== ON-LINE TEDS SURVEY IS NOW ACTIVE==

The student evaluation of CBSM123 and CBMS234 is now avaiable. Please click on the links below to fill i the survey and thanks in advance for taking the time to fill this out.

CBMS234: http://www.surveymaker.com.au/sm/survey.cfm?survey=3104

CBMS123: http://www.surveymaker.com.au/sm/survey.cfm?survey=3105

PS  It only takes 5 minutes and allows you to tell us what we did well and not so well.

== INDEPTH: MODERN BUG BATTLEGROUNDS ==

This was relevant to W2 and the lectures about antibiotics and antibiotic resistance but just a few weeks too late...

We've made enormous advances in our battle against bacteria, but it seems that the bugs are starting to fight back, and it's only going to get scarier.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/277784/687745/5515/0/

For those of you trying to come to grips with your answer to W2 part (c). Take solace in Shakespear:

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so"

Hamlet; Act 2 scene 2. Think about it...

IN CONVERSATION - A romantic scientist? This is VERY important for E5 - listen in
Thursday 9 October, 7.35pm RN
After the heyday of science in the seventeenth century starring Isaac Newton, there came another involving 'natural philosophers' who were both creative artists and 'scientists'. This two generation explosion of creativity before Charles Darwin stole the stage, has long been the fascination of biographer Richard Holmes. He portrays some of the heroes of the era from Michael Faraday and Mary Shelley, to Humphry Davy and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

http://abcmail.net.au/t/270549/687745/1468/0/

ABCRadio National this week:

ALL IN THE MIND - ŒWakey, wakey ‚ - The many lives of amphetamine (relevant to Health, Life and Natural Products)
Saturday 4 October, 1.05pm & Monday 6 October, 1.05pm RN
The 1929 discovery of amphetamine heralded the dawn of the age of Speed - a drug with an extraordinary and triumphant career. The first modern antidepressant, a powerful prop in warfare, a diet pill, a devastating illicit drug ˆ now reincarnated as a treatment for ADHD. Historian of science, Nicolas Rasmussen, unearths the making of modern medicine, Big Pharma, and a humble stimulant.

http://abcmail.net.au/t/270549/687745/903/0/

OCKHAM‚S RAZOR - Good bugs gone bad (relevant to Health, Life and Natural Products)
Sunday 5 October, 8.45am RN
Journalist Dr Peter Lavelle from ABC Health Online in Sydney looks at the history of disease and some of the terrible epidemics that have swept through societies from the beginning of recorded time. Many have been eradicated but there are new ones just waiting for a chance to cross over to humans. Now as the earth‚s population tops 6.7 billion people are the conditions ideal for pathogens to spread further and faster?

http://abcmail.net.au/t/270549/687745/910/0/

== DR KARL: DRUGS GET JUICED-UP WITH GRAPEFRUIT ==
We are regularly encouraged to include a decent portion of fruit in our daily diet. But Dr Karl warns those on certain medications to choose their fruit...carefully. This is relevant to L9 as certain compounds in food, like grapefruit or cheese can have nasty interactions with drugs.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/270549/687745/5399/0/

THE SCIENCE SHOW - The Beatles and your special memories
Saturday 20 September, 12.05pm & Monday 22 September, 7.05pm 2RN (Radio National; AM 756)

This week The Science Show comes from Liverpool and the British Festival of Science. We talk to Professor Martin Rees, President of The Royal Society, and Sir David King, former UK Chief Scientist, on the next 50 years and whether we shall survive them. Can we afford big basic scientific experiments such as the atom smasher in Geneva when research to solve huge environmental problems is so urgently needed? And we visit The Cavern Club where the Beatles began singing to see which songs are so essentially linked to your memories.

http://abcmail.net.au/t/258019/687745/902/0/

PLASTIC CHEMICAL LINKED TO HEART DISEASE

Bisphenol A, a chemical commonly used in plastic food and beverage containers and in the coating of food cans has been linked to heart disease.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/258019/687745/5137/0/

Chemical fragrances found in air fresheners, laundry detergents and deodorants might be making you sick, says a US researcher.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/258019/687745/5141/0/

These are relevant to L21 and W5.

GARNAUT CLIMATE CHANGE REVIEW

On September 5 2008 the Garnaut Review released its Supplementary Draft Report Targets and trajectories. The report provides the Review's proposals for emissions reduction trajectories and targets for Australia within an international context. The Supplementary Report is relevant reading for lecture 15 and W4. http://www.garnautreport.org.au

also...

CATALYST - ABC1 (TV), 8:00pm Thursday, 25 September 2008

The episode looks at methane, the forgotten greenhouse gas.

http://abcmail.net.au/t/258019/687745/4511/0/
http://abcmail.net.au/t/270549/687745/5408/0/

Workshop 2 (W2) is ready for submission.

A relevant podcast for latter lectures on perception and reality and the philosophy of science can be found at the ABC:

Objective Truth Podcast

Some pseudo-science related to the first workshop that some of you might find amusing

Pick a pear of elements? helium-3

Please don't forget that W1 is due tomorrow. All work will be checked to originality by submitting your answers to turn-it-in so please don't be tempted to cut and paste from web sites or books. There is a 10%/day penalty for late submission and also please remember 150-250 words per box for the short answer. Shorter and longer answers will be penalised.

WELCOME You have most likely reached this page because you are enrolled in CBMS123 or CBMS234 or are interested in what this unit is all about.

Click on the 'Unit Information' link to the left and then download the 'PDF file' that you see highlighed on that page and that will be your hitchhiker's guide to this very interesting and very different unit on chemical philosophy.

CBMS123/234 is a great unit for those interested in science and philosophy and in particular the good and evil sides of chemistry and chemicals. The unit has no final exam and no labwork and all the lectures/workshops are done on the web.

NOTE

For internal students, the first lecture is on Monday August 4, 2008 in E7B163 at 3pm. Be there or be square. This will be recorded using iLectures and available from the CBMS123 web site ( http://www.cbms.mq.edu.au/~cbms123/lectures/index.html or the blackboard web site later that afternoon for all the external students.

Quote of the (last) century - plaque attached to a canon placed on campus as a memorial

Pause, passerby and hang your head in shame

This Engine of Destruction, Torture and Death Symbolizes:

The Prostitution of the Inventor

The Avarice of the Manufacturer

The Blood-guilt of the statesman

The Savagery of the Soldier

The Perverted Patriotism of the Citizen

The Debasement of the Human Race

Hamilton Holt, Vice Chancellor; Rollins College, Florida.