It is known that although only the (S)-enantiomer of the infamous sedative thalidomide possesses teratogenic properties, it is not very useful to administer the pure (R)-enantiomer since it is racemized within the body. Are there other known examples of drugs that are stereoconverted in vivo? How...

I'm looking at the melting temperature of metallic elements, and notice that the metals with high melting temperature are all grouped in some lower-left corner of the $d$ block. If I take for example the periodic table with physical state indicated at 2,165 K: I see that (apart from boron and ...

Many diagrams of orbitals I've seen involve electrons moving through a center point—where the nucleus is. How can this be? Clearly they don't actually pass through the nucleus, so what does happen?

"Both Vanadium and its 3+ ion are pramagnetic. Use electron configuration to explain why this is so" The electron configuration of Vanadium is : $[Ar]4s^23d^3$ If drawn in a box diagram, it would be shown that the electron in the $d$ orbitals aren't paired. This explains how an uncharged V...

When I look around for why Copper and Chromium only have 1 electron in their outermost s orbital and 5/10 in their outermost d orbital, I'm bombarded with the fact that they are more stable with a half or completely filled d orbital, so the final electron enters that orbital instead of the 'usual...

My chemistry book explains that even though electrons in the 2p orbital are closer to the nucleus on average, electrons from the 2s orbital spend a very short time very close to the nucleus (penetration), so it has a lower energy. Why does this tiny amount of time spent close to the nucleus mak...