Halloween is sneaking up on us. Can anyone think of any Halloween-themed molecules? Anything that sounds creepy or that’s found in slimy—or otherwise “Halloweeny”—substances. (Your suggestion may be used on Oct. 31’s Molecule of the Week.)
Hi Liz, there are quite a lot of interesting molecules in a website called Molecules with Silly or Unusual Names which might be uselful:
http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/sillymolecules/sillymols.htm
Just to give you a few examples:
the name says it all!
Lucifer yellow (it fluoresces under ultraviolet light and stains certain regions between plant cells)
This molecule is an enzyme which reacts with ATP to cleave luciferin, its substrate. This cleavage reaction causes the firey glow in fireflies and certain types of fish, hence its name.
DIABOLIC ACID
(named after the Greek diabollo, meaning to mislead, since they were particularly difficult to isolate using standard gas chromatography techniques)
DRACULIN
(Draculin is the anticoagulant factor in vampire bat saliva. It is a large glycoprotein made from a sequence of 411 amino acids.
This molecule, which is shaped like a Halloween Jack'o'Lantern, is named after the Latin word for pumpkin (Curcubita pepo).
and lastly,
DEAD
DEAD is actually the acronym for diethyl azodicarboxylate
is an important reagent in the well-known Mitsunobu reaction which performs a stereospecific conversion of an alcohol to a primary amine.
Hope this helps,
Andres
These are great examples. Thanks for sharing.
Of course, the purfect molecules are DNA. When extracted from strawberries, looks like something running out of your nose...
Here is the Molecule from the Crypt Check it out on acs.org.
Andres--Thanks for the link! I've seen that site before, and there are some great, fun ones in there. Happy Halloween!
Ha! Thanks for the suggestion, Karen. This would definitely make for a fitting visual. Happy Halloween!