21 July 2010: Synth, Surgery and Snail-Paced HR

Progress has been slowed on uploading further synthetic mechanisms and field notes, as I have been away for some surgery and also have been dealing with learning a whole bunch of new chemistry for my new work position starting in a month or so. The HR dept are apparently not in any rush to issue my contract, and thus the last 5 weeks or so have been a stress loaded period. I shall upload some of the indole synthetic steps shortly, as this is of particular interest to me from my PhD, and also represents several ways of producing the substituted indole pharmacophore, which is highly prized in a range of pharmaceutical applications. - Now to discern how much I can publically put out there vs. which is still under confidentiality agreement...

25 June 2010: More Synth and Work

I have continued to upload further organic synthetic reactions, which is now becoming a worthwhile collection of data (and Google stats are suggesting impressions are being converted to hits which increases the page ranks). The stats will get better the more content I add, especially synthetic reactions that are not well documented elsewhere (e.g. some of the rarer indole syntheses).

In other news I have been offered a new job (my first academic post) and as a result content generation here at snypa.co.uk may slow whilst I prepare for the new role.

30 May 2010: Synth Uploads

There are, in my eyes, two ways to assimilate organic chemistry. To learn the theories and apply the mechanisms, or to memorise the mechanisms and thus bypass the underlying principles. For the longest time, I was of the latter group. Even when teaching in undergraduate labs, though I had an understanding of the theories of organic synthesis and retrosynthesis, I would still operate by memory. It was truly only in the writing of my thesis that it changed, completely, to the correct way of learning. The relatively narrow and contained nature of the undergraduate exam system allows memory alone to succeed (perhaps where it should not). The free-flow examination style of the viva necessarily demands the knowledge and understanding with which to apply to substrates on demand. This all comes to mind when writing the recent uploads to the Synth section: some common and simple chemical reactions that at one point I memorised, but now just "get". It still amazes me that undergraduates can complete say an aldol reaction mechanism by principle, but when asked " give the aldol product of a reaction with these reagents" a silent, fear stricken face glances back. The synth section has had its first additions, and I shall endeavour to add more week on week.

21 May 2010: The Re-Up It has been 18 months since the last work on this site. This period has been filled with finishing up experimental work and the long writing up process of a doctoral thesis. As a result, pretty much everything else stopped ( I haven't picked up my camera in months). However now all is done, there is a little time to implement some changes and additional content I have been mulling over for a while; namely educational tools for chemists, and a little insight into the world of microfluidic synthesis.