Introduction to Chemical Engineering

Q: So what is chemical engineering anyway?
Chemical engineering is an integrative engineering discipline that ranges from the typical oil refinery industry to the recently rising pharmaceutical research, not to mention the food design industry as well! Contrary to the common belief, chemical engineers not only focus on the chemical aspect of production, but they also apply extensive math and physics into process/reactor designs.

Q: What real world applications does chemical engineering have?

Chemical engineering is well known for its flexibility. High demands for chemical engineers have ramified to many areas of marketing and production such as pharmaceuticals, high performance materials in the aerospace and automotive industries, semiconductors in the electronics industry, paints and plastics, petroleum refining, synthetic fibers, artificial organs, bio-compatible implants and prosthetics. Nowadays, chemical engineers are marching into the newly developing chemical sensors targeted for drug delivery, exciting environmental technologies, and the puzzling yet intriguing area of nanomaterials.

Q: What sort of classes do you take while studying chemical engineering?

The typical chemical engineering curriculum consists of heavy loads of advanced math and physics. Courses like fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, etc make up the gist of chemical engineering applications.

Q: What are typical career path taken after graduating with a degree in chemical engineering?

Although more than half of the chemical engineering graduates go on working for engineering firms, their options are not limited to pure engineering. In fact, the break down for rest can usually be categorized into graduate school, professional schools (include med and business schools), and other non-engineering related fields such as finance and marketing.
Despite where chemical engineering students might end up, the incredible skills that they have developed from the four years of rigorous training will enable them to outshine the others in any place, any discipline. Who knows, you might even end up working for Nabisco, coming up with their next hit cookie!

Grasshoppers

Plants develop chemical defenses to survive attackes by insects such as these grasshoppers. Those chemicals sometimes can be developed into medicines to combat human diseases.

Are Non-Stick Chemicals And Aging Dads More Dangerous To Babies Than Cocaine?

Last week the New York Times printed good news about a worrisome issue in childhood development. As it turns out, children whose mothers used cocaine during pregnancy have only slightly lower IQ scores than children whose mothers didn't use. The difference between the children's scores was so low it was deemed "scientifically insignificant." In fact, the effect of alcohol on the fetus is more detrimental than cocaine's, while tobacco's is about the same.
But potential parents have some other science to consider this week. In the latest issue of Human Reproduction scientists found that women with higher levels of perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs, or the chemicals that make products "non-stick") in their blood had more trouble getting pregnant. Women with higher levels of the two main chemicals—PFOA and PFOS—were up to 154 percent more likely to be infertile. Exposure is a particular problem for developed countries like the US, where eight percent of women of childbearing age have consulted a doctor about infertility. And, like we've said before, Teflon is forever.

AA Battery

R6 size AA battery (3d render) R6 size AA battery (3d render) R6 size AA battery (3d render)

R6 size AA battery (3d render) .

Buzz Energy Candy

What it took: I bought this ridiculous energy candy at the convenience store entirely because the little tin amused me. Come on, it's got a picture of a beaver and it's "dam good" -- how could I pass it up? And the little maple leaves on the candy? That's attention to detail. A friend rightly pointed out that it tastes like "a combination of pop rocks and Mr. Clean" but I still think I got my $2 worth just for the packaging. :)
I wanted something that looked like a product shot to show off the excellent attention to detail on the packaging. So I arranged everything on a piece of black velvet with natural light from the window on the right. I was trying to get the energy candy to "glow" a little bit while still showing the maple leaves... not sure if I should have toned it down some. Used a long exposure with a wide aperture so that the product was fully in focus. The slight weirdness around the letters is due to the printing not being entirely lined up with the embossing.This is as-shot, only converted to jpg from raw.

Chemical Energy

Energy is conserved in chemical reactions. If there are stronger bonds formed in the product than there are broken in the reactants, heat is released, and the reaction is exothermic.

If there are weaker bonds formed in the product than there are broken in the reactants, heat is absorbed, and the reaction is endothermic.

In chemical reactions, energy is either released or absorbed in the form of heat.