Arsole and penguinone - chemistry gets funny
Crapinon and draculin are among the silly names for molecules which prove that scientists have just as childish a sense of humour as the rest of us
7 September 2009
SCIENTISTS. Excellent at determining Avogadro’s constant or the shape of the Buckminster-Fullerene molecule – not so good at smutty jokes.
Or so you thought. Because as it turns out, your average chemist has just as dirty a mind as the rest of us.
For example, C4H5As – a simple molecule made of four carbon atoms, five hydrogen atoms and an arsenic atom. Nothing funny there, eh? Except that our lab-based friends have noted that it’s an arsenic-based analogue of pyrrole. So they’ve called it arsole. Obviously. Best of all, the molecule is shaped like a ring*.
Not all of them have such a scientifically rigorous naming system. There is a particular chemical which Wikipedia describes as “An anticholinergic drug, one side effect of which is constipation.” With crushing inevitability, some tittering scientist has named it “crapinon”.
Draculin, meanwhile, is an anti-coagulant found in the saliva of vampire bats. Penguinone has nothing to do with penguins, but does sort of look like one* if you draw the molecule using the standard chemical symbols.
Rednose is a sugar derived from the degradation of rudolphomycin. And SEX is the official abbreviation of sodium ethyl xanthate.
But perhaps our favourite of all doesn’t have a particularly silly name. It’s just two ruthenium polypyridine complexes doing what they do, as seen through NMR spectroscopy. But take a look at the image at the top, and tell us what you think it looks like.
Seriously. Chemists. What a bunch of sickos.
*Check out the gallery to see what we mean.
did you miss?
features
News by…
Topics
Football
People
Julia Buckley
Places
Usa
-
Stoke Newington
Character flat:All bills inc/WiFi,cable15 min2City
£180pw -
Morden Hall Park
Nice Double room in flatshare
£105pcm -
Peckham
F/furnished Doble room in lovely clean house share
£100pw
- gallery:
- all
- thelondonpaper
