They may not be a household name but their ubiquity in household products means every home must have one. Josh Howgego considers the captivating chemistry of cyclodextrins in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.
We have just had the photos of the Chemistry World columnists turned into portraits by Australian artist Chelsea Gustafsson (you can see more of her work here).
Any favourites in there? Mine is Paul Docherty of Totally Synthetic. He looks like a very happy man! I also love the fact that Andrea from Classic Kit gets to retain his lab goggles… What do you think?
— Charlotte Ashley-Roberts
— Bibiana Campos-Seijo
— Derek Lowe
— Paul Doherty
— Andrea Sella
— Phillip Ball
Bibiana Campos Seijo
An interesting title popped up in my feed the other day: Chelsea R Martinez and Brent L Iverson’s Perspective article ‘Rethinking the term pi-stacking’ (Chem. Sci., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2SC20045G). I don’t think I’d ever thought much about pi-stacking if I’m honest; the concept seemed to make sense and it just got absorbed into my brain along with those other concepts that I now find are mutable, like hydrogen bonds.
I’ll leave the complexities of the argument to the paper, but considering that pi-pi interactions seem so ubiquitous, especially in biological and supra molecular chemistry, where do they say we’ve been going wrong? Essentially, the point Martinez and Iverson make is that just because interactions involve pi-bonds doesn’t make them inherently different from other interactions. For example, they discuss alternating electron rich and deficient aromatic systems. Is that face centred stacking really special, or is it just normal donor-acceptor chemistry?
So what do you think, and what other contentious chemistries do you enjoy debating?
Laura Howes
A study reveals the presence of illegal drugs in the groundwater of the Catalan capital
What is going on in Barcelona’s water? Well, quite a lot! Besides the fact that it contains a variety of illegal drugs (including cocaine, amphetamine compounds, opioids, cannabinoids and so on) it also appears, according to a recent study published in Science of the total environment, that the type of drug found is closely related to the geographical location, a finding that allowed the researchers to draw a map of drug use in the city.
But first things first: how do the drugs make it into the groundwater system? Surprisingly – I found this quite shocking but perhaps it shows a certain degree of naivety – the main source of the drugs appears to be leakage from the sewer system. The good news is that the drugs in the water are not a threat to public health – phew! - as this subterranean water is generally used to clean streets and water public parks and gardens (ever noticed anything different about the flora of Barcelona?).
So when scientists analysed groundwater for traces of drugs of abuse and their metabolites and then mapped the findings against the A-Z of Barca they discovered that drug consumption is related not only to geographical location, but also to social status, with cocaine and its metabolites dominant in more prosperous neighbourhoods, while the more affordable 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine (more commonly known as MDMA or ecstasy) was the dominant drug of abuse in poorer areas. So, around Calle Mallorca in the popular Eixample – an affluent area well know for its nightlife - cocaine is the drug of choice and is present in higher concentrations- the metabolite of cocaine can be found at concentrations of 16.3ng per litre of water. Conversely, in a more working class neighbourhood, such as that around Avenida Paral.lel, the drug detected at the highest concentration is ecstasy, with the area around the river Besòs showing the highest levels of methadone.
When interviewed by El Pais, the researchers also confirmed a finding of up to 60ng per litre of unmetabolised cocaine in the area around Eixample and admitted they were ‘very surprised by the presence of traces of cocaine, as if someone had thrown the drugs down the toilet’.
Bibiana Campos Seijo
In the May podcast, we’ve got a nose for explosives, a taste for green bacon, an eye for LCDs and a lust for artificial life. Plus we get under the skin of smart tattoos. All you need to do is lend us your ears.
Public release date: 2-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 202-872-6042 American Chemical Society
WASHINGTON, May 2, 2012 American Chemical Society (ACS) Publications announces ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, a new peer-reviewed journal with a focus on advancing research that aims to minimize environmental harm and achieve sustainable processes. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering will provide a comprehensive and topically inclusive flagship forum exclusively dedicated to the high-quality publication of content that spans the breadth of sustainable chemistry and engineering. The journal will publish its first issue in January 2013, and in keeping with the spirit of the journal's theme and with other recent new ACS Publications journal launches, it will be available online only.
The journal will be led by Editor-in-Chief David T. Allen, Ph.D., of the University of Texas at Austin. Allen is the Gertz Regents professor and chair of Chemical Engineering and the director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Resources of the Cockrell School of Engineering. He recently served as the associate editor for ACS Publications' Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research. Allen is well-recognized as a leader in the field, having received many awards, most recently the American Institute of Chemical Engineers' Sustainable Engineering Forum Award and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers' Cecil Award for Contributions to Environmental Engineering.
"This journal will address the grand challenges for sustainability in the chemical enterprise and the principles of green chemistry and green engineering," Allen said. "It will provide a focal point for the work of a rapidly developing research community in the chemical sciences, focused on sustainability, complementing the work of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute."
Susan King, Ph.D., senior vice president, ACS Journals Publishing Group, says, "ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering meets the publication needs of a growing global community of scientists and engineers engaged in this endeavor, providing rapid publication, free of mandated author fees, on award-winning online and mobile delivery platforms. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering brings together disparate parts of the community into a single forum to advance knowledge and technology."
The editor invites experts in the field to contribute original peer-reviewed research letters and articles. Authors are encouraged to establish correlations between their research and the principles of green chemistry and the principles of green engineering. The journal scope will emphasize five focal areas of research:
ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering complements the ACS portfolio of more than 40 peer-reviewed journals, with close connections established with sister journals, such as Environmental Science & Technology, and new opportunities for collaborations with the ACS Green Chemistry Institute.
Bob Peoples, Ph.D., director of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute, adds, "Green chemistry and sustainability has developed significantly across disciplinary boundaries in the last decade, and research dollars are being invested at a rapidly growing rate. This new journal from ACS Publications allows for coverage of the full interdisciplinary field, thus ensuring a successful future for the journal. ACS Publications has a reputation for launching successful journals at the forefront of chemistry, and this is an area that will benefit immensely from having such a prestigious journal available. Green chemistry today is the chemistry of the 21st century. We welcome this new opportunity to collaborate to advance green and sustainable chemistry."
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New American Chemical Society journal
Back home Lauren Jackson has cut short her WNBA season in the US to take part in a two-month training camp in preparation for the Games. Photo: Steve Christo
LAUREN JACKSON has enough Olympic silver medals to sink a ship. If the Opals want gold, something has to change.
So Jackson, who has won silver at the past three Olympics, has cut short her WNBA season to help rebuild Australia's ''chemistry'' at a two-month training camp in Canberra. The Seattle Storm star arrived in Australia late on Wednesday night to take part in a lengthy schedule aimed at forging a strong bond among players for the London Games.
The lack of understanding within the squad caused the Opals' poor showing at the 2010 world championships - where they were the defending titleholders. An abrupt quarter-final loss to hosts Czech Republic, then ranked three places below Australia, highlighted the lack of team unity and poor preparation for the championships, Jackson said.
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Dashing ... Olympians at the launch of the back to the future uniforms. Photo: Steve Christo
''Chemistry is the biggest part, from the world championships two years ago we didn't know each other, we went in blind to the world championships with all this talent but we never played together and that was evident,'' Jackson, 30 said. ''I think the government and Basketball Australia have done a great job at getting all the players back to Australia to prepare for the Olympics.''
Australian coach Carrie Graf has lobbied to stage the camp three months before the Games, including several warm-up games to prevent a similar outcome. ''We didn't have much preparation time as a team, we had basically that world championship team come together only two days before the world championship our preparation as a group was extremely limited,'' Graf said.
Jackson has spent the two years after the championships playing in the US and with club Ros Casares Valencia in Spain. While her overseas club career has limited her opportunities to gel with the Opals, she believes her absence will not be an issue because of the time the team will spend together in the build-up for London.
''Obviously I played with the girls in the world championships but we've got the next two months together, we really don't break from each other from now, and I think chemistry will be good come the Olympics.'' Jackson said. ''I feel confident with the team and talent. I'm hoping that we get the chemistry right and hoping that we have no more injuries and we go into the Olympics feeling good.''
See more here:
Opals seek right chemistry to turn silver into gold
By Chris Aguirre/Sports Writer Email a friend Printer friendly
Righettis Frankie Platero goes for the spike on Arroyo Grandes Taylor Jenish and Andrew Midyett in Tuesday nights volleyball match. //Joshua E. Duffy/Contributor
The Arroyo Grande High School boys volleyball team is off to a hot start, thats for certain.
The Eagles improved to 7-1 overall and 3-0 in PAC 7 League play after a 3-0 victory over the defending league champion Righetti Warriors on Tuesday.
The Eagles are a young team starting on the floor this season, with two sophomores currently in the rotation.
Our team is well-rounded, and thats why we are successful, Arroyo Grande head coach Laurel Allen said. We depend on everybody to play their part.
A few of the players having an impact so far this season are sophomore Jack Empey and senior Tanner Howard.
Empey is the setter, who despite being a sophomore brings a lot of experience to the floor.
You can see his experience and confidence on that court moving the ball around, Allen said of Empey.
Howard plays the libero position and has really worked hard over the past seasons to become one of the key players on the team, Allen said.
Read more:
Chemistry helps volleyball team to hot start
MIDLAND, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW - News) and University of Minnesota are expanding their strategic partnership by launching a pilot program to improve safety awareness and practices in the Department of Chemistry and Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science in the universitys College of Science and Engineering. The pilot program will leverage key elements of Dows best-in-class practices to help improve university laboratory safety.
The safety partnership reinforces Dows commitment to advancing research and development at leading U.S. universities. In support of the companys goal to support breakthrough technologies and ensure a strong pipeline of scientific talent for the nations workforce, Dow announced in October 2011 it would invest $25 million per year for 10 years among 11 academic institutions, including the University of Minnesota.
At Dow, we see it as part of our mission to support universities continue the tradition of excellence in chemical engineering, chemistry, and materials science, said Dr. William F. Banholzer, Ph.D., Dows chief technology officer and executive vice president of ventures, new business development, and licensing. The safety pilot program expands the partnership with University of Minnesota and leverages our strength in laboratory safety, which is a continuing challenge for universities everywhere. The Dow safety mindset is based on driving behavior toward incident prevention, sustained by renewed employee engagement and the responsibility to provide a safe work environment to our employees.
University laboratory safety has improved steadily over the last two decades, thanks largely to the enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Laboratory Safety Act in 1990. However, with a transient student population and, at times, inadequate infrastructure (especially in pre-1990 facilities) nurturing and sustaining a safety culture is a challenge, say university researchers.
"This partnership is a tremendous opportunity for us to learn how to improve the safety culture in our two departments, which is always of paramount concern as we perform research at the forefront of chemistry, materials science and engineering," said Department of Chemistry chair William Tolman. "The insights and help we glean by working closely with Dow, an industry leader in safety practices, will be invaluable in promoting safe work in our laboratories."
University administration recognizes the impact of this new partnership to improve safety and the importance of partnering with industry leaders.
Dows partnership with the University of Minnesota is a great example of how todays companies can work with universities to accomplish mutual goals while contributing to our society, said Eric W. Kaler, president of the University of Minnesota. The safety partnership with Dow will help bring a renewed culture of safety awareness to our laboratories that supports our mission of education and driving groundbreaking research.
Successful elements of this safety pilot program could be leveraged to other departments within the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering and potentially to other universities.
"We are thrilled to partner with the Dow Chemical Company in this critically important aspect of research and education," said Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science head Frank Bates. "The consequences of this unique and innovative program will reverberate across Universities around the country."
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Dow to Share Laboratory Safety Expertise with University of Minnesota
UC Riversides Zhenda Lu and Qiao Zhang receive Silver Awards from the Materials Research Society
By Iqbal Pittalwala on May 1, 2012
Zhenda Lu (left) and Qiao Zhang are Ph.D. graduate students in the Department of Chemistry at UC Riverside. Photo credit: Yin lab, UC Riverside.
Two Ph.D. graduate students at the University of California, Riverside have won Silver Awards given out by the Materials Research Society (MRS) for their academic achievements and current materials research, which exhibit a high level of excellence and distinction.
Zhenda Lu and Qiao Zhang, who both work in the lab of Yadong Yin, an associate professor of chemistry, received the awards on April 11 during the 2012 MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco. They were honored for their oral presentations given at the meeting the previous day.
In total, 23 graduate students, selected from 105 applications, were recognized by the society with Graduate Student Awards. Prizes consisted of $400 and a presentation plaque for the Gold Award winners and $200 and a certificate for the Silver Award winners.
Lu developed a number of general self-assembly processes for the synthesis of multi-functional nanoscale composites which show superior performance in various applications including bioseparation, catalysis and energy harvesting.
Such assembly approaches will provide the research community a highly versatile, configurable, scalable, and reproducible process for the preparation of various multifunctional nanostructures, he said.
Zhangs research was focused on the development of highly efficient titanium dioxide (TiO2)-basednanostructured materials for harvestingsolar energy. By controlling the composition, geometric configuration, doping, and interface, he was able to produce photocatalysts with significantly enhanced efficiency in solar-assisted waste water treatment and hydrogen production by splitting water.
The demand forcheap, clean, and sustainableenergy sources is ever-increasing in this energy-hungry world. Solar energy is the best candidate as it is free, clean, and long-lasting, he said. A grand challenge facing the research community is to develop materials capable of transforming solar photons efficiently, stably, and cleanly into chemical or electrical work.
Original post:
Chemistry Graduate Students Honored for Their Research
The Calgary Roughnecks, despite their far-flung roster, stay in touch.
Sprinkled throughout the country from as far away as Vancouver and Toronto players can get together only on weekends.
But, thanks to the digital age, they are never more than a click or two apart.
Weve got a (BlackBerry Messenger) group, weve got e-mail chains, were sending pictures back and forth, were constantly making jokes, were betting on hockey games and that makes a big difference in a league like this, Roughnecks captain Andrew McBride said after Saturdays practice at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Its not one of these things where you dont know lots about the other people on the team. Guys care about other guys lives. They know the girlfriends, the wives, the kids names. They know if theyve had a bad week. Thats pretty special.
Some teams dont have that they come in, talk about lacrosse, play lacrosse, then go their separate ways. But were a very tight cohesive group. Wed go through a wall for each other.
Their hottest e-topic these days? Being three wins from National Lacrosse League glory.
You dont want to think in those terms, but Id be lying if I said everyone hasnt thought about it, said McBride, whose crew finished the regular season with a circuit-best 12-4 record. This week we were reflecting that were literally 180 minutes away. We sent e-mails: What is 180 minutes in the big picture? Its not a lot of time. Were very cognizant that this is our opportunity, that this is our time.
The Roughnecks, though, are careful not to gawk much beyond the nearest challenge.
As the West Divisions top seeds, they host the fourth-place Edmonton Rush on Saturday.
Here its worth noting that the Calgarians dominated the northerners during the regular season. Active is a 10-game winning streak.
More here:
Chemistry strong on playoff-bound Roughnecks
Local science educators will conduct fun chemistry tasks during public event
When it comes to chemistry, who doesnt like a some explosive, but safe fun?
Local K-12 science teachers and members of the Oregon State University chemistry department are organizing a Corvallis Chemistry Show event that features 20 demonstrations.
The events organizers are promising explosions, loud noises and a lot of fun.
Weve got a lot of cool experiments planned, said Cheldelin Middle School science teacher Michael Krasilovsky. It should be a fun and educational experience for everyone.
Its scheduled from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at LaSells Stewart Center on the OSU campus, 875 S.W. 26th Street.
The all-ages event is free, but donations are encouraged. All donations benefit the Corvallis School District science programs.
This our second time doing this, said Linus Pauling Middle School science teacher Matt Stephens. We are trying to do this every two years. Wed love to hold it on annual basis, but thats not possible.
While the Corvallis Chemistry Show is fairly new, Stephens has conducted smaller-scale demonstrations in his classes for years.
Weve traveled to science conventions where they hold similar events, said Stefni Stephens, Matts wife and a science teacher at Cheldelin. Chemical companies have come in and done experiments that are a lot of fun.
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Explosive chemistry on display
For Immediate Release
Kingsport, Tenn., April 30, 2012 - Eastman Chemical Company (EMN) was one of 19 American Chemistry Council (ACC) members honored today at the annual ACC Responsible Care Conference and Expo in Washington, D.C. for implementing energy-efficiency improvements in 2011. Eastman received eight of the 67 awards presented for outstanding projects, including one of the 16 Exceptional Merit awards. This marks the 19th consecutive year Eastman has earned energy efficiency awards from ACC.
"Eastman is honored to be recognized again by ACC for our efforts in achieving energy efficiencies in our operations," said Jim Rogers, Chairman and CEO. "Reducing greenhouse gas emissions through improved energy efficiency is a key part of our vision of being a sustainable chemical company."
Combined, Eastman`s winning projects save over 737,000 MMBTUs and 337,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually. That`s enough energy to power 16,000 homes and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from over 60,000 cars!
"These eight winning projects exhibit innovative examples of control strategy modifications, trials with new types of equipment, creative process redesign and operational changes," said Sharon Nolen, Corporate Energy Program Manager. "Each success confirms our commitment to saving energy and continuous improvement in energy management."
Eastman received an Exceptional Merit award for the restructure of its energy program to a corporate-wide program with broad participation and executive level support, and an emphasis on corporate initiatives, designated funding, ENERGY STAR resources, and employee awareness and engagement in energy conservation. The company was named a 2012 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for its enhanced energy management program and commitment to continuous improvements in energy efficiency.
Seven of Eastman`s awards were for Significant Improvement in Manufacturing. Eastman`s Longview, Texas site received an award for the following project: Fuel reduction in cracking furnaces - To reduce fuel usage in cracking furnaces without affecting plant reliability or production, better control over excess air in the furnaces was implemented. Measures taken included extensive maintenance on the burners, installation of sample points for manual readings, repair of broken draft controls and elimination of tramp air. This project resulted in annual energy savings of 213,662 MMBTU and an annual greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 12,392 tons.
Eastman`s Kingsport, Tennessee site received awards for these projects: Energy minimization in acetic acid refining - To reduce energy consumption by a refining system that removes impurities from acetic acid, a two-phase effort involving control strategy modifications and heat integration was implemented. This resulted in annual energy savings of 40,900 MMBTU and an annual greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 4,300 tons.
Energy reduction through leak repair in compressed air piping network - A leak survey identified, tagged and quantified leaks from an extensive network of piping that provides compressed air to many manufacturing divisions. The amount of the leak was converted into energy used to compress the air lost to the leaks and the amount of coal burned to generate electricity to run the compressors. This project resulted in annual energy savings of 43,000 MMBTU and an annual greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 4515 tons.
Reactor heat recovery - A partial condenser was added to recover heat from the vapor leaving a reactor to preheat the liquid feed to the reactor, providing a significant improvement in energy efficiency as well as increased capacity. This project resulted in annual energy savings of 45,280 MMBTU and an annual greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 4754 tons.
Read more here:
Eastman Chemical Company Receives Energy Efficiency Awards for 19th Consecutive Year
In my editorial for the April issue I asked the question: who is the living chemist you admire most and why?
Before you reply let me tell you what I’m looking for. When most people answer this question they base their choice on what the scientist discovered or created and not so much on what they were like. Here I’m looking for the latter: what happens when you disassociate the scientist from his science? What makes you admire the scientist then? For me it’s all about presence and if you read my editorial you’ll learn why….
To start this off, here are some of the answers that readers have been sending in via our LinkedIn group:
-’It’s not me.’ – Mannam Krishnamurthy
-’My current Prof, Prof Robert Schlögl. A friendly, tough and fair man with a huge and infectious passion for what he does.’ – Neil Hamilton
-’Dr Gene Hiegel, retired professor from CSUF, tops my list. “If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got” was heard every semester in every class he taught and whenever one of his students was lacking motivation in the lab. His true talent was developing future chemists, that and being a smart ass.’ – Tyrone Hogenauer
-’I would say that Prof K C Nicolau, from The Scripps Research Institute/University of California, San Diego, USA is a key name in the chemistry world.’ – Rui Pinto
-’Professor Kocienski, who is not just a great chemist and teacher but a real Renaissance man. Broad, broad knowledge on almost any subject. I remember he used to leave us Latin proverbs on the board in the office 
. He has a pretty good sense of humour as well and he loves good food!’ – Zofia Komsta
-’Dr Ted Sorensen, Professor Emeritus, Chemistry Dept, University of Calgary(Alberta), is a 75 years young scientist, a perfect researcher and above all a down to earth personality, always extending a helping hand to students.’ – Bhagat Singh Atwal
Send us yours!
Bibiana Campos Seijo
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Dublin - Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/2qmxvq/flow_chemistry_tec) has announced the addition of the "Flow Chemistry Technologies: Microtechnologies for Chemical Process Intensification" report to their offering.
Market and technology trends for components, modules and systems dedicated to flow chemistry.
OBJECTIVES OF THE REPORT
The market of MicroReaction Technologies (MRT) dedicated to flow chemistry sharply increased over the last five years. Recent and growing involvement of the fine chemical and pharmaceutical industry clearly signals the transformation of this technology from academic settings towards applied research and production. How have micro-technologies impacted the pharmaceutical and the fine chemicals industries?
Looking back on the last 5 years with an analysis of the most relevant changes is essential to understand the market dynamics observed today.
This Report Provides a Comprehensive View on the Flow Chemistry Market, Including:
- Consolidated MRT market data (2005-2011)
- Market forecasts (2012-2017) for modules, systems and production units.
- Main trends and challenges
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Research and Markets: Flow Chemistry Technologies: Microtechnologies for Chemical Process Intensification
What’s the oddest reference you’ve ever put in a paper? Have you ever been tempted to slip in a joke reference? I’m sure it’s been done, but this paper cites one of the Harry Potter books for real.
The actual device is a pretty neat use of existing technologies… paper diagnostics are being developed but often the results need to be interpreted. How about, instead, if the paper spelled out the result in plain English (or language of your choice)?
— I don’t think you actually have to write a question in blood
When you dab some blood onto the paper device it sticks to the area covered with antibodies for that blood type (A, B or O) and Rhesus factor. Make that area into the shape of the letter and a plus/minus and you get an easily understood readout. That’s basically the gist of the device. Pretty simple, probably quite useful you think. But what was the inspiration for such a device? Well, that seems to be where Harry Potter comes in, or rather, Tom Riddle’s diary.
For those of you not familiar with the story, in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Tom Riddle’s Diary contained the essence of Tom Riddle, later baddie Lord Voldemort, contained within a book. Writing in the book allowed Harry to communicate with Riddle/Voldemort. |You wrote a question and the book responded. Or, as Li et al write in the paper:
‘The British author, J K Rowling, presented a visionary idea in her novel “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” that one can interrogate a piece of paper for information and get unambiguous answers from the paper in writing … The artist’s vision shows that non-conventional mechanisms of reporting assay results using paper-based sensors should be explored.’
So, J K Rowling, author, millionaire, scientist? I’m note sure I’d have gone quite so overboard, and who knows whether the authors were really inspired by Harry Potter or just thought they could help up Rowling’s h-index, but I do quite like the device. As long as it’s not inhabited by a part of Voldemort’s soul – I’m not sure I’d want my blood getting anywhere near him.
Laura Howes
The zipper metaphor - what were we telling the kids with this guy? Readers outside the UK might need some explanation: http://bit.ly/Juiv9o
As anyone who’s used Google today will already know, it’s the birthday of Gideon Sundback (1880–1954), the Swedish engineer who brought the zipper to the world. Sundback’s invention has obviously had a profound and lasting impact on the clothing industry, but its influence extends far beyond that. Notably (for us at least…) the humble zipper has become an indispensible metaphor in chemistry.
Pumping ‘zipper’ into the RSC publishing platform, for example, returns 458 hits. We’ve got metal-organic nanotube zippers, trigonal tryptophane zippers, leucine zippers… the list goes on. And it turns out we aren’t afraid to reach for the zipper metaphor here at Chemistry World either.
Which begs the question: how would such work have been described if the zipper had not been invented? And more interestingly how might actual research have been different? The relationship between language – full of weird and wonderful cognitive scaffolding such as our beloved zipper metaphor – and science is complicated. But we know it isn’t a one way street: to some extent language informs creative thought – which means chemistry owes a debt to Sundback and his zipper.
Andrew Turley
Do you like going to the dentist? Well, you’d like it a lot less without the compound developed by Lofgren, Lundqvist and Fischer – three Swedish chemists with an ‘unconventional’ approach to clinical trials. Lars Öhrström looks at lidocaine in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/6s2bcn/green_corrosion_ch) has announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new book "Green Corrosion Chemistry and Engineering: Opportunities and Challenges" to their offering.
With its unique focus on specifically addressing the problems for societies and economies associated with corrosion and their solution, this book provides an up-to-date overview of the progress in corrosion chemistry and engineering.
International experts actively involved in research and development place particular emphasis on how to counter the economic and environmental consequences of corrosion with the help of science and technology, making this a valuable resource for researchers as well as decision makers in industry and politics.
Further major parts of the book are devoted to corrosion prevention in the naval and energy sector as well as to corrosion monitoring and waste management.
Key Topics Covered:
- Basics of Corrosion Chemistry?
- Corrosion and Electrochemistry
- Application of Microelectrochemical Techniques in Corrosion Research
- Protective Coatings: an Overview?
Read the original here:
Research and Markets: Green Corrosion Chemistry and Engineering: Opportunities and Challenges
ScienceDaily (Apr. 24, 2012) In a study published in PLoS Computational Biology, the Santa Fe Institute's Rogier Braakman and D. Eric Smith map the development of life-sustaining chemistry to the history of early life and trace six methods of carbon fixation seen in modern life back to a single ancestral form.
Carbon fixation -- life's mechanism for making carbon dioxide biologically useful -- forms the biggest bridge between Earth's non-living chemistry and its living biosphere. All organisms that fix carbon do so in one of six ways. These six mechanisms have overlaps, but it was previously unclear which of the six types came first, and how their development interweaved with environmental and biological changes.
The authors used a method that creates "trees" of evolutionary relatedness based on genetic sequences and metabolic traits. From this, they were able to reconstruct the complete early evolutionary history of biological carbon-fixation, relating all ways in which life today performs this function.
The earliest form of carbon fixation identified by scientists achieved a special kind of built-in robustness -- not seen in modern cells -- by layering multiple carbon-fixing mechanisms. This redundancy allowed early life to compensate for a lack of refined control over its internal chemistry, and formed a template for the later splits that created the earliest major branches in the tree of life.
For example, the first major life-form split came with the earliest appearance of oxygen on Earth, causing the ancestors of blue-green algae and most other bacteria to separate from the branch that includes Archaea, which, outside of bacteria, are the other major early group of single-celled microorganisms.
"It seems likely that the earliest cells were rickety assemblies whose parts were constantly malfunctioning and breaking down," explains Smith, an SFI External Professor. "How can any metabolism be sustained with such shaky support? The key is concurrent and constant redundancy."
Once early cells had more refined enzymes and membranes, allowing greater control over metabolic chemistry, environmental driving forces directed life's unfolding. These forces included changes in oxygen level and alkalinity, as well as minimization of the amount of energy (in the form of ATP) used to create biomass.
In other words, the environment drove major divergences in predictable ways -- in contrast to the common widely held belief that chance dominated evolutionary innovation and that rewinding and replaying the evolutionary tape would lead to an irreconcilably different tree of life.
"Mapping cell function onto genetic history gives us a clear picture of the physiology that led to the major foundational divergences of evolution," explains Braakman, an SFI Omidyar Fellow. "This highlights the central role of basic chemistry and physics in driving early evolution."
With the ancestral form uncovered and evolutionary drivers pinned to branching points in the tree, the researchers now want to make the study more mathematically formal and further analyze the early evolution of metabolism.
Link:
Following life's chemistry to the earliest branches on the tree of life