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Liz
New Contributor III

Halloween Molecules?

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.)

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6 Replies
andycapo
New Contributor III

Re: Halloween Molecules?

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:

Putrescine, Cadaverine, Spermine and Spermidine

the name says it all!

Lucifer yellow (it fluoresces under ultraviolet light and stains certain regions between plant cells)

Luciferase

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.

Cucurbituril

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

markobri
Contributor III

Re: Halloween Molecules?

These are great examples.  Thanks for sharing.

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poulteka1
New Contributor

Re: Halloween Molecules?

Of course, the purfect molecules are DNA.  When extracted from strawberries, looks like something running out of your nose...

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markobri
Contributor III

Re: Halloween Molecules?

Here is the Molecule from the Crypt   Check it out on acs.org.

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Liz
New Contributor III

Re: Halloween Molecules?

Andres--Thanks for the link! I've seen that site before, and there are some great, fun ones in there. Happy Halloween!

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Liz
New Contributor III

Re: Halloween Molecules?

Ha! Thanks for the suggestion, Karen. This would definitely make for a fitting visual. Happy Halloween!

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