BYU Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

Come meet the J.C. Hansen Lab! Spearheaded by our very own department chair, the Hansen lab studies atmospheric reactions and processes to find solutions to problems in our environment. Read all about their projects and publications in the article on our website!

Photos provided by: Cambria Farr and Jaron Hansen

Our students swept BYU’s annual 3MT competition! Want to learn more about their research? Check out the article on our department news page!

Photo provided by: Alena Allred

Cougars,
Dr. Wood has been a part of our department for over fifty years! To learn more about him and his career path, check out the article on our website.

Photo provided by: Dr. Steven Wood

Cougars,

We wish you a warm and happy holiday season!

If you want to read more about the Benson family tree and how the department has spread cheer throughout finals week, check out our website's newspage.

Cougars! In case you missed it, Homecoming and National Chemistry Week were major successes. From tons of magic shows, making slime, balloon explosions, good food, prizes, and more, the Benson Building was full of guests and students having a great time. To read more about Homecoming and NCW, check out our news page at: https://www.chem.byu.edu/news/.

Cougars, we hope you’ve enjoyed celebrating National Chemistry Week with us! If you didn’t get a chance to catch one of our amazing magic shows, the last one is tonight at 6:30pm! Check out our department website for more details and tickets.

We can’t believe NCW is already over. But don’t worry; we have one last fun fact for you all. Penguinone is an organic compound. Because it is a ketone, its name ends with the suffix “-one.” The rest of its name, however, comes from its 2D-molecular structure looking like a penguin!

Cougars, today is the day! National Chemistry Week is almost always the week of October 23rd. Why?

Every year, 6:02am to 6:02pm October 23rd marks Mole Day! This is in celebration of Avogadro’s number: 6.022 x 10^23, or the number of molecules per mole of a substance. This number is named in honor of the Italian chemist Amedeo Avogadro (1776-1856), whose contributions to molecular theory shaped how we approach molecules today. He is also known for Avogadro's law, which states that equal volumes of gases under the same conditions of temperature and pressure will contain equal numbers of molecules.

We’re already halfway through National Chemistry Week!

Our fun fact today is all about Tennessine! Tennessine (Ts) was discovered in 2010 by American and Russian researchers and was officially named and added to the periodic table in 2016 in honor of the Tennessee region, recognizing the contributions of several Tennessee institutions involved in its discovery. Ts has the joint highest mass of any element and the second-highest atomic number. Currently, it can only be made synthetically and in incredibly small quantities, but it is theorized to be a solid at room temperature.

Cougars, it's Giving Cougsday! BYU has a goal to receive donations from 4,000 donors, and we want to be a part of it! To support the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, follow this link: https://donate-give.churchofjesuschrist.org/givingcougsday25/donate?dept=106426&des=720397&utm_source=scalefunder&utm_campaign=amb_share&utm_content=76izd7bb0xn1a210sn32nks&utm_medium=plain

Continuing onward through National Chemistry Week with another fun fact!

So, why does cutting onions make us cry? While growing, onions are excellent at absorbing sulfur, which they use as a part of their amino acids. Cutting open an onion breaks these cells apart, and as a reaction to the damage, the sulfur-containing cells convert to a gas, releasing a chemical known as syn-Propanethial-S-oxide. This volatile gas irritates our eyes, and as a defense mechanism, we produce tears to wipe the gas from our eyes!

Welcome to National Chemistry Week, Cougars! National Chemistry Week celebrates all things chemistry during the third week of October each year. Founded by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and co-sponsored locally by the ACS Central Utah chapter at BYU, this community-based program aims to educate the public on the positive impact chemistry has in our everyday lives.

We’re continuing our tradition of Chemistry Fun Facts AND magic shows each night in celebration of NCW. If you don’t have a ticket for the magic show, don’t worry! Open seating will be available five minutes before each show. To see the times for each magic show this week, check out our National Chemistry Week page on our department website!

To kick off NCW, we have a special fun fact. Our favorite chemistry building is thirty years old! Dedicated on October 20th, 1995, the Benson Building was named to honor President Ezra Taft Benson’s lasting legacy across the Church and education. Today, it stands as an essential beacon of light for our students and faculty.