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Calcium sulfate is a common laboratory and industrial chemical. In the form of γ-anhydrite (the nearly anhydrous form), it is used as a desiccant. It is also used as a coagulant in products like tofu.[1] In the natural state, unrefined calcium sulfate is a translucent, crystalline white rock. When sold as a color-indicating variant under the name Drierite, it appears blue or pink due to impregnation with cobalt chloride, which functions as a moisture indicator. The hemihydrate (CaSO4.~0.5H2O) is better known as plaster of Paris, while the dihydrate (CaSO4.2H2O) occurs naturally as gypsum.

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Nibin said:

BUT DO NOT USE DRIERITE AS IF IT WERE GYPSUM. IT CONTAINS COBALT WHICH IS A HEAVY METAL AND YOU DON'T WANT TO BE EATING IT.

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Regular desiccant doesn't contain cobalt. So can it be used as gypsum in substrates? I can't find gypsum but where I live desiccant is in a lot of food packaging.

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can you "charge" the gypsum to form drierite substitute?

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Hallucinogenist said:

In fact, for those dopers here, it's possible to cook regular store-bought ammonia into anhydrous ammonia, and save yourself the time from tryin to steal it.  ^_^

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Have any ideas for turning vinegar to acetic anhydride? 

Shroominit said:

Edit: the info was useless, but here it is:

If you bake chalk at 2000*F you get lime (I thought you only had to bake it at like 450 or something, quite useless at 2000..)

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Understanding how a mushroom fruit-body grows in size is critical to optimal crop cultivation.

Plants and animals grow through cell division.
Meaning, to get bigger they have to produce more cells, thereby increasing their mass in size.

Mycelium also grows by cell division.

However, a mushroom fruit-body does not grow by cell division.

A fully formed immature mushroom contains nearly the same number of cells that the large mature mushroom will have at its peak size.

How an immature mushroom exponentially increases in size very rapidly is by cell enlargement.

How fruit-body cell enlargement occurs, is that the mycelium pumps moisture by capillary action into the fruit-body cells, hyper- expanding, and inflating them with water. The same way a balloon expands exponentially in size, when you fill it with water.

A mushroom fruit-body can increase in size as fast as water can be pumped into its cells. That is how a mushroom can grow from an immature mushroom into a large mature mushroom, in a very short span of time.

Other than inherent genetic limitations, and nutrient availability, the size of a fruit-body is only limited by the availability & amount of moisture that mycelium can pump into it.

Another critical growth factor is that, mushroom fruit-bodies have no protective skin.

Mushroom fruit-body cells exchange gases directly with the surrounding atmosphere. Consequently, as mushroom fruit-bodies begin to expand in size, they require very high ambient humidity in their immediate environment, in order to grow to optimal fruit-body size.

Deprived of, or without high humidity in their immediate environment, fruit-body cells will lose moisture faster than it can be "pumped" into them. Resulting in an immediate drying effect that will cause abnormal growth, stunting, stems to split, caps to crack, and/or total abortion of all growth.

Agar

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J3illy said:

Hallucinogenist said:

In fact, for those dopers here, it's possible to cook regular store-bought ammonia into anhydrous ammonia, and save yourself the time from tryin to steal it.  ^_^

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Have any ideas for turning vinegar to acetic anhydride? 

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It is impossible to distill acetic acid due to it forming an azeotrope with water. The only practical method of concentrating vinegar is to form sodium acetate, dehydrate to a near anhydous state, add to sulfuric and distill. This should leave one with nearly glacial acetic acid.

One can run that thru a tube furnace which will turn it into ketene and then add that to additional glacial acetic acid.

Alternatively, one can acylate some glacial acetic acid with phosphorus trichloride and add that to the sodium acetate to form the anhydride.

Lastly, its possible to use benzotrichloride or benzalchloride with sodium acetate to form the anhydride. In the case of benzalchloride a nice by-product is formed... benzaldehyde.

Or you can just buy the shit. 

veda_sticks said:

This is a nice one

#3 How a mushroom fruitbody grows in size

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Understanding how a mushroom fruit-body grows in size is critical to optimal crop cultivation.

*snip*

However, a mushroom fruit-body does not grow by cell division.

A fully formed immature mushroom contains nearly the same number of cells that the large mature mushroom will have at its peak size.

*snip*

Agar

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