About

sharon neufeldt icanhasscienceI’m an organometallic chemistry PhD student at a big research university.  Basically, I take organiccarbon-based molecules and figure out how to make them react in unique ways with a little bit of assistance from metals, especially my favorite – palladiumI <3 Pd.

But this blog is about other science, whatever happens to catch my interest.  I try to write in a way that my family can follow, and most of them – like Microsoft Word – don’t know what trifluoromethylation or nucleophilicity are. So if I absolutely have to use words like that, I try to explain them. On a related note, feel free to hover your cursor over sky blue words like thispuppies are the answer to all life's problems to read parentheticals or definitions without being redirected to a new page.

If you’re still reading, I’m going to go ahead and admit that I battle early-onset techno-impairment. Meaning, I’m young enough that I should be good with computers and stuff, but for whatever reason I am not. I have a tendency to always click “not now” when prompted to update software. I had my current laptop for 6 months before I discovered that it had an SD cardthat little removable chip that goes in cameras and the old Kindles reader built in.  And now I have a newly-activated Twitter account, so we’ll see how long it takes for me to get the hang of it.*

Thanks for reading : )

*Edit: Hmm OK it’s been a few weeks with Twitter. I am dutifully tweeting when I put up a new post, but otherwise I’m pretty sporadic. I’ve got to keep it closed while I’m in lab (i.e. almost always), or it would decimate my productivity. Still, it’s nice to have.

8 Responses to About

  1. tom hydorn says:

    Why is Palladium your favorite metal?

  2. Hey –

    Just wanted to say you are a breath of fresh air. We’d love for you to join in the discussions at Personal Care Truth http://personalcaretruth.com

    I’ve shared 3 of your posts on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/PersonalCareTruth

    Keep up the great work!

    Lisa M. Rodgers
    Co-Founder
    Personal Care Truth

  3. @Tom – Well, the simple answer is that palladium is the metal I use in my research. The more complicated answer is that it’s kind of like the Goldilocks theme – it’s not too reactive, not too unreactive, it’s juuuust right.

    @Lisa – Thanks so much for the comment and for sharing posts on FB : ) I will now promptly check out your website.

  4. Stacey says:

    I love your blog!

    1) I’m a biochem major
    2) I love kittens and lolcat speech (I can has A in omnometry?)

    Thanks for being awesome, basically.

  5. Simon Cotton says:

    Hello Sharon
    I’ve just found your blog, and have found some really interesting things there. If you have not discovered the Bristol (UK) MOTM site, you may not know about G. N. Lewis and the deuterated mouse.
    http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/D2O/D2Oh.htm
    With best wishes
    Simon

  6. Joeseh Zrelli says:

    Hello ,

    I’am a cosmetic product manufacter and would like to developp a keratin treatment formula with formol because in my country , there is many black pepeoles who need to smooth their hair . Do you have any idea about how can i proceed ?

    Thank you ,
    Joe .

  7. Piyush says:

    Hello there,

    I am a freelancer, I was performing a research and came to your blog! Your article is awesome, I worked for Samsung telecommunication America and come across so many people who dnt know that have an SD memory card on their mobile. 😉 the other thing is that you have got an awesome and sincere smile, always keep smiling 🙂

    Piyush.

  8. Kathleen Hubert says:

    Hello,

    I was wondering if you accept guest post for your blog. If you do, I would like to submit a few. I’m a recent college graduate, with an English major, looking to build out my portfolio. I can write on a wide variety of topics and am sure you would be happy with the quality. Please email me back if you are interested. Thank you for your time.

    – Kathleen Hubert
    http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002374243662

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