The Jedi Mind Trick

While it's not quite mind control of epic Jedi proportions, there's a new development in the civil war in Syria. Apparently there are reports that the Syrian government used a chemical weapon called BZ against rebels in the city of Homs. Like many chemical and conventional weapons being used these days, BZ was discovered during the Cold War and attempts to weaponize it were made by both the United States and Soviet Union. You can read the story about the Syrian use of BZ here and check out the chemistry of BZ here. The chemistry information is definitely worth a glance if for no other reason than it's a complex molecule and it looks cool.

Chemistry + Biology = Nobel Prize

In case you missed it, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded last week to two American scientists, Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka for their work on how cell signalling molecules work. Check out the summary of the Prize here.