... the story continues...
________
Spruce picked two of the small electrons from the shelf and lobbed the one and then the other. Both of them swirled together in a sphere around the four particles in the nucleus.
"Why aren't you using the remote?" Stef's chemistry teacher said.
"What remote, Dr. Martin?" Spruce immediately asked... no one seemed to wonder how Spruce knew the name of her teacher.
"Let me show you," and he held up a remote. "If you click the button with the arrow pointing down, the atomic number goes down one. So it's helium now, but if I click it down..." and he clicked it... "it loses a proton, electron, and the two neutrons and becomes..."
"Hydrogen!" Stef exclaimed. And sure enough, the sphere around the nucleus dimmed in half and only one proton was left in the nucleus.
"If I click the up button," Dr. Martin continued, "then it goes up one atomic number." And with another click, the second electron and proton returned, along with the neutrons.
"Helium again!" Spruce quickly said before Stefanie could say anything.
"So what comes after helium?" Stef asked.
"It's something called lithium," he answered.
"Oh, yeah," she said. "I remember that because they use compounds of it to treat people who are bipolar. So what's it look like? Show me! Show me!"
"OK, here it comes," and he clicked the up button. Suddenly, a second sphere with one electron in it appeared around the first, quite a bit bigger. Meanwhile, another proton and two more neutrons popped into the nucleus."
"Do it again," Stef asked, jumping up and down with excitement.
And with another push, a second electron filled up the outer sphere; another proton and neutron popped into the nucleus.
"That's weird," Spruce said. "It added two neutrons when you went to lithium, but only one more when you went to this element. Why's that?"
"Don't know," Dr. Martin said, "at least not in this dream. I don't think it's predictable or that it matters."
"What's this element called?" Stef asked. "I know it's atomic number 4 now."
"I can't tell you," Dr. Martin said, "because this is a dream and your subconscious only remembers that it has the letters 'Be.' You never looked at the actual name.
"One more? One more?" she asked urgently.
"OK," he answered. "One more," and when he pushed the button this time a big big electron loop appeared above the two spheres. Another proton popped in the nucleus, along with another neutron.
"That's weird," Spruce said. "What's the loop?"
"Yeah," Stef added. "I saw that in the book too."
"It's just the way the electrons get added. You don't have to understand why. The first two are added in a sphere--hydrogen, helium. Then the next two are also added in a bigger sphere--lithium and the one with the letters 'Be.'
"You don't even remember the next one," he continued, "but you saw that it adds a funny loop instead of another sphere."
"But what does it mean?" Stef asked Dr. Martin.
"I don't know," he answered. "This is your dream, not mine."
"But you have to know. You have to. What are these spheres and loops called? I know they have a name," she insisted.
"You'll have to wake up and look it up," he said calmly.
"Spruce, make him tell me now," she said, turning to Spruce.
"It's not my dream," he answered. "I'm going back to my own dream," he said, and evaporated in a wisp of smoke.
"Spruce Alexander," you come back here right now, "she said."
"Would you like me to wake you up?" Dr. Martin said. "It's very easy. All I need to do is throw some of these electrons at you until it shocks you away. You do realize that electrons are what make up electricity, right?"
And he began to take the small electrons off the shelf and throw them at her. As they left his hand, they became waves of electricity flying at the speed of light toward her. The first two missed, but the evil smile on his face made it clear that he had just been playing with her.
"Time to wake up," he said and began to laugh a wicked laugh. He wound his hand back and the lighting shot directly toward her."
"Ahhh!" she said with a start, lifting her head off the desk where she had been sleeping...
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
3.6 Atomic Construction
... She also noticed that the atomic weight was written under each elements' symbol in the Periodic Table. Each box had the atomic number at the top center of the box--so 6 at the top of carbon. Then in the middle of the box was the symbol for the element--so a C for carbon. Then at the bottom middle was the atomic weight.
So the number at the bottom of carbon on the Periodic Table was 12.0107 because almost all the carbon on the earth is carbon 12, with its 6 protons and 6 neutrons. There's much less carbon 14, with 8 neutrons. She remembered that the book also wrote it slightly different some times. Sometimes the C had two numbers written just to its left, the mass number on the top (like 12 for carbon 12) and the atomic number on the bottom (like 6 for carbon).
She got it. It wasn't interesting in the slightest, but she got it. It was certainly enough to earn her a good night's sleep. Hopefully she wouldn't have any dreams about chemistry this time.
No such luck. She didn't actually realize she had fallen asleep. She had laid her head down on the desk in her room and nodded off. When she lifted her head back up, she thought she had re-awoken.
In reality, she was still asleep, her head still laying down on the desk. So it didn't seem unreasonable that she started to shrink, smaller, smaller, smaller. Soon the seat of her chair was a vast brown plain. Then she was seeing what must have been the cells of the trees from which the chair was made.
Down, down, down, she fell into the nucleus of a wood cell, then into its chromosomes and DNA. Then she was just falling. It was a vast empty space until finally she spied a huge ball of some sort directly beneath her. She bounced a couple times and finally was just sitting on top like she was on a bean bag.
"It's a proton," Spruce yelled up at her from a platform off to the side. It didn't occur to her in the dream to ask how he got there.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"Yeah. They're building a hydrogen atom. Want to help?"
"OK," she said. "What'll we do?"
"We need an electron. Hydrogen. Atomic number one. One proton, one electron."
"Any neutrons?" Stefanie asked.
"Nope. Just one and one. Well, there is..."
"Here are some," she interrupted. She had found a set of shelves with small balls in them, and with that, she lobbed one of them toward the big proton ball she had been sitting on. The small electron immediately started swirling in a sphere around the proton nucleus.
"And that's how it's done," she continued. "Hydrogen. Next!"
"OK," Spruce said and looked down at his chemistry book. "Looks like helium is next, atomic number 2."
"Isn't that the stuff you put in balloons for birthday parties, that makes your voice go high and squeaky?"
"Yeah," he answered. "It's two protons, two neutrons, and two electrons."
"I didn't notice that panel before," Stef said. Sure enough, there was a panel with a button for protons and a button for neutrons on it. She pressed the proton button twice, then the neutron button twice and the four particles appeared. "So now we just need two electrons."
Spruce picked two of the small electrons from the shelf and lobbed the one and then the other. Both of them swirled together in a sphere around the four particles in the nucleus...
So the number at the bottom of carbon on the Periodic Table was 12.0107 because almost all the carbon on the earth is carbon 12, with its 6 protons and 6 neutrons. There's much less carbon 14, with 8 neutrons. She remembered that the book also wrote it slightly different some times. Sometimes the C had two numbers written just to its left, the mass number on the top (like 12 for carbon 12) and the atomic number on the bottom (like 6 for carbon).
She got it. It wasn't interesting in the slightest, but she got it. It was certainly enough to earn her a good night's sleep. Hopefully she wouldn't have any dreams about chemistry this time.
No such luck. She didn't actually realize she had fallen asleep. She had laid her head down on the desk in her room and nodded off. When she lifted her head back up, she thought she had re-awoken.
In reality, she was still asleep, her head still laying down on the desk. So it didn't seem unreasonable that she started to shrink, smaller, smaller, smaller. Soon the seat of her chair was a vast brown plain. Then she was seeing what must have been the cells of the trees from which the chair was made.
Down, down, down, she fell into the nucleus of a wood cell, then into its chromosomes and DNA. Then she was just falling. It was a vast empty space until finally she spied a huge ball of some sort directly beneath her. She bounced a couple times and finally was just sitting on top like she was on a bean bag.
"It's a proton," Spruce yelled up at her from a platform off to the side. It didn't occur to her in the dream to ask how he got there.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"Yeah. They're building a hydrogen atom. Want to help?"
"OK," she said. "What'll we do?"
"We need an electron. Hydrogen. Atomic number one. One proton, one electron."
"Any neutrons?" Stefanie asked.
"Nope. Just one and one. Well, there is..."
"Here are some," she interrupted. She had found a set of shelves with small balls in them, and with that, she lobbed one of them toward the big proton ball she had been sitting on. The small electron immediately started swirling in a sphere around the proton nucleus.
"And that's how it's done," she continued. "Hydrogen. Next!"
"OK," Spruce said and looked down at his chemistry book. "Looks like helium is next, atomic number 2."
"Isn't that the stuff you put in balloons for birthday parties, that makes your voice go high and squeaky?"
"Yeah," he answered. "It's two protons, two neutrons, and two electrons."
"I didn't notice that panel before," Stef said. Sure enough, there was a panel with a button for protons and a button for neutrons on it. She pressed the proton button twice, then the neutron button twice and the four particles appeared. "So now we just need two electrons."
Spruce picked two of the small electrons from the shelf and lobbed the one and then the other. Both of them swirled together in a sphere around the four particles in the nucleus...
Monday, February 27, 2012
3.5 Atomic Weight
She felt pretty good about the list because she pretty much understood everything on it. There was just one more key term she couldn't figure out, atomic weight. After all, she had just learned that weight had something to do with the earth and it didn't seem to fit. Thankfully, a quick Google search said the same thing. It was a term people have used so long that scientists still use it, even though it really doesn't fit.
"What do you know about that?" she said to herself. "I got it right!"
After reading and re-rereading the textbook, she decided that the atomic weight of an element was some kind of average of the different forms a single atom could take. She vaguely remembered something Spruce said about the same element being able to have different numbers of neutrons in its nucleus.
"So that means one form of an element might have a slightly different mass number than another." Sure enough, there was a word Spruce had used, an "isotope." "An isotope is a form of an element with a different number of neutrons from its other forms."
So apparently if you average together the different mass numbers depending on how frequently they appear in nature, you get the atomic weight. So most carbon atoms have 12 particles in their nuclei (the plural of nucleus)--6 protons and 6 neutrons. But a smaller number of carbon atoms have 14 particles--6 protons and 8 neutrons. The average came out to about 12.01 as the atomic weight of carbon, the average of the mass numbers of its various forms.
"Wait a minute," Stef said. "What was I reading about carbon 12?" She couldn't quite remember what she had read but she suddenly understood what carbon 12 meant. "That must be the way of referring to a particular isotope of carbon. Carbon 12 is a form of carbon that has 12 particles in its nucleus. So carbon 14 would be another isotope of carbon, with 14 in its nucleus."
She also noticed that the atomic weight was even written under each elements' symbol...
"What do you know about that?" she said to herself. "I got it right!"
After reading and re-rereading the textbook, she decided that the atomic weight of an element was some kind of average of the different forms a single atom could take. She vaguely remembered something Spruce said about the same element being able to have different numbers of neutrons in its nucleus.
"So that means one form of an element might have a slightly different mass number than another." Sure enough, there was a word Spruce had used, an "isotope." "An isotope is a form of an element with a different number of neutrons from its other forms."
So apparently if you average together the different mass numbers depending on how frequently they appear in nature, you get the atomic weight. So most carbon atoms have 12 particles in their nuclei (the plural of nucleus)--6 protons and 6 neutrons. But a smaller number of carbon atoms have 14 particles--6 protons and 8 neutrons. The average came out to about 12.01 as the atomic weight of carbon, the average of the mass numbers of its various forms.
"Wait a minute," Stef said. "What was I reading about carbon 12?" She couldn't quite remember what she had read but she suddenly understood what carbon 12 meant. "That must be the way of referring to a particular isotope of carbon. Carbon 12 is a form of carbon that has 12 particles in its nucleus. So carbon 14 would be another isotope of carbon, with 14 in its nucleus."
She also noticed that the atomic weight was even written under each elements' symbol...
Saturday, February 25, 2012
3.4 Mass Number
That was pretty much it for chemistry at supper. After supper, Spruce dropped Stef off at her house and headed back to Indy.
Back in the room, it occurred to her that she already pretty much knew everything Spruce talked about at supper. But they hadn't talked about what she didn't understand, like atomic mass. She didn't have anything else to do, so she decided to give it one more shot.
The textbook confused her, "The way scientists calculate the mass of atoms is in terms of the atomic mass unit, which is defined as one twelfth the mass of a Carbon 12 atom."
"What the heck is a Carbon 12 atom?" she asked herself. She decided it to google it instead. The blog of some 45 year old janitor at a community college came up. "Basically, a proton weighs one atomic mass unit or 'amu.'"
"So a proton is one atomic mass unit," she said to herself and kept reading.
"It's not exact," the blog continued. "A proton weighs just a little more than 1 amu, and a neutron weighs just a tad more."
"Oh, great." She decided she didn't care. She was going to think of a proton or neutron weighing one atomic mass unit.
She went back to the textbook. "The mass number of an atom is the total number of protons and neutrons it has." Mass sounded familiar. "Isn't that the same as weight?" she asked herself.
She googled it again: "Is mass and weight the same?" This time the blog of someone who worked at a Starbucks came up. "Mass and weight are not the same. Weight has to do with gravity and depends on how high or low you are on the earth. In space you have no weight."
"That's confusing," Stef said to herself again, but she kept reading.
"Mass is, like, how much stuff is there, which is the same anywhere, even in outer space."
That made a little sense to her. I need to put this in the notebook, he suddenly thought, before it all evaporated out of her mind. She wrote down everything she'd learned so far that night.
electron: very small particle with negative charge, surrounds the nucleus in fields
proton: particle in nucleus with a positive charge, has a mass of about one atomic mass unit
neutron: particle in nucleus with a neutral charge, just a little bigger than a proton with a mass of about one atomic mass unit
atomic number: the number of protons in an atom's nucleus, tells you what element it is
mass number: the number of protons and neutrons in an atom's nucleus
atomic mass unit: the way they calculate how much an atom "weighs" (she couldn't think of a better way to put it), one "amu" is about the mass of a proton
She felt pretty good about the list because she pretty much understood everything on it. There was just one more key term she couldn't figure out, atomic weight...
Back in the room, it occurred to her that she already pretty much knew everything Spruce talked about at supper. But they hadn't talked about what she didn't understand, like atomic mass. She didn't have anything else to do, so she decided to give it one more shot.
The textbook confused her, "The way scientists calculate the mass of atoms is in terms of the atomic mass unit, which is defined as one twelfth the mass of a Carbon 12 atom."
"What the heck is a Carbon 12 atom?" she asked herself. She decided it to google it instead. The blog of some 45 year old janitor at a community college came up. "Basically, a proton weighs one atomic mass unit or 'amu.'"
"So a proton is one atomic mass unit," she said to herself and kept reading.
"It's not exact," the blog continued. "A proton weighs just a little more than 1 amu, and a neutron weighs just a tad more."
"Oh, great." She decided she didn't care. She was going to think of a proton or neutron weighing one atomic mass unit.
She went back to the textbook. "The mass number of an atom is the total number of protons and neutrons it has." Mass sounded familiar. "Isn't that the same as weight?" she asked herself.
She googled it again: "Is mass and weight the same?" This time the blog of someone who worked at a Starbucks came up. "Mass and weight are not the same. Weight has to do with gravity and depends on how high or low you are on the earth. In space you have no weight."
"That's confusing," Stef said to herself again, but she kept reading.
"Mass is, like, how much stuff is there, which is the same anywhere, even in outer space."
That made a little sense to her. I need to put this in the notebook, he suddenly thought, before it all evaporated out of her mind. She wrote down everything she'd learned so far that night.
electron: very small particle with negative charge, surrounds the nucleus in fields
proton: particle in nucleus with a positive charge, has a mass of about one atomic mass unit
neutron: particle in nucleus with a neutral charge, just a little bigger than a proton with a mass of about one atomic mass unit
atomic number: the number of protons in an atom's nucleus, tells you what element it is
mass number: the number of protons and neutrons in an atom's nucleus
atomic mass unit: the way they calculate how much an atom "weighs" (she couldn't think of a better way to put it), one "amu" is about the mass of a proton
She felt pretty good about the list because she pretty much understood everything on it. There was just one more key term she couldn't figure out, atomic weight...
Friday, February 24, 2012
3.3 Atomic Number
... Meanwhile, Spruce continued to talk to himself. "It's the protons that tell you what element it is. That's because it's the only particle whose number is always the same no matter what form the element comes in."
Stefanie carefully removed a piece of parsley from a delicious strip of fettuccine.
"You see, we normally think an atom has the same amount of protons and electrons. When it does, it has no charge or a neutral charge. The negatives of the electrons outside the nucleus balance out the positives of the protons in the nucleus."
Stefanie next eyed a strip of fettuccine with some extra Alfredo sauce on it. It looked absolutely delicious.
"But some atoms can give away some of their electrons or borrow some from another atom. When that happens, the atom can become an ion with either a positive or negative charge. So you can't count the electrons to decide what kind of an atom it is. The number can change."
"That's interesting," Stef said, eyeing a lovely bit of broccoli.
"You can't count the neutrons," Spruce continued, "because the same element can come with different numbers of neutrons. They're called different isotopes of the element."
"What's an element again?" she asked, not noticing that Spruce had used the word repeatedly.
"An element is a kind of atom. So gold is an element, a particular kind of atom. Silver is an element, a particular kind of atom."
"And diamonds are a kind of atom," she said.
"No, I think diamonds are made up of carbon atoms or something."
Oooo, Stef thought, a mushroom. It had been hiding under several fettuccine noodles.
"So that's why they use the number of protons to identify an atom, because if you change the number of protons, you've changed the kind of element."
With no more fettuccine, broccoli or 'shrooms on her plate, Stef finally was forced to look at him.
"And I need to know this why?"
"The number of protons in an atom tells you the atomic number," Spruce answered. "It tells you which element it is. You know the periodic table, that chart on the inside of every chemistry book?"
"Yeah?" and indeed she did. There had been a huge one in her high school chemistry room, a picture full of boxes stacked on top of each other, like you were looking through the walls of some huge condominium with a tower on each end.
"The periodic table starts at the top left with the number 1 and moves across each row with the atomic number counting up one by one. The first row only has two boxes on each end, numbers 1 and 2."
"So you're telling me number 1 has one proton in its nucleus and number 2 has two protons in its nucleus?"
Spruce was actually surprised she had paid that much attention.
"Yeah, hydrogen has one proton and helium has two. Then the next row keeps counting up: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10."
"Why does it skip the space in the middle at the top," Stef surprisingly asked, having stared at the chart a time or two in high school.
Spruce thought like he was about to say something profound and finally came forth with his answer. "No idea"...
Stefanie carefully removed a piece of parsley from a delicious strip of fettuccine.
"You see, we normally think an atom has the same amount of protons and electrons. When it does, it has no charge or a neutral charge. The negatives of the electrons outside the nucleus balance out the positives of the protons in the nucleus."
Stefanie next eyed a strip of fettuccine with some extra Alfredo sauce on it. It looked absolutely delicious.
"But some atoms can give away some of their electrons or borrow some from another atom. When that happens, the atom can become an ion with either a positive or negative charge. So you can't count the electrons to decide what kind of an atom it is. The number can change."
"That's interesting," Stef said, eyeing a lovely bit of broccoli.
"You can't count the neutrons," Spruce continued, "because the same element can come with different numbers of neutrons. They're called different isotopes of the element."
"What's an element again?" she asked, not noticing that Spruce had used the word repeatedly.
"An element is a kind of atom. So gold is an element, a particular kind of atom. Silver is an element, a particular kind of atom."
"And diamonds are a kind of atom," she said.
"No, I think diamonds are made up of carbon atoms or something."
Oooo, Stef thought, a mushroom. It had been hiding under several fettuccine noodles.
"So that's why they use the number of protons to identify an atom, because if you change the number of protons, you've changed the kind of element."
With no more fettuccine, broccoli or 'shrooms on her plate, Stef finally was forced to look at him.
"And I need to know this why?"
"The number of protons in an atom tells you the atomic number," Spruce answered. "It tells you which element it is. You know the periodic table, that chart on the inside of every chemistry book?"
"Yeah?" and indeed she did. There had been a huge one in her high school chemistry room, a picture full of boxes stacked on top of each other, like you were looking through the walls of some huge condominium with a tower on each end.
"The periodic table starts at the top left with the number 1 and moves across each row with the atomic number counting up one by one. The first row only has two boxes on each end, numbers 1 and 2."
"So you're telling me number 1 has one proton in its nucleus and number 2 has two protons in its nucleus?"
Spruce was actually surprised she had paid that much attention.
"Yeah, hydrogen has one proton and helium has two. Then the next row keeps counting up: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10."
"Why does it skip the space in the middle at the top," Stef surprisingly asked, having stared at the chart a time or two in high school.
Spruce thought like he was about to say something profound and finally came forth with his answer. "No idea"...
Thursday, February 23, 2012
3.2 Protons, Electrons, Neutrons
"I even remember what's in an atom," Stef continued.
"Protons, electrons, and neutrons, of course," Spruce threw in before she could continue. She curled her lips in a way that said she was contemplating throwing something at him. "Ah, but do you remember which particles are in the nucleus and which ones are swirling around the space above like planets around the sun."
"HA!" She fired back. "The electrons outside the nucleus don't really swirl. They're more like force fields and you never know exactly where they're at. You only can say where they are probably at, so there."
"And which particle is the biggest and which is the smallest?" he asked with a smirky grin she wanted to smack off his face.
"The electron is way smaller than the other two and has a negative charge," she answered confidently.
"Yeah, so which particle in the nucleus is bigger?" he persisted.
"Ah," she hesitated. "The proton has a positive charge and the neutron doesn't have a charge. It's neutral."
"That's not what I asked," he came at her again. After she continued to play with her pasta, he finally answered it himself: "It's the neutron. In fact, it's kind of like a proton and electron put together."
She completely ignored him, not willing to give him the satisfaction of knowing something she didn't.
"So the number of which particle tells you what element it is?" he continued. She was not at all in the mood by now. She began to think about her yoga class and some of the ridiculous stretches she was working on for college credit.
Meanwhile, Spruce continued to talk to himself...
"Protons, electrons, and neutrons, of course," Spruce threw in before she could continue. She curled her lips in a way that said she was contemplating throwing something at him. "Ah, but do you remember which particles are in the nucleus and which ones are swirling around the space above like planets around the sun."
"HA!" She fired back. "The electrons outside the nucleus don't really swirl. They're more like force fields and you never know exactly where they're at. You only can say where they are probably at, so there."
"And which particle is the biggest and which is the smallest?" he asked with a smirky grin she wanted to smack off his face.
"The electron is way smaller than the other two and has a negative charge," she answered confidently.
"Yeah, so which particle in the nucleus is bigger?" he persisted.
"Ah," she hesitated. "The proton has a positive charge and the neutron doesn't have a charge. It's neutral."
"That's not what I asked," he came at her again. After she continued to play with her pasta, he finally answered it himself: "It's the neutron. In fact, it's kind of like a proton and electron put together."
She completely ignored him, not willing to give him the satisfaction of knowing something she didn't.
"So the number of which particle tells you what element it is?" he continued. She was not at all in the mood by now. She began to think about her yoga class and some of the ridiculous stretches she was working on for college credit.
Meanwhile, Spruce continued to talk to himself...
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Chapter 3: Atoms 1
Stefanie understood most everything from the second class. It was about atoms, the fundamental building blocks of everything that exits. Well, at least of all matter. Energy was something different.
There were a couple things she would need to read about more carefully. The prof had talked about something called atomic mass. Maybe Spruce, her boyfriend, could explain that to her. He was coming down to treat her to dinner that night. He was also taking chemistry that semester up at IUPUI in Indianapolis.
Of course it's not really what she wanted to talk about over supper at Noodles, one of her favorite restaurants in Bloomington. But Spruce brought it up.
"We did atoms today in chemistry," Spruce said. "The professor went kind of crazy."
"What did he do?"
"It's a she. She started talking about some magic bus that could shrink and go around your body."
"I think I remember seeing a cartoon like that once," Stef said.
"She got all excited about some episode where the bus went around the digestive system. Down the esophagus and into the stomach and small intestines. She thought it was really funny that the cartoon didn't talk about coming out the anus. She must have laughed for a half a minute before she got hold of herself."
"Gross," Stef said. "So let me guess, she went on to have the bus shrink down to the size of an atom."
"Exactly," Spruce answered. "She jumped up on her desk and started asking different people questions at random, which was really a bummer since I was talking to you on Facebook at the time."
"I remember you saying you had to get off because your teacher was going crazy."
"So she asks a girl in front of me what we would see next if we kept shrinking in the stomach. The girl didn't know what to say. She finally asked the teacher what the person had just eaten."
"So what was the prof looking for?" Stefanie finally asked while chugging down some pasta.
"Tissues and then cells. Then she kept asking people what comes next as we got smaller. Thankfully the geeks and pre-meds in class started raising their hands."
"Wait, you're a pre-med, Spruce."
"I knew all the stuff," he said, stuttering a little bit. "I just didn't want to raise my hand."
"Right," Stef answered in a skeptical tone.
"So they go down to the nucleus of the cell, then chromosomes, then DNA in the chromosomes. She was having a really good time."
"So what's after that?" Stef asked.
"Molecules--groups of atoms that connect together in certain predictable ways."
"I know what a molecule is!" Stef protested. "And then finally down to atoms, I guess."
"Exactly," he answered...
There were a couple things she would need to read about more carefully. The prof had talked about something called atomic mass. Maybe Spruce, her boyfriend, could explain that to her. He was coming down to treat her to dinner that night. He was also taking chemistry that semester up at IUPUI in Indianapolis.
Of course it's not really what she wanted to talk about over supper at Noodles, one of her favorite restaurants in Bloomington. But Spruce brought it up.
"We did atoms today in chemistry," Spruce said. "The professor went kind of crazy."
"What did he do?"
"It's a she. She started talking about some magic bus that could shrink and go around your body."
"I think I remember seeing a cartoon like that once," Stef said.
"She got all excited about some episode where the bus went around the digestive system. Down the esophagus and into the stomach and small intestines. She thought it was really funny that the cartoon didn't talk about coming out the anus. She must have laughed for a half a minute before she got hold of herself."
"Gross," Stef said. "So let me guess, she went on to have the bus shrink down to the size of an atom."
"Exactly," Spruce answered. "She jumped up on her desk and started asking different people questions at random, which was really a bummer since I was talking to you on Facebook at the time."
"I remember you saying you had to get off because your teacher was going crazy."
"So she asks a girl in front of me what we would see next if we kept shrinking in the stomach. The girl didn't know what to say. She finally asked the teacher what the person had just eaten."
"So what was the prof looking for?" Stefanie finally asked while chugging down some pasta.
"Tissues and then cells. Then she kept asking people what comes next as we got smaller. Thankfully the geeks and pre-meds in class started raising their hands."
"Wait, you're a pre-med, Spruce."
"I knew all the stuff," he said, stuttering a little bit. "I just didn't want to raise my hand."
"Right," Stef answered in a skeptical tone.
"So they go down to the nucleus of the cell, then chromosomes, then DNA in the chromosomes. She was having a really good time."
"So what's after that?" Stef asked.
"Molecules--groups of atoms that connect together in certain predictable ways."
"I know what a molecule is!" Stef protested. "And then finally down to atoms, I guess."
"Exactly," he answered...
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