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Cheminoes is a didactic game that enables the meaningful learning of some relations between concepts such as chemical element, valence, atomic number, and chemical symbol for the first 36 chemical elements of the periodic system. Among the students who have played the game, their opinions of the activity were positive, considering the game to be a fun way of interacting with the concepts.

The alkaloids lycorine, 1-O-acetyllycorine and ismine were isolated from the basic dichloromethane- soluble fraction of Crinum x powellii “Album” bulbs. The alkaloid structures were established by physical and spectroscopic analyses, including 1D NMR techniques and GCMS analysis. The three alkaloids are reported for the first time for this hybrid. Additionally, the three alkaloids isolated were tested against a mechanism-based bioassay utilizing genetically engineered mutants of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains RAD+, RAD52Y and RS321 where lycorine was the only alkaloid that displayed moderate topoisomerase I inhibitory activity.

A novel strategy for the synthesis of high-density biofuel using two biomass-derived oxygenated compounds, furfural and guaiacol, with a variety of heterogeneous catalysts is proposed. In the first step of this strategy, furfural is converted with high yields and selectivity to cyclopentanol (CPOL) over Mg-Al supported Cu catalysts. Then, the cyclopentanol is used to alkylate guaiacol over a series of HY zeolites to generate C9–C16 oxygenates with an appropriate molecular weight to be used as transportation fuels. Finally, in the last step of this catalytic strategy, the C-alkylation products are successfully hydrodeoxygenated over ruthenium nanoparticles supported on carbon nanotubes (Ru/MWCNT), producing a liquid mixture of cyclic hydrocarbons with high density (0.865 g mL–1 at 20 °C) and excellent low-temperature properties. This overall reaction route is a promising approach for converting biomass-derived compounds into transportation fuel precursors.

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