For Clara Lazen, 10, a classroom assignment turned into a scientific finding. As Chemistry Professor Robert Zoellner confirmed, the fifth-grader's curiosity led to a new molecule, and her first mention in a scientific journal.
When Kenneth Boehr instructed his fifth grade class at Border Star Montessori School in Kansas City, Mo. to build molecules with modeling kits, he didn’t expect one of his students to make a scientific discovery.
But that’s what happened when Clara Lazen, 10, randomly arranged a unique combination of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon atoms. The result was a molecule that Boehr had never seen before.
So he emailed longtime friend and HSU Chemistry Professor Robert Zoellner, a computational chemist who uses computer software to mathematically model the properties of molecules.
“Ken sent me a picture of the molecule on my cell phone and usually I can tell right away if it’s real,” Zoellner says. This time, he couldn’t.
So he plugged the arrangement into Chemical Abstracts, an online database searchable through the HSU Library that contains chemistry-related literature published since 1904.
Only one paper came up, Zoellner says. It was for a molecule with the same formula but a different arrangement of atoms than Lazen’s.
Tetranitratoxycarbon is a unique combination of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon atoms. If synthetic chemists succeed at creating the molecule, they could discover a new way to store energy.
Zoellner dug a little deeper and determined that not only was Lazen’s molecule unique, it had the potential to store energy. It contains the same combination of atoms as nitroglycerin, a powerful explosive. If a synthetic chemist succeeded at creating the molecule—dubbed tetranitratoxycarbon for short—it could store energy, create a large explosion, or do something in between, Zoellner says: “Who knows?”
Zoellner submitted a research paper on his findings to the January issue of Computational and Theoretical Chemistry. Both Lazen and Boehr are listed as co-authors.
In an interview with local media, Lazen said she never thought she’d be a published author by age 10.
“Most 10- or 11-year-olds don’t get their names in a science paper,” she told the Kansas City Star.
Zoellner says it still remains to be seen how the research paper will be received. Since scientists are always looking for new ways to harvest energy, synthetic chemists might try to create the molecule, he says. If they succeed, they could discover a new way to store energy.
Regardless of what happens, the experience has already strengthened Lazen’s interest in science, Zoellner says. She is particularly interested in biology and medicine. It’s refreshing, Zoellner says, because so many women shy away from science careers as they get older.
“Women are often better prepared for high school and college than men but they decide not to pursue science careers for whatever reason,” Zoellner says. “If I’ve been able to keep her and some of her classmates interested in science, I’ve succeeded.”
source has a picture of the molecule
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February 9 2012, 20:34:38 UTC 3 months ago
February 9 2012, 20:46:36 UTC 3 months ago
February 9 2012, 21:15:20 UTC 3 months ago
February 9 2012, 21:17:36 UTC 3 months ago
<3
February 9 2012, 21:07:58 UTC 3 months ago
Re: the article though, that's lovely. It's not as easy to 'construct a molecule' obviously, but the possibilities are endless.
February 9 2012, 21:28:45 UTC 3 months ago
February 10 2012, 00:00:46 UTC 3 months ago
February 10 2012, 00:45:53 UTC 3 months ago
A high school science teacher in Missouri sent a cell phone photograph of a molecule one of his students made up to a computational chemist at a university to check out.
... I can't imagine my elementary school teachers doing things like that. Even if they wanted to, they didn't have those sort of connections.
I think a lot more people nowadays can answer, "Oh, I know someone."
February 9 2012, 21:24:42 UTC 3 months ago Edited: February 9 2012, 21:24:53 UTC
Gee, I can't imagine why.
/Ex-chemist
Also, that molecule looks...bizarre and yet really elegant. I hope they can succeed in making it. I'd love to read that synthesis paper.
February 9 2012, 21:47:02 UTC 3 months ago
February 9 2012, 21:59:21 UTC 3 months ago
I got my BS in chemistry a few years ago, spent a couple of years in a chemistry-affiliated (and similarly male-dominated) field before I was like, fuck this shit and left for a different field/program. Though my reasons for leaving weren't exclusively due to how I was treated, some of them certainly were.
I've had a lot of stupid shit said to me over the years. Women peers have all had similar experiences. Things like "No woman could ever get an A in my class" and "No woman will ever be a successful scientist" from professors. Being told we should think about marriage and kids, not our science careers, because our time is running out. Getting shit about how we can't do certain tasks simply because we're women (and all absurd claims). There's subtle stuff--never being asked questions by other scientists, or being asked a question and watching the person turn around and ask a man the same question, where they get the same answer. Rarely seeing women seminar speakers, and when they do come they get asked shit questions about experimental validity that would never be asked of a man. Then there's just the general everyday sexist shit you have to put up with from your peers.
I could go on and on, but I think this is tl;dr enough.
February 9 2012, 22:06:25 UTC 3 months ago Edited: February 9 2012, 22:06:41 UTC
Rarely seeing women seminar speakers, and when they do come they get asked shit questions about experimental validity that would never be asked of a man.
While I wouldn't say I encountered exactly this problem, I think it's a symptom of a system that does nothing to support new female scientists. Whether female biological imperatives are real or perceived hurdles, there's no doubt that the world of science has no real sympathy for women, and for the societal and/or familial pressures they experience. I'm also saddened that so many of the grassroots efforts to provide new female scientists with mentorship and role modles have had so little fruit.
I will say that the world of biological science seems to be much more gender-neutral, at least in the initial stages. I still don't see very many women in the higher ranks of the academic and corporate research world, however. *sigh*
February 9 2012, 22:17:52 UTC 3 months ago
Yes, I noticed this a lot too. It often came across as "why are you behind in your career? Don't you have a wife at home to manage all your other affairs?" though of course men rarely acknowledged the help they got from their wives. That might be a rough way to put it, I can't seem to phrase it exactly, but I think you know what I mean.
And yeah, while grad students/post docs are 50/50 women and men in the biological sciences now, women are still only hired for tenure-track positions 30% of the time, and it shows (My old program was 0% women faculty, my current program is only about 10%). And I hear a lot of talk about the women who do make it, having reputations for being "hard asses" or being overly "outspoken" or "opinionated" and I'm like well yeah, you probably have to be a certain kind of person to make it through all the bullshit and beat the odds.
3 months ago
February 9 2012, 23:12:34 UTC 3 months ago
Not all of the professors were quite that blatant--that particular professor had serious problems with women--but sexism was pervasive throughout the department.
February 9 2012, 23:30:09 UTC 3 months ago
Yup. Usually a faculty's sexism is well-known in the department too, and jack shit is done about it by the other faculty, namely the men, which pisses me off more than I can articulate. I have witnessed shrugging off of sexism too many times, not that I should be surprised. But the attitudes wouldn't be nearly so damn pervasive if there was real resistance and repercussions to sexism.
lol, I am ragey today apparently
3 months ago
3 months ago
February 10 2012, 08:29:22 UTC 3 months ago
3 months ago
February 10 2012, 20:44:33 UTC 3 months ago
For what it's worth, I'm in IT, and where I'm at it's still male dominated at the tech level. There was one female tech on my team of ~20, and she was promoted last year to being a database admin. At the management level it seems to be evenly matched or slightly favoring females. Most of our speakers and trainers have been female. There hasn't been any overt sexism that I've observed so far, except from a customer in the office/printing services industry, and it was directed at people within his own organization.
February 10 2012, 00:07:27 UTC 3 months ago
Chembark keeps bringing up those cases of accidents in lab and stuff. =\
February 9 2012, 22:10:45 UTC 3 months ago
I'm just really heartened by this. R-e-s-p-e-c-t.
February 9 2012, 23:18:38 UTC 3 months ago
February 10 2012, 08:31:40 UTC 3 months ago
February 10 2012, 00:11:56 UTC 3 months ago
February 10 2012, 02:14:47 UTC 3 months ago
February 10 2012, 03:14:48 UTC 3 months ago
February 11 2012, 22:50:29 UTC 3 months ago