Former student leaves money to support colleges chemistry dept.

MUSCATINE, Iowa Talk about the right chemistry.

A relationship between a student and his college that began more than 70 years ago is paying off in a big way today.

Seven-plus decades ago, Robert L. Smith was a graduate of Muscatine Junior Colleges class of 1939. Today, the trust he established with his wife, Lucretia, has funded a half-million dollar gift to the Muscatine Community College Foundation

According to a news release from Billie DeKeyrel, assistant director for the foundation, the group recently accepted a $500,000 gift from the Robert L. and Lucretia K. Smith Trust.

The gift will be used to support the Department of Chemistry at Muscatine Community College.

According to MCC Foundation Executive Director Vic McAvoy, the bequest will be used to create an endowment fund for scholarships for students pursuing careers in a chemistry-related field, as well as equipment and materials for the programs.

MCC president Bob Allbee said the generosity of Smith and others like him whose lives have been affected by the college helps MCC reach its goal of providing an excellent education for students.

About Smith

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Formula for success: Alum endows $500,000 to MCC

Two UC Santa Barbara professors have been named recipients of the American Chemical Societys 2013 national awards for professionaladvancement. Peter C. Ford, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Craig J. Hawker, also a professor in the Department of chemistry and Biochemistry,professor of materials, and director of the Materials Research Laboratory, have been named among the 64 award winners from across the country

In only one other year, 1996, did UCSB have more than one winner of theAmerican Chemical Society (ACS) awards. The awards will be presented at the nationalACS meeting in New Orleans in April.Ford is the recipient of the ACS Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry. This award recognizes individuals who haveadvanced inorganic chemistry by significant service, in addition to performingoutstanding research. It is sponsored by StremChemicals.

I am of course very pleased and honored to have received this award from my colleagues in the American Chemical Society, saidFord.

Since this is largely in recognition of the body of work generated by my graduate and postdoctoral students and collaborators over my tenure at UCSB, I consider it an award to my research group collectively as well as another testament to the high regard in which this campus is nowheld. I am proud to be aGaucho.

Hawker has been named recipient of the ACS Award in Polymer Chemistry. Thecitation states that Hawker was nominated for transforming the field of polymer chemistry through the clever adaptation of synthetic organic chemistry concepts and theadvancement of macromolecular engineering. ExxonMobil Chemical Company sponsored thisaward.

I am thrilled with the award and the recognition that it brings to my students, collaborators, and co-workers, as well as to the unique research environment at UCSB, said Hawker. The sustained success of cross-disciplinary research has been a key driver in reinforcing UCSBs international standing in the materials chemistry arena. I am grateful for the enormous benefits that this proud tradition has bought to myresearch.

Ford joined the faculty at UCSB in 1967 after earning his Ph.D. at Yale and completing a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship with Nobel laureateHenry Taube at Stanford University. He is a Fellow of the American Association for theAdvancement of Science and was a Senior Fulbright Fellow. His awards include a Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar Award in 1972; the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Senior U.S. Scientist Award in 1992; the Richard C. Tolman Medal of theACS in 1993; and the Inter-American Photochemical Society Award in Photochemistry in2008.

Hawker received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, and then completeda postdoctoral fellowship with Jean M. J. Frchet at Cornell. In 2004, he moved from theIBM Almaden Research Center to join the faculty at UCSB. Some of his recent awardsinclude the 2012 Centenary prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry; the 2011 Arthur C. Cope Scholar from the American Chemical Society; and the 2008 DSM PerformanceMaterials Award from the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. In 2010,he was named a Fellow of the RoyalSociety.

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UCSB Professors Receive National Chemistry Awards

Oh dear.

On Twitter this morning, various people have alerted us to a rather shocking  TV chemistry blunder. James May, of Top Gear fame, has a series on the BBC called Things you need to know, and last night’s show was about chemistry.

Within the first two minutes of the programme, it became obvious that the people doing the graphics had basically zero chemical knowledge (which is not a problem in itself), and hadn’t even bothered to have one of the chemists they obviously interviewed as part of the show to cast an eye over them (which turns out to be a much bigger problem). As May starts to try and explain what a chemical reaction is, using baking soda and vinegar as an example, this graphic pops up on the screen.

Now that one’s not too bad apart from a missing carbon in the formula for vinegar, those carbons are so tricksy to keep track of! OK, the numbers should be subscript and we have a mixture of some sub- and some not. That’s a fairly harmless error. But there’s also no arrow to suggest this is a reaction and delineate which are the reactants and which the products.

And it gets worse on the next graphic – when the formula of sodium bicarbonate is presented with the three as a superscript rather than a subscript. This is starting to get more dangerous as an error, as the meaning is much more easily confused, and it’s a bigger step away from convention. This isn’t a one-off either – later in the show, when the formula of sodium chlorate (NaClO₃) is shown, it also has a superscript three.

But the daddy of the bloopers is still to come. When May describes the structure of acetic acid, things go horribly wrong – the infamous five-valent Texas carbon rears its head.

This is disappointing from the BBC, which is usually very good at science programmes. And to be fair, the overall message of the rest of the programme is OK – chemicals are all around us and aren’t all bad for us, we need them to survive. It’s just a shame that the researchers seem to have dropped the ball a little on this one. Chemistry, particularly structures and formulae, is a language in itself. Using it badly doesn’t help anyone, and it would have taken anyone with even a tiny chemical knowledge to spot these mistakes.

Phillip Broadwith

                  

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One of the newest drugs in the fight against malaria has its modern origins in the Vietnam war – but its true origins are thousands of years ago. Find out about artemisinin in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.

                  

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Teacher evaluations stapled to Clary's office wall are covered with writings from past students showing appreciation for Clary's teachings. Photo by Joshua Bessex.

With an increasing number of unassigned organic chemistry classes, the UW is looking to hire a full-time lecturer. But Scott Clary, a part-time lecturer in the department since 2008, has found himself unable to apply for the position.

Applicants must have a Ph.D. or equivalent degree by date of appointment, states the application on the UW chemistry department website, which presents a problem for Clary.

Despite his teaching experience at the university, Clary does not hold a Ph.D. Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Robert Stacey said the requirement is standard for the UW and other research universities.

Throughout the College of Arts and Sciences, all our departments require the terminal degree in their field as a prerequisite for consideration for a tenure-track position, Stacey said. This is a standard requirement at all first-tier research universities across the country and around the world. In the natural sciences, the terminal degree is a Ph.D. The Ph.D. is a research degree, and research is a fundamental requirement for all professorial positions at the University of Washington.

However, if the hiring committee does not find a qualified candidate, the job can be relisted with fewer requirements, giving Clary the opportunity to apply. If the committee decides to make an offer to another Ph.D. chemist, Clary would no longer teach at the UW in any capacity.

These job opportunities are rare so I wanted to make every effort to be considered for the position, especially given the positive response that I have gotten from the department and my students, Clary said.

Clarys teaching style resonates with students. Course evaluations filled out by previous students show he has an average rating of 4.4 out of 5. Junior Zachary Billman, who had Clary as a lecturer for a chemistry lab, said he was very approachable as a professor.

He was able to reach the course in a very laid-back way, as if he was just chatting with you, Billman said. This was very effective for that course in particular because he was able to address all of the important steps of the syntheses we would carry out throughout the week while preparing students for what unexpected things may happen so we wouldnt stress out. He taught the class in a conceptual manner.

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Chemistry lecturer lobbies for full-time position

Charles Ebert, an assistant chemistry professor at Winston-Salem State University, has received a $199,518 from the National Science Foundation to study peripheral nerve regeneration and the treatment of peripheral nerve injuries.

The two-year grant will fund his research that started Sept. 1 and will end Aug. 31, 2014, according to a foundation document.

Ebert said that his research will benefit people with nerve injuries.

"Peripheral nerve injuries, most often seen as a result of automobile accidents and battlefield injuries, create the loss of sensation and function in thousands of people in the U.S. annually," Ebert said.

The most common treatment is to implant donated nerve fibers to repair the damaged nerves, Ebert said, but the procedure is expensive and relies on donors.

"Now recent successes have suggested that keratin isolated from human hair may support the repairing of damaged nerves, and human hair keratin is plentiful and inexpensive to refine," Ebert said.

Ebert was awarded the grant through the foundation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program, said Claudia Rankins, the program's manager with the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va. The program supports researchers intending to build a research program at their institutions.

"A panel of experts and NSF staff found that the proposal had significant intellectual merit, as well as broader impacts," Rankins said.

Ebert will involve his students and also will work with the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine in his project, Ebert and Rankins said.

The grant is part of the National Science Foundation's effort to provide support of college faculty members nationwide in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Originally posted here:
WSSU chemistry professor receives science grant

"Training Day" writer David Ayer patrols familiar territory once again in the new cop drama "End of Watch," buckling audiences in for a gritty, blood-stained ride-along with L.A.'s finest. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pea, the film follows a pair of officers who become targets of a powerful cartel's deadly vendetta.

Written and directed by Ayer, "End of Watch" is earning mostly positive reviews from critics, who praise the film's strong narrative and the winning chemistry between its male leads. Where opinions seem to differ, however, is over the film's "found footage" format, which some feel adds a sense of realism but others find distracting.

With "End of Watch" hitting theaters Friday (September 21), here's what the critics have to say.

The Story "David Ayer's South Central-set cop film 'End of Watch' feels like the work of a man who, after relishing venal and brutal police work in his scripts for 'Training Day' and 'Dark Blue,' has come to identify with, and maybe love, the L.A.P.D. Here, L.A.'s finest may work in a world of cut corners and bad attitudes, but they're the good guys, and damned if you're not going to accept it. Vigorously capturing the tension of walking into situations that could be deadly, horrifying, or both, it has a strong commercial appeal despite some shortcomings." John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter

Gyllenhaal and Pea's Chemistry "But the only relationship that really matters is the one between Brian and Mike. There is a lot of love in that car, and Pea and Gyllenhaal make you feel it. The easy back and forth between them topics ranging from raunchy nonsense to philosophical musings have an organic feel that is hard to come by and usually worth the wait. These moments, seeded through the film, nearly always bring tension-releasing laughter, which we need as much as they do." Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times

The Found Footage Format "On the down side, it's also yet another movie utilizing the 'found footage' gimmick that's all the current rage. Much of the film consists of shaky, hand-held images purportedly shot by Brian for a filmmaking class he's taking. Even the villains are of the YouTube generation, bringing a video camera along for a drive-by. It's an unnecessary distraction from the story, which is a good one." Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post

The Final Word "Nerve-rattling in the best way, the sharp, visceral urban police procedural 'End of Watch' is one of the best American cop movies I've seen in a long time. Directed from his own script by 'Training Day' writer David Ayer, it's also one of the few I've seen that pay serious attention to what cop life feels like, both on and off duty, for those who protect and serve the streets of L.A.'s danger zone Southland." Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

Check out everything we've got on "End of Watch," opening September 21.

Originally posted here:
'End Of Watch': The Reviews Are In!

Jam or marmalade? Whichever you prefer on your toast in the morning, it’s the pectin that’s stopping it dripping off the slice! Find out about this networker par excellence in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.

                  

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In these straightened economic times it seems like researchers are under ever greater pressure to show that their work can be turned into a money-spinning business. There’s more and more focus on ‘impact’, ‘innovation’ and getting a good return on investment for taxpayers’ hard earned cash. The Golden Goose awards have been launched as the antithesis of this need to make the business case for scientific curiosity – they celebrate the power of blue skies research to change society in ways that can’t yet be imagined.

The inaugural award ceremony took place last night in Washington, DC. Eight scientists were honoured for their basic research that no one would have been able to make a convincing business case for, but their discoveries went on to be incredibly important. Charles Townes received his Golden Goose for his work developing the laser (he won the 1964 physics Nobel prize for this work too). Back in the 1950s, Townes was looking to create an intense source of short wavelength radiation to help his team probe the basic properties of molecules and atoms. Now, the laser is ubiquitous in modern life, in everything from barcode scanners and DVD players to surgical equipment – something no one could have foreseen at the time.

Other recipients of an award were Eugene White, Rodney White, Della Roy and the late Jon Weber for their work on tropical coral, which led to a material used in bone grafts. Martin Chalfie, Roger Tsien and Osamu Shimomura also received an award for their research on jellyfish (they also received the 2008 chemistry Nobel prize!). Their discovery of green fluorescent protein, which explains why jellyfish glow under certain wavelengths of light, has been incredibly useful in teasing out how cells work. It has enabled researchers to watch events like protein transport occur in real time.

The Golden Goose awards are, in part, a mocking tribute to the Golden Fleece awards that one US Senator used to hand out for research he considered to be a waste of money. More recently, spending on basic research financed by the US’s stimulus package has been ridiculed as a waste of public money, largely thanks to images of a shrimp on a treadmill (the project was investigating the effects of pollution on crustacean mobility). The awards are also taking place against a backdrop of economic hardship when the case even needs to be made for public funding of essentials like healthcare. This means that making the argument that blue skies research holds the key to creating new technologies and jobs is more important that ever. Something that the people that fund research should bear in mind.

Patrick Walter

                  

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WAYNE - The 2012-2013 school year is in full swing for most, but for some students in a sophomore chemistry class at Wayne Valley High School it appears to be at an impasse where students are still without a full-time teacher.

It seems the district is in the process of hiring a new teacher after a candidate they had chosen for an unknown reason withdrew their name. Officials say the search started in June upon learning that the current teacher was taking maternity leave starting Sept. 1. And since that time, a substitute has been filling in, but has not been doing a sufficient job according to one parent.

"The substitute told my son's class that he cannot teach them chemistry as he is not a chemistry teacher. He was also told by the substitute that the teacher would not be returning for five or six months. The kids are being baby-sat, not taught," parent Lisa Rosen told Wayne Today.

Despite what's being reported, according to Superintendent Ray Gonzalez, there is curriculum in place for all courses and is readily available for substitutes.

"Administrators are actively involved in managing the situation," Gonzalez said in a statement, "to ensure that the students' learning experience is supported."

WVHS Principal Robert Reis, via a committee, will be reviewing resumes and conducting interviews, and present who he feels is the best suited candidate to the superintendent.

"This must be fixed immediately. My child's education is at stake. While other students are learning chemistry, my child is sitting in his class and twiddling his thumbs. Chemistry is not an extra-curricular activity," Rosen said.

Gonzalez, in addition, encourages district parents or guardians with questions about development within the school system to reach out to the building principal, who will provide reassurance that their child's educational interests are being addressed.

Rosen added, "Wayne used to be known for its fine educational system. This is something a 'PR' firm cannot fix."

Email: wintersd@northjersey.com

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Valley chemistry students are without full-time teacher

— Nanoparticles for colouring

Wondering how to keep yourself amused this weekend, or worried how to keep the kids amused on a rainy day? May I suggest this new colouring-in book full of images from the nanoscale world. If you’ve ever felt that that false colour electron microscope images could really be more eye catching this is the book for you.

Founded perhaps for less suspicious reasons than Terry the Fracosauraus‘ colouring-in book, each image comes with scale bars and a short explanatory paragraph explaining what exactly it is you’re colouring in. The explanations are aimed at a US fifth grader, so about 10 years old, and also asks questions to be filled in along the way.

My only concern, and maybe that’s because I’m a fun killing, literal scientist type, is that rather than use real photographs the book uses line-drawn approximations. That makes sense for DNA perhaps, but wobbly fractals? I think if I were going to lose myself in the crazy complexity I’d want it to be accurate.

However, I applaud the idea of communicating nanoscience early – get them hooked young, I say. And if you’re into stretching yourself, or introducing languages early to your children, the pages are also available in French. Amusez-vous bien!

Laura Howes

                  

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I picked it for you! © Wiley

That’s exactly what George Whitesides and his team at Harvard have achieved. By using silicone elastomer tubing and pressurised air, they produced a ‘tentacle’ that can be used for picking up delicate or complicated objects such as flowers or horseshoes. Published in Advanced Materials this month, this is the latest in a series of developments in the ‘pneumatic network’ method over the past few years. Previously, the group developed a starfish-like gripper that could pick up an egg, but the gripping motion was the limit of its movement. Whitesides’ groups have also used this soft robotics technology to develop a crawling robot.

This new tentacular system has hard polymer tubing running through the centre which can bend easily – but resists stretching – surrounded by a highly elastic polymer with channels running through it to allow pressurised air to enter. By controlling which channel the air enters, the tentacle can be manipulated to twist and turn in three dimensions. The construction of the tubing might be simple, but controlling it looks a lot more difficult!

Describing the new system as a tentacle is selling it short — it can do so much more. Just like an elephant’s trunk, it can use the central tubing for suction, either to lift objects or suck up liquids and powders. Just like the best robots (or colonoscopes), it can even have a video camera attached to the end.

As well as being cheaper than conventional ‘hard’ robots, this soft tubing has other advantages. The nature of the system allows for an even pressure spread across the object, rather than the ‘pincer’ method that we use with our fingers and that many robots try to emulate. Also, the stiff links and fixed structure of most robotic arms mean that they have difficulty in situations that they are not specialised for. The flexibility of the tubing allows it to grip in various ways and adapt as is needed.

The long list of innovations coming from the lab of George Whitesides have led to him having his name on nearly 1000 academic papers and over 100 patents. He is a co-founder of a dozen companies, including Genzyme which was the third largest biotech company in the world before it was acquired by Sanofi for $20 billion in 2011. With the level of development in this technology, I imagine it won’t be long before we see these tentacles going commercial.

Ian Le Guillou

                  

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A Dartington glassblower uses a newspaper paddle to shape a piece of blown glass

A letter in the Financial Times about a month ago piqued my interest. It stated that the characteristic salmon pink pages of the FT play a unique role in producing hand-made crystal glass at Dartington crystal. Since I was about to go on holiday to Devon, and had planned a trip to the Dartington factory anyway, I decided to do a bit of investigating myself.

In the FT letter, the correspondent says that the  reason for using the pink pages of the FT is so that no trace elements are transferred to the crystal ‘when the protective newsprint is peeled away’, as they might be with other, bleached, newspaper.

This sounded a little implausible to the chemist in me. If the newspaper was only being used for protection, surely any interaction with the crystal glass would be confined to the ink, or any contaminants left from the paper processing, rubbing off on the surface? The possibility of significant chemical reaction between the glass and the newsprint at room temperature seemed remote at best.

A tour of the factory quickly confirmed my hunch. The role of the newspaper is much more than simply protective, but perhaps quite surprising. It is an integral tool in shaping blown glass. The yellow-handled paddle in the picture is actually made up of a wad of newspaper.

This yellow handled paddle is actually a stack of newspapers

As the glassblower blows and shapes a globule of molten glass into a tumbler (in this case) or any other object, part of the process involves dipping that paddle into a bucket of water and holding it up to the red hot glass. At the same time he rolls the blowpipe backwards and forwards to ensure the glass is the right shape and consistent thickness.

Newspaper is absorbent and cheap to replace, making it ideal for making these paddles. However, being in contact with glass at several hundred degrees means the paper does burn away slowly, so it’s important it doesn’t transfer contaminants to the glass in its semi-molten state, which could then create imperfections in the final product.

So that begs the question, what is it about the FT that makes it the preferred choice of glassblowers? Is it something to do with the chemical processing of the paper? Is the paper bleached less ferociously than its white cousins? Or does the dyeing process mean any residues from the bleaching are washed out more thoroughly? Or is it simply tradition with little scientific backing? Speaking to some of the Dartington staff I got some vague answers about the ‘quality of the paper’, but it would be interesting to know if any of our readers have more insight.

If you have never watched a glassblower at work, it is quite an amazing experience. The apparently effortless skill of a master glassblower is breathtaking. No wonder it takes around 10 years to reach that level. But, as with glassblowing for chemistry equipment, it is a skill that is slowly dying out – Dartington is one of the last commercial-scale producers of hand-blown glass in the UK.

Phillip Broadwith

                  

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Larry Young and Brian Alexander explain how heartache begins in the brain in The Chemistry Between Us

By Larry Young and Brian Alexander

Image: Current, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.

Editor's Note: Neurobiologist Larry Young studies a monogamous species of rodent, the prairie vole, to understand the behavior and chemistry behind relationships. In The Chemistry Between Us, Young teams up with science journalist Brian Alexander to describe science's progress in illuminating the neurochemistry behind our experience of love. In this excerpt, the authors describe the work of neurobiologist Oliver Bosch, a specialist in maternal behavior, who worked with Young's prairie voles to study the bitter price of bonding.

Excerpted from The Chemistry Between Us: Love, Sex and the Science of Attraction, by Larry Young, PhD, and Brian Alexander, by arrangement with Current, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc., Copyright Larry J. Young and Brian Alexander, 2012.

To investigate the rodent version of getting hugs, and what happens in the absence of hugs from a bonded partner, Bosch took virgin males and set them up in vole apartments with roommateseither a brother they hadn't seen in a long time or an unfamiliar virgin female. As males and females are wont to do, the boy-girl roommates mated and formed a bond. After five days, he split up half the brother pairs, and half the male-female pairs, creating what amounted to involuntary vole divorce. Then he put the voles through a series of behavioral tests.

The first is called the forced-swim test. Bosch likens it to an old Bavarian proverb about two mice who fall into a bucket of milk. One mouse does nothing and drowns. The other tries to swim so furiously the milk turns into butter and the mouse escapes. Paddling is typically what rodents will do if they find themselves in water; they'll swim like crazy because they think they'll drown if they don't. (Actually, they'll float but apparently no rodent floaters have ever returned to fill in the rest of the tribe.)

The voles that were separated from their brothers paddled manically. So did the voles who stayed with their brothers and the voles who stayed with their female mates. Only the males who'd gone through vole divorce floated listlessly as if they didn't care whether they drowned.

"It was amazing," Bosch recalls. "For minutes, they would just float. You can watch the video and without knowing which group they were in, you can easily tell if it's an animal separated from their partner, or still with their partner." Watching the videos of them bob limply, it's easy to imagine them moaning out "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone" with their tiny vole voices.

Next Bosch subjected the voles to a tail-suspension test. This test uses the highly sophisticated technique of duct taping the end of an animal's tail to a stick and suspending it. As in the swim test, a rodent thus suspended will usually flail and spin his legs like a cartoon character who's run off the edge of a cliff. Once again, though, while the other males did just that, the divorced males hung like wet laundry.

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Love Hurts: Brain Chemistry Explains the Pangs of Separation [Excerpt]

Chemistry comes alive at the Botanic Garden

5:50pm Friday 14th September 2012 in News

VISITORS to the Botanic Garden in Oxford are being invited to listen and learn about the chemistry giving plants flavours, colours and medicinal properties.

A new audio tour features recordings of students and chemistry lecturers at Oxford University who reveal what fascinates them about plants.

As visitors walk around the garden, off High Street, they can use a hand-held device to trigger recordings about the plants around them.

Senior curator Dr Alison Foster said: This audio trail is a fantastic way for research scientists to engage with the public about chemistry.

This trail will show everyone how important chemistry is and how relevant it is to all aspects of our daily lives.

Visitors can discover the way that lotus leaves use microscopic cushions of air to repel raindrops, how ginger gets its many distinctive flavour from a cocktail of molecules, and how the snowdrop is used to treat Alzheimers disease.

Chairman of the Department of Chemistry Prof Tim Softley said: Chemistry is all around us, and we see it as our responsibility, as leading scientists, to make the subject exciting, relevant, approachable and fun.

In March, an audio guide was created at the garden featuring a recording by author Philip Pullman about a bench which featured in the His Dark Materials trilogy.

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Chemistry comes alive at the Botanic Garden

Future University of Wisconsin-Madison students may have an easier time registering for introductory chemistry courses and be able to conduct more experiments in new lab facilities if building project plans receive additional funding from the UW System.

The UW System Board of Regents approved the 2013-15 Biennial Capital Budget in their August meeting, but it remains subject to further approval by Gov. Scott Walker and the state legislature.

According to Regent Katherine Pointer, the student representative on the Board, the project focuses on correcting a current lack of general chemistry lab space, which prohibits the university from offering more courses.

Pointer said the extra chemistry building could especially benefit general chemistry classes such as Chemistry 103 and 104, which are the two courses with the highest enrollment during the fall and spring semesters.

The courses currently lack sufficient lab space to accommodate the number of students who wish to enroll, according to Pointer.

Pointer said while the $103.5 million project focuses on increasing lab space, it would also provide additional offices, classrooms and lecture halls.

UW-Madison Chemistry professor Fleming Crim said the building is severely out-of-date and has needed improvments for more than a decade.

Crim said lecture halls in the chemistry building are like something out of Dickens and it is challenging to teach 21st century chemistry in a building constructed in 1967.

The laboratories were built at a time when the way you taught chemistry was more like going and turning the crank, Crim said. Now [teaching] is a lot more interactive with people working together, and you want people involved with each other and with teaching assistants.

According to Crim, the physical layout of the labs is inadequate due to insufficient air circulation throughout the labs, which prevents students and professors from conducting most experiments involving hazardous materials.

Excerpt from:
Chemistry renovation could create more labs

Public release date: 10-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Michael K. Johnson mkj@uga.edu 706-542-9378 University of Georgia

Athens, Ga. The study of an oxygen-sensing bacterial regulatory protein by chemistry researchers at the University of Georgia has provided molecular insight into the oxygen sensing mechanism, which could ultimately lead to a better understanding of the ageing process and new treatments for human diseases such cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Michael Johnson, a distinguished research professor of chemistry in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, and Bo Zhang, a UGA chemistry doctoral candidate, have discovered that the fumarate and nitrate reduction regulatory protein, or FNR, in E. coli senses oxygen by a new type of reversible structural change in an iron-sulfur cluster. The work was carried out in collaboration with Nick Le Brun and coworkers from the University of East Anglia. The results were published Sept. 10 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

Iron-sulfur clusters are abundant biological cofactors that play crucial roles in almost all of fundamental life processes, including respiration, photosynthesis, nitrogen fixation, DNA replication and repair. "Everyone has trillions of iron-sulfur clusters associated with enzymes and proteins in their bodies," Johnson said. "The problem is that they readily degrade in the presence of oxygen and other species that are associated with oxidative stress, leading to loss of protein function."

The research conducted at UGA and UEA focused on FNR, which senses the presence of oxygen in the environment and "switches" off and on specific genes in pathogens, such as E. coli, when there is no oxygen presentconditions often found in the human intestinal tract. Oxygen is sensed by FNR via its iron-sulfur clusterthat undergoes conversion from one form to another, smaller one, thereby causing the protein to change shapethe "switch"and leading to the turning off of genes associated with growth without oxygen.

"E. coli can decide what lifestyle to live, with or without oxygen," said Johnson. "We can't decide to change our need for oxygen, but understanding the mechanisms for reassembly and repair of iron-sulfur clusters in response to oxidative stress is crucial for understanding a host of human diseases as well as the ageing process."

By revealing the structure of the oxygen-damaged cluster in FNR and showing that it can be readily repaired by the addition of iron, this research has discovered a major mechanism for the repair of iron-sulfur clusters. Moreover, preliminary results on other iron-sulfur cluster containing enzymes suggest that this type of iron-sulfur cluster oxygen-damage and repair mechanism is widespread in biology.

Bo Zhang, the lead author on paper said that the iron-sulfur cluster switching mechanism in response to oxygen is smart. "They don't panicthey calmly keep their extra sulfurs and wait to be repaired," said Zhang. She said that any medical applications of the research could take 10 to 20 years for development. The next step is to discover how the repair process works in the cell. Johnson and Zhang are currently working on in vitro models to mimic this biological repair process.

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UGA chemistry discovery could have major medical implications

ScienceDaily (Sep. 10, 2012) The study of an oxygen-sensing bacterial regulatory protein by chemistry researchers at the University of Georgia has provided molecular insight into the oxygen sensing mechanism, which could ultimately lead to a better understanding of the aging process and new treatments for human diseases such cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Michael Johnson, a distinguished research professor of chemistry in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, and Bo Zhang, a UGA chemistry doctoral candidate, have discovered that the fumarate and nitrate reduction regulatory protein, or FNR, in E. coli senses oxygen by a new type of reversible structural change in an iron-sulfur cluster. The work was carried out in collaboration with Nick Le Brun and coworkers from the University of East Anglia. The results were published Sept. 10 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Iron-sulfur clusters are abundant biological cofactors that play crucial roles in almost all of fundamental life processes, including respiration, photosynthesis, nitrogen fixation, DNA replication and repair. "Everyone has trillions of iron-sulfur clusters associated with enzymes and proteins in their bodies," Johnson said. "The problem is that they readily degrade in the presence of oxygen and other species that are associated with oxidative stress, leading to loss of protein function."

The research conducted at UGA and UEA focused on FNR, which senses the presence of oxygen in the environment and "switches" off and on specific genes in pathogens, such as E. coli, when there is no oxygen present-conditions often found in the human intestinal tract. Oxygen is sensed by FNR via its iron-sulfur cluster-that undergoes conversion from one form to another, smaller one, thereby causing the protein to change shape-the "switch"-and leading to the turning off of genes associated with growth without oxygen.

"E. coli can decide what lifestyle to live, with or without oxygen," said Johnson. "We can't decide to change our need for oxygen, but understanding the mechanisms for reassembly and repair of iron-sulfur clusters in response to oxidative stress is crucial for understanding a host of human diseases as well as the aging process."

By revealing the structure of the oxygen-damaged cluster in FNR and showing that it can be readily repaired by the addition of iron, this research has discovered a major mechanism for the repair of iron-sulfur clusters. Moreover, preliminary results on other iron-sulfur cluster containing enzymes suggest that this type of iron-sulfur cluster oxygen-damage and repair mechanism is widespread in biology.

Bo Zhang, the lead author on paper said that the iron-sulfur cluster switching mechanism in response to oxygen is smart. "They don't panic-they calmly keep their extra sulfurs and wait to be repaired," said Zhang. She said that any medical applications of the research could take 10 to 20 years for development. The next step is to discover how the repair process works in the cell. Johnson and Zhang are currently working on in vitro models to mimic this biological repair process.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health under award number GM62524.

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Oxygen-sensing bacterial regulatory protein: Chemistry discovery could have major medical implications

With Martin Fleischmann’s passing on the 3 August, obituaries around the world have revived memories of his notorious association with the cold fusion debacle in the early 1990s. In a letter to Chemistry World, David Williams, a former colleague of Fleischmann’s, attempts to redress the balance, painting an affectionate picture of a brilliant electrochemist, and is careful to convey the importance of Fleischmann’s contributions to science, and his charismatic genius. Williams’ personal account of the episode that led to Fleischmann and Stanley Pons’ Utah press conference and their subsequent pillorying is enlightening.

Science is ruled by the laws of systematic, empirical investigation, where incremental advances and the gradual acquisition of knowledge are the status quo. Truly groundbreaking discoveries are few and far between (but there are just enough to keep our hopes alive). So when such announcements are made, they are of course greeted with the healthy and necessary corrective moderation of scepticism.

And mistakes do happen. Recent examples include the reconstruction of the oxo wall and the withdrawal of record proton conductivity claims. And the retraction watch blog is steadily ticking away, silently intoning its litany of errata.

But once its trust has been betrayed, the science community can be unforgiving, and a reputation damaged is hard to regain, long after the press has emptied the carcass and moved on. Undoubtedly, Fleischmann and Pons tragically mishandled their situation. But where science is ideal, objective and dispassionate, its practitioners are only human and – believer and sceptic alike – they are emotionally responsive. Witness Peter Higgs’ tears at CERN earlier this year. Or the attacks on Felisa Wolfe-Simon’s (now largely discredited) announcement of arsenic life. Or the hostility that followed Fleischmann back to England and sent Pons into isolation.

In his letter, Williams wonders if it was just a single piece of evidence that swayed Fleischmann’s decision to go public. How volatile is temperance in the heat of excitement. One can only imagine how unbearable the tension must have been; how irresistible the lure of proclaiming one’s success; and how crushing the defeat.

Those treacherous imposters triumph and disaster are courted at one’s peril. But it’s often too much for mere mortals to resist.

Philip Robinson

                  

Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?feed=rss2

WELWYN GARDEN CITY, England and BOSTON, September 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Update on novel structures and product pipeline to be presented at Biochemical Society and Royal Society of Chemistry meetings

Heptares Therapeutics today announces that it has used its StaR technology to solve entirely in-house the first structure of a Family B sub-class G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). Chief Scientific Officer, Fiona Marshall and Chief Executive Officer, Malcolm Weir, will present views of a high resolution X-ray crystal structure of the Corticotropin Releasing Factor (CRF-1) receptor, together with information about additional novel in-house GPCR structures and Heptares pipeline programmes, at upcoming scientific conferences.*

CRF-1, a drug target for depression and anxiety, is a member of the Family B sub-class of nearly 50 GPCRs, which includes many targets such as GLP-1 (diabetes), PTH (bone) and CGRP (migraine) that have proven intractable to small molecule chemistry. Novel and unexpected insights into receptor topology, conformation and compound binding have been revealed, showing major differences compared to the many already known Family A structures, such as beta-adrenergic receptor. Owing to the close relationship among Family B GPCRs, these insights from the CRF structure will allow high-quality structural models to be generated to the entire family and provide new avenues for discovery, which are being leveraged by the Company using its proprietary structure-based drug design platform.

Heptares is also reporting the first structure for the Muscarinic M1 receptor in the agonist conformation, and the first structure for the Orexin-2 receptor in an antagonist confirmation. The M1 structure shows conformational and subtype differences in the ligand binding site compared to muscarinic antagonist-bound structures, and is central to Heptares' selective orthosteric agonist programme for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and other disorders involving cognitive impairment.

The Orexin-2 structure shows substantial topological differences compared to other peptide Family A receptors, and enables selective drug design to both Orexin-2 (chronic insomnia) and Orexin-1 (anti-craving in addiction and compulsive disorders) subtypes, and modelling of receptor activation.

The Heptares platform is nucleated around its unique ability, using its StaR technology, to stabilise GPCRs in precisely defined, biologically-relevant conformations. These StaRs can then be used, based on receptor structural information from X-ray crystallography and Biophysical Mapping, to design and build (atom-by-atom) small molecules with specified drug action and properties, creating an unparalleled medicinal chemistry capability for addressing extremely difficult GPCR targets.

"No Family B GPCR trans-membrane domain structures have been solved until now, highlighting the power of our StaR technology. This is a fundamental discovery for GPCR drug design, and for our understanding of the mechanism of action and function of these biologically important receptors," said Fiona Marshall, CSO of Heptares Therapeutics.

"These exciting new structural insights are allowing Heptares to deliver potentially ground-breaking new medicines, which is our sole focus. We have a robust platform and pipeline, with our industry-first selective Muscarinic M1 agonist expected to enter clinical development next year and further programmes for additional CNS and metabolic disorders advancing well," said Malcolm Weir, CEO of Heptares Therapeutics.

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Heptares Solves First Family B GPCR Structure