Cannabis Science And Adventures
Monday, August 13, 2012 - 02:10
in Physics & Chemistry
"A chemist", Primo Levi wrote in an essay on carbon, "only has to leaf through a treatise, and memories rise up in bunches." When my wife became curious about the whereabouts of former fellow chemistry graduate students, I suddenly remembered one of my peers nicknamed "Padma". In the lab where I was working on an undergraduate project, he was completing his doctorate on the synthesis of spiroaxane sesquiterpenoids. Spiroaxanes are natural products that are found mostly in various marine organisms and mushrooms. The general class of compounds known as sesquiterpenoids contain 15 carbon atoms; they're made up of 3 basic units of isoprene and can serve as protective agents or chemical messengers. read more