Saturday, March 19, 2016

WWWTP: Czech academia edition

Credit: Anonymous reader
From the inbox, a reader comments: "This is an ad for vscht, a chemistry school in Prague, Czech Republic, one of the most prestigious and big in central Europe. They just ran an ad campaign featuring 2 pentavalent carbons."


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11 comments:

  1. milkshakeMarch 18, 2016 at 8:35 AM

    The picture link above seems broken. Also, VSCHT ("College of Chemical Technology") is not as prestigious - it is one of the two chemistry schools in Prague, it competes with Charles Uni - not exactly a high bar if you ask me... It isn't anywhere near the grandeur and reputation of University of Vienna, for example.

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  2. biotechtoreadorMarch 18, 2016 at 9:54 AM

    Pentavalent carbon seems like something the soviet government may have mandated to improve binding strength in crosslinked polymers---presumably a military application.

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    1. AnonymousMarch 22, 2016 at 11:57 AM

      I thought vscht was something the WTO governments did to chemists not demonstrating sufficient patriotism.

      Delete
  3. AnonymousMarch 18, 2016 at 10:34 AM

    I have tremendous respect for the Czech/Hungarian chemists and they missed out on this one. Is it not true that pentavalent carbon chemistry (and other hypervalent elements) was done by Prof. J. C. Martin that begin to look like SN2 intermediate?

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    1. milkshakeMarch 18, 2016 at 12:56 PM

      I think it was some graphic artist who misplaced a double bond, or just a lazy random dude at ad agency grabbed a faulty template from internet - I think I have seen this messed up "structure" before, used in advertisement by western companies. What concerns me is that the college administration went into trouble of making make very technical-looking ad but they did not bother to show it to anyone from chemistry.

      Delete
  4. HapMarch 18, 2016 at 11:22 AM

    I think that's a resonance form for the benzyne - not that that helps much, since that would give two hexavalent carbons... I think I can hear that molecule screaming from here.

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    1. HapMarch 18, 2016 at 12:43 PM

      no....two pentavalent carbons still. Ack

      Delete
  5. UnknownMarch 18, 2016 at 2:54 PM

    We -group of 6 chemists going out in the evening- saw it on bus station, laughter erupted, then the other people joined but Im pretty sure they had no idea whats going on :D

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  6. PascalMarch 19, 2016 at 1:53 AM

    Considering all the weird videos I see of soviet/eastern euro origin, who knows? In soviet russia carbon is pentavalent?

    Probably just an errant graphic designer who was just looking for generic chemistry structures. What is it anyway? Doesn't look familiar to me, or is it just a random hydrocarbon?

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  7. AnonymousMarch 22, 2016 at 12:11 PM

    HAHAHA of course, i get a kick out of it when people say they have a PNAS article.

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looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20

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