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  • inhales

    Complex 1a was prepared according to well-known synthetic procedures. The reduction potential of the complex was increased due to the nephelauxetic expansion of the occupied FMOs induced by photolytic epimerization of the auxiliary tetrahydrophosphazolidine sulfide ligand to enable a strongly σ-donating dihaptic coordination mode.

    translation: we made molecule 1a, we shouldn't need to tell you how, it's obvious, lmao, git gud. the molecule became less likely to gain extra electrons because shining light on it made one of its weird-ass totally-not-bullshit parts wiggle around a bit so that it could bind more strongly to the metal atom through two of its own adjacent atoms, making the metal atom's relevant electrons floofier.

  • Bread
  • In grocery stores in many parts of the US at least, it is extremely hard not to find bread in plastic bags. Even the one of 3 near me that has its own bakery puts the bread in a plastic bag, and then in another bag that is paper with a plastic "window", and the paper part has a PE wax lining for god knows what reason.

  • Meal Prep Ideas for this Weekend?
  • I feel your pain on sodium; anything convenient always has absurd amounts. One suggestion is street tacos with low-sodium tortillas (for me usually corn, though storebought suck and are bitter if not steamed immediately before serving) if you are willing to prep the toppings in advance. Lunch the day of is about as much effort as assembling a sandwich: reheat toppings on tortillas, and then add freshness (e.g., cilantro, citrus juice, raw onion). Chopped onions and lemons last maybe a week in the fridge but lose a bit of their pungency.

    For prep, I add a bit of oil and black pepper to chopped veggies like bell peppers, hot peppers, onions, garlic, or corn and char broil the lot in the oven. I also usually presoak 1 cup of black beans and then blast them in my instant pot for 1 h with 2.5-3 cups water, half an onion, a couple cloves of garlic cut in half, and a bayleaf or two (don't bother chopping anything, remove before serving). Then, I add 3 oz tomato paste and mexican-adjacent seasonings and simmer until it thickens up. I like this premade salt-free spice blend, but I ran out recently and am using 1 tsp cumin, 1.5 tsp ancho chili powder, 0.5 tsp each of smoked paprika and hot chili powder, and < 0.25 tsp salt. The same mixes go well on e.g., chicken breast prepped however you like if you also want meat on your tacos.

    If you're looking for ways to cut sodium but are annoyed by blandness, I've found that smokey things like paprika and the char on the veggies can go a long way toward compensating for reduced salt. Nutritional yeast is also maybe 70% of the way there umami-wise to high-sodium cheeses like parmesan.

    Also also, if you are reducing sodium for blood pressure reasons, and if you are not on ACE inhibitors, salt cut with potassium chloride ("low-sodium salt") can help, as can foods rich in potassium like tomatoes and beans. If you are on ACE inhibitors, check with your doc; they make your body retain potassium and can cause problems if you eat to much of K.

    Sorry for the long post, it's 01:00 and my rambling got the better of me.

  • is your blue my blue ?
  • Wikipedia on colorblindness mentions that protans like me and maybe you have a "neutral point" (=perceived as white/gray) in the cyan region of the visible spectrum, so that might have something to do with it. I wonder if deutans with their np at "a more greenish hue of cyan" are as drastically affected.

  • Seal in Polish
  • A French-American guy (grew up in US) in my school described an encounter at a zoo when he was a young. Apparently, he ran up to the exhibit and shouted, "look! it's a daddy fuck and a mommy fuck with a baby fuck!", much to the chagrin of his parents.

  • This microwave burrito advertises energy in units of kJ
  • Hot take: calories are the more intuitive energy unit. "How much energy it takes to heat 1 mL aka 1 g water 1°C" is more relatable than "how much energy it takes to move a 1 kg mass 1 m while accelerating that mass at 1 m/s/s".

    kcal = Cal is silly though

    Side note: I know that the heating water thing is problematic because it depends on T, P, and purity (yay thermo), which is why these days cal is defines in terms of J. That does not change my opinion.

  • "Now everyone will have an easy reference table at hand!"
  • Most chem PhDs don't even know the whole thing lol. We had to memorize just the symbols in high school, but positions weren't required. In my grad-level inorg course, the first test was a blank table that we had to fill in, but even then the f-block and transactinides were not required.

  • InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)OR
    ornery_chemist @mander.xyz
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