Modelling Work

I got my photos taken by a professional photographer and here's the best shot! The photos are to appear in the University of Auckland 2010 science prospectus as well as Insight magazine. The photos are like 30 megabytes each where at 100%, my pimples are the size of peas! If I had known about this shoot earlier (I had 0 min to get ready), I definitely would've tried to conceal the pimples, worn mascara and actually brushed my hair in the morning.


















For those of you who know nothing about chemistry, the white plate in the tank is what is known as a prep TLC, chemists use these to purify compounds. Once you've loaded your sample onto the plate, it is then lowered into the tank containing a suitable solvent system that will separate out the components. As you can see here, the compound has separated out nicely into two separate bands. I personally never use these as you can only load 30 milligrams of material at a time, I avoid doing reactions in such a small scale if possible. Also of interest to note is that the compound being purified was only one step away from the natural product gamma rubromycin which has since been completed by Dom and Sung and published in the most prestigious Chemistry journal ever Angwandte Chemie. The yellow oil in the round bottom flask is actually one of my own, it's two steps into the synthesis of my bromide fragment.

Below is a photo of Danny, look at the difference having a week's notice makes!!!!!!