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Monday
Jan302012

On the fruits of my sleep deprivation

This image will show up soon on the back cover of a review journal and is the first project I did after having the baby. In my sleep-deprived state I have no idea where the idea came from, though now that I'm thinking about it, I am reading Haruki Murakami's new novel, 1Q84, which has to do with a cult. Could that be why it looks like a bunch of trans-azobenzenes just drank the Kool-Aid, but only one was chosen for salvation? In fact, it is supposed to demonstrate the light-activated isomerization of a substituted azobenzene from trans to cis. The review deals with various substitutions on the rings and the different mechanisms of isomerization. In case you are wondering, cis-azobenzene does not then ascend into heaven. It just thermally relaxes anti-climactically back to the trans conformation.