I used to be indecisive but now I’m not so sure.
Welcome back to UniScoops! We’re the intellectual palette cleanser between your 14th TikTok of the hour and your actual responsibilities.
Here’s a taste of what we’re serving today:
Drug Testing in Sport 🚴
PLUS: The ‘Realness’ of Space and Time, 1984, and Why would a country move its capital city? 🏙️
CHEMISTRY
Drug Testing in Sport 🚴
The use of performance-enhancing drugs in elite sports has been exposed by developments in drug testing, revealing major scandals in the sporting world. For example, seven-time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong was exposed for doping and accusations of Russian state-sponsored doping ahead of the Olympics.
Lance Armstrong
Drug testing in sports identifies athletes who are using performance-enhancing drugs through a combination of analytical techniques. These techniques involve both spectrometry and spectroscopic approaches such as mass spectrometry, gas chromatography, infrared spectroscopy, and NMR spectroscopy.
💡 Things to consider
Mass spectrometry: Mass spectrometry identifies molecules by the molecular mass of molecules in a sample. This produces a spectrum with the molecular masses of the molecules shown on the spectrum. Consider how this can be used to identify the presence of certain molecules in the sample. How does this help identify the presence of performance-enhancing drugs in a sample of an athlete's blood or urine? What level of certainty can the results of mass spectrometry determine if an athlete is doping?
Infrared spectroscopy: Infrared spectroscopy produces a spectrum based on the bond frequency between atoms in a functional group. This produces specific frequencies corresponding to certain functional groups to help identify the structure of molecules.
Combined techniques: Drug testing requires a combination of analytical techniques to determine the presence and identity of performance-enhancing drugs in sports. Explore how both analytical techniques listed above offers different information about a molecule. Reflect on how these analytical techniques can be used collectively to determine the identity of an unknown molecule in a sample. Assess how athletes have made efforts to evade these drug tests and how future innovations can improve the certainty of drug testing.
🔎 Find out more
🍒 The cherry on top
🌌 The ‘Realness’ of Space and Time: Explore the history of physics’ most fundamental concepts: space and time. This YouTube video examines how our understanding of these dimensions evolved, from ancient geometry to modern theories. How ‘real’ even is space and time? A great watch if you like Physics.
👁️ 1984: 1984 is a dystopian novel by George Orwell about a totalitarian state, Oceania, which uses mass surveillance, propaganda, and thought control to suppress all individuality. Why is 1984 as relevant today as when it was published? We’ve heard of Big Brother, but what/who actually is it? Find out more in this Book Club podcast if you’re into English Literature or Politics.
🏙️ Why would a country move its capital city?: From water shortages to earthquake risks, Tehran is facing serious pressure — and Iran is considering a bold solution: relocating its capital entirely. This article explores the environmental, economic and political reasons behind the proposal, and the challenges of building a new city from scratch. An interesting read if you’re interested in Geography, Urban Planning, or Geopolitics.
👀 Keep your eyes peeled for…
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That’s it for this week! We’d like to thank this week’s writer: Callum Haynes.
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