Who are Bestys?
Besty is a good friend, in fact, the best friend. A friend you can trust. A good listener. A good counselor. In our world of meaning, Besty is also someone who has embarked on a journey of ‘Best Yourself’. Best…
Category StemCo Curious Reads
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The unusual link between fossil fuels and batteries
The lithium-ion battery is undoubtedly one of the most important inventions in the last century. So important was this technology that the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019 was awarded to the scientists that contributed to its development. Whether it…
Double aromaticity? Sigma and pi aromaticity reported in an organoselenium compound
In 2018, Furukawa et al. published an article in Nature Communications Chemistry which aroused great interest in the world of chemists. In his article, he reported the synthesis of an organoselenium cationic species (shown below), which he claimed exhibits double…
An introduction to molecular orbital theory
What is MO Theory? Beginner learners of more advanced organic chemistry would certainly have encountered molecular orbital theory in some form, and may even have developed a certain aversion or fear of this powerful theory. No doubt, the intricacies of…
How do we maintain stable electrical grids while transitioning to green energy?
Severe winter storms in the state of Texas in February 2021 crippled the state’s electricity grid and led to shortages of food, water and heat for many of its residents. Record low temperatures led to surging electricity demand and declining…
Counting Automated: An Introduction to Combinatorics (Part II)
In Part I of this article, we described how to calculate the number of combinations of a combination lock, as well as the number of ways to arrange objects, instead of listing out each combination individually. In Part II, we…
Automatic Counting: An Introduction to Combinatorics (Part I)
Chapter 1: What is Combinatorics? Have you ever used a combination lock before? Two of the most common combination lock designs are shown below. For Combination Lock A, there are 8 buttons labelled 1 through 8. Each button is labelled…
Chemistry Tutorial: Substitution and elimination
We learn the two mechanisms of nucleophilic substitution in school, namely SN1 and SN2. To recap, SN1 is a two-step mechanism involving first the leaving of the leaving group to form a carbocation intermediate, which is then attacked by the…
Material Spotlight: Autonomous Polymers
Autonomous materials are materials that can protect itself, heal damage and indicate if it is damaged throughout the course of its life cycle without any active intervention. These materials are at the forefront of materials science research, as they hold…
Integrating scientific inquiry into science education
ntegrating scientific inquiry into science education is one of the great deal of Stem Education. What is the purpose of science education, especially in upper primary and secondary school? In the past, a key focus of science education is equipping students with the necessary knowledge if they were to take up a technical job in the future, or pursue further education in the sciences. In many ways, this is still an important focus for science education around the world; in Singapore, industrial application of science is weaved into the syllabus itself, with topics like chemical equilibrium being linked to industrial processes like the Haber Process, and entire topics like practical electricity being focused on science in our daily life.
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