DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/w7vgdb/the_plasma_chemist) has announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new book "The Plasma Chemistry of Polymer Surfaces" to their offering.

More than 99% of all visible matter in the universe occurs as highly ionized gas plasma with high energy content. Electrical low- and atmospheric-pressure plasmas are characterized by continuous source of moderate quantities of energy or enthalpy transferred predominantly as kinetic energy of electrons. Therefore, such energetically unbalanced plasmas have low gas temperature but produce sufficient energy for inelastic collisions with atoms and molecules in the gas phase, thus producing reactive species and photons, which are able to initiate all types of polymerizations or activate any surface of low reactive polymers. However, the broadly distributed energies in the plasma exceed partially the binding energies in polymers, thus initiating very often unselective reactions and polymer degradation. The intention of this book is to present new plasma processes and new plasma reactions of high selectivity and high yield.

This book aims to bridge classical and plasma chemistry, particularly focusing on polymer chemistry in the bulk and on the surface under plasma exposure. The stability of surface functionalization and the qualitative and quantitative measurement of functional groups at polymer surface are featured prominently, and chemical pathways for suppressing the undesirable side effects of plasma exposure are proposed and illustrated with numerous examples. Special attention is paid to the smooth transition from inanimate polymer surfaces to modified bioactive polymer surfaces. A wide range of techniques, plasma types and applications are demonstrated.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

2 Interaction between Plasma and Polymers

3 Plasma

4 Chemistry and Energetics in Classic and Plasma Processes

5 Kinetics of Polymer Surface Modification

Continue reading here:
Research and Markets: The Plasma Chemistry of Polymer Surfaces

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/sjpm9h/discovering_chemis) has announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new book "Discovering Chemistry With Natural Bond Orbitals" to their offering.

This book explores chemical bonds, their intrinsic energies, and the corresponding dissociation energies which are relevant in reactivity problems. It offers the first book on conceptual quantum chemistry, a key area for understanding chemical principles and predicting chemical properties. It presents NBO mathematical algorithms embedded in a well-tested and widely used computer program (currently, NBO 5.9). While encouraging a "look under the hood" (Appendix A), this book mainly enables students to gain proficiency in using the NBO program to re-express complex wavefunctions in terms of intuitive chemical concepts and orbital imagery.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Getting Started

2 Electrons in Atoms

3 Atoms in Molecules

4 Hybrids and Bonds in Molecules

5 Resonance Delocalization Corrections

6 Steric and Electrostatic Effects

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Research and Markets: Discovering Chemistry With Natural Bond Orbitals

There’s something very summery about building a sandcastle. From my first attempts with a simple bucket, and my Dad hydro-engineering sea-filled moats, I was hooked and these days no trip to the beach is complete without some sort of sand sculpture. From those early days and experiments I learnt how the sand had to be wet, but not too wet. Goldilocks sandcastle sand is wet enough to hold the grains of sand together but not so wet as to cause the walls to become unstable, crumbling to the ground and leaving you with a sand ruin. But how was I to know you could pursue a scientific career in sandcastle science?

— Not one of mine

Daniel Boon from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and colleagues, has shown that the Goldilocks recipes for sandcastle uses just 1% water (however, he investigated this with beach sand and deionized water, I do wonder if the saltiness of sea water makes a noticeable difference). This is enough water to form the capillary bridges between grains of sand, pulling them together and making wet sand such a good building material for complex structures.

As Boon notes in his paper (Scientific Reports, DOI: 10.1038/srep00549), the literature has previously claimed that sandcastles can only be built to around 20 cm, due to the capillary rise of the sand, but you can get much bigger sand structures than that so what’s going on? Well, more painstaking research building sandcastles, or rather sandcylinders, showed that sand buckles under its own weight at a critical height which is proportional to the cylinder’s radius to the power of two thirds. Using his calculations, with the best sand-water mix, a castle with a base with a radius of 20 cm should be as tall as 2.5 m. Compacting the mix (or tapping the sand with the back of the spade, as my Dad calls it) also helps, according to Boon.

Of course, these findings can be used by civil engineers and people working in soil mechanics, but will you be taking your calculator to the beach this summer? I think I’ll just stick with guesstimates, but might see if a drier sand than I expect will give better results.

Laura Howes

                  

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We've all run into this situation. We meet someone. On paper we have everything in common. We should hit it off right away. For some reason, though, we just don't click. The chemistry isn't there. Our personalities clash for some reason and sometimes you don't even know exactly why.

OK, sometimes the guy is just a jerk, but you get the idea.

The same thing can be true of the networking events we attend.

We carefully select the event. The people who go there are either our target market or serve our target market. The location is near our office. The timing is a perfect fit for our schedule. It even has the style of networking we prefer.

And for some reason it just doesn't work.

Sometimes it's just a matter of time. We think it's not working, but we actually haven't put in enough time to allow people to get to know us. Sometimes we're not really participating. It's our effort we need to improve. Sometimes, though, it's just the "personality" of the event. For whatever reason, maybe something we can't even put a finger on, we just never feel like we fit in.

When that happens, we should probably look for a new event to attend. If we aren't making the connection to the folks at this event, no matter how hard we've tried (and we have to be honest about how hard we're trying), then the event isn't doing anything to help us extend our network. If it isn't doing that, then we are wasting our time and money both better spent at a different venue.

If you've been attending a particular networking gathering for a while, and you aren't achieving the goals you set for the event, maybe it's not you. Maybe it's not the event either. Maybe there's just no chemistry.

See more here:
You have to have chemistry with the networking group, too

Once sniffed, never forgotten. That’s many people’s verdict on the smell of death, for which putrescine is partly responsible. You might have to hold your nose while listening to this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.

                  

Source:
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We’ve got a bumper August podcast for you all! Phil, Laura and Phillip talk to Meera about two different new ways to make graphene, the latest developments about open access to scientific papers and the retraction of some Science and JACS papers that claimed to break the ‘oxo wall’.

Plus Andrew Harrison, director of the ILL, tells us all about the amazing work they do with neutrons, and Robert West of UCL explains why giving up smoking is so difficult – and why making drugs to help is too. Phil also provides the answer to the burning question “How are the Olympics like a ready meal?” You’ll just have to listen to find out.

                  

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This is a guest post from one of our judges for the Chemistry World Science Communication Competition

Robert Winston recently said ‘If you cannot communicate science it may as well have not been carried out’. I rather agree.

Communicating science is important because, to paraphrase Alan Alda, science surrounds us. Alda’s ‘flame challenge’ recently illuminated the importance of communicating science by challenging Science readers to explain what a flame is to a class of 11-year-olds. Of course, it helps if you’re a famous actor, but both Alda and Winston make the same point: science cannot be separated from society. Each supports and improves the other. The problem is that science journalism is often outside the mainstream, appearing further down newslists than it we would otherwise like it to be, Higgs and Dolly the sheep-type stories excepted.

There are consequences to this. In the most recent Public Attitudes to Science survey, just over half of those who took part said they hear and see too little information about science. The research also highlighted the challenge of public engagement with science. The majority of people surveyed said they did not feel informed about science, and scientific research and developments.

And not every scientist is an excellent communicator – that’s where you can step in.

So how do you go about telling a science story? Well, try and imagine you’ve a good tale on your hands and you’re itching to tell someone – now imagine you’re face to face with that person and you’re telling them about it: the most important part of the story will naturally come out first, then the next and so on until you’ve got it all out. Your friend will no doubt have some questions – if they don’t, then well done, you’ve explained it perfectly. When you’re writing the story, follow the same format. Go back and read it again – ask yourself whether any questions remain unanswered. If so, get answering them. You can do this for an article or script: both need to convey the facts and detail without leaving people scratching their heads.

Let your enthusiasm for the story shine through the copy and remember you’re writing for a wide audience so avoid jargon that can be confusing to non-specialists. There will be times when a particularly long sentence is necessary and you have to cram as much detail in a single line as you possibly can, at which time bear in mind that using a shorter one to follow on is often the best way to balance the paragraph. Just like this one.

I’m looking forward to seeing your efforts.

Good luck.

Lesley Yellowlees is professor of chemistry at the University of Edinburgh and president of the RSC

You can also read Adam Hart-Davis’ and Philip Ball’s competition blog posts.

And you can find out about the Chemistry World Science Communication Competition and submit your entry here.

                  

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WASHINGTON, July 31, 2012 -- After an epic 354-million-mile trek through space, the Mars Curiosity Rover is zooming along at 13,000 miles per hour toward a scheduled August 6 landing on the Red Planet to search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. The newest episode of the American Chemical Society's (ACS') award-winning Bytesize Science video series highlights Curiosity Rover's mission, scientific instrumentation and the role that chemistry plays in the search for life on other planets. The video, produced by the ACS Office of Public Affairs, is available at http://www.BytesizeScience.com.

It features Mars Science Laboratory Deputy Science Manager Ashwin Vasavada, Ph.D., of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Vasavada takes viewers "under the hood" of the rover, explaining the role of the analytical chemistry instruments found onboard the Curiosity. The use of analytical chemistry techniques will aid in Curiosity's primary mission goal: to determine the habitability of the Gale Crater, which scientists believe was once filled with water.

The video explains several chemical processes that Curiosity is equipped to perform, including laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, mineralogy tests and X-ray spectroscopy. Test results from these instruments will pave the way for future Mars missions and may provide insight in the search for life on other planets.

For more entertaining, informative science videos and podcasts from the ACS Office of Public Affairs, view Prized Science, Spellbound, Science Elements and Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 164,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.

Read more:
Chemistry on Mars video with Curiosity Rover from the American Chemical Society

1 August 2012 Last updated at 07:27 ET By Alex Hudson BBC News

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Royal Institution's Dave Porter tries experiments from sets past and present

The first chemistry sets for children included dangerous substances like uranium dust and sodium cyanide, but all that has changed.

Talk to people of a certain age about chemistry sets and a nostalgic glaze comes over their eyes.

Stories of creating explosions in garden sheds and burning holes in tables are told and childhood is remembered as a mischievous adventure.

Portable chemistry sets were first used in the 18th Century but it took more than 100 years before they became popular with children, partly prompted by a desire to recreate the coloured puffs of smoke used by conjurors.

"It was part of a craze for what we call stage magic," says Salim Al-Gailani, historian of science at the University of Cambridge.

Dr Kat Amey asks what happened to the chemistry set, Wednesday 1 August, 2100 BST on Radio 4

The early chemistry sets for children played on the idea of impressing school friends with a magic performance.

Read more:
Whatever happened to kids' chemistry sets?

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/53z9xh/proteomic_profilin) has announced the addition of Elsevier Science and Technology's new report "Proteomic Profiling and Analytical Chemistry. The Crossroads" to their offering.

This book is designed to help scientists without a strong background in analytical chemistry to understand basic analytical principles so they can apply them to proteomics profiling. It will also help researchers with an analytical chemistry background to break into the proteomics field. The title focuses on practical applications for proteomic research so readers are guided to design better experiments and to more easily interpret the resulting data.

- filling gap between many specialized courses and book in mass spectrometry, proteomics and analytical chemistry.

- real life examples illustrating importance of problems in quantitation and validation of biomarkers from perspective of analytical chemistry with reference to sources. Problems for further discussion at the end of each chapter.

- help in designing and executing proteomic experiments with sound analytics.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Biomolecules

2. Sample preparation, fractionation and clean-up.

3. Electrophoresis

Continued here:
Research and Markets: Proteomic Profiling and Analytical Chemistry: The Crossroads

ByKen Gurnick/MLB.com|07/29/12 4:15 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO -- With rumors of the Dodgers seeking multiple additions such as Ryan Dempster, Shane Victorino, etc., before Tuesday's Trade Deadline, manager Don Mattingly was asked about the balance between roster improvement and clubhouse chemistry.

"You've always got to try to get better," Mattingly said. "You do worry a little if you have a clubhouse that gets along; you want to create a baseball environment for everybody. But this is professional sports and we're here to win and be the best club we can be.

"It's hard to say, 'We need to get rid of this guy and get another guy in.' If we get guys that don't fit, they won't stay around."

In addition to Dempster and Victorino, who clearly are the Dodgers' top two targets, the club has been rumored in talks for starting pitchers James Shields and Matt Garza, slugger Corey Hart, reliever Brandon League and outfielder Hunter Pence.

SAN FRANCISCO -- In the four games Hanley Ramirez has played for the Dodgers, he's 6-for-16 at the plate. In those same four games, Luis Cruz is 5-for-16.

Not that Cruz should be considered of the same caliber as Ramirez, but he's done enough since taking over for injured shortstop Dee Gordon to stay in the lineup.

"He's not Ozzie Smith at shortstop, but if he gets his glove on the ball, he catches it and throws them out," said manager Don Mattingly. "He's stabilized the position and swung the bat well."

Mattingly expects Ramirez to slide over to his original position of shortstop, although he still takes more pregame ground balls at third base, where he started again Sunday, with Cruz still at shortstop.

Cruz said he's just grateful to be playing anywhere after a journeyman's career spent mostly in the Minor Leagues, with three previous callups of no significance.

See original here:
Mattingly unconcerned about changing chemistry

CINCINNATI -- While the first-place Reds have been winning a lot lately and entered Monday tied with the Nationals for the best record in baseball, there's been a lot of trade rumors surrounding the club.

It's no secret that general manager Walt Jocketty has been trying to land upgrades at the leadoff spot and the bench, and he wouldn't mind improvements for the already strong pitching staff ahead of Tuesday's Trade Deadline.

Some players, including Ryan Ludwick, have recently talked about the team's chemistry being so good. Another player, Drew Stubbs -- who could be displaced if the potential leadoff acquisition is a center fielder -- also felt the current chemistry was strong and could be affected by a deal.

"Looking at what we've done so far this year, it's hard to argue with the success we've had," Stubbs said. "I don't think a move is necessary unless you're going to make a significant improvement to the team. ... I feel like so many people this time of year in a playoff race feel like you should make a move just to make a move. I don't think that's necessary for us, especially with the chemistry we have and the way everybody has been playing lately."

Reds manager Dusty Baker is kept in the loop about potential deals, but he doesn't have the last word, calling himself the "shop foreman." Baker hoped that if a trade was made before the 4 p.m. ET Deadline, that it didn't upset the balance in the clubhouse.

"That's why you're very careful," Baker said. "People don't understand about making deals or making trades is that you could end up getting rid of some guys that are an integral part of what you've got going on right now. Or bring in somebody that's not on the same page that we are, which could be a bad apple that ruins your basket. It takes a while."

CINCINNATI -- It was albeit a small step, but injured Reds first baseman Joey Votto's rehab from knee surgery went to the next level on Monday, when he began doing some baseball activity.

It wasn't much. Votto played catch and took some throws at first base. He had arthroscopic surgery July 17 to repair torn meniscus in his left knee. The 28-year-old cornerstone player has been doing rehab and running, but is not moving around at 100 percent yet.

"I feel like I'm making subtle improvements every day," Votto said. "If it was pain-free, I would be playing right now."

When exactly Votto might return remains murky as he and the Reds have not laid down an exact timetable. The club estimated after the operation that it would take three to four weeks to return. Votto is eligible for activation from the 15-day disabled list as soon as Tuesday. That clearly won't happen.

Read the original here:
Chemistry a factor for Reds on trade front

Though training camp still is in the early stages, wide receiver Brandon Lloyd appears to be giving the New England Patriots exactly what they wanted when they signed him to a three-year contract that could be worth as much as $15.5 million.

AFC East Bills | Dolphins | Jets | Patriots AFC North Bengals | Browns | Ravens | Steelers AFC South Colts | Jaguars | Texans | Titans AFC West Broncos | Chargers | Chiefs | Raiders NFC East Cowboys | Eagles | Giants | Redskins NFC North Bears | Lions | Packers | Vikings NFC South Buccaneers | Falcons | Panthers | Saints NFC West 49ers | Cardinals | Rams | Seahawks

According to Mary Paoletti of Comcast SportsNet New England, Lloyd and quarterback Tom Brady have connected on deep passes that have been the highlight of each of the Patriots' practices thus far, drawing "oohs" and "ahhs" from spectators. Those kinds of plays were commonplace when Brady and Randy Moss were lighting up opposing secondaries but were absent during the failed Chad Ochocinco experiment of 2011.

Lloyd, whose yards-per-catch average dropped from 18.8 in 2010 to 13.8 in 2011, has produced solid numbers in Josh McDaniels-led offenses, which was a big part in his decision to sign with the Patriots.

Playing with an elite quarterback like Brady was the main draw, however, and Lloyd said he and Brady still are working on their chemistry.

"(The relationship with Brady) just takes time," Lloyd said. "We're continuing to talk and work together and seeing what one another is expecting out of the route running and eventually it will just start clicking."

Read more:
Brandon Lloyd, Tom Brady working on chemistry

On your marks, get set, GO! With the Olympics just days away, Brian Clegg dons his speed-suit to take a quick dash through the chemistry of Lycra (also known as spandex in the US) in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.

                  

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This is a guest post from one of our judges for the Chemistry World Science Communication Competition

50 years ago, while taking a gap year teaching in India, I used to write home to my parents every week (no email or mobiles then). In one letter, I asked my dad, a highly respected editor, how to write good English. He wrote back: ‘Use short sentences, and don’t start them with “It…”‘. I have followed this advice ruthlessly ever since, also applying it when editing texts of all kinds from various unfortunate authors, and it has served me well.

I have spent my entire career trying to make science accessible, and have found that short words and phrases help, as well as short sentences. So I tend to use ‘chose’ rather than ‘selected’ and ‘now’ rather than ‘at the present moment in time’ – just as William Tyndale, translating the Bible into English for the first time, used words of one syllable wherever he could: ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’.

And I try to avoid hype. Listening to commentary on recent tennis and cricket matches, I have been dismayed as shot after shot is described as ‘unbelievable’ or ‘incredible’. No; we have just seen them; they were brilliant, but not unbelievable.

So my advice is: keep the language simple. Using long words, excessive hype, and scientific jargon may make your text sound more important, but will always get in the way of understanding.

Adam Hart-Davis is a writer and broadcaster based in Devon, UK

Read Philip Ball’s competition blog post.

Find out about the Chemistry World Science Communication Competition and submit your entry here.

                  

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Criminal proceedings against UCLA chemistry professor Patrick Harran took a bizarre turn Thursday when the defense alleged in court papers that the state's chief investigator in the accidental death of a lab worker committed murder as a teenager in 1985.

The investigator, Brian Baudendistel, denied it.

"It's not true," he told The Times earlier this week. "Look, it's not me."

Baudendistel, a senior special investigator for the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, was instrumental in building the criminal case against Harran and UCLA with a 95-page report that blamed both in the death of 23-year-old Sheharbano "Sheri" Sangji. She suffered fatal burns when a experiment burst into flames in December 2008.

Sangji, who graduated that year from Pomona College in Claremont with a bachelor's degree in chemistry, had worked in Harran's organic chemistry lab for less than three months. She was transferring about 1.8 ounces of t-butyl lithium from one sealed container to another when a plastic syringe came apart in her hands, spewing a chemical compound that ignites when exposed to air. The synthetic sweater she was wearing caught fire and melted onto her skin. She died 18 days later.

From the outset, UCLA and Harran have cast her death as a tragic accident and said she was a seasoned chemist who was trained in the experiment and chose not to wear a protective lab coat.

In late December, however, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office charged Harran and the UC regents with three counts each of willfully violating occupational safety and health standards. After months of plea negotiations, the defendants are due back in Superior Court on Friday to be arraigned or to announce if any deals have been struck.

In his filing, which includes a motion to quash Harran's arrest warrant, his defense attorney, Thomas O'Brien, signaled that he would seek to put Baudendistel's credibility on trial. The filing states that a judge would not have relied on the investigator's report in issuing a warrant for Harran if the investigator's juvenile record had been known.

"Incredibly, the affidavit failed to disclose ... that at age 16, Investigator Baudendistel murdered a man in cold blood during a failed drug deal and almost certainly lied or deliberately misled the District Attorney within the past two months about his involvement in that heinous crime," the filing states.

If the warrant were quashed, Harran's lawyers contend, it would mean that "no prosecution was properly brought" against Harran within the three-year statute of limitations. That could mean the charges would have to be dropped.

Read the original:
Focus turns to state investigator in UCLA lab death case

Half of the felony charges stemming from a 2008 lab accident that killed UCLA research assistant Sheri Sangji were dropped Friday when the University of California regents agreed to follow comprehensive safety measures and endow a $500,000 scholarship in her name.

"The regents acknowledge and accept responsibility for the conditions under which the laboratory operated on Dec. 29, 2008," the agreement read in part, referring to the date that Sangji, 23, suffered fatal burns.

Charges remain against her supervisor, chemistry professor Patrick Harran. His arraignment was postponed to Sept. 5 to allow the judge to consider defense motions, including one challenging the credibility of the state's chief investigator on the case.

Sangji was transferring about 1.8 ounces of t-butyl lithium from one sealed container to another when a plastic syringe came apart in her hands, spewing a chemical compound that ignites when exposed to air. Her synthetic sweater caught fire and melted onto her skin. She died 18 days later.

UCLA and Harran have called her death a tragic accident and said she was a seasoned chemist who chose not to wear a protective lab coat.

In December, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office charged Harran and the regents with three counts each of willfully violating occupational health and safety standards.

In settling the case, the regents agreed to maintain a comprehensive lab safety program across UC campuses, including enhanced safety training and protective equipment. The board also will endow a $500,000 environmental law scholarship in Sangji's name at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, from which Sangji had received an acceptance letter.

Her older sister, Naveen Sangji, has pressed for prosecution of Harran and UCLA but welcomed the admission of responsibility.

"UCLA and the regents have finally admitted that they wronged Sheri terribly," she said. "Our family's pain will not diminish, but our hope, of course, is that no one else has to suffer the way Sheri did and that such tragedies are avoided in the future."

UC officials said Friday that they stand by Harran. They and Harran's lawyer, Thomas O'Brien, expressed sympathy for Sangji's family, but said charges against the professor are unwarranted.

See original here:
UC regents strike plea deal in UCLA chemistry lab death

Archimedes’ principle does not work in the nanoworld. So say Roberto Piazza, from Milan Polytechnic in Italy, and his colleagues. The principle, a law of physics established 23 centuries ago, states that a body immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid it displaces, but, as Piazza has found, this does not hold for objects a millionth of a millimetre in size.

‘It works for footballs, but not in the microscopic world,’ Piazza said in a recent interview. ‘What we have done is just a generalisation; had Archimedes had such small particles at his disposal, he could have done the same,’ he added.

Piazza’s team noticed that when they added gold nanoparticles (20 times more dense than water) to an aqueous suspension of plastic particles just slightly denser than water and six times larger than the nanoparticles, the gold nanoparticles floated to the top, forming a thin layer on the surface after a few days. ‘What happens is that not only is the liquid displaced, but the submerged object gets an additional upward push owing to the perturbation induced by the distribution of the other particles,’ explained Piazza. The larger particles slowly push the nanoparticles towards the surface.

The finding may have implications for biology and geology research, Piazza said. These include techniques to separate biological fluids from nanomaterials and getting a better idea of how sedimentary rocks form.

Elinor Hughes

                  

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SALT LAKE CITY University of Utah chemistry professor Peter Stang has been named as the 2013 receipient of the Priestley Medal, the highest honor given by the American Chemical Society.

In addition to receiving the medal, Stang and U. professor Henry White were inducted as fellows of the American Chemical Society the world's largest scientific group with 164,000 members.

"I am truly delighted and honored to receive this most prestigious American Chemical Society award," Stang said in a prepared statement. "It's humbling to be listed among the distinguished previous recipients."

Stang has served as a member of the U. faculty for more than 40 years, according to the university. For the past 20 years, he has pioneered the field of supramolecular chemistry.

Last year, Stang was ranked 69th on a list of the world's top 100 chemists by Times Higher Education in Britain. Also in 2011, Stang was honored by President Barack Obama at the White House as a winner of the National Medal of Science, the highest U.S. honor for a scientist or engineer.

Stang was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 2000 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002, according to U. officials.

"I am exceedingly proud of Peter and this is a fitting tribute to his lifelong dedication to chemistry," U. President David Pershing said in a prepared statement. "He is absolutely committed to the highest research standards and the best education for his students."

Benjamin Wood

Read the original:
University of Utah chemist receives prestigious award

ALBANY, Calif. (KGO) -- A former Albany High School student is taking legal action for a "C+" he received in chemistry. Bowen Bethards say he was earning an "A" in the class until the teacher refused to let him make up missed work.

Based on grades, Bowen is a good student. In his first two years at Albany High School, he received only two "Bs," the rest were "As", which is why he was so devastated when he received a "C+" in chemistry, a grade he and his mother say, he didn't deserve.

Bethards is a year away from college and dreams of going to UCLA. But the "C+" he received in chemistry his sophomore year at Albany High could jeopardize his chances.

He and his mother Laureen are now suing the chemistry teacher, the principal and the district.

"They allowed a rogue teacher to deny him what he had worked so hard for and what he had earned to basically steal from him," Laureen Bethards said.

She says the whole ordeal began when Bowen missed a lab to attend an adoption hearing of his younger sister. Bethards says the teacher, award-winning, district veteran Peggy Carlock initially agreed to let Bowen make-up the lab, but then changed her mind and gave him a failing grade for lab work.

Bethards says because of that, Bowen's "A+" in chemistry turned into a "C+" for the semester.

"If Laureen is a helicopter mom, she's a Black Hawk attack helicopter and we're going to get justice," family attorney Daniel Horowitz said.

District officials have since changed Bowen's "C+" to a "B", but the Bethards family wants either an "A+" or the opportunity to make up the missed work. They are also seeking $10,000 from the district and damages for severe emotional distress.

Bowen's mom says there is much at stake.

Continue reading here:
Former students sues school over "C+"