Mastering the complexity of the nervous system is essential for education programs in physiology, anatomy, and neuroscience. Students often struggle when learning somatosensory pathways, which convey information from sensory neurons to the somatosensory cortex in the brain. Active learning activities incorporating physical models have been shown…

The urea cycle disorder drug glycerol phenylbutyrate (Ravicti) is presently one of the most expensive medications in the United States, with annual costs estimated at $800,000 as of 2023. An expedient synthesis of this orphan drug was successfully adapted for the undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory. Activation of 4-phenylbutyric acid with…

In undergraduate life sciences education, open educational resources (OERs) increase accessibility and retention for students, reduce costs, and save instructors time and effort. Despite increasing awareness and utilization of these resources, OERs are not centrally located, and many undergraduate instructors describe challenges in locating…

Liquid metals are widely applied in various fields, including chemistry, catalysis, energy storage, chemical sensing, and stretchable electronics, due to their unique deformabilities. However, their behavior under a rod or ring electrode has never been analyzed. Furthermore, research on the deformation behavior of eutectic Ga--In (EGaIn), the most…

Proteomics, or the study of the set of proteins in an organism, tissue, or cell, is a rapidly growing field within bioanalytical chemistry that can be used to investigate many biological questions. However, proteomics is not fully integrated into the undergraduate chemistry curriculum because of a lack of access to expertise, the cost of required…

Stereoselective reduction of ketones to alcohols using baker's yeast is a classic experiment in the undergraduate laboratory. Here we illustrate the reduction of racemic ethyl 2-fluoro-3-oxobutanoate to the corresponding alcohol using a set of four commercially available ketoreductases (KREDs). The reaction sets two stereocenters with four…

Anaerobic respiration reactions are of fundamental importance to global biogeochemical cycling of elements. Yet, the idea that cellular respiration can occur not only in the absence of oxygen but also involve the oxidation of inorganic substrates (e.g., AsO[subscript 3 superscript 3-], Fe[superscript 2+], H[subscript 2], H[subscript 2]S,…

The variation in the transference number of H[superscript +] (aq) is investigated for different HCl solution concentrations. The method for scribing graduations on electromigration tubes is modified to decrease the error in experimental measurements, and metallic copper is used as the anode to reduce the toxicity and environmental impact of the…

Forward genetics involves the identification of an unknown DNA sequence (genotype) associated with the expression of that sequence (phenotype). This is often done by generating variants (mutants) of that feature. One of the most practical methods is transposon mutagenesis, which facilitates the genotype-phenotype association through a sequence…

A multicomponent reaction was adapted and successfully applied in the major organic course, which involves synthesizing and characterizing a 1,3-benzoxazine derived from paracetamol extracted from tablets of the worldwide well-known medicine Tylenol. Using paracetamol as a reagent is a motivational strategy in undergraduate laboratories to meet…

A mixture of salt water and isopropyl alcohol is immiscible, forming two separate liquids with the organic layer on top and aqueous layer on bottom. When universal indicator is added to such a mixture, all of the indicator compounds in the universal indicator preferentially dissolve in the alcohol--except for phenolphthalein at high pH. Mixtures…

The addition of a small excess of triethyl orthoformate to an alcoholic mixture of NiCl[subscript 2]·6H[subscript 2]O and triphenylphosphine (PPh[subscript 3]) results in an increase in the typical isolated yield of [NiCl[subscript 2](PPh[subscript 3])[subscript 2]] from below 50% to over 85%. The impact of water when present in the reaction…

Studies document difficulties undergraduate pre-nursing and allied health students face when learning human anatomy and physiology (A&P) course content. A comprehensive synthesis exploring the teaching practices within the course and how those practices are evaluated is warranted. This scoping literature review identified 78 journal articles…

A new undergraduate thin-layer chromatography laboratory experiment devoted to quantitative determination of disulfiram in Anticol formulation is presented. The proposed activity can be a part of a chromatographic methods of analysis course as well as a general chemistry course. To carry out a quantitative analysis, an image analysis technique was…

The particle-in-a-box experiment is a well-known method used to teach quantum mechanics concepts in physical chemistry laboratories for undergraduates. The investigation involves measuring the wavelength at maximum absorbance ([lambda subscript max]) of electronic transitions in the UV-vis spectrum and linking it to the box length. As the…