Chemistry to be focus of CU symposium The Lawton Constitution The public is invited to a symposium, "Improving People's Lives Through the Transforming Power of Chemistry" today and Friday at Cameron University. Graduates from Cameron's Department of Chemistry, Physics and Engineering will speak at the CU ... and more »

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Chemistry to be focus of CU symposium - The Lawton Constitution

The surface of Jupiter, a planet which might have helium compounds

Heres a popular high school chemistry fact: Helium atoms dont interact with other atoms to create compounds. Well, that fact might need some reevaluating.

An international team of scientists think theyve created a stable helium compound, meaning one composed of both helium and sodium atoms together. The discovery would be wild not only because of the way it goes against some of our basic assumptions of chemistry, but would also help scientists better understand the way atoms act in the high-pressure centers of gas giant planets.

Chemistry changes when you apply high pressure, and this can be achieved inside our Earth and on different planets like Saturn, study co-author Ivan Popov, a doctoral student at the Utah State University, told Gizmodo. But this, chemistry involving helium, is a book changer. Other noble gasses, like xenon and argon, have previously been shown to bond with magnesium under high pressures.

So, chemistry lesson: Atoms are positively charged nuclei surrounded by negatively charged electrons. The more positive protons in the nucleus, the more electrons the atom can hold onto. The electrons are sorted into layers, called shells. Atoms bond by sharing electrons in their outermost shells, but if that shell is full, they normally wont bond. Noble gasses like helium or neon are atoms with full outer shells, so bonding with them is like trying to hold hands with someone already toting a pair of bowling balls. Thats why the new studys result is so interesting, if it holds up.

Ad hoc, it sounds pretty wild, Reinhard Boehler, a research scientist at the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington, DC told me from his car when I described the studys results to him.

In their study, the researchers loaded helium gas and sodium crystals into a cavity between a pair of diamonds, and squeezed the atoms at super-high pressures. The resulting compound was a solid arrangement of alternating sodium and helium atoms in a cube shape, with electrons shared between them. Its not a real bond in the sense of the ionic and covalent bonds you learned about in chemistry, explained Popov. But [the helium] does stabilize the structure. If you take those helium atoms away, the structure will not be stable.

If this sounds familiar, it may be because last week, researchers announced theyd produced metallic hydrogen using a very similar high-pressure experimental setupthough other scientists had a lot of doubts about that result. This time around, at least one scientist found the results more convincing. This is much sounder science, Henry Rzepa, a professor at Imperial College, London, who was initially skeptical when I told him about the new study,said. This helium compound is a breakthrough. He pointed out that, of course, other scientists would need to complete similar experiments in order to verify whether a helium compound had actually been found.

Rzepa further noted that this compound isnt your standard mixture of bonded elements you learned about in chemistry class, but an electride. Such molecules consist of electrons dispersed within a crystal structure, but the structure itself is somewhat mysterious to us. We have long suspected that a quite different chemistry, controlled by rather different if not very different rules, must exist under extreme conditions such as ultra high pressures, he said. This [sodium-helium compound] offers a tantalising glimpse into this new frontier of chemistry.

That means these compounds wont have much use on Earth, and can only exist under strange conditions like those at the center of gas giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn. The helium-sodium compound could therefore give us insight into what chemistry might be like inside other planets, the papers authors write, since those gas giants have plenty of helium.

So, at least one pair of eyes thought this wild compound really could exist. We will update the post if we hear any dissenting opinions.

Correction: This article has been edited to correct Ivan Popovs university affiliation.

[Nature Chemistry]

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A Wild New Helium Compound Could Rewrite Chemistry Textbooks - Gizmodo

Inert helium may form stable compounds inside giant planets such as Jupiter, seen here by NASA's Juno spacecraft on Aug. 27, 2016.

Deep within giant planets, helium may form stable compounds with other elements, a new study finds something that was long thought never to happen in nature.

Helium is second only to hydrogen as the most common element in the universe; it exists in abundance in stars and gas giants. However, whereas hydrogen easily reacts with other elements to form compounds such as water, helium is a member of a group of elements known as the noble gases that do not bond readily with other elements.

Although helium is the most chemically inert element known, scientists have found a few instances in which it can form compounds with other elements. Still, until now, all known helium compounds either were highly unstable or were ones where the helium and the other elements barely interacted with one another. [Element Number Two: Facts About Helium]

Now lab experiments reveal that, at the kinds of high pressures that are found within gas giant planets, helium can form stable compounds with sodium.

"One more traditional assumption that helium does not form stable compounds has fallen," said study co-author Artem Oganov, director of Stony Brook University's Center for Materials by Design in New York and head of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology's Computational Materials Discovery laboratory.

Previous research suggested that "rules of classical chemistry break down at high pressure," Oganov said. This led study lead author Xiao Dong at Nankai University in Tianjin, China, and his colleagues to investigate whether it was possible "to break yet another rule and discover stable compounds of the most unreactive element helium," Oganov told Space.com.

The international research team searched for stable helium compounds by running calculations on two supercomputers. These machines included Tianhe II in Guangzhou, China, which is currently ranked as the world's second-most-powerful supercomputer.

Their results predicted two stable helium compounds. One is NaHe, which consists of one helium atom and two sodium atoms, while the other is NaHeO, which consists of one helium atom, two sodium atoms and one oxygen atom.

In experiments, the scientists successfully synthesized NaHe by squeezing its components between two diamonds at pressures of about 1.1 million times Earth's atmospheric pressure. The team's calculations predict that the compound will prove stable to at least up to 10 million times that pressure.

Crystal structure of NaHe, which resembles a 3D checkerboard. The purple spheres represent sodium atoms, which are inside the green cubes that represent helium atoms. The red regions inside voids of the structure show areas where localized electron pairs reside.

"This work gives a spectacular triumph of theory," Oganov said. "This very surprising compound was first predicted by theory, and only then made experimentally."

The helium atoms do not actually form any chemical bonds with the sodium atoms. Still, the presence of the helium atoms fundamentally changes the chemical interactions between the sodium atoms, forcing electrons to pair together, despite their natural tendency to repel one another.

"It is a very bizarre new kind of compound, in which helium atoms make a huge change in the way sodium atoms interact with each other," Oganov said.

To imagine what NaHe looks like, picture a 3D checkerboard of black and white cubes. In the centers of the black cubes are helium atoms, in the centers of the white cubes are pairs of electrons and at the corners of all the cubes are sodium atoms.

The calculations suggest that the other predicted helium compound, NaHeO, would be stable from 0.15 to 1.1 million times Earth's atmospheric pressure. Its structure should be similar to that of NaHe, but in place of electron pairs, it would have oxygen atoms.

These findings could "have implications for planets and perhaps also for stars," Oganov said. Although it remains uncertain what effects such helium compounds might have, researchers can no longer assume that helium is simply inert, he said.

The scientists detailed their findingsonline Feb. 6 in the journal Nature Chemistry.

Follow Charles Q. Choi on Twitter @cqchoi. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookand Google+. Originally published onSpace.com.

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NBA.com

D'Antoni Talks Rockets Chemistry NBA.com D'Antoni Talks Rockets Chemistry. Coach D'Antoni sits down with Dennis Scott to talk about the Rockets' chemistry and their success. Rockets. 2:46. Coach D'Antoni sits down with Dennis Scott to talk about the Rockets' chemistry and their success. Play. and more »

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Forbes

The Super Bowl Ad With Bill Nye Got At Least Three Chemistry Details Wrong Forbes This is useful when, for example, you're trying to measure how much of a chemical is present in a mystery sample. But the thing is, Nye's flasks aren't filled correctly. There's a line on those flasks that is located partway up the neck. Chemistry ... and more »

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The Super Bowl Ad With Bill Nye Got At Least Three Chemistry Details Wrong - Forbes

Jeff Larentowicz has been part of one team that won an MLS Cup, and another that played in the league finals three consecutive years.

He said one of the keys to those teams, and something he saw developing in the first few days of preseason training with Atlanta United, which he joined as a free agent, was chemistry, that elusive and nebulous gel that can turn teams with good talent into great teams, or if its missing can turn a group of talented players into a poor team.

It seems weve got that going from the start, said Larentowicz, who has 324 appearances in MLS since 2005. Obviously, things change when points are up on the board. For now, its good.

Thats exactly what Atlanta United President Darren Eales, technical director Carlos Bocanegra and manager Gerardo Martino hoped would happen when the decision was made to sequester the expansion team away from friends and family for its first preseason camp.

The team has signed more than 25 players, of which only a handful of pairs (Larentowicz and Michael Parkhurst at New England; Harrison Heath and Mikey Ambrose at Orlando; Tyrone Mears and Chris McCann were teammates at Burnley; Alec Kann and Jacob Peterson Sporting Kansas City and Kann and Larentowicz were teammates at Chicago) have been teammates on a club before.

Theres a lot they dont know about each other, and a lot they may need to know if the club hopes to become the first expansion team to make the MLS playoffs since Seattle in 2009.

This will be a good setting for them to build trust and get to know each other, Martino said during the first week of camp.

Eales said when he Bocanegra first began to talk with Martino about possibly becoming the teams manager, the Argentine wanted a training camp environment during which he could have as many training sessions as possible. The team has had more two-a-day sessions than single-session days since camp started on Jan. 24.

Its almost like greenhouse, having to artificially grow that chemistry, Eales said.

The original plan was to use the home of the Falcons in Flowery Branch as the site. But, Eales and Bocanegra happily say that plan changed because of the teams run to the Super Bowl.

The team instead moved its training camp to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. for two weeks. The players stayed in villas on campus and spent most of their days learning Martinos style and personality, that of his assistants, and that of each other.

Bocanegra knows the importance of his chemistry and training camp from his storied career as a professional that included playing for teams in the U.S., Scotland, England, Spain and France. Players were grouped in the housing to try to get to know each other. Andrew Carleton and Chris Goslin, the teams first two Homegrown Players whose playing time will likely come as reserves if at all, were in a group with Hector Villalba, the teams first Designated Player who will likely start.

When you are here all day, every day for two weeks you get to know the good, bad and ugly about everyone, Bocanegra said. You get a feel for what kind of people they are, what kind of personalities they have, their tendencies off the field as well. It helps to develop chemistry in the locker room, as well.

These are the little thing that develop within the team. Its really about getting to know each other.

Chemistry values communication. Because Martino is learning English, he will give his instructions during practice in Spanish. An assistant standing in the middle of the field will repeat the instruction in Spanish. Two more assistants, one at either end of the field, will repeat them in English. Some words, Bueno, need no translation. The coaching staff has started English lessons. The players who dont know English will start learning when the team returns. Though, because of the roommate situations, some may already be learning. Carleton and Goslin, whose primary language is English, said they are trying to teach Villalba, whose primary language is Spanish, about college basketball.

You come in and you are curious, Larentowicz said. You dont know what to expect from each other, the staff, the preseason in general, from a lot of the guys, from MLS. We are starting to get over the hump and figure out who we are.

The chemistry experiments arent just limited to the field.

Eales said they have planned on different speakers to come and talk to the team about different topics when they report to Flowery Branch. Owner Arthur Blank has already addressed the team and will likely do so again. Steve Cannon, the CEO of the Arthur M. Blank Group, will discuss his journey from West Point, the Army and as CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA. Lastly, Eales is hoping that Falcons coach Dan Quinn will have time to share the Falcons journey to the Super Bowl and how his team came together.

Lastly, happy wife is supposed to lead to a happy life.

Eales wife and Bocanegras wife are starting a family association to help the spouses and girlfriends of the players feel comfortable in the city and with the challenges of moving, and with the team. Eales said at least one training session a month will be open for the family members to come and watch.

We are trying to make players feel a part of the team, but their families as well, Eales said.

Heres how to read the AJCs coverage of Atlanta United:

Web: On the Atlanta United channel on AJC.com.

Facebook: On our Facebook page at Atlanta United News Now .

Twitter: Follow Doug Roberson on twitter @DougRobersonAJC.

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IOCDs One-World Chemistry initiative is part of the organizations efforts to promote chemistry for better health and a better environment and to strengthen education in the chemical sciences.

Credit: IOCD

An editorial in Nature Chemistry in 2010 asked chemists a simple question: Where are the champions? The opinion piece highlighted long-held misconceptions and negative perceptions about chemistry and observed that chemistry lacks the easily articulated grand challenges associated with physics or biology, and it generally gets a rough ride in the mainstream media. All the more reason that it needs effective advocates and champions.

The International Year of Chemistry held the following year does not appear to have achieved the hoped-for change in chemistrys standing in the publics eye, to have raised the profile of the subject, or, with a few exceptions, to have inspired champions of chemistry to step forward. Moreover, a Royal Society of Chemistry study in 2015 revealed that chemists image of how society views the subject was worse than the reality. These results seem to us indicative of a profession afflicted with low self-esteem rather than one confident to undertake effective advocacy on its own behalf.

Against this backdrop, chemists need to ponder ways to reenergize and refresh their profession in a form that will be suited to meeting oncoming challenges. We should reflect on the question, where are the champions? It is inextricably linked to the equally important question, how do we champion chemistry? And both of those questions raise the further question, what is the nature of the chemistry that should be championed?

It has become evident to us that chemistry must create a fresh idea of its position and purpose and develop around this idea a coherent, collective effort to encourage, promote, and project new messages in the field and outward to society at large. Our intent is to stimulate a debate to address emergent concerns and to suggest a nuanced agenda for rejuvenation for the chemistry community and other stakeholders, particularly policy-makers, to consider. The aim of this effort is the promotion and advancement of the discipline to ensure that its creative power and reach are fully harnessed for the well-being of our planet and people.

The canvas of chemistry being unlimited, it fulfills several essential roles: as a science contributing fundamental knowledge of the properties, behaviors, and transformations of atoms and molecules; as an underpinning for adjacent sciences that depend on understanding molecular structures and interactions; and as a source of a vast range of useful products and applications. But this very breadth and diversity of capacities make it hard to encapsulatefor the big picture to emerge and for the human angle to be appreciated.

Our concept and approach, which we call One-World Chemistry, has been put forward as one framework for accomplishing these goals. One-World Chemistry incorporates three basic principles. This first is that in pursuing the chemical sciences, it is essential to develop awareness of how chemical systems interact with many other systems, including the physical, biological, and ecological systems of the planet. It aims to position chemistry as a science pivoted on the human activity-ecosystem interface.

The second principle follows from the first and recognizes that the solutions to many fundamental and applied problems traverse geographic and disciplinary boundaries and mandate cross-disciplinary approaches. The third and overarching principle is that chemistry must at all times be practiced in an ethical manner, taking account of the short- and long-term impacts both of how it is conducted and of the uses, potential uses, and fates of its products and by-products.

These principles have consequences for the teaching and practice of chemistry, which need to adopt systems thinking as a core perspective and reinforce ethical behavior and skills in cross-disciplinary approaches from an early stage.

This framework makes it inevitable that chemistry will seekand project itself as being concerned withlinks to major global concerns, such as finding environmentally benign ways to generate energy, creating new materials while conserving natural resources, devising processes with a minimal carbon footprint, developing new drugs for neglected and emerging diseases, and overcoming challenges of drug resistance. It also presents opportunities for creating and publicizing grand challenges that frame chemistry as a positive and proactive contributor to meeting oncoming societal needs instead of just waiting for disasters to make news headlines that present chemistry as the culprit rather than the solution.

Clarity about the position and purpose of chemistry is an essential prerequisite for determining who can be the champions of this inclusive, ethical, and sustainable new world. Our conclusion is that everyone must become champions: individual chemists, academic departments in colleges and universities, chemistry societies, environmental advocacy groups, government agencies, and industry. They must act both individually and collectively through coordinated initiatives.

Within this overall shared responsibility, championing can be given leadership and afforded stronger public appeal and greater impact by encouraging the emergence of role models and skilled advocates. Chemistry lacks well-recognized voices such as those of Craig Venter for genomics research and Stephen Hawking for cosmology. Statesmanlike celebrity chemists can and should contribute significantly by capturing broad attention in the media, galvanizing societal esteem, and igniting young minds to project the dimensions of chemistry in all its diverse roles. Of course, the champions may be important and busy people devoting their time to doing great science. But it is incumbent on them to give attention to and communicate about the field that sustains their creative urges and provides the basis for their visibility and careers.

Such advocacy can be supported and encouraged by everyone associated with the chemistry enterprise. In particular, champions from industry need to be able to overcome challenges in how companies are perceived by a skeptical public. Many people recognize that the chemical and pharmaceutical industries are major drivers of the global economy, but they also know these manufacturers are major consumers of raw materials and sources of pollution that cause environmental damage.

The adoption of green chemistry approaches by sections of the chemical industry has been a step in the right directionand one that can actually be cost-effective rather than a cost accelerator. Embracing the principles and practice of One-World Chemistry offers industry the opportunity to radically reform its image and operations and to position itself in a new light as the champion for sustainable development and the source of solutions to global challenges.

It is crucially important that chemistry is projected both as an exciting fundamental science and as an ethical science for the benefit of society, one whose central goal is human well-being and the well-being of our planet. All who are associated with the chemistry worldthat means all of usshould take up the challenge of championing this view.

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Perspectives: Championing chemistry - Chemical & Engineering News (subscription)