans “process task-oriented symbolic information.” In other words, human problem solving, in their view, is an instance of representing information as symbols and processing them.