raises hand since when does a spectrum not imply a total order?

Shit title and lead from MIT news but interesting work from Yogi (original article). Short technical summary based on the abstract: electrochemical measurements suggest that, in the production of vinyl acetate monomer (VAM), the solid palladium catalyst corrodes slightly, and the corrosion product is what combines ethylene and acetic acid to form VAM while simultaneously redepositing onto the surface.

I’ll need to go back and read the Science article properly once I can get access, but that’s not going to stop me from giving my 2¢ on a shaky foundation. One thing that is unclear to me is exactly what form the corroded palladium acetate takes, and whether it truly leaves the bulk Pd surface. It seems unlikely to me that the Pd(OAc)2 would become properly “homogeneous” in the conventional sense, especially since VAM production is usually gas-phase (though that might just be my lack of familiarity with systems in these temperature regimes). I suppose there could be some kind of extremely thin interface region like you see around an electrode in electrochemistry (after all, this is Yogi’s group). Fast reduction might prevent the corroded Pd from being carried away by the gas stream, but I certainly wouldn’t call Pd in that region “homogeneous” (though it might be “molecular”). On the other hand, if the Pd(OAc)2 doesn’t really leave the surface, then I would say that framing by even the study’s authors is overblown; hetcats gain and lose surface ligands all the time.

If it was an x-ray, isn’t it a little weird to use a radioactive probe (or contrast agent)? I thought that for GI things it is usually a just contrast agent that absorbs x-rays really well… barium or some shit.

Outside Minnesota? Yes, unfortunately, I live out there.

Fixiers are just built different, I guess.

If I stood up straight, my eye level was above the window. Also, glove boxes. The shorter group members could use platforms to raise their height but had trouble reaching the corners, while I had to do a mix of taking an uncomfortably wide stance and slouching. I wish they had been more suitable for my height… I thought everything would be better with taller hoods in my current workplace, but all they did was extend the sash to the floor.

I got one because I was intrigued by its lead rotation, but I found that it really didn’t rotate the lead enough while I wrote. I kept having to rotate the barrel manually to keep a thin line like I do for every other mechanical pencil, and then would get annoyed every time the clip came around to brush my hand. I’ve been wondering if I’m doing something wrong, or if Japanese just uses more shorter strokes. Do you also like it when writing English?

Arsenic is a classic murder poison. It’s been known since anciemt times, though possibly unsuited to your onset requirement. Acute poisoning by ingestion is generally within a few hours, but if your character sustains lower doses over time, you could probably draw out the timeline to whatever you wanted. It would be obvious that the character is unwell during this time, but the symptoms aren’t super specific and could be confused with e.g. food poisoning.

Or just invent a mushroom like others said. The toxins are diverse enough that I doubt anyone would be too upset if you tuned it exactly to your timeline and desired symptoms.

Cyanide poisoning is famously pretty fast though…

If those undergrads could figure out how to turn acetone into TNT…

Amateurs. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetone_peroxide

EHS would raise hell if they caught us putting waste solvent in anything but a hazardous waste container…

What a coincidence, the end of my support for windows is also approaching.

jk I scrubbed that shit from my personal devices years ago after graduating.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie

later?

Ich glaube ich erinnere mich dass Duolingo Lektionen über Konjunktiv II (?; wäre, gäbe, usw) hatte… muss vor fast etwa 10 Jahren gewesen sein, bevor alles beschissen wurde. Ich könnte mich auch falsch erinnern… es ist eine große Weile her, seit ich die verfluchtete Eule besucht habe…

The layout is decent and not unfriendly on mobile (please consider that praise; I am a cranky mobile site hater). I’m not sure how much you can control vs what whatever template/engine you are using restricts, but here are couple of suggestions:

• Navigating to a new page briefly passes through some kind of light blue loading screen. The color is bright enough that it is a bit of a jumpscare in dark mode and (for me) unpleasant. If possible, you may want to adjust it to follow the theming or remove it.
• The light/dark mode switch occasionally obscures a few chars of text. It is not a huge problem but may be better served in the header toolbar or hamburger menu.
• In my experience, a lot of people prefer dark mode to light, a preference more substantial for photosensitive folks; consider making dark the default.
• All of the links in the footer are broken.

Hey look, it’s a kürzlich aufgebauter vom Aufbauprinzip verbauter Bau

Edit: also, the configuration is referring to silver for those curious. Not my first choice, but whatever floats OP’s boat (Baute?) I suppose.

It doesn’t work as well spoken, though? Pretty sure Police is pronounced something like po-lee-tseh.

Also, I think you might have swapped a police with Police: “Police police, (whom) Police police police, police Police police.”

The intended joke is that hypervalent iodine compounds like Dess-Martin periodinane flip between different oxidation states like you often see for transition metals. As an example, the mechanism usually drawn for oxidations by DMP is similar to those drawn for PCC/Jones reagent, where the electrons removed from the substrate are “banked” at the metal center. Obviously, redox chemistry is not at all limited to transition metals, but I am often surprised at iodine’s propensity to engage in it. A lot of research over the past decade or two has also developed redox catalysis with these reagents, reactivity which is commonly (though again not always) the purview of transition metals.

Iodine is a transition metal I will die on this hill.