They were created from fat molecules and DNA. Inside the cell, the DNA converts to RNA and produces proteins. Pores on the outside of the cell open and send proteins into neighbouring living cells and influence them.

Mansy said it sounds like science fiction, but he believes artificial cells could be used for a type of personalized medicine that monitors changing conditions in real-time.

He could see them being used to detect and respond to cancer, deliver antibiotics if the artificial cells detect a bacterial infection, or to release dopamine. Alack of dopamine is believed to cause Parkinsons disease.

If you had artificial cells that were able to assess the levels of dopamine and in very localized environments, and then when the levels drops below whats necessary, it switches on synthesizes some dopamine and releases it, that would be a very effective way of dealing with a specific problem, he said.

I think a lot of people thought this was impossible people were rolling their eyes thinking yeah, why are you trying to do something that, I guess to some people, sounds a bit too sci-fi, but it works Ithink really, the skys the limit with something like this.

One of the main advantages advantage of artificial cells is being able to design them from the ground up for a particular purpose, Mansy said, making them more predictable than using living bacteria for a similar purpose.

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@laurby

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Artificial 'smart cells' created by U of A chemist could be used to treat illness at cellular level - Edmonton Journal

Black chemists are adding their voice to calls of systemic racism in academia and STEM fields. Here's what they say needs to change in their fields. Wochit

About 4.6% of chemistry graduate students in 2016 who were U.S. citizens or permanent residents were Black or African American, according to data in aNational Science Foundation report.

And about 5.5% of people employedas chemistswere Black orAfrican American in 2017.

This summer, Black chemists in Indiana, along with scientists across the country,have been raising the public's awareness of the systemic racism that results inBlack people beingunderrepresented in STEM. Somechemists participated in #ShutDownSTEM, an international strike that drew attention to systemic racism in academia. And some have been using Twitter and other social media to connect with each other.

Felicia Fullilove, a program manger for a non-profit organization,said African Americans have beenunderrepresented in chemistry because of systemic racism andaccess to STEM careers. Fullilove, whoholds a B.S. in chemistry from Butler University and a PhD in chemistry from Emory University, said a lack of Black mentors is also an issue.

Ren Robinson, an associate professor of chemistry at Vanderbilt University, said in some instances aspiring Black scientists start down the STEMpipeline,but drop off at different points. The environment at STEM institutions and organizations is an issue some encounter in the pipeline.

"Historically, science and especially ... these kinds of chemistry professionshaven't been as inviting for diverse groups to be part of," she said.

Fullilovenoted Indiana's own history.

"PercyJulian attended DePauw University, but he wasn't allowed to live on campus," she said of Julian, who earned his undergraduate degree from DePauw in 1920."He'sone of the greatest chemists of all time."

Fullilove said that until the culture of the field of chemistry shifts and it becomes truly inclusive and welcoming,the numbers of Black chemists will not increase. She also said that universities have to both recruit and retain Black students, faculty and staff.

"If you're going to recruit them and not retain them," she said, "then you have this leaky pipeline issue."

Chemists in Indiana and elsewhere have protested systemic racism this summer.

Atheena Jenkins, a chemistry PhD student at Purdue University, helped organize the Purdue Chemistry Black Lives Matter March on Juneteenth this year. She said the march was meant to raise awareness about systemic racism in the environment at Purdue. Social interactions between individuals such as professors, students and administrators are a part of systemic racism, she said.For example,advisors have a long-standing history of treating students unequally because of ethnicity or nationality.

During the event,shegave a speech to the crowd, which was a bit nerve-wracking for her.

But also kind of powerful, I guess, for lack of terminology, Jenkins added. I had everyones attention, and in that moment, I could just speak my mind. And lately I havent been giving myself the space to speak my mind, especially on issues like these.

Her speech alluded to the fact that people cant dismantle the entire system you kind of have to take it off brick by brick, she said. And one of those bricks is microaggressions, she added. Her speech led into an exercise that taught the crowd about microaggressions.Jenkins believes that one of the microaggressions mentioned wassomeonebeing surprised at how well a Black person or person of color spoke.

Earlier in the month, on June 10, many scientists didnt go to their labs as part of #ShutDownSTEM and #Strike4BlackLives. Particles for Justice, one of the groups that organized the day, wrote on its website that the strike was necessary to hit pause, to give Black academics a break and to give others an opportunity to reflect on their own complicity in anti-Black racism in academia and their local and global communities.

Carolina Vega, a PhD student and analytical chemist at IUPUI, said no one in her research group went to their lab that day. Her group had a Zoom meeting, though, where she and her colleague talked about their experience being Black.

One thing that we try to do is just to make people conscious that we suffer stuff that a lot of people dont realize that is a thing, she said.

Carolina Vega works on research in a lab in the IUPUI Science Engineering and Technology Building II, Monday, Aug. 24, 2020. She is a third year analytical chemistry PhD student at IUPUI. (Photo: Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar)

Social media has been a way for Black scientists to connect with each other. Black chemists from across the country posted about their research on Twitter the week of Aug. 10 as part of #BlackInChem week.

Ore Cherebin scrolled through the #BlackInChem posts during the week.She saw photos of Black women with their natural hair in the lab.

There are rules about how you should have your hair in the lab, but obviously my hair isnt what they were talking about when they created the rules how long ago, she said. So its comforting to see people rocking their natural hair in the lab, for me personally.

Vega said Black people, and Black women especially,are underrepresented in science, and so"when I saw the thread, I was just like, 'that's exciting.'" She said she learned that there were more Black chemists than she thought there was.

Fullilove said social media engagement and activism by Black chemists has been receiving a lot more attention now than in the past. These efforts are not new.She said that over the last 8-10years, there has been a movement for Black scientists to connect with each other on social media or other online mediums.

In 2014, Black scientists across the country used thehashtag #BLACKandSTEM.

This year, Black scientists in various professions have participated in weeks dedicated to their specific fields, such as #BlackInNeuro weekand #BlackInAstro week.

Vega said these weeks are important and necessary.

But also, Im afraid that its just happening now and wont keep going, she said. I feel like its necessary to keep going.

Carolina Vega stands by an untitled sculpture by Cary Chapman, Monday, Aug. 24, 2020. She is a third year analytical chemistry PhD student at IUPUI. (Photo: Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar)

Some Black chemists have also been sharing the work of their fellow researchers and connecting scientists to one another.In March 2019, Elissia Franklin, a postdoc at Purdue who researches analytical chemistry, founded a podcast called The Research Her, which highlights Black women researchers. Its also a wellness podcast.

Elissia Franklin works with an instrument in a chemistry lab.(Photo: Elissia Franklin)

Black women tend to not be part of some of the clinical studies that are done relative to different medications, she said, and we tend to be left out of a lot of very important research studies.

Franklin also runs a Slack community for Black women in research. The community has channels for different fields, such as chemistry and psychology.

We have different channels so that you can connect with other people in your field who may not necessarily go to your university, she said.

Franklin is also part of the planning council for STEMNoire, a wellness and research conference for Black women in STEM. At this summer's conference, which was virtual, attendees discussed the stressors of being a Black woman in STEM, took part in a meditation session and participated in other activities.

Franklin said that since the death of George Floyd, she hasnt had to tiptoe around conversations about race.

Its easier to talk to people about race now than it was before, she said, because it was like, everyone just tried to act like it wasnt really a thing and that there werent any systematic or systemic issues within academia that were in place, when it comes to Black people in academia.

Contact IndyStar Pulliam Fellow Anne Snabes at asnabes@indystar.com and follow her on Twitter at @a_snabes.

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Black chemists protest systemic racism and connect with each other on social media - IndyStar

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "North America Fracking Chemicals Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecasts (2020 - 2025)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The North America fracking chemicals market is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 8.77% during the forecast period

Factors such as high active rig count, longer lateral lengths, increased number of frac stages per well, and the amount of fracking fluid used per frac stage are expected to drive the market. Moreover, the market is expected to be driven by the completion of a large number of uncompleted wells in the United States. However, volatile crude oil prices and the environmental risks associated with hydraulic fracturing are restraining the hydraulic fracturing services market and, in turn, the fracking chemicals market in North America.

Key Market Trends

Water-Based Fluid Segment to Dominate the Market

United States to Dominate the Market

Competitive Landscape

The North America fracking chemicals market is moderately fragmented. Some of the key players are Halliburton Company, BASF SE, The Dow Chemical Company, CES Energy Solutions Corp, and Solvay SA.

Key Topics Covered:

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Scope of the Study

1.2 Market Definition

1.3 Study Assumptions

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

4 MARKET OVERVIEW

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Market Size and Demand Forecast, in USD billion, till 2025

4.3 Recent Trends and Developments

4.4 Government Policies and Regulations

4.5 Market Dynamics

4.5.1 Drivers

4.5.2 Restraints

4.6 Supply Chain Analysis

4.7 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5 MARKET SEGMENTATION

5.1 Fluid Type

5.1.1 Water-Based

5.1.2 Foam-Based

5.1.3 Others

5.2 Well Type

5.2.1 Vertical

5.2.2 Horizontal & Directional

5.3 Geography

5.3.1 United States

5.3.2 Canada

5.3.3 Rest of North America

6 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

6.1 Mergers and Acquisitions, Joint Ventures, Collaborations, and Agreements

6.2 Strategies Adopted by Leading Players

6.3 Company Profiles

6.3.1 The Dow Chemical Company

6.3.2 Parchem Fine & Specialty Chemicals Inc.

6.3.3 Halliburton Company

6.3.4 Solvay SA

6.3.5 SNF Group

6.3.6 DuPont de Nemours, Inc.

6.3.7 BASF SE

6.3.8 Flotek Industries Inc.

6.3.9 CES Energy Solutions Corp.

7 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE TRENDS

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/rmkcmp

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North America Fracking Chemicals Market to 2025 with Halliburton, BASF, Dow Chemical, CES Energy Solutions, and Solvay Dominating -...

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A new study overturns a 130-year old assumption about the chemistry of ocean water.

Ocean chemistry is a complex mixture of particles, ions and nutrients. And for over a century, scientists believed that certain ion ratios held relatively constant over space and time.

The findings, however, refute that long-held belief.

The researchers discovered that the seawater ratios of three key elements vary across the ocean, which means scientists will have to re-examine many of their hypotheses and models.

Calcium, magnesium, and strontium (Ca, Mg, and Sr) are important elements in ocean chemistry, involved in a number of biologic and geologic processes. For instance, a host of different animals and microbes use calcium to build their skeletons and shells.

These elements enter the ocean via rivers and tectonic features, such as hydrothermal vents. Theyre taken up by organisms like coral and plankton, as well as by ocean sediment.

The first approximation of modern seawater composition took place over 130 years ago. The scientists who conducted the study concluded that, despite minor variations from place to place, the ratios between the major ions in the waters of the open ocean are nearly constant.

Researchers have generally accepted this idea from then on, and it made a lot of sense. Based on the slow turnover of these ocean elementson the order of millions of yearsscientists long thought the ratios of these ions would remain relatively stable over extended periods of time.

The main message of this paper is that we have to revisit these ratios, says Debora Iglesias-Rodriguez, professor and vice chair of the ecology, evolution, and marine biology department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. We cannot just continue to make the assumptions we have made in the past essentially based on the residency time of these elements.

Back in 2010, Iglesias-Rodriguez participated in a research expedition over the Porcupine Abyssal Plain, a region of North Atlantic seafloor west of Europe. She had invited Mario Lebrato, a former student who was pursuing his doctorate at the time and lead author of the current paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Their study analyzed the chemical composition of water at various depths. Lebrato found that the Ca, Mg,5, and Sr ratios from their samples deviated significantly from what they had expected. The finding was intriguing, but the data was from only one location.

Over the next nine years, Lebrato put together a global survey of these element ratios. Scientists, including Iglesias-Rodriguez, collected over 1,100 water samples on 79 cruises ranging from the oceans surface to 6,000 meters (19685 feet) down. The data came from 14 ecosystems across 10 countries. And to maintain consistency, all the samples were processed by a single person in one lab.

The projects results overturned the fields 130-year old assumption about seawater chemistry, revealing that the ratio of these ions varies considerably across the ocean. Scientists have long used these ratios to reconstruct past ocean conditions, like temperature.

The main implication is that the paleo-reconstructions we have been conducting have to be revisited, Iglesias-Rodriguez says, because environmental conditions have a substantial impact on these ratios, which have been overlooked.

Oceanographers can no longer assume that data they have on past ocean chemistry represent the whole ocean. It has become clear they can extrapolate only regional conditions from this information.

This revelation also has implications for modern marine science. Seawater ratios of Mg to Ca affect the composition of animal shells. For example, a higher magnesium content tends to make shells more vulnerable to dissolution, which is an ongoing issue as increasing carbon dioxide levels gradually make the ocean more acidic.

Biologically speaking, it is important to figure out these ratios with some degree of certainty, says Iglesias-Rodriguez.

Iglesias-Rodriguezs latest project focuses on the application of rock dissolution as a method to fight ocean acidification. Shes looking at lowering the acidity of seawater using pulverized stones like olivine and carbonate rock.

This intervention will likely change the balance of ions in the water, which is something worth considering. As climate change continues unabated, this intervention could help keep acidity in check in small areas, like coral reefs.

Source: UC Santa Barbara

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The ocean's chemistry isn't the same everywhere - Futurity: Research News

Around 1700 postdocs at Columbia University in New York City have formed a union the first of its kind at a private US university through the United Auto Workers (UAW), one of the largest unions in North America. Nicholas Tay, a chemistry postdoc at Columbia who was part of the effort to build support for the union, hopes this is just a first step on the road to securing greater rights for postdocs in the US and beyond.

The new contract with Columbia addresses concerns about inadequate pay and benefits, as well as insufficient rights for harassment victims and international researchers.

While there are some local UAW unions in public universities in America such as the University of California system and the University of Washington, none officially existed at private universities until now.

Postdocs at Columbia technically became members of the UAW in July, but they never had a ratified contract and therefore had no power to negotiate their contracts with the university. Now, their new contract mandates that postdocs at the university cannot be paid less than $60,000 (47,000), among other things.

Previously, postdocs at Columbia earned slightly more than the minimum established by the National Institutes of Health, but less than their counterparts at other institutions in New York City, such as New York University and Rockefeller University, according to Tay. As a postdoc, I was being paid around $52,000, Tay tells Chemistry World. Now, that number for Columbia postdocs was raised to a minimum of $60,000, which is higher than those at Rockefeller University and NYU.

Beyond ensuring access to a living wage in one of the most expensive US cities, the new contract also secured six weeks of paid parental leave after one year of service there was none before. Safeguards for harassment and assault victims are included in the contract as well.

We have protections now for postdocs in the case that they feel pressured by their principal investigator, or anyone else, to perform actions that they dont feel comfortable with, Tay explains. The union is there to offer a way for them to file a complaint there is now a mechanism through which they can express their concerns that didnt exist before. Postdocs will now have access to a neutral arbitrator on claims of discrimination and harassment.

There are also new protections for international researchers at Columbia, including for visa and immigration-related issues. For example, they now have the right to reasonable paid time off to attend immigration-related proceedings, and the university has agreed to make reasonable efforts to allow them to work remotely if they are unable to return to the US for reasons outside their control.

We wanted rights for international workers, who have recently been under attack by the Trump administration, says Tay, referring to, among other things, President Trumps executive order in June that blocked the processing of visa categories such as H-1Bs, which universities and tech firms often use to hire researchers and scientists from other countries.

These developments at Columbia represent a good first step in that they demonstrate postdoc unions can exist and be successful at a private universities, according to Tay. We hope that this will continue to grow, because issues like low pay, unstable benefits and discrimination in academia will not go away on their own, he says. We need unions to give ourselves collective action to change the culture of academia in the US and globally, he says.

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The first ever postdoc union at a private US university has been formed - Chemistry World

KANSAS CITY, Mo. Pressure came from the right side yet again, so Deshaun Watson stepped up in the pocket to keep the play and any chance the Texans had at winning alive.

By this point in the third quarter of the NFLs opening game, which was supposed to be an exciting matchup between footballs highest-paid quarterbacks, the Texans were already down 17 points to the Chiefs, so Watson was desperate to make anything happen. He spun to his left, then juked another Kansas City defender as he broke outside the numbers. Watson kept his eyes downfield, looking for an open receiver, until finally he ran out of bounds for a loss, pointing in frustration at where he wanted running back Duke Johnson to be.

So often in these situations a broken play on a got-to-have-it third down Watson could trust DeAndre Hopkins to find a hole in the defense. But the All-Pro receiver is no longer part of this team, and Houstons...

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Following offseason overhaul, Texans lack chemistry and have no time to build it - The Athletic

PHILADELPHIA, June 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Braskem (B3: BRKM3, BRKM5 and BRKM6;NYSE: BAK; LATIBEX: XBRK) ("Company"), the largest polyolefins producer in the Americas and leading producer of biopolymers in the world, announces it has been named a multiple 2021 Responsible Care awardee by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) for the Company's Outstanding COVID-19 Response Efforts and excellent Facility Safety performance. Responsible Care awards recognize outstanding and innovative work among chemical companies on their journey towards safe chemicals management and performance excellence. Five Braskem production facility sites throughout the U.S. received Facility Safety Award Certificates of Excellence including; Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, Neal, West Virginia., Seadrift and Oyster Creek, Texas, as well as the Company's Innovation & Technology Center located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

"Braskem is honored to be a Responsible Care Facility Safety Award recipient as this is a true testament to our team's continuous commitment to health, safety, and the environment," says Susan Gluodenis, Braskem Global Quality Leader. "I am proud to be a part of an organization that holds these principles at the utmost importance and I look forward to continuing improvements in operations and enhancing our safety efforts."

"Being honored with both awards demonstrates Braskem's willingness to push the limit of what's possible to protect our team, surrounding communities, and the environment, especially while presented with the unprecedented challenges associated with successfully navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. We are immensely grateful the ACC has recognized Braskem, for the tremendous efforts of our teams across the U.S.," says Brian Hughes, Braskem U.S. Quality Assurance and Responsible Care Coordinator.

ACC Outstanding COVID-19 Response Efforts Award

In 2021, the ACC developed its new Outstanding COVID-19 Response Efforts Award recognizing exemplary efforts from ACC members and Responsible Care Partner companies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifteen ACC member companies and four Responsible Care Partner companies received this award.

Braskem deployed a range of measures across its manufacturing plants in Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia to secure the supply of essential grades of polypropylene polymers for the production of respiratory masks, protective medical gowns, and other protective material. In parallel, Braskem positioned 'live-in' manufacturing teams in both West Virginia and Pennsylvania operating in isolation for 28-days to help ensure the health and safety of its team members who were working as an essential service throughout this crisis to keep these key supply lines running.

ACC Facility Safety Award

The ACC awards member companies with significant achievements in employee health and safety performance. Braskem and 50 companies received 2021 Facility Safety Award Certificates.

Braskem aims to operate in a responsible way to achieve quality product and results. Responsible Care has helped Braskem enhance performance and improve the health and safety, and it is our intention to continue achieving our goals of meeting these expectations. The ACC awards recognize ACC members and partners on an annual basis.

The ACC announced the awards at its virtual 2021 Responsible Care & Sustainability Conference & Expo. To learn more about Responsible Care, visit https://responsiblecare.americanchemistry.com/.

ABOUT BRASKEM

With a global vision of the future oriented towards people and sustainability, Braskem is committed to contributing to the value chain for strengthening the Circular Economy. The petrochemical company's almost 8,000 team members dedicate themselves every day to improve people's lives through sustainable chemicals and plastics solutions. Braskem has an innovative DNA and a comprehensive portfolio of plastic resins and chemical products for diverse segments, such as food packaging, construction, manufacturing, automotive, agribusiness, healthcare and hygiene, among others. With 41 industrial units in Brazil, the United States, Mexico and Germany, and net revenue of R$52.3 billion (US$13.2 billion), Braskem exports its products to clients in more than 100 countries.

Braskem America is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Braskem S.A. headquartered in Philadelphia. The company is the leading producer of polypropylene in the United States, with six production plants located in Texas, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, an Innovation and Technology Center in Pittsburgh, and operations in Boston focused on leveraging groundbreaking developments in biotechnology and advanced materials. For more information, visit http://www.braskem.com/usa.

Braskem on English social media:www.facebook.com/BraskemGlobalwww.linkedin.com/company/braskemwww.twitter.com/BraskemSA

SOURCE Braskem

http://www.braskem.com

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Braskem Honored to Receive Responsible Care Awards by the American Chemistry Council - PRNewswire

It isnt surprising that a popular flower like the rose should have invited investigation for possible medicinal properties over the ages. The ancient Greek physician Dioscorides recommended an elixir of roses cooked in wine for headaches, while in the Americas, Indigenous people treated colds, coughs and fevers with various potions derived from the flowers, leaves or roots of the plant. Rosewater has also been used cosmetically, incorporated into creams for its supposed anti-inflammatory properties.

Such traditional uses, while mostly anecdotal, have stimulated some serious research into potential medicinal properties, especially since roses do contain numerous terpenes, glycosides, flavonoids and anthocyanins with potential pharmacological effects. Unfortunately, virtually all the studies have been carried out in animals or in cell culture with a paucity of human data. For example, aromatherapists have claimed that rose essential oil can have a soothing, sleep-inducing effect. However, the citations provided deal with mice. When mice are put to sleep with a barbiturate, their sleeping time increases if their food is supplemented with some rose extracts. Only specific extracts work, and only at doses far greater than any to which humans would be exposed. Furthermore, the extracts were ingested, not inhaled.

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The Right Chemistry: Maybe it's time to smell the roses - Montreal Gazette

Seven years after a disgraced former state chemist pleaded guilty to mishandling drug samples in the Boston lab where she once worked, the reverberations of the case are still being felt.

Hundreds of people have been released from jail since the revelation of wrongdoing by the chemist, Annie Dookhan. In 2017, more than 20,000 cases affected by Ms. Dookhans misconduct were found to be eligible for dismissal. And this week, the Suffolk County district attorney moved to vacate 108 more convictions, the latest development in the yearslong unraveling.

The district attorney, Rachael Rollins, filed a motion late Monday to vacate 108 cases that involved Ms. Dookhan but that district attorneys did not move to throw out in 2017, when a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling asked prosecutors to certify that they could produce evidence at a retrial independent of Ms. Dookhans signed drug certificate or testimony, according to a statement from Ms. Rollinss office on Tuesday.

Ms. Rollins, who said the move was meant to remove a huge stain on the legal system, called the cases forever tainted by egregious and reprehensible government misconduct.

No defendant impacted by this ignominious chapter of Massachusetts law enforcement history should continue to bear the burden of Dookhans deceit, her sad and desperate need for attention, and the enormous amount of harm she inflicted on so many, Ms. Rollins said in the statement.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, she added, it makes little sense to expend additional resources litigating Dookhan cases, some of which are more than 15 years old.

Ms. Dookhan pleaded guilty in 2013 to 27 counts, including perjury, obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence. She was sentenced to three to five years in prison plus two years probation.

Prosectors said that during her nine-year tenure at a state drug lab in Boston, where she was responsible for processing drug samples seized from suspects, Ms. Dookhan mishandled samples, forged signatures and returned positive results on drugs she had never tested.

The 108 convictions affected by Ms. Rollinss motion had been designated List 3, meaning district attorneys did not try to have the cases vacated in 2017, despite Ms. Dookhans involvement. According to the statement, the nine remaining List 3 cases had already had new trial motions granted, dismissals entered or a plea agreement negotiated.

In these cases, there were mandatory minimums that make it infinitely easier to persuade and leverage defendants to plead guilty, Ms. Rollins said of the List 3 cases.

Ms. Rollinss office said it was the first in the state to take such broad action on List 3 cases, adding that the putrid legacy of Dookhan requires additional fumigation.

Her office is also seeking to vacate the guilty pleas of dozens of individuals who the court found ineligible for relief because they pleaded guilty before receiving test results of drug analysis, and it was concluded that Ms. Dookhans misconduct did not affect their decision to plead guilty.

In addition to those cases, 7,886 cases in Suffolk County were vacated and dismissed in 2017 with prejudice, meaning that prosecutors could not pursue the charges again.

This shameful chapter of our history will take dedication and perseverance to undo, Ms. Rollins said, and I will and we must.

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108 Convictions Tied to Massachusetts Chemists Misconduct May Be Vacated - The New York Times

The periodic table may be the most iconic way of ordering the elements, but it is not necessarily the most useful. Elements may sit side by side that have little chemical similarity, and even the columns dont always reflect the closest affinities carbon and lead, for instance. Two scientists in Moscow now propose a new way of arranging the elements in a single linear sequence with the smallest change in properties between each successive pair.1 Using this scheme, they say it will be possible to predict which simple compounds will have similar characteristics, helping to identify new candidate materials with useful properties such as hardness or magnetic behaviour.

An ordering of this sort is not new. In 1984 theoretical chemist David Pettifor of Imperial College in London used empirical data for simple binary compounds to derive a scale for the elements.2 The sequential position in the sequence is now sometimes called an elements Pettifor number or, especially in Russia, its Mendeleev number (MN). In a two-dimensional plot with the MNs on each axis, the chemical space of binary compounds is arranged into regions where the compounds share properties.

Several other schemes have been proposed since, which define MN-type rankings based on, for example, the number of valence electrons3 or crystal structures.4 These approaches rely, however, on empirical definitions and therefore depend on which data are available and under which conditions they were measured. Zahed Allahyari and Artem Oganov of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow say that it would be better to define MN in terms of fundamental properties of the elements, which should then be possible to calculate for all elements at all conditions.

All previous MN schemes were empirical, says Oganov, and so become less reliable for data outside the set used to calculate them. Our MN is non-empirical and should work equally well for any kind of data.

The most important chemical properties of an element, the two researchers say, are the atomic radius, valence, electronegativity and polarisability. The last two factors, however, are strongly correlated, so just one will suffice. And because the valence of a given element can sometimes vary, it is ambiguous. They choose a MN based solely on radius (R) and electronegativity (), as given by the scale introduced by Linus Pauling. An elements atomic radius may also vary in different compounds, but for their R values Allahyari and Oganov use half the interatomic distance in the simple cubic structure of the element. These two quantities are loosely correlated too, giving a linear regression. The researchers define their MN, which they call the universal sequence of elements (Use) index, from the order in which the elements in a plot of against R project onto the regression line.

To assess how well their definition works compared with previous MN-type measures, they collected crystal-structure information for 1591 binary compounds and for 80 of the pure elements, as well as information on their enthalpy, atomisation energy, hardness and magnetisation. Materials with comparable characteristics will form clusters or islands in the two-dimensional space of binary compounds for each of these properties. To find new materials that might behave similarly to a known one, it would then be sufficient to explore others within the same island.

These clusters indicate chemistries that are worth exploring, says Oganov. You can devise a computational strategy that first discovers the clusters and then zooms into them to discover the best material. The more efficient a definition of MN is, the fewer the number of islands there are. To assess this, Allahyari and Oganov use an algorithm for detecting clusters. They find that the Use numbers perform well in this respect, compared with the others, for each of these compound properties, and is the best overall.

Santiago Alvarez, an inorganic chemist at the University of Barcelona in Spain, says that approaches like this could be useful for material discovery, because they enormously reduce the portion of the chemical space to be explored. He cautions that the current restriction to binary compounds is a serious limitation. But Oganov says the approach will also work for ternary or more complex systems, although the resulting spaces would be multidimensional and so it would be hard to visualise the results.

There is always a risk that collapsing all relevant chemical features of an element into a single number will lose some information, says Guillermo Restrepo of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, who has explored other schemes for classifying elements. But the periodic table imposes such a ranking too, by atomic number, he says and thats surely not perfect either.

But Restrepo says it remains to be seen which ordering scheme if any is the best to use. It may be that a simple linear sequence that assigns each element only two neighbours will miss some of the interesting relationships. An element may be most similar to more than one element, or several elements could be similar to a single element, says Restrepo.

The approach might also help to resolve longstanding arguments about the structure of the periodic table itself such as where to put hydrogen. From the viewpoint of MNs, hydrogen is closer to the halogens, rather than alkalis, says Oganov.

All these works contribute to a better understanding of the complexities of chemistry, says Restrepo. Chemistry is so complex that we have not been able to reduce its complexity to a single property. Not even the so-called periodic law is general only a handful of properties actually vary periodically with the atomic weight or the atomic number.

But it does not mean that there is no such fundamental chemical property, he adds. Perhaps it has always been there, waiting to be discovered. It would be great if several of these schemes converged on a single key parameter. If this were the case, we would discover a fundamental property of chemistry, Restrepo says. If this property turned out to be electronegativity, great! It would confirm Paulings genius.

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New ordering of elements could help find materials with promising properties - Chemistry World

Despite restrictions, shes able to go to the dog park, walk around campus and receive all the attention shes used to.

Emily Pofahl

Butter the Chemistry Corgi poses for a portrait near the St. Paul Student Center on Tuesday, Nov. 17.

Emalyn Muzzy, Arts and Entertainment ReporterNovember 20, 2020

On the University of Minnesotas Northrop Mall, a small corgi runs around. She curiously sniffs as she rummages through the bushes, pulling on her leash as students walk past and garnering smiles from various passersby who are too shy to say hi.

Before COVID-19 shut down campus, seeing Butter the chemistry corgi was a regular occurrence for students. Butters owner, Bach Nguyen, a graduate student studying computational chemistry, would regularly bring her to work at Kolthoff Hall and walk her around campus multiple times a day.

In the age of COVID, Nguyen mostly works from home but still shares Butters life by walking around campus several times a week, sending her on walks with third-year chemistry student Liz Schulz and posting on Butters Instagram account.

Butter, described by Nguyen as, hyper, very hyper, has become famous on campus. Shes recognized by students who became accustomed to her regular walks, who follow her Instagram, or who, like Schulz, showed up at Nguyens office just to meet her.

Schulz said she had Nguyen as a teachers assistant last semester and soon began showing up at his office every day to meet with Butter. Eventually Nguyen started sending her out on daily walks with Butter.

Because Nguyen is rarely in his office these days, Schulz, who thinks of herself as Butters cool aunt, stops by his home and continues to take Butter out for walks once a week.

If Im having a down day or am stressed out about school, she helps me get out of my head, Schulz said.

While Schulz and Nguyen agree that Butter would make a terrible therapy dog, her existence helps them and others destress.

Therapy dogs are trained to be calm and nice, but shes more playful, Nguyen said. He thinks that sets her apart from therapy animals; people find her comforting because shes more energetic.

Nguyen said Butter is handling the pandemic well, because she gets enough walks to sustain her energy levels. But shes ready to go back to her old routine. Sze Cheng, Ngyuens wife and a biochemistry graduate student, said that Butters an extrovert and misses meeting new people.

Nguyen and Cheng adopted Butter in October of 2019 and began bringing her on campus to help socialize her shortly afterwards. Cheng said it was important to socialize her early in her life.

Nguyen also didnt want to leave his baby corgi behind while he was at work.

When he first started bringing her in, there were no rules on whether he was allowed to have a dog at work. Soon after, because of Butter, his department created animal guidelines, and he was able to get Butter registered with the University.

The chemistry department has wholeheartedly welcomed Butter. Shes made friends like Schulz and Mollie Dunlap, an assistant to the chemistry department head, who even bought her a custom University of Minnesota dog jacket with Butter stitched into it.

When asked if Nguyen was surprised at peoples reaction to her on campus, he laughed and said, Its a baby corgi! Id be slightly concerned if everybody didnt respond.

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Nobody panic; Butter the chemistry corgi is doing alright during the pandemic - Minnesota Daily

Posted: Nov 4, 2020 / 05:47 PM EST / Updated: Nov 4, 2020 / 05:47 PM EST

BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) Students of Medicine at WVUs main campus, and the chemistry department at WVU Tech will benefit from nearly $1.4 million dollars between to the two programs.

The large sum comes from an estate gift made by Mary Lou Hudnall in honor of her late husband, Dr. Leonard P. Hudnall, who graduated from both programs. A native of Wheeling, WV, Mary Lou passed away on Sept. 27, 2019 at the age of 92.

Mary Lou was a very generous and giving lady, her friend Linda Stuckey said. WVU was left in her will because of her husband. She was very fond of WVU and WVU Tech. She was just an all-around sweet and caring lady.

The generous gift provides discretionary funding to support academic enrichment within the WVU School of Medicine. It will also address the highest needs in the WVU Tech chemistry program.

Hudnalls gift was made through theWest Virginia University Foundation, the nonprofit organization that receives and administers private donations on behalf of the University.

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WVU Tech chemistry program and WVU School of Medicine benefit from nearly $1.4 million dollar gift - WVNS-TV

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (Iupac) has released a new list of 10 emerging chemistry technologiesthat could have a huge impact on how we live. Its no surprise that this years list focuses on the Covid-19 pandemic, but, while there are plenty of potentially important emerging chemistry technologies in healthcare, topics such as energy efficiency, pollution and climate change also make the cut.

1. Dual-ion batteries

While lithium-ion batteries won the chemistry Nobel prize in 2019, a new dawn is breaking for dual-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries made the miniaturisation of energy-storage devices possible, powering laptops, smartphones and electric vehicles. However, they have their downsides. Lithium and cobalt are relatively scarce and are associated with unsustainable mining. Dual-ion batteries could replace them.

Dual-ion batteries are batteries in which anions and cations participate in energy storage. Dual-ion batteries are greener than lithium-ion batteries as their electrodes can be produced from cheap and abundant materials. Researchers are trying to create cheap dual-ion batteries using non-toxic organic solvents, such as water and enhance sustainability. Chemists have also found new ways to produce these batteries using sodium, potassium or aluminium, resources that are far more abundant than lithium.

2. Aggregation-induced emission

Certain molecules release energy in the form of light when they aggregate with other molecules. This is called aggregation-induced emission, and its a phenomenon found in luminogens such as polyaromatic compounds and oligosaccharides. Researchers think aggregation-induced emission could find uses in new luminescent materials for OLED devices, sensors and novel bio-imaging tools.

3. Microbiome and bioactive compounds

Bacteria in the gut can make a wide range of molecules in response to different stimuli.Recent computational analysis of the genome of the microbiome has discovered a number of interesting molecules, including powerful antibacterial compounds.This finding serves to show how much theres still to learn about the microbiome and how these discoveries could harnessed in medical research.

4. Liquid gating technology

Membranes controlled by liquid gates may sound absurd on the face of it, but this technology has already been demonstrated.Liquid gated membranes can respond to pressure changes, opening and closing pores on-demand without the need for electrical control. Liquid gates can be used to selectively process mixtures of fluids without clogging, so researchers foresee this technology being used in separation and filtration processes, for example, in water purification.

5. High-pressure inorganic chemistry

In the field of high-pressure chemistry, researchers apply intense pressures to a chemical and analyse its response. Under ultra-high pressure, the rules of chemical bonding alter and effects such as luminescence could be enhanced.

This field could lead to the discovery of novel properties in everyday chemicals, leading to the discovery of materials that are superconductors at room temperature, for example.

6. Macromonomers for better plastic recycling

Getting rid of ocean plastics is a task chemists are embracing from numerous angles. One of them is to redesign plastics, to craft more sustainable materials. Solutions include building plastics that break down under UV light or incorporating heteroatoms and functional groups in polymer structures, resulting in polymers that are easier to hydrolyse and recycle.

7. Artificial intelligence applied to chemistry

As in many other fields, artificial intelligence will improve the way in which chemists work. Researchers are developing algorithms to speed-up the understanding of chemical structures, enhance retrosynthetic analyses, design optimised reaction sequences and discover new drugs. Reactions could also become easier to reproduce and scale-up, while becoming greener and more efficient.

8. Nanosensors

A sensor detects changes in its surrounding environment. Chemical nanosensors detect a wide array of substances and, today, this field has progressed to the point where single molecules can be detected.

This technology could find applications in many areas and change the way we make decisions about the world around us. For example, in healthcare, detecting a specific protein could be a sign of disease. Nanosensors could also be used to search for specific molecules in food to determine whether a product is safe to eat or not.

9. Rapid diagnostics for testing

Its thanks to chemistry that there are different types of tests that can detect many different chemicals. Yet, these dont need to be just for detecting diseases pregnancy tests are rapid diagnostic tests which detect a hormone.

Rapid tests for the detection of Sars-CoV-2 is an area of intense research currently. Some rapid tests detect RNA strands, while others look for antigens. However, the World Health Organization is not currently advising healthcare services to implement this type of testing globally as its effectiveness is still questionable. Developing rapid tests that can detect Covid and other diseases in a timely and effective manner is an ongoing challenge for chemists.

10. RNA Vaccines

The search is currently on for a vaccine that could end the global pandemic. Pharmaceutical companies, such as Pfizer, are working on a unique type of vaccines to fight Covid-19: RNA vaccines. The vaccine that was recently reported as 90% effective at preventing Covid-19 is RNA-based.

RNA vaccines are based on a synthetic mRNA for a viral protein making them quick to design and easy to scale-up. When an RNA vaccine is administered the mRNA is turned into viral proteins. The immune system response to these proteins can then confer immunity on the vaccine recipient.

However, no RNA vaccine has been approved in humans to date, but they are undoubtedly a promising path to fighting Sars-CoV-2.

This latest list of chemistry innovations follows on from Iupacs one last year, released to mark its centenary. According to the organisation, these lists promote the fundamental role of chemistry in protecting society and the planet.

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Ten chemistry innovations that Iupac says could change the world - Chemistry World

In the 119-year history of the Nobel Prize, only five women have won in the chemistry category. Now, two female scientists on Oct. 7 made history by being the first women to jointly win the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Washington D.C. native Dr. Jennifer A. Doudna and Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier from France were awarded for their 2012 work with the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9. Not only were they the first female scientists to receive the award together, but they also won without a male collaborator.

Their first paper, A programmable dual-RNA-guided DNA endonuclease in adaptive bacterial immunity, was published in 2012. Their research showed that CRISPR could be used to cut DNA in an artificial environment, such as a test tube or petri dish.

Now, eight years later, their written idea has come to life in the form of CRISPR-Cas9 and the technology has become more widespread.

CRISPR, which stands for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, was a major breakthrough for genome editing. The tool allows bacteria to use parts of DNA from invading viruses, which are in turn used to create DNA segments called CRISPR arrays.

These DNA segments, allow the bacteria to remember the viruses or any closely related ones, according to The US Library of Medicine.

If the viruses attack again, the bacteria produce RNA segments from the CRISPR arrays to target the viruses' DNA. The bacteria then use Cas9 or a similar enzyme to cut the DNA apart, which disables the virus.

Now, the technology is being employed in finding cures for genetic diseases. In fact, so far results show that CRISPR is working. In summer 2020, Victoria Gray became the first patient with sickle cell disease to undergo CRISPR editing, according to National Public Radio. They also reported that even post the gene editing procedure, Gray is thriving.

Additionally, Doudna and a team of researchers have developed a test using CRISPR that can be used to detect COVID-19 in only five minutes. This test could be useful for countries with a high number of coronavirus cases who do not have enough resources to test the entire population.

Also known as genetic scissors, the CRISPR gene-editing tool has been used for agricultural means as well. Plant researchers use the tool to change crops DNA, making them pest and drought resistant, according to Scientific American. If successful, this would in turn lead to an increase in crop production and food worldwide.

This tool, however, has also caused controversy. The science community and the world were shocked when scientist He Jiankui announced he had used CRISPR on human embryos to produce two twin girls.

Though he claims to have done so to disable the gene for HIV, there is no way to know how his actions will impact the rest of the girls genes. Chinese authorities have barred him from practicing medicine however, the damage could already be done to the girls DNA along with the perception of gene and stem cell science as a whole.

Regardless of the controversy surrounding the use of CRISPR, scientists are praising Doudna and Charpentier for the achievements their research has brought so far.

The ability to cut DNA where you want has revolutionized the life sciences. The genetic scissors were discovered 8 years ago, but have already benefited humankind greatly, said Pernilla Wittung Stafshede, a chemical biologist at the Chalmers University of Technology.

Doudna and Charpentier have not only given the world a means of rewriting DNA, but also have rewritten history by breaking the male streak of Nobel Prize in chemistry recipients.

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Two female scientists jointly win Nobel Prize in Chemistry The Ticker - The Ticker

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Chemical Metal Storage Tank Market Industry Outline, Global and United States Executive Manufacturers, Interpretation and Benefit Growth 2026 by ZCL...

The recent treatment of two waste collection workers for chemical burns due to the improper disposal of hydrochloric acid offer an opportunity for renewed focus on the need for safety in waste management, said a news release from ecomaine and theSolid Waste Association of North America, Northern New England Chapter.

The Mid-Coast Solid Waste Corp., which is the municipally-owned transfer station of Camden, Hope, Lincolnville and Rockport, contracts with ecomaine to transport and process solid waste in Portland.

Two collection workers for Casella Waste Systems,were hospitalized on October 26 for chemical burns in Dayton,after a container filled with hydrochloric acid burst and caused a fume cloud, the release said.

SWANA recommends that:

Safety is the top priority for all of our people, said John W. Casella, Chairman and CEO of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. Every day, regardless of circumstances, our people are providing an essential service that ensures public and environmental health and safety. It is imperative that our customers and communities continue to play an active role in helping to ensure everyones safety. We believe these workers will make speedy and full recoveries, but this incident serves as a reminder that there are specific times and places for residents to dispose of hazardous waste.

Specifically, waste collection employee ranks as the fifth most hazardous occupation in the United States, behind fishing and timber cutting, with about 44 deaths per 100,000 workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labors Bureau of Labor Statistics. Furthermore, collection workers are more than twice as likely to be injured on the job than other employees.

Waste collection and disposal is among the most dangerous jobs in the United States and Canada, said David Biderman, CEO and Executive Director of SWANA. It is critical that residents and industry professionals work together to make safety the number one priority to avoid incidents like this.

Kevin Roche, SWANAs Northern New England Chapter Chair, added: This incident is a truly unfortunate reminder that, as we often say, there is no such thing as away. When we throw things away, there are real people who have to deal with the very real consequences of improper disposal. We all need to work together to prevent occurrences like this one. Roche is the CEO of ecomaine in Portland, Maine.

About the Solid Waste Association of North America:

The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) is an organization of more than 10,000 public and private sector professionals committed to advancing from solid waste management to resource management through their shared emphasis on education, advocacy and research. For more than 50 years, SWANA has been the leading association in the solid waste management field. SWANA serves industry professionals through technical conferences, certifications, publications and a large offering of technical training courses.

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In the wake of Southern Maine chemical burns, ecomaine issues advisory - PenBayPilot.com

RANDOLPH, NJ- While 2019 was a struggle in the win / loss column for the Randolph Field Hockey team, it wasa building block for the abundance of youth they sent out onto the field. Having lost only three seniors to graduation from that 3-14-2 season, the girls will return most of their team intact for 2020; one year older, stronger, and more experienced.

Being very young and inexperienced last year really hurt us, said coach Gina Adickes. I am hoping with having a lot of returners and promising newcomers we will be very competitive in our pod, as well as prepared for our post season.

Three key returners were named captain for this season in four year varsity starter Sidney Lusardi ( Senior ), three year varsity starter Sarah Bona ( Junior ) and second year starter Jordan Saybe ( Junior ).

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Sidney is our most experienced player having been on varsity all four years, said Adickes. She has seen us make it to the state finals, so I expect her to want to get there again and win in her final year.

Lusardi herself echoes Adickes sentiments and understands the responsibility she has to teach the younger players.

Being a four-year varsity player, Ive had the opportunity to see how the team and program have changed over the years with the people entering and leaving it, said Lusardi. Ive met some truly amazing leaders who have had a great influence on me. I take my knowledge of the game Ive learned and share it with others to create an environment that encourages growth - and challenging yourself to do better and have fun.

Coach Adickes also used some flattering words to describe Bona, a player who she also expects strong leadership from this season.

Sarah is our most gifted player, I can put her anywhere, and she will get the job done, said Adickes. She is our tough cookie. She tells you how it is and that can be scary for some kids, but she knows what it takes to win a section championship so the girls should feed off that.

Bona also commented on the chemistry and the bonds that the team feels they have entering the season.

Since we have so many returning players from last year, our team chemistry has improved greatly, said Bona. We are a very close team on and off the field, and I feel that this will help us with our results this season. I am excited to see how we play moving forward.

While Lusardi and Bona will spend most of their time helping to power the offense, the Lady Rams third captain ( Saybe ) will be protecting the house and anchoring the defense.

Jordan is our most steady player, and she will be directing our back field, said Adickes. She has improved so much this year that her skills motivate the team. She is more of the silent captain but has so much power in her nonverbal's.

As the last line of defense, the Rams will see Amanda Klopper in net, who returns from last year as well. About Klopper, Adickes stated, I expect her to be more consistent on the field and more vocal, and since this is year two on varsity, I have high hopes for her.

Adickes further went on to describe her team, stating, Joelle Yurchuk and Riley Novack are two freshman that hold a lot of promise for this coming season. Two sophomore additions on the forward line are Anna stock and Sydney Jenish.

Team chemistry and having so many returners were identified by Adickes as the key strengths of her squad. As for weakness, she says there are still some big holes on the field that she hopes those players who are stepping into those roles will improve each game.

We were a very young team last year and with some of our key players looking even better this season we should have a very competitive year, said Adickes. Other key returners, some of whom are playing in new positions, are Bridget Byrnes, Olivia Pentz, Stephanie Goldberg, Gianna Drake and Katie Lachanski.

The Lady Rams coaches have preached hard work, effort and focus to make sure the team is prepared, especially since this will be a shortened season due to Covid-19. It paid dividends in the teams first game, an 8-0 victory over Morris Hills.

Throughout preseason, coach has been stressing the idea of continuous effort and no garbage reps, said Bona. What she means by that, is we should go through every drill, play, and activity with 100% effort to help build skills and chemistry working as a team.

Lusardi has confidence that this will be a season to remember.

Seeing how much everyone has improved, I expect us to go really far this season, said Lusardi. Every player knows the basics, and we have really great team chemistry, which is the foundation to the great team I know we are, and I believe our record is going to show this year.

Bona led the team in the season opening win with 3 goals and 2 assists. Pentz and Dickson added two goals, while Drake and Stock tallied a goal each.

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Randolph Field Hockey Returns Largely Intact; Hopes To Capitalize on Team Chemistry - TAPinto.net

By making better, greener alternatives to petrochemistry, Zymergen sees a huge economic and environmental opportunity

Smoke from wildfires previewed the apocalyptic future some warn of if we cant control climate ... [+] change. Biomanufacturing upstart Zymergen aims to use biology to make the $3 trillion chemicals and materials industry more sustainable.

As the smoke from a dozen wildfires darkened San Francisco, Josh Hoffman took his two children outside to see the surreal morning sky. It looked like a dystopian scene from Blade Runner 2049.

Josh Hoffman, CEO and co-founder of Zymergen.

My kids were scared because the sun never rose, and when it did it looked like a dying planet, says the CEO of Zymergen, a biomanufacturing company. In the apocalyptic skies, Hoffman saw the end of times that so many warn about if we dont get a handle on climate change. Its not going to be solved with gentle nudges to use a little bit less power. We need real technology-based innovation.

Warmer, drier conditions, increased drought, and a longer fire season...these are just a few potential results of climate change. But by making better, greener alternatives for the $3 trillion petrochemistry-based chemicals and materials industry, Zymergen sees a huge economic and environmental opportunity.

Investors see the opportunity, too. In September, Zymergen announced one of the largest deep tech investments of 2020 $300 million to accelerate its pipeline of high-performance chemicals and materials. The investment includes initial Series D funding led by Baillie Gifford, Baron Capital Group, Perceptive Advisors, and a number of current investors. Zymergen expects to raise additional capital in Q4 as part of the Series D round.

Hoffman says about 60% of Zymergens cash is going to new pipeline and platform developments, and another 20% is going to sales and marketing for existing products such as Hyaline, a bioelectronic film that will probably end up in your next smartphone, laptop, watch, or television. Hoffman says to expect two more product announcements in the next 18 months.

Were doing what you'd expect for a company at our stage, he says.

To appreciate Zymergens rapid progress and the potential for synthetic biology companies to sustainably transform the $3 trillion chemical and materials industry, you only have to go back 10-15 years to see where the field began.

In the early 2000s, many of the brightest minds in synthetic biology (Jay Keasling, George Church, and Chris Somerville, to name a few) started companies and institutes to apply their new biotechnology toolkit to the biggest, most important problem they could think of: reducing carbon emissions by replacing gasoline with biofuels. Upstarts like Solazyme, Amyris AMRS , and Gevo GEVO went head-to-head with Big Oil by trying to make biofuels that were cost-competitive with dirty fossil fuels pumped out of the ground.

A 42-gallon barrel of crude oil can create a number of petroleum products, including gasoline, ... [+] distillate, jet fuel and many other products.

In retrospect, this was about the hardest problem they could choose. Besides just overcoming the technological challenges of using biology to make a commodity chemical, these early innovators were also up against an industry with trillions in infrastructure, decades of experience, and deeply entrenched interests. Synthetic biology continues to fight the good fight in companies such as Joule, Sapphire Energy, Synthetic Genomics, Qteros, and many others. But in todays world of cheap oil, where the United States spends ten times more on fossil fuel subsidies than education, biofuels remain economically challenging.

This led the synthetic biology industry to seek different ways to compete with a barrel of oil. It turned its attention to the smaller non-fuel part of the barrel that yields products like perfumes, skis, running shoes, toothpaste, and even medicines. These so-called high-value compounds represent much of the value of petroleum. This is where Zymergen sees the opportunity.

I think you're going to see a huge drop in demand for oil, Hoffman says. First, he believes companies like Zymergen will succeed in using biology to make better high-value products than you can get from oil. He also believes there will be a drop in the demand for fuel as Tesla TSLA and other electric cars become mainstream and affordable. And here Hoffman is quick to point out that tech companies like Tesla are winning on performance, not sustainability.

Its not that Tesla is a great electric car. Its just a great car, he says.

In the chemical industry, Hoffman says that people have been cracking hydrocarbons and putting the resulting building blocks together to make chemicals and materials for 150 years. He says product innovation in the industry has slowed to almost nothing, and heres why: If you crack a hydrocarbon, you will get around 15 intermediates, maybe a couple of hundred base monomers, and a limited number of polymers. But biology gives you many more building blocks with untapped properties. Zymergen thinks of petrochemistry like a black & white silent film, and biology like multichannel, live streaming, interactive entertainment.

Hoffman sees giants like Dupont and BASF as two of Zymergens future competitors (Zymergens Hyaline film is already competing with Dupont). He says biomanufacturing has better economics than petrochemistry.

We don't have to build a $200 million plant to bring a product to market, he says, instead using reusable bio-based fermentation that makes capital expenditures much lower.

Also, he says biomanufacturing processes are safer. Every time a hurricane hits the Gulf, you hear about chemical plants blowing up or spills sickening people and animals. When you make stuff with biology, its a winery, not a refinery. In biomanufacturing, you might spill some corn sludge on the ground, but people don't die.

John Warner joined Zymergen as a Distinguished Research Fellow in July.

n a move that signals and validates Zymergens sustainability aims, the company announced in July that world-renowned green chemistry leader John Warner joined Zymergen as a Distinguished Research Fellow to lead outreach, ideation, and commercial explorations around sustainability and green chemistry. As much as anyone, Warner embodies the Zymergen ethos to partner with biology.

Biology outperforms humans hands down, not only in the things it makes but also how it makes things,

Warner says. He says that making many of humankinds best products requires heating to high temperatures, putting under high pressure, and/or using harsh chemicals. Biology does most everything at room temperature and pressure, with water as the solvent, he says.

Warner says when you do chemistry in a multi-ton reactor, there is no expectation that its going to be compatible with the environment. But if you start your reaction in a living organism as with the engineered fermentation approach of Zymergen and other synthetic biology companies he says, Thats an interesting starting point.

As far as transforming the $3 trillion chemical and materials industry, Warner says that never in history did a new technology have an easy time replacing the old technology.

The status quo has a way of holding on to itself, Warner says, and replacing petrochemical processes with bio-based processes is the most difficult of the twelve pillars laid out in his groundbreaking 1998 book, 12 Principles for Green Chemistry. But, he continues, successful companies recognize the status quo, find a way of innovating, and they succeed in the future because of that balance of defeating the inherency of the status quo to move forward.

To hear Josh Hoffman talk about it, Zymergen doesnt simply want to move forward. It wants to take the tiger by the tail.

We get to make better products, and we get products that aren't torching the planet, he says. I'm pretty psyched about that.

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to my weekly synthetic biology newsletter. Thank you to Kevin Costa for additional research and reporting in this article. Im the founder of SynBioBeta, and some of the companies that I write about are sponsors of the conferences I run and the newsletter that I write.

Originally posted here:
With $300 Million In New Funding, Zymergen Aims To Sustainably Transform The $3 Trillion Chemical And Materials Industry - Forbes

Gap between Lakers and Clippers widens as James proves greater value than Leonard

Prior to facing off against the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals, the Los Angeles Clippers held the record for the longest conference finals drought in the NBA at 49 years. After almost half a century, the Clippers had a chance to break this drought. This was going to be the year they were going to dispose of that unwanted record. Well, that number is no longer. Thats because it now sits at 50 years half a century.

With a 3-1 lead over the Nuggets, a conference finals matchup between both Los Angeles teams seemed inevitable, but unfortunately, that all fell apart when the Clippers lost three consecutive games to the Nuggets.

This wasnt the first time Doc Rivers and the Clippers had blown a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference semifinals. In 2015, the Lob City Clippers held a 3-1 lead over the Houston Rockets. The Clippers had a 19-point lead deep into the third, but ultimately lost after getting outscored in the fourth quarter 40-15, mainly by the likes of Josh Smith and Corey Brewer.

This season was supposed to be different. They had just signed the reigning finals MVP Kawhi Leonard and had traded for 2019 MVP candidate Paul George. Prior to these acquisitions, last years team had won 48 games and took the reigning champs, the Golden State Warriors, to six games. They successfully retained the talents of Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley and Montrezl Harrell, players who were acquired when the Clippers traded away Chris Paul in 2017. Even with four players averaging nearly 20 or more points in the regular season, this team still couldnt get the job done.

So what exactly went wrong? Is there anyone in particular to blame for the Clippers shortcomings?

First and foremost, credit must be given where credit is due. We must tip our hat to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. This marked the second consecutive series where the Nuggets came back from being down 3-1. However, dont be fooled. The Nuggets did not win this series. The Clippers lost the series to themselves.

Leonard was never on the same level as LeBron James. One may argue that since Leonard was the Finals MVP last season, he is better than James. However, that would be the equivalent of saying, Since James averaged one less point this season than the prior season, James has regressed as a basketball player.

The impact James has on a basketball team is astronomical compared to the impact Leonard has on a team. When Leonard left the Raptors, the Raptors still boasted the second-best record in the East and were a couple of possessions away from advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals. When James left the Cavaliers in 2018, the Cavaliers tied for the second-worst record in the league, only ahead of the New York Knicks.

The other argument that is often made is that Leonard beat the Warriors team last season that was going for a three-peat. However, people seem to forget that Kevin Durant did not play in the series. Additionally, when Klay Thompson got injured, the Warriors were leading in Game 6. Overall, Leonard is not held to the same level of scrutiny that James is. Unless James is on your team, it will take a lot more than one man to make a deep run in the playoffs.

Leonard had a bad game. Everyone else had a bad series. Williams, who averaged 20 points at one point in the regular season, averaged just 10 points on 36 percent for the series. Harrell, who averaged 19 points in the regular season, averaged only 12 points in the series. Many of us knew that James and Anthony Davis were the better duo than Leonard and George. The X-factor for the Clippers was their depth.

But most importantly, The Clippers never found their identity. This might be attributed to chemistry issues. There were reports by Fox Sports Chris Broussard that players resented the special treatment head coach Doc Rivers gave to George despite his inconsistent play. This was never an issue for Leonard, as he, for the most part, delivered. According to The Athletics Shams Charania, multiple teammates had verbal spats with George throughout the postseason, citing in their exchanges a lack of accountability from him.

Accountability is one of the most underrated ingredients for a championship-caliber team. It is historically proven that accountability starts with the leaders of a team, either from a coach or the best player. Its no secret that Leonard is not a vocal leader. In LA, that person was supposed to be Rivers. Safe to say, that never worked out.

The Lakers are the biggest brand team in the NBA. The Clippers are considered to be the second team in town. James is the biggest brand name in sports. Leonard is one of the most humble players in sports. James and Davis were both former No. 1 draft picks. Leonard and George were drafted 15th and 10th overall, respectively. James and Davis chased the bright lights of California. Leonard and George were raised in Southern California. Rajon Rondo and Dwight Howard were big names off the bench of the Lakers. Williams and Harrell were trying to make a name for themselves, being former 45th and 32nd overall draft picks, respectively. The Lakers are a historical franchise. The Clippers are the underdog franchise. Herein was an opportunity for the underdogs. Leonard and George were supposed to be the hometown heroes. Yet, this underdog identity never fully materialized.

The Clippers were full of dogs, but they never got to bite. Better yet, they didnt even get to sniff the Lakers.

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Clippers failed to find identity, develop chemistry in series against Nuggets - Binghamton University Pipe Dream

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Savvas Launches Experience Chemistry, an All-New Program that Uses Scientific Phenomena to Drive Students' Real-World Inquiry - PRNewswire