What Causes a Chemical Reaction?

[Uncle Al]

1) The world spontaneously slides downhill - minimize free energy.
2) Enthalpy is straightforward, entropy is good enough - triacetone triperoxide explosion mechanism.
3) Thermodynamics proposes, kinetics disposes.
4) It does not need to be a straight line - Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction.
5) Just because you have perfectly explained it, doesn't mean you have gotten it correct - photoaddition (with sensitizer) of maleic anhydride and benzene, then another mole of maleic anhydride is in fact a free radical reaction kick-off.
6) youtu.be/iM_I6rtIgn0

 

[kathyleen]

Quality article, it helped me with my homework. Thanks.

 

[Valentine Michael Smith]

Pardon. I thought of facilitation rather than cause.

 

[Uncle Al]

Valentine Michael Smith
"Pardon. I thought of facilitation rather than cause."

As above: 3) Thermodynamics proposes, kinetics disposes - temperature, dielectric heating, sonication/cavitation, pressure (static, shear, and mechanochemistry), concentration, catalysis, templating, irradiation...and the occasional small bundle of chicken bones suspended from the ceiling by a string (generally limited to analytical equipment or folks think you're a little strange).

 

[Valentine Michael Smith]

@Uncle Al: as in I erred and cannot delete the post. I liked (though did not 'like') yours, in particular point 3.

Now I see.....The Sixth Finger. Curious as I watched that two weekends ago. Episode 5, you know. And you originally posted on the 23rd. And your last makes number 5.

 

[Uncle Al]

The universe is generous toward doing it the "wrong" way. Quality is delivery of success. I deal in Pyrex and steel, not dialectic and "rights." I have a human-implantable device patent from diving Swedlow, Inc.'s dumpster. Industrial waste, prepared mind; next problem.

Engineer, "They SELL it!"
Uncle Al, "The throw it away."

 

[HillRunner]

Sara! Loved this.
Have been lazy-surfing to find WHY Covid-19's "spikes" and our ACE2 "just have to" bond when they meet. Why not just brush on by each other?
Seemingly, it's all in the opposite (+/-) electrical charges on their end parts.
One article said Covid-19's "ridge" at the end of its spikes is smaller than earlier viruses and so more efficient.
Still....doesn't "the rubber meet the road" when the relatively +/- charges "short out" against each other and disrupt ACE2's protective layer, allowing the critters' genetic material into the castle?
N'est-ce pas? ¿Verdad? Tru dat? Your thoughts?

 

[Uncle Al]

Science | AAAS

blogs.sciencemag.org

Science | AAAS

blogs.sciencemag.org

… "This one was trimerized as before, and the new mNb6-tri, when put into the SPR assay, showed no off-rate at all during the limits of the experiment, putting its binding constant somewhere in the femtomolar range at worst. It comes in with IC50s of 120 picomolar in the pseudovirus assay and about 50 picomolar in the wild-type infection assay, but those are probably at the limit of detection for both. Basically, we don’t actually know how potent this nanobody construct is, because we don’t have assays good enough to read out a number (!) "

That is a definitive Wuhan virus vaccine answer. You will never see it put into practice. An end to national repressive Wuhan virus disaster is not DemocratSocialist acceptable. All cities must burn.

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever." 1984, George Orwell

"

 

[Dirt moss]

Ya hill runner my thoughts on this critter after reading your post I have heard somewhere or read about it that if you have undergone a organ transplant that it is likely you would be taking anti rejection drugs for a very long time so in my way of thinking these anti rejection drugs could limit your immune system to protecting your cells from invading critters of all sorts just my thoughts

 

[Uncle Al]

There are a tremendous number of chemical interactions in a water medium: Electrostatics, hydrogen bonding, pi-stacking, hydrophilic bonding, hydrophobic exclusion (methane- and carbon dioxide- hydrates), conformational handshakes (Febreze de-stinker with hydroxypropylated cyclodextrin to internally sequester the unwanated molecules), on and on.

The conceptual model is a key in a lock or a hand in a glove. Nothing is rigid in In the real world. A favorite pharmacological failure is building a perfect key (the drug molecule) and discovering the lock (target protein) undergoes a major 3D change in shape when the real key arrives.

One looks at binding by energy, ligand concentration to 50% binding, effective concentration...a whole page of measurable interactions. 50% binding constants can be picomolar and lower, one part-per-trillion of ligand molecules in solution. Antibiotic azithromycin my be prescribed 500 mg/day. If you weigh 140 lbs, 63,500 grams.

[(0.5 g)/(63500 g)](a million) = 7.9 parts-per-million by weight

Then, it starts getting metabolized and excreted until the next capsule the next day. It's not about little magnets sticking together.