Periodic graphics: Water-repelling chemistry

I dig the work of Andy Brunning and am curious whether he's still a chemistry teacher of if he's moved fulltime into the chemistry infographic world.

A mole of moles

Only someone as twisted and intelligent and educated as Randal Munroe would be able to answer the question, "What would happen if you were to gather a mole (unit of measurement) of moles (the small furry critter) in one place?" and to then take the answer to a place where we get a sentence like this, "Plumes of hot meat and bubbles of trapped gases like methane—along with the air from the lungs of the deceased moles—periodically rise through the mole crust and erupt volcanically from the surface, a geyser of death blasting mole bodies free of the planet."

I love Randal Munroe.

Modified sponge mops up oil but not water

"Due to the nature of the industry, cost-effective high absorbents are needed...Any advancement to have high spill sorbent is of use." ~ Seshadri Ramkumar

See, what he's saying is that the oil industry (and the shipping industry and pretty much everybody else) spills oil in the ocean...and lakes...and rivers...and fields...so we need to be ready to soak up the oil.

The environmental impact and morals of our modern dependence on fossil fuels aside, the chemistry here is pretty cool.

Though the name of 'compound 1' seems a little odd to me because I can't imagine that the first compound they tried was their successful attempt. There's a reason why we have Formula 409.

Either way, 'compound 1' attracts to nonpolar solvents like oils but has little to no attraction to polar solvents (like water).

Smartphone "Spectrophotometer"

Sure, but what students of mine would actually have smartphones?

Oh, that's right, pretty much all of them.

It's fascinating to see what we can do with smartphones.

I may have to try this one out myself because AP chemistry now requires a Beers Law lab.

Purity

See, it's funny because scientists are known to reduce other branches of science to being just an applied version of their own. Chemists claim than biology is just applied chemistry, then physicists claim that chemistry is just applied physics and so on.

Then comes mathematics on which all of the sciences are based and which isn't necessarily - at least as far as this comic is concerned - based on any of the other STEM fields.

Plus it has a squirmy, stick-figure-style octopus and a psychologist with a stick-figure, folkster beard. That's inherently funny.

Bond..._____ Bond

See, it's funny because...well...if you don't know the phrase, check out this video.

Hydrogen bonds form between two molecules that have high electronegativity differences between hydrogen and another nonmetal (typically F, N, or O). Hydrogen and the highly electronegative element can get very close to each other due to hydrogen's small atomic radius, so the molecules attract very strongly.

That makes this joke especially ironic because James Bond almost never got emotionally close to any of his co-stars...except Teresa Draco, of course.

The joke has also been made about ionic and covalent bonds...because it's an easy joke to make...

The melting point of gallium is...

See, it's funny because gallium melts at - as the comic caption says - 85.58 degrees Fahrenheit. Body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, so the metal dog would likely melt over night meaning that dad wouldn't have to buy his boy a puppy but will be able to say that it's his boy's fault.

I am thinking, however, that this might be a bad idea, not really because of the toxicity (a pretty minor risk for gallium) but rather because of the challenge of explaining that the gallium didn't technically 'wet' the bed because its intermolecular forces are strong enough to hold mostly together and didn't attract to the bed sheets.