A study that used a new digital library and machine reading system to suck the factual marrow from millions of geologic publications dating back decades has unraveled a longstanding mystery of ancient life: Why did easy-to-see and once-common structures called stromatolites essentially cease forming over the long arc of earth history?

Stromatolites are contorted layers of sediment formed by microbes, and they are often found in limestone and other ancient sedimentary rocks deposited beneath oceans.

"Geologists have known for a long time that stromatolites were abundant in shallow marine environments during the Precambrian, before the emergence of multi-cellular life" more than 560 million years ago, says Jon Husson, a post-doctoral researcher and co-author of a study now online in the journal Geology. "But, stromatolites are rare in the ocean today."

The new study measures the slide in stromatolite prevalence based on descriptions of rocks sifted from more than 3 million scientific publications.

"Paleontologists have largely attributed the decline in stromatolites to the evolution of animals, starting some 560 million years ago," says Shanan Peters, a professor of geoscience at University of Wisconsin-Madison and study first author. "Many multi-cellular animals, like snails, eat microbes. The evolution of these big microbe-grazing animals hit 'reset' on the stromatolite's world. Or so the story has gone."

The new study found a weak correlation between stromatolite occurrence and the diversity of animals, but a stronger link to seawater chemistry.

"The best predictor of stromatolite prevalence, both before and after the evolution of animals, is the abundance of dolomite in shallow marine sediments," says Husson. Dolomite is a high-magnesium variety of carbonate, the type of sediment that forms limestone. Dolomite is harder to make than low-magnesium carbonate and it forms today in only a narrow range of marine environments.

When the ocean water is super-saturated with carbonate, "that can make it easier for things like stromatolites to form," says Husson. "In Lake Tanganyika [Africa], there are stromatolites forming today, even though there are animals everywhere, snails and fish. The lake is super-saturated with carbonate, and it's begging to be precipitated. The microbes come along and help it to precipitate, and the result is an abundance of stromatolites." Elevated carbonate saturation can also help the formation of dolomite, thereby driving the correlation with stromatolites found in this study.

Measuring the prevalence of stromatolites through all Earth history is difficult because counting the number of stromatolites alone is not sufficient. You must also know how many rocks could potentially have stromatolites, but do not.

The big innovation of this study is the interplay of a new type of digital library and machine reading system called GeoDeepDive with a geological database called Macrostrat. Both were spearheaded by Peters at UW-Madison.

GeoDeepDive is a digital library built on high throughput computing technology that can "read" millions of papers and siphon off specific information. To date, the GeoDeepDive library contains more than 3 million scientific publications from all scientific disciplines; some 10,000 new published papers are added daily.

Macrostrat is a database describing the known geological properties of North America's upper crust, at different times and depths.

The massive computing capacity at UW-Madison's Center for High Throughput Computing and HTCondor system, the brainchild of UW-Madison computer scientist Miron Livny, powers GeoDeepDive. Combining the digital library with the geological database allowed the researchers to estimate, at different time periods, the percentage of shallow marine rocks that actually have stromatolites.

The study began in the summer of 2015, when the third author, Julia Wilcots, a Madison-native who was then an undergraduate at Princeton, asked Peters for a summer project. "In my typical fashion I gave Julia a few options," Peters says. "She picked stromatolites, so I said, 'Okay, go do it!' With minimal help from us, she developed a working application to discover and extract every mention of stromatolites from our library."

Among 10,200 papers that mentioned stromatolites, "our program was able to extract 1,013 with a name of a rock unit, which enabled us to link stromatolite occurrences to Macrostrat," says Husson.

Wilcots did not have to travel to see stromatolites, Peters says. "In Madison, we are sitting on top of rocks recording one of the biggest rises in stromatolite abundance -- at least during the age of animals."

Scientists long ago observed that stromatolites started a long decline just before the start of the Cambrian era, but that decline represented a "fundamental question of paleobiology," Husson says. "Stromatolites are the oldest fossils that are visible to the naked eye. If you look at rock that is a billion years old, the chance for seeing evidence of life equals the chance of seeing stromatolites."

Beyond answering a fundamental question of Earth's history, the new study "allows us to do the kind of analyses that scientists used to only dream about, Peters says: 'If we could just compile all the published information on... anything!'

"Doing this study without GeoDeepDive would be all but impossible," Peters adds. "Reading thousands of papers to pick out references to stromatolites, and then linking them to a certain rock unit and geologic period, would take an entire career, even with Google Scholar. Here we got started with a talented undergrad working on a summer project. GeoDeepDive has greatly lowered the barrier to compiling literature data in order to answer many questions."

Another beauty of the big data, machine-reading approach is the baked-in capability for replication and improvement. "Now that this study has been done, we can run the stromatolite application again and again. We can refine the searches, and they will evaluate the new data that is being published all the time," Peters says. "So a rerun could make a better study, with minimal effort."

For centuries, "geologists have transferred hard-to-get information from the field to hard-to-get information in the literature," Peters says. "To achieve a broad-scale synthesis, you have to survey all of the published knowledge. There are new discoveries waiting in the scientific literature, if you can see the big picture and get all the data into one place."

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Massive, computer-analyzed geological database reveals chemistry of ancient ocean - Science Daily

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Tesla battery researcher unveils new chemistry to increase lifecycle at high voltage Electrek Those are already pretty good results, but Tesla aims to do better with Jeff Dahn, a renowned battery researcher and the leader of Tesla's research partnership through his battery-research group at Dalhousie University. The scientist and his team ... and more »

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Light initiates many chemical reactions. Experiments at theLaser Centre of the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the University of Warsaw's Faculty of Physicshave for the first time demonstrated that increasing the intensity of illumination some reactions can be significantly faster. Here, acceleration was achieved using pairs of ultrashort laser pulses.

Light-induced reactions can be accelerated by increasing the intensity of illumination -- this has been demonstrated in experiments carried out at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPC PAS) in Warsaw. In order to thoroughly investigate the nature of the processes involved, ultra-short consecutive pairs of laser pulses were used, and an increase in the rate of reaction between the molecules was observed by up to several dozen percent. The observations of the Warsaw scientists have been reported in the well-known scientific journalPhysical Chemistry Chemical Physics.

"Our experiments provide fundamental knowledge about the physical processes that are important for the course of important light-induced reactions. This knowledge can potentially be used in many applications, especially when dealing with high intensity light sources. These include, among others, various microscopic imaging techniques, ultra-fast spectroscopy as well as photovoltaics, particularly if light-focusing devices such as solar collectors are used," says Dr. Gonzalo Angulo (IPC PAS).

In light-induced reactions, a photon with the appropriate energy excites a molecule of dye. When there is a molecule of quencher near the excited molecule, an interaction takes place: there may be a transfer of energy, an electron or a proton, between the two reactants. Reactions of this type are common in nature. A good example is electron transfer in photosynthesis, which plays a key role in the formation of the Earth's ecosystem.

It turns out that a factor that can influence the acceleration of reactions is the intensity of the light that initiates them. In order to study the nature of the processes taking place, the Warsaw chemists used laser pulses lasting femtoseconds instead of the traditional continuous stream of light. The energy of the impulses was adjusted so that, under their influence, the dye molecules moved into the excited energy state. The pulses were grouped in pairs. The interval between pulses in a pair was several dozen picoseconds (trillionths of a second) and was matched to the type of reacting molecules and the environment of the solution.

"The theory and the experiments required care and attention, but the physical idea itself is quite simple here," notes Jadwiga Milkiewicz, a PhD student at IPC PAS, and explains: "In order for the reaction to occur, there must be a molecule of quencher near the light-excited dye molecule. So, if we have a pair of molecules that have already reacted with each other this means that they were close enough to each other. By increasing the number of photons in time, we thus increase the chance that if, after the reaction, both molecules have managed to return to their ground state, the absorption of a new photon by the dye has the potential to initiate another reaction before the molecules move away from each other in space."

The course of reactions in solutions depends on many factors such as temperature, pressure, viscosity or the presence of an electric or magnetic field. The research at the IPC PAS has proved that these factors also influence the acceleration of the chemical reaction that occurs with an increased intensity of illumination. Under some conditions, the acceleration of the reaction was unnoticeable, in optimal conditions the rate of the reaction increased by up to 25-30%.

"In our experiments so far, we have concentrated on light-induced electron transfer reactions, that is, those which change the electrical charge of the molecules. However, we do not see any reason why the mechanism we have observed could not function in other variations of these reactions. So, in the near future, we will try to confirm its efficacy in energy transfer reactions or in reactions involving also proton transfer," says Dr. Angulo.

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With More Light, Chemistry Speeds Up - R & D Magazine

I arrived to the party a little late -- 1:30am to be exact; a not entirely unreasonable hour to show up to a loft party in Brooklyn. After making my way up the steps and through the metal emergency exit door, I found a crowded loft filled with exposed brick, loud music, a bartender mixing drinks, and an outdoor patio with a string of Christmas lights. It was exactly what youd expect from a loft party in Brooklyn, except for the fact that almost everyone was naked and more than half of them were having sex. This was Chemistry: the citys most laid-back sex party.

The New York sex party scene used to be stereotyped as dingy, illicit debauchery replete with mustachioed gentlemen in silk shirts and gold chains. You can thank Platos Retreat for that -- an Upper West Side sex club that was popular in the late 70s and 80s and described by author Steven Gaines in his book, The Sky's the Limit: Passion and Property in Manhattan, as an assortment of kinky types from the suburbs: dry cleaners and their wives or fat men in toupees with their heavily made-up girlfriends. But the modern day New York City sex club scene is a far cry from that, and Chemistry, a members-only, secret location-based, monthly sex party in Williamsburg, is the best example of it.

We strive to create an atmosphere that is fun, visually interesting, has great entertainment, is a treat for all of the senses, and is sexy -- but one that doesnt hit you over the head with sex. We know thats why people are there, and dont think that they need the reminder of hardcore porn projected on the walls, says Kenny Blunt, co-founder of Chemistry. The environment is completely relaxed and unpretentious; attendees run the spectrum from happily committed couples to ambiguous friends with benefits to singles looking for a hookup or to be a court-side observer. Its as hands on (or off) as you wish to make it. Theres a band, a DJ, a bartender, couples dancing, talking -- it isnt until much later that sex is put on the table and the floor and everywhere else.

Before attending Chemistry for the first time, my previous sex party experience had been at Behind Closed Doors, another members-only party thats strictly held in upscale locations (think penthouses and suites). Geared toward a more corporate-type crowd, complete with Champagne flutes, suits, and glittering Rolexes, it was the complete opposite of Chemistry. Of course, to some, that may be a more comfortable, erotic environment in which to strip down. And the fact that a party like that and a party like Chemistry can coexist in the same city speaks to just how varied New Yorkers sex preferences can be. No matter your style or preference, whether youre a Wall Street tycoon or bearded and into small-batch, whether you prefer your public sex swanky or subdued, youll find a spot to fit in. For me, that was Chemistry.

On my most recent visit to Chemistry (also my fourth), I arrived to find the lofts various dark spaces filled with suggestive blue and red lighting, strangers casually wandering around naked, a bartender doling out potent vodka sodas, couples standing around chatting in their underwear, and lofty screams of pleasure echoing from couples strewn across couches in private corners known as play rooms. Standard sex party procedure. On the outdoor patio were a series of small tents set up like a bawdy bedouin enclave. Tent doors were left slightly ajar, perfect for catching the occasional flailing leg.

It felt as normal to me as if I had walked into a local dive on a Friday night: a casual nod to another regular, a hug for the party owner, and a quick stop at the bar for a drink. It was a drastic change from my first time, even second or third, when I had an overwhelming feeling of anxiety. It makes sense -- taking our clothes off and having sex is usually reserved for private encounters with someone we care about (or at least someone whose body we care about for that particular evening). But the more Ive been to sex parties, the more Ive come to understand about New Yorks ever-evolving relationship with sex (and my own).

To become a member at Chemistry, youre required to answer a few questions about your outlook on sex and sexuality via a questionnaire that can be found on the website (these include, What is your philosophy on sex?, What role does sexuality play in your life?, and What is your favorite nonsexual hobby, past or present? Why?).

The monthly events are hosted in a large space in Williamsburg, but every now and then there are smaller, more intimate VIP events, held in a space in Clinton Hill, like a Halloween-themed party for select, regular members. There are fees per party that range based on who you are (i.e., a single woman, a couple, a regular). Chemistry member female tickets range from $20-60, and member couple tickets range from $130-200 (single men are only allowed if they are regulars and the organizers know them).

In addition to its incredibly relaxed venue, Chemistrys greatest appeal is the fact that its completely judgment-free, no matter if youre squeezed into your most revealing lace or something a little less porous. (The organizers urge attendees to shy away from jeans and sneakers and to embrace the theme du jour, whether its Leather & Lace, or a Naughty & Nice Christmas, but you certainly will not be turned away if you dont.) Members tend to be anywhere from their mid-20s to early 40s, and the vibe is all about casual conversation, laughter, and comfort, all interspersed with mood-setting entertainment like fire dancers, burlesque, or acrobatics.

I always had these grand visions of going to a swingers club or a sex party, but I could never muster the courage or frankly find the right partner, one male avid Chemistry attendee tells me. After 30-something years and asking many girls throughout my life if theyd be open to it, I finally got the opportunity to go to one of Chemistrys parties. I had no idea what to expect. The first time I entered the playroom I was amazed. It was like looking at every porn site but live, in person, in one room. People of all shapes, sizes, colors, preferences, and moaning volume.

Another member, a first-timer at the most recent party I went to, told me she was amazed by how instantly at ease she felt. I quickly came to realize, everybody was in their own world. Nobody was judging, looking at you funny -- it was just a group of open-minded, adventurous, free-spirited, and fun people expressing themselves in the best way possible. As I was bent in front of my date standing up behind me, I glanced over to see a couple sitting 5ft from us just watching. Instead of freezing or retreating, I simply waved hello. In that moment, I knew I had totally let go and felt completely at ease... and excited.

That at-ease feeling is certainly contagious at Chemistry. The third time I went, I accompanied a curious girlfriend of mine so that she could see it for herself but have me there as a built-in safety net. Like any new social setting, she was hesitant at first, clinging to my side and waiting for someone else to break the ice. By the time I left the party she was mounted atop a Sybian, on a stage in front of dozens of people, getting off while a half-naked, muscled man massaged her shoulders.

A large portion of the time, New York City singles go out with the hopes of getting laid. We go through the motions -- eye contact (but not too much because you dont want to seem too eager), conversation (but not too much because you dont want to seem desperate or self-absorbed), and the exchange of phone numbers (but not too soon, of course). We cling to our dating apps because its just so hard to meet people. We join clubs, attend Meetups, play dodgeball (or kickball, or cornhole), and even speed date -- all in attempts to meet new people, ideally with the intent on one day having sex with them. Sure, you may also be looking for a relationship, but sex is always part of the equation, even though youre working tirelessly to prove that it isnt. At a sex party... well, its ki
nd of the whole point, isnt it?

That said, no one at Chemistry forces you to participate in anything. Hours before the recent party I went to, Id feasted on Thai food and tequila with an old college roommate and wasnt feeling my most particularly sexy... or sober. I wasnt there for sex, and that was understood. (Third base on the dance floor? Completely different story.) Chemistry is a (self-proclaimed) sensual gala that is so far removed from the stigmas that sex partygoers are freaks or have bizarre fetishes. Its a club, like Craft Beer for Dummies, or Introduction to Spanish. Just a little more naked.

If youre curious about a sex party, that doesnt make you weird or a fetishist. It makes you inquisitive, it makes you adventurous, and it makes you healthy. So much of the dating scene in New York is about playing games, beating around the bush, and guessing whats going on. At Chemistry, its all laid out for you, both proverbially and literally naked. Theres no guesswork, no games. You all came for the same thing. Its the perfect place for New Yorkers who want to test boundaries, meet interesting, educated people, and maybe even have sex with them.

Sign up here for our daily NYC email and be the first to get all the food/drink/fun New York has to offer.

Meagan Drillinger is a contributing writer for Thrillist. All of her dates are tax deductible. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @drillinjourneys.

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Still Nervous About Attending a Sex Party? Go to Williamsburg's Chemistry. - Thrillist

March 30, 2017 A mathematical model (left) uses a geometrical framework to explain how previous patterns grew and predict new carbonate-silica structures (right, imaged by scanning electron microscopy). Credit: Wim L. Noorduin/ C. Nadir Kaplan/ Harvard University

In 2013, materials scientists at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering, grew a garden of self-assembled crystal microstructures. Now, applied mathematicians at SEAS and Wyss have developed a framework to better understand and control the fabrication of these microstructures.

Together, the researchers used that framework to grow sophisticated optical microcomponents.

The research is published in Science.

When it comes to the fabrication of multifunctional materials, nature has humans beat by miles. Marine mollusks can embed photonic structures into their curved shells without compromising shell strength; deep sea sponges evolved fiber optic cables to direct light to symbiotically living organisms; and brittlestars cover their skeletons with lenses to focus light into the body to "see" at night. During growth, these sophisticated optical structures tune tiny, well-defined curves and hollow shapes to better guide and trap light.

Manufacturing complex bio-inspired shapes in the lab is often time consuming and costly. The breakthrough in 2013 was led by materials scientists Joanna Aizenberg, the Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science and Chemistry and Chemical Biology and core faculty member of the Wyss Institute and former postdoctoral fellow Wim L. Noorduin. The research allowed researchers to fabricate delicate, flower-like structures on a substrate by simply manipulating chemical gradients in a beaker of fluid. These structures, composed of carbonate and glass, form a bouquet of thin walls.

What that research lacked then was a quantitative understanding of the mechanisms involved that would enable even more precise control over these structures.

Enter the theorists.

Inspired by the theory to explain solidification and crystallization patterns, L. Mahadevan, the Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Physics, and Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and postdoctoral fellow C. Nadir Kaplan, developed a new geometrical framework to explain how previous precipitation patterns grew and even predicted new structures.

Mahadevan is also core member of the Wyss Institute.

In experiments, the shape of the structures can be controlled by changing the pH of the solution in which the shapes are fabricated.

"At high pH, these structures grow in a flat manner and you get flat shapes, like side of a vase," said Kaplan, co-first author of the paper. "At low pH, the structure starts to curve and you get helical structures."

When Kaplan solved the resulting equations as a function of pH, with a mathematical parameter standing in for the chemical change, he found that he could recreate all the shapes developed by Noorduin and Aizenbergand come up with new ones.

"Once we understood the growth and form of these structures and we could quantify them; our goal was to use the theory to come up with a strategy to build optical structures from the bottom up," said Kaplan.

Kaplan and Noorduin worked together to grow resonators, waveguides and beam splitters.

"When we had the theoretical framework, we were able to show the same process experimentally," said Noorduin, co-first author. "Not only were we able to grow these microstructures, but we could also demonstrate their ability to conduct light."

Noorduin is now a group lead at the Dutch materials research organization AMOLF.

"The approach may provide a scalable, inexpensive and accurate strategy to fabricate complex three-dimensional microstructures, which cannot be made by top-down manufacturing and tailor them for magnetic, electronic, or optical applications," said Joanna Aizenberg, co-author of the paper.

"Our theory reveals that, in addition to growth, carbonate-silica structures can also undergo bending along the edge of their thin walls," said Mahadevan, the senior author of the paper. "This additional degree of freedom is typically lacking in conventional crystals, such as a growing snowflake. This points to a new kind of growth mechanism in mineralization, and because the theory is independent of absolute scale, it may be adapted to other geometrically constrained growth phenomena in physical and biological systems."

Next, the researchers hope to model how groups of these structures compete against each other for chemicals, like trees in a forest competing for sunlight.

Explore further: Mathematical framework explains diverse plant stem forms

More information: "Controlled growth and form of precipitating microsculptures," Science, science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aah6350

It is well known that as plants grow, their stems and shoots respond to outside signals like light and gravity. But if plants all have similar stimuli, why are there so many different plant shapes? Why does a weeping willow ...

By simply manipulating chemical gradients in a beaker of fluid, materials scientists at Harvard have found that they can control the growth behavior of crystals to create precisely tailored structuressuch as delicate, ...

Nature does amazing things with limited design materials. Grass, for example, can support its own weight, resist strong wind loads, and recover after being compressed. The plant's hardiness comes from a combination of its ...

A team of scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has evolved their microscale 3D printing technology ...

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What if you could make any object out of a flat sheet of paper? That future is on the horizon thanks to new research by L. Mahadevan, the Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Organismic and Evolutionary ...

Classical physics states that a crystal consists of perfectly ordered particles from a continuous symmetrical atomic structure. The Mermin-Wagner theorem from 1966 broke with this view: it states that in one-dimensional and ...

Compressed sensing is an exciting new computational technique for extracting large amounts of information from a signal. In one high-profile demonstration, for instance, researchers at Rice University built a camera that ...

(Phys.org)A team of researchers from several institutions in Germany has used laser pulses to change an atomic wire from an insulator to a metal and back again in what the group describes as the fastest electronic switch ...

In 2013, materials scientists at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering, grew a garden of self-assembled crystal microstructures. ...

In November of 2005, the satellite Venus Express at a speed of about 18,000 miles per hour made the trip to the second planet from the sun in about 155 days.

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Sculpting optical microstructures with slight changes in chemistry - Phys.Org

Just weeks after My Chemical Romance reunited for a sold-out Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles, they have announced they are heading out on their first US tour in nine years.

The tour will start on September 9 in Detroit, Michigan and end on October 11 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The band, broke up in 2013, previously announced a series of overseas performances for March, including shows in Milton Keynes, England -- two of which sold out (65,000 tickets) in less than an hour.

Formed in Newark, New Jersey, My Chemical Romance made its debut in 2002 with the independently released album "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love."

The band made its major label debut with 2004's "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, "now 3x certified Platinum. The album contained the platinum hit "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)," the gold-certified "Helena," and "The Ghost of You."

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My Chemical Romance announces first US tour in nine years - CNN

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US Senators form chemistry caucus - Chemical Watch (subscription)

March 30, 2017 by David Tenenbaum A stromatolite from Northern Wisconsin in the courtyard of Weeks Hall on the UWMadison campus. Credit: David Tenenbaum

A study that used a new digital library and machine reading system to suck the factual marrow from millions of geologic publications dating back decades has unraveled a longstanding mystery of ancient life: Why did easy-to-see and once-common structures called stromatolites essentially cease forming over the long arc of earth history?

Stromatolites are contorted layers of sediment formed by microbes, and they are often found in limestone and other ancient sedimentary rocks deposited beneath oceans.

"Geologists have known for a long time that stromatolites were abundant in shallow marine environments during the Precambrian, before the emergence of multi-cellular life" more than 560 million years ago, says Jon Husson, a post-doctoral researcher and co-author of a study now online in the journal Geology. "But, stromatolites are rare in the ocean today."

The new study measures the slide in stromatolite prevalence based on descriptions of rocks sifted from more than 3 million scientific publications.

"Paleontologists have largely attributed the decline in stromatolites to the evolution of animals, starting some 560 million years ago," says Shanan Peters, a professor of geoscience at University of Wisconsin-Madison and study first author. "Many multi-cellular animals, like snails, eat microbes. The evolution of these big microbe-grazing animals hit 'reset' on the stromatolite's world. Or so the story has gone."

The new study found a weak correlation between stromatolite occurrence and the diversity of animals, but a stronger link to seawater chemistry.

"The best predictor of stromatolite prevalence, both before and after the evolution of animals, is the abundance of dolomite in shallow marine sediments," says Husson. Dolomite is a high-magnesium variety of carbonate, the type of sediment that forms limestone. Dolomite is harder to make than low-magnesium carbonate and it forms today in only a narrow range of marine environments.

When the ocean water is super-saturated with carbonate, "that can make it easier for things like stromatolites to form," says Husson. "In Lake Tanganyika [Africa], there are stromatolites forming today, even though there are animals everywhere, snails and fish. The lake is super-saturated with carbonate, and it's begging to be precipitated. The microbes come along and help it to precipitate, and the result is an abundance of stromatolites." Elevated carbonate saturation can also help the formation of dolomite, thereby driving the correlation with stromatolites found in this study.

Measuring the prevalence of stromatolites through all Earth history is difficult because counting the number of stromatolites alone is not sufficient. You must also know how many rocks could potentially have stromatolites, but do not.

The big innovation of this study is the interplay of a new type of digital library and machine reading system called GeoDeepDive with a geological database called Macrostrat. Both were spearheaded by Peters at UW-Madison.

The massive computing capacity at UW-Madison's Center for High Throughput Computing and HTCondor system, the brainchild of UW-Madison computer scientist Miron Livny, powers GeoDeepDive. Combining the digital library with the geological database allowed the researchers to estimate, at different time periods, the percentage of shallow marine rocks that actually have stromatolites.

The study began in the summer of 2015, when the third author, Julia Wilcots, a Madison-native who was then an undergraduate at Princeton, asked Peters for a summer project. "In my typical fashion I gave Julia a few options," Peters says. "She picked stromatolites, so I said, 'Okay, go do it!' With minimal help from us, she developed a working application to discover and extract every mention of stromatolites from our library."

Among 10,200 papers that mentioned stromatolites, "our program was able to extract 1,013 with a name of a rock unit, which enabled us to link stromatolite occurrences to Macrostrat," says Husson.

Wilcots did not have to travel to see stromatolites, Peters says. "In Madison, we are sitting on top of rocks recording one of the biggest rises in stromatolite abundance - at least during the age of animals."

Scientists long ago observed that stromatolites started a long decline just before the start of the Cambrian era, but that decline represented a "fundamental question of paleobiology," Husson says. "Stromatolites are the oldest fossils that are visible to the naked eye. If you look at rock that is a billion years old, the chance for seeing evidence of life equals the chance of seeing stromatolites."

Beyond answering a fundamental question of Earth's history, the new study "allows us to do the kind of analyses that scientists used to only dream about, Peters says: 'If we could just compile all the published information on... anything!'

"Doing this study without GeoDeepDive would be all but impossible," Peters adds. "Reading thousands of papers to pick out references to stromatolites, and then linking them to a certain rock unit and geologic period, would take an entire career, even with Google Scholar. Here we got started with a talented undergrad working on a summer project. GeoDeepDive has greatly lowered the barrier to compiling literature data in order to answer many questions."

Another beauty of the big data, machine-reading approach is the baked-in capability for replication and improvement. "Now that this study has been done, we can run the stromatolite application again and again. We can refine the searches, and they will evaluate the new data that is being published all the time," Peters says. "So a rerun could make a better study, with minimal effort."

For centuries, "geologists have transferred hard-to-get information from the field to hard-to-get information in the literature," Peters says. "To achieve a broad-scale synthesis, you have to survey all of the published knowledge. There are new discoveries waiting in the scientific literature, if you can see the big picture and get all the data into one place."

Explore further: A window on Earth's first life formsfinding more stromatolites

Stromatolites have been discovered beyond the well-researched south-east corner of Hamelin Pool, in Shark Bay Western Australia, according to a researcher from Bush Heritage.

Look at the world-renowned stromatolites protruding from saline seas at Hamelin Pool in Shark Bay and you could be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about.

New research from a University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science-led science team provides new insight into one of the world's most diverse and extensive ecosystems of living microbes. The ...

Could there be a way to find bacterial structures on another planet? And if so, how important might these bacteria be in making a planet life-friendly? These are some of the questions that could be answered through studies ...

The origin of life lies in unique ocean reefs, and scientists from the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science have developed an approach to help investigate them better.

Ancient clusters of rock that preserve some of the oldest microbes on Earth occasionally possess mysterious branch-like formations. Now, scientists think they know what might have caused this enigmatic branchingchanges ...

A study that used a new digital library and machine reading system to suck the factual marrow from millions of geologic publications dating back decades has unraveled a longstanding mystery of ancient life: Why did easy-to-see ...

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In 2011, researchers observed something that should be impossiblea massive bloom of phytoplankton growing under Arctic sea ice in conditions that should have been far too dark for anything requiring photosynthesis to survive. ...

A new study involving the University of East Anglia (UEA) has revealed for the first time the global scale of premature deaths related to air pollution from international trade.

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A team of scientists led by the University of Southampton has found that the Antarctic ice cap underwent dramatic cycles of expansion and melt-back millions of years ago when carbon dioxide levels were similar to those experienced ...

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Massive, computer-analyzed geological database reveals chemistry of ancient ocean - Phys.Org

Name a better TV couple than Jim and Pam on The Office fans loved the way the two clicked as flirty friends, then watched as they dated and got married, stumbled a bit in their marriage, and looked like they had a beautiful future as the show ended. During a recent Office Ladies podcast, Jenna Fischer, who played Pam, pointed out one moment between the two that really showed their chemistry.

During the Jan. 14 installment of the Office Ladies podcast, hosts Fischer and Angela Kinsey looked at season 2s Halloween episode, in which boss Michael Scott is forced to fire a staff member of the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin. Their co-star Creed Bratton shared his experiences from the episode during the podcast as well.

Brattons character, it turns out, almost got fired, as Michael labored over who to cut, called Creed into his office to fire him and, when he was unsuccessful, fired the other background actor, Devon Abner, who played the character Devon.

Fisher shared that show-runner Greg Daniels couldnt fire a series regular cast member because they had contracts and he didnt want to fire a supporting cast member either, so it came down to Bratton and Abner, who at the time were the two background actors on the show.

Bratton shared: Greg found out that Devon had atheater contract and that he was going to go on tour, adding, Hetold us, One of you guys is going to have to go, but we dont know yet. Weregoing to shoot you both and see how it works. I remember being a little nervous,and Devon and I were friends.

During the podcast, the hosts pointed out that Jim and Pam had their first air high five during the episode, a moment that comes to the minds of many fans when they think about the couples timeline on the series.

Kinsey noted how its pretty tricky to pull off, having tried it with her daughter, finding the timing challenging, but Fischer said she and John Krasinski, who played Jim, Kind of did it perfectly the first time, adding, it was meant to be. That speaks to our chemistry, I believe.

During the Halloween episode, Pam suggests that Jim should apply for another job and he is hurt by the idea of her not missing him if he left. She later apologizes for pushing him about the job, saying shed blow her brains out if he left and he tells the camera that Pam is the only thing keeping him there.

During the podcast, they discussed how these characters are being pushed together, pulled apart quite often, with Fischer pointing out that these episodes of The Office start to feature a sweet Pam and Jim moment and then a moment where someone gets their feelings are hurt.

Originally posted here:
'The Office': Jim and Pam's Chemistry Is Evident in This Iconic Moment, According to Jenna Fischer - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

AUSTIN, Texas The Welch Foundation, one of the nations largest private funding organizations for basic chemical research, is giving $2.5 million to establish the Norbert Dittrich-Welch Chair in Chemical Engineering in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austins Cockrell School of Engineering. The chair is named in honor of Norbert Dittrich, who is retiring as the foundations president after serving for 26 years in this role.

The Welch Foundations generosity has helped bring outstanding faculty to UT and advanced fundamental research in chemistry, and Norbert has been vital to fostering this great relationship, said UT Austin President Gregory L. Fenves. Its fitting that the Norbert Dittrich-Welch Chair will honor his legacy in the Cockrell School. I look forward to continuing our collaboration with The Welch Foundation for many years to come.

The gift will enable the McKetta Department to invest in a prominent researcher who generates bold new ideas and develops innovative solutions to some of societys most complex problems. Already recognized as a national leader in chemical engineering research, the department will use the new chair to further strengthen its research capabilities and continue shaping the future of engineering innovation.

Dittrich joined The Welch Foundation in 1977 and became its president in 1993. Among his many accomplishments, he has been recognized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his philanthropic service, through which he has enhanced chemical research that continues to improve the quality of life around the world. During his 42 years with the organization, The Welch Foundation has contributed more than $800 million to the advancement of chemistry.

Throughout my career at The Welch Foundation, I have enjoyed witnessing firsthand the foundations impact on researchers, students and faculty. These Welch-funded research grants and endowed chairs are so important and continue to drive the foundations mission, advancing chemistry to improve the world, Dittrich said. It is an honor to be recognized in such a significant way.

The new chair represents the latest contribution in The Welch Foundations long history of support for chemical research at UT and throughout Texas. Since 1954, the organization has contributed nearly $930 million to the advancement of chemistry through research grants, departmental grants, endowed chairs and other chemistry-related programs statewide.

In addition to its philanthropic efforts, the foundation also presents the Welch Award in Chemistry and the Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research. Recent UT recipients of these annual awards include mechanical engineering professor John Goodenough, who received the 2017 Welch Award for innovative contributions to materials science and technology; chemical engineering professor Delia Milliron, who received the 2017 Norman Hackerman Award for her contributions to the chemistry of colloidal nanocrystals and novel nanomaterials; and former chemical engineering professor Christopher Ellison, who received the 2016 Norman Hackerman Award for his creative application of chemistry to the design and development of new materials and processes of great value to society.

We must remain competitive in recruiting and retaining top faculty and providing them with the resources they need to change the world, said Thomas Truskett, chair of the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering. The Norbert Dittrich-Welch Chair represents an extraordinary opportunity for us to support a highly regarded researcher who advances innovation and propels our department to even greater heights.

See the article here:
Welch Foundation to Establish New Chemical Engineering Chair at UT - UT News | The University of Texas at Austin

The University of Oxford is asking the public for donations to support a new chemistry fellowship that will be awarded to someone returning to research after a career break.

The Dorothy Hodgkin fellowship named after the x-ray crystallographer and chemistry Nobel laureate who was the first woman at the university to receive maternity pay aims to help address the leaky pipeline of women leaving academia. The initial goal is to fund a five-year research post in the universitys chemistry department as well as a stipendiary lecturer to cover teaching.

The crowdfunding campaign is a joint enterprise between the universitys chemistry department and Somerville College, where Hodgkin was a fellow.

So far it has raised more than 162,000 of the 500,000 target. When the total reaches 196,500 it will be matched by a group of four anonymous donors. Eventually, the project hopes to raise enough money to ensure a continuous stream of fellows returning to chemistry.

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Public donations sought for career returners' chemistry fellowship - Chemistry World (subscription)

Chemistry is one of the big winners when it comes to EU research funding securing almost 55 million in 201415 alone. This is according to an analysis for the national academies, which found that chemistry was one of the top five disciplines when it came to attracting European research grants behind only clinical medicine, biosciences and physics. It also relies heavily on that funding: on average, EU grants accounted for 23% of departmental research income in the same year. This funding is now under threat with Britains planned exit from the EU.

Jason Love, head of inorganic chemistry at Edinburgh University isnt surprised: Its a broad subject so its able to get funding from medical research, biological research, more fundamental physical sciences research and materials. The breadth [] means we will collaborate widely. Moreover, there are a lot of challenges in chemistry that cant be solved in isolation. On average, over the past six years, 16% of his departments research funding has come from EU programmes.

Overall, higher education has taken the lions share of Horizon 2020 funding coming into the UK: over 1.93 billion (1.69 billion) by the end of 2016, equating to 63% of the total. Higher education institutions (HEI) arent so successful in other countries. To put the scale of EU investment in context, in 201415 HEIs reported 725 million in EU funding, which was 12% of their total income from grants and contracts, or around 25% of the 2.75 billion in research grants provided through UK government bodies.

The sector also attracts significant support from the European Regional Development Fund, and loans from the European Investment Bank which, according to the reports authors, Technopolis, have enabled research institutes to move forward earlier with more ambitious development plans. These endorsements from the bank can also be key in attracting other investors.

Amer Gaffar, director of the Manchester Fuel Cell Innovation Centre, says a 1.6 million award allowed Manchester Metropolitan University to get the centre off the ground quickly. Its doors will open at the end of the year and provide SMEs with equipment to develop hydrogen fuel cells. EU funding has also allowed his team to build partnerships across Europe that will be vital to the success of the centre.

EU research programmes provide unique personal grants and fellowships. During the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) the predecessor to Horizon 2020 the UK won over 22% of European Research Council (ERC) grants. These not only provide science funding but enable us to attract international staff, which is incredibly important, says Claire Carmalt, head of chemistry at University College London. 1520% of her departments funding portfolio comes from the EU.

Last year one of its researchers won an ERC consolidator grant, which backs ground-breaking, risky research. The department, she adds, will leverage off the exciting science it supports. Edinburghs chemistry department also has two starting grants that help cement early stage careers. Love questions whether the UK government will offer more funds for early career researchers. These can really kick start a career or push on to important innovations, he notes.

Those grants also provide a flexibility not offered by UK funding sources. A lot of UK research council grants have an industrial or manufacturing focus [] whereas EU funding can have projects for fundamental science, says Carmalt. We need the fundamental research to get us to the applied.

Schemes such as the Marie Skodowska-Curie Actions, which support mobility between countries, are fantastic for bringing across really top people to the UK and help diversify talent, Carmalt adds. The UK has been very successful in winning these awards. But both Carmalt and Love are concerned that Brexit will mean losing academic staff from across the EU: How will we plug the gap? asks Carmalt. Edinburgh has already lost EU colleagues.

UK industry also gets substantial funding for research from the EU. In the first two years of Horizon 2020, companies received an average of 189 million a year. SMEs have been particularly successful, attracting more funding from Horizon 2020 and FP7, than any other country. It also accounts for a much higher proportion of R&D spend by SMEs than for the UK business sector as a whole. SMEs did particularly well in thematic funding such as ICT, nanosciences and materials.

Companies that took part in projects in FP7 report improved access to markets. Large companies also report significant benefits. The reports authors notes that the framework programmes facilitates strategic collaboration across Europe and helps underpin the innovation ecosystem by supporting the pipeline of ideas and talent from universities. They also point to the unique scale and reach of Horizon 2020 joint technology initiatives such as those on innovative medicines and hydrogen fuel cells, dwarf anything being done on a national scale.

Analysis suggests that public R&D expenditure like Horizon 2020 has a significant crowding-in effect, encouraging further private investment in R&D outside the programme. Studies suggest that for every 1 spent on R&D by the European commission, a further 0.74 will be invested by companies or other organisations in the wider EU economy. Technopolis argues that the effect could be stronger in an advanced economy like the UKs.

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Value of EU to UK chemistry revealed - Chemistry World (subscription)

Joyce Krusa (center) accompanied by her daughter, Alliey, and husband, Brian receives the Chemistry Teacher of the Year Award by the Central Wisconsin Section of the American Chemical Society. (Contributed photo)

Pacelli Catholic High School teacher Joyce Krusa was recently awarded the Chemistry Teacher of the Year Award by the Central Wisconsin Section of the American Chemical Society, a regional group of chemistry educators and professionals covering the central and northcentral Wisconsin region.

This year, (the) ACS-Central Wisconsin Chapter has chosen an outstanding high school chemistry teacher that (is) deserving of special recognition, said Gary Shulfer, chair of ACS-Central Wisconsin Chapter and University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point chemistry professor.

Devoting more than 15 years of her professional life to science education, Krusa possesses great leadership and has developed strong relationships with her students. As a result, more than 30 percent of her students pursue undergraduate degrees in science-related fields.

Krusa has taken on a big role in developing STEM (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and Project Lead the Way (PLTW) curriculum at Pacelli implementing both engineering and biomedical engineering tracks. She works to create learning opportunities for students that are rigorous and relevant.

Currently, one of her students is finishing a two-year STEM capstone internship with a local manufacturer, one of very few internships of this type for high school students in the state of Wisconsin.

I was nominated by a former student, said Krusa. The idea that a student of mine thought this much to nominate me is very humbling.

PCHS principal Larry Theiss also submitted a recommendation letter on Krusas behalf.

She constantly strives to create projects and lessons that draw they students into the learning making it fun, engaging, and interesting, said Theiss in his letter. She challenges them to expand their understanding in order to help them achieve higher levels of understanding and critical thinking.

Krusa was honored at the annual ACS-Central Wisconsin Chapter awards banquet on May 11 at Draganettis Ristorante in Eau Claire.

For my peers to recognize me for this award is one of the highlights of my teaching career, said Krusa.

Continued here:
Pacelli's Krusa awarded Chemistry Teacher of the Year Award - Portage County Gazette

The number of quality chemistry research papers coming out of India is on the up, but still lags far behind China and must accelerate if India is to become a major global player in chemistry. Thats the conclusion of a new scientometric analysis of chemistry research in India that uses Chinas explosive research growth as a benchmark.

While the total number of chemistry papers with Indian authors published between 2007 and 2014 grew at an impressive three-year moving average of 8.9%, the study shows that the country continues to be poorly represented in the top journals. This is despite India making up 17% of the worlds population. When publications in only high quality journals are considered Indias rank falls, leading to the question are we publishing mediocre stuff? state the authors of the study.

Between 2011 and 2015 Indian chemists published 144 papers in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), the study notes, far behind Chinas 1857. In another top journal, Chemical Communications, India accounted for 794 papers from 2011 through to 2015, compared to 6084 from China. The study notes that India accounts for only 2.3% of the 2234 papers in the top one percentile of the most highly cited chemistry papers published in 2014, compared to 38% from China, whose lead over India in 2000 was meagre.

That only a small number of Indian researchers and institutions publish in leading journals is also a matter for concern, the authors contend. Despite an increase in research output and international collaboration, chemistry research in India is still not in the big league.

The study is based on chemistry research publication data from 19912015 collected from various databases, including Natureindex.com, SCImago and Web of Science. The authors focused on 25 leading chemistry journals six of which are general chemistry journals and on chemistry papers published in leading general science journals Nature, Science and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new study comes in the wake of three earlier prominent studies focusing on general science in India but which included sections on chemistry. Each of those three reports from Nature Index, Elsevier, and Thomson Reuters was largely positive on the current state of, and outlook, for chemistry in India.

Subbiah Arunachalam, lead author of the new report, tells Chemistry World that his study differs from the other three in several ways, most significantly by focusing only on chemistry and on papers published in top chemistry journals. By such careful selection of journals, we ensured only papers of certain quality would be included in our analysis, he says. He says the study also presents a comparative data breakdown on papers from several Asian nations, as well as Indian institutions published in JACS, Chemical Communications and Angewandte Chemie. We have also commented on the increase in internationally co-authored papers and their propensity to attract more citations. On the overall state of chemistry in India, Arunachalam says I would say strengths certainly outweigh the weaknesses.

Sandeep Verma, head of the department of chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology, says that the strong suit of the study is its narrative based on quantitative data. However, the authors summarily deliver a verdict that chemistry research is not making rapid progress in India based on the premise of publishing in JACS, Angewandte Chemie or Chem Comm. While these three journals are top of the line with high impact factors, one has to also consider core journals such as Organic Letters or Journal of Organic Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry and Journal of Physical Chemistry, preferred widely by Indian chemists who feel comfortable within traditional boundaries.

Verma concludes: Therefore, the rhetoric of are we publishing mediocre stuff is high-handed and is based on an arguable premise. Thus, in my opinion, this paper presents a small part of a complex story of chemistry research in India.

Abhishek Dey, an inorganic chemist at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in Kolkata, notes that the study does show that the younger scientists are publishing more in high impact journals. However, he says another parameter the study could have included was reviewing activity by these authors. It not only shows the credibility of the scientist as a go to expert but also shows their commitment towards the development of journals they publish in.

I am quite hopeful about the future of chemistry in India, says Dey. There has been a lot of really great appointments thanks to the new institutes that have come up. If these institutes can provide good academic environments to their faculty, chemistry research should get much better in the days to come. That being said, we still have a long way to go to be considered as a leader in the area.

Verma agrees that the future of Indian chemistry looks bright. But he says the field needs more support from the Indian government, which he says favours the biological sciences over physical. The numbers presented in this paper are actually a tribute to the resolute nature of Indian chemists given poor infrastructure as a main adversary impeding their reach to the top, he says. Indian chemists will shine if optimal research resources and robust funding policies are made available on a priority basis.

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India still outside chemistry's 'big league' - Chemistry World (subscription)

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL (WFLA) A Port St. Lucie chemistry teacher is facing felony sexual assault charges after police say she had sex with a 17-year-old student.

Police began investigating Tiffany Michelle Geliga, 35, after school administrators at Port St. Lucie High School told them a mother of a 17-year-old student contacted the school to say the teacher had texted her son numerous times, sometimes in the early hours of the morning.

The womans son told school officials nothing inappropriate happened between him and Geliga, but he did believe the teacher was involved in an inappropriate relationship with another student.

That student, a 17-year-old boy, was questioned by school officials and admitted to having an inappropriate relationship with Geliga that involved late-night calls and texts. He also said they had sex on two separate occasions.

Police say Geliga and the student had sex off-campus in the teachers car in late April or early May.

The victim said Geliga had tutored him at Port St. Lucie High School, where she was hired in 2014.

Detectives launched an investigation into Geligas relationship with the 17-year-old boy and monitored a controlled phone call between the boy and the teacher. In the call, Geliga admitted to her sexual relationship with the teen, telling the boy she had never done anything inappropriate with other students just you. Police say she then offered to treat the student to a stay at a West Palm Beach hotel, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Geliga was arrested and charged with two counts of sexual assault by persons 24-years-old or older on a victim 16 or 17-years-old.

Geliga was released Friday from the St. Lucie County Jail on $30,000 bond, according to jail officials.

An investigation into theirrelationship is ongoing.

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A chemistry teacher from the Carbondale Area School District faces charges after police said he drove an all-terrain vehicle erratically on Old Forge streets, threatened another motorist with a firearm and refused to speak to officers investigating the initial allegations.

Police charged Ross Gerald Merieski, 35, 1247 Mowery St., Old Forge, with misdemeanor counts of fleeing from a police officer, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct as well as a long list of driving offenses.

Old Forge Police responded about 8 p.m. Sunday to a Main Street car wash, after someone called 911 to report a man on an ATV had shown a handgun to another motorist there after a confrontation over his driving.

When the officer located a man driving an ATV who fit the witnesss description and pulled his squad car alongside the vehicle, Merieski responded to the officers request to talk by saying Im not getting fined and this is Old Forge, not Scranton before speeding off, according to the police report.

The officer followed Merieski in his squad car until the suspect retreated to the ATV trail off of Pittston Avenue, threatening to drive away if the officer came closer. The officer tried to approach on foot and question the man, but retreated when he saw the suspect was armed.

Im from Old Forge, the man repeatedly yelled, according to the police report.

The officer then went to interview two witnesses outside a bar, who identified the man as Merieski, a former teacher of theirs at Old Forge High School. While there, the suspect drove his ATV past and gestured with his arm, though the officer could not determine what the gesture was, he wrote in the report.

Once backup arrived, the three officers chased the man briefly, who accelerated to speeds exceeding 50 mph while ignoring several stop signs.

The trio of officers broke off and went to his home to wait for him. He eventually approached on foot and they arrested him.

At the Old Forge Police Headquarters, the officers detected a strong smell of alcohol on him, according to their report.

When they asked him to write a statement, he became aggressive, telling officers he was a chemistry teacher and had work in the morning.

Charge me already and send me home, he said, according to the police report.

He was released on $15,000 unsecured bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Monday.

Asked if Merieski had been disciplined, the Carbondale Area School District said it had put a professional employee on administrative leave this week, but would not comment further because its a personnel matter, business manager David Cerra said.

Contact the writer:

pcameron@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9100 x5365,

@pcameronTT on Twitter

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Chemistry teacher charged with fleeing from police, other counts - Scranton Times-Tribune

At this point, any movie starring Debra Winger is worth our attention. Since taking a break from Hollywood for six years at the height of her fame in the mid-90s, the three-time Oscar nominee has maintained a mystique as the One Who Walked Away. Which overlooks the fact that since returning to acting in 2001, she has worked steadily, on projects such as Jonathan Demmes Rachel Getting Married and the recent Netflix sitcom The Ranch.

But we like that mystique, Winger says in a recent interview in Los Angeles, breaking into her unmistakable, irrepressible full-throated laugh. Dont list any of my credits. Lets stick with the mystique. Its self-perpetuating sometimes; it doesnt matter what I do.

What she has done now includes The Lovers, in which Winger stars as Mary, a woman having an affair behind the back of her husband, Michael (Tracy Letts). He is too distracted to notice or care because he is carrying on an affair of his own. (Aidan Gillen and Melora Walters play their respective paramours.) An impending visit from their college-age son (Tyler Ross) and his new girlfriend (Jessica Sula) becomes a catalyst for both Mary and Michael to truly shake things up.

With its powerfully understated and finely detailed performances from Winger and Letts, the picture is a welcome return for writer and director Azazel Jacobs, whose previous film was 2011s Terri starring John C. Reilly and Jacob Wysocki. (In the interim, Jacobs worked on the television series Doll & Em.)

The chemistry between Winger and Letts, the flinty sparks that fly between them, gives The Lovers much of its energy.

I did not know that was going to happen until the first day of shooting. That was a total welcome surprise, Jacobs says in a separate interview. They just from the beginning found this groove with each other and challenged and inspired and just brought everything to a much higher level. Its what youre always hoping for, but its hard to aim for, hard to expect.

Jacobs recalls that he first met Winger when she came to a screening of Terri. She subsequently sent him a letter of appreciation that he came to cherish. (Winger says she took up letter writing after someone gave her a box of personalized stationary, recounting other notes of thanks and praise to Olivier Assayas, Juliette Binoche and Mike Leigh.)

Jacobs and Winger kept in touch, and he tried out a few ideas on her, but it wasnt until the exploration of marriage in The Lovers that she grew interested enough to participate.

Winger, with bare feet, slim black jeans and a black button-down shirt, sits alongside Letts, the award-winning playwright and actor, who on this day in a West Hollywood hotel suite wears brown boots, gray jeans and a grey fitted T-shirt. Theres an easy back-and-forth between the two, with a cheerful lightness replacing their on-screen marital tension.

While both of their characters in the film carry on affairs outside their marriage, neither Winger nor Letts ever judged them for it, feeling it more important to understand why they behaved the way they did.

Its a really interesting thing to consider what are the things you are willing to judge other people for. And that line changes as I get older, Letts says. Im getting to be a combination of less judgmental and more thin-skinned.

The movies elegantly roving visual style began in part when a Steadicam wouldnt work and cinematographer Tobias Datum suggested a very long dolly shot instead. While Jacobs was initially skeptical, once he saw how well it went, he continued down that path, particularly after he noticed how well Datum and Winger collaborated.

Debra, she knows camera like Ive never experienced in an actress, Jacobs says. Ive never witnessed anybody fall in sync with a cameraperson like that. Hes always predicting where the actors are going, but she could just as easily tell where he wanted to go.

Since Wingers breakout role in Urban Cowboy and on through films such as An Officer and a Gentleman, Terms of Endearment, The Sheltering Sky and Shadowlands, she has been bringing to the screen performances once described by the late L.A. Times critic Charles Champlin as vibrantly sensual.

At the same time, she garnered a reputation as a difficult collaborator, leading Shirley MacLaine to notoriously refer to Wingers turbulent brilliance in an Oscar acceptance speech. Winger also didnt mind saying publicly when she didnt like how a picture had turned out, which broke with many of the unspoken protocols of Hollywood decorum.

So, has she changed at all in how she approaches her work?

Nope. So you go figure, Winger says with a hint of mischief. I am changed the way people grow and change, but Im not mellow. Looking toward Letts, she adds, Ask him. I am not mellow.

Letts jumps in, adding, In terms of this film, Debra wasnt hard to work with for me at all. I think its not talking out of school to say she liked me, she liked the director, she liked the [director of photography], she liked the script.

Debra isnt somebody who suffers fools, and lets also identify this out loud, shes a woman. And if a woman expresses an opinion, and if she expresses it however she expresses it, grumpy or demanding or whatever spin you want to put on it, theres a whole different value placed on that because shes a woman.

I cant disagree with this very intelligent man, Winger says with a smile. And I didnt ask him to say that.

As Winger has been making her way back into the spotlight over the last few years, it has coincided with a moment when the attention to women in Hollywood, both behind and in front of the camera, has amplified and picked up momentum.

I so ignore it, Winger says. Were not pushing the needle by talking about it. Something must be done. Measures must be taken. I dont want to talk about it. Its the first argument I had with Gloria Steinem, and we continue to have that argument every week when we go out to dinner. I get going out when you have a specific goal or a cause or something you need to accomplish, but opening up a conversation about women in film,' I swear to God, I dont get it.

She pauses, then adds, Im going to get in trouble for that.

The sense that Hollywood pushed Winger away, had no place for someone like her, is what led Rosanna Arquette to title a 2002 documentary on women and Hollywood Searching for Debra Winger. (Winger herself has never watched it.) Winger grows suddenly tongue-tied when asked to address the idea that she is an oracle for a younger generation of women.

You do it by example, not by what you say, interjects Letts. Youve done it by example. Youre not going to say anything to summarize the experience of women in Hollywood.

True, Winger says, but I wish that the strength could come from somewhere other than the source of pain. Thats the clue Ive found, and young actresses, I can pick them out, I can see them, and there is a fearlessness and something scary about them at the same time. Because they come with a fierceness that says, I am not going to look for my power from the source that wants to take it away. Thats not who I am going to get involved in the struggle with. My sense of power is going to come from my life. And from, in a way, ignoring that fact that you think I shouldnt be here.

She nevertheless seems well aware of the totemic fascination she holds for people as someone who made her own decisions regarding what is now referred to as work-life balance. But she is also very conscious of the kinds of movies she both wants to be in and wants to see, movies rooted in relationships and genuine human experiences.

For Winger, The Lovers is not a small film.

I think its right-sized, she says. I think this film is right-sized.

REVIEW: In 'The Lovers,' Debra Winger and Tracy Letts give us an achingly poignant portrait of a modern marriage

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Debra Winger and Tracy Letts on their chemistry in 'The Lovers' and, reluctantly, on Hollywood and women - Los Angeles Times

LAS VEGAS The love story of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill started on a tour two decades ago and that sparkling chemistry onstage has made them one of the genre's biggest headliners.

The country couple with movie star glamour has sold over 63 million albums in the U.S. between their two careers, has earned two Grammys for duets they sang together and has three children. This year, they are releasing their first-ever duet album together and started their third installment of their highly successful Soul2Soul World (it launched in April).

"I haven't been on a stage like this in 10 years and that is no lie," Hill said of the tour. "I can tell you right now I am fired up."

During an Associated Press interview with the couple before their rehearsal at the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas earlier this month, Hill and McGraw were giddy with anticipation.

"She's ready to turn it loose," McGraw said.

"Age is not an issue," added Hill, who together with her husband will be turning 50 during the tour that runs through October.

The Mississippi-born Hill and the Louisiana-born McGraw fell in love when she opened for him on his 1996 Spontaneous Combustion tour and they married that year.

In 2000, the first Soul2Soul tour grossed $48.8 million, making it the best grossing country tour in North America that year, according to Pollstar. The Soul2Soul II tour was even more successful, grossing $88.8 million in 2006, and made it the 3rd highest grossing North American tour that year.

McGraw credited their success on the road to the fact that they are very different singers who push each other to expand their ranges onstage.

"Faith, I would say, is more of an R&B, sort of gospel-inspired singer," McGraw said. "And I think I am more a '70s rock, arena rock, Merle Haggard meets arena rock kind of singer. She brings me a little bit more to the R&B side, and I bring her more to the arena rock side, and I think it creates a sort of magic."

Their first duet together, "It's Your Love," was on McGraw's 1997 "Everywhere" album, which was followed by "Just to Hear You Say That You Love Me," from Hill's multiplatinum album "Faith." Since then, they have had several popular duets, including their latest, "Speak to A Girl," which jumped into the Top 10 of Billboard's Hot country songs chart after they performed it on the ACM Awards.

But they say they don't always agree in music, or in marriage, but McGraw said commitment is key.

"Look, there is no secret," Hill said. "Either you like one another or you don't. You want to stay married or you don't. You work at it, or you don't. Simple as that. It is not always easy and there are moments that are rocky."

"But you don't walk away," McGraw said.

"I would rather live a life in rocky road ice cream than vanilla any day of the week," Hill said. "Honestly, vanilla gets boring after a couple of days."

A smiling McGraw adds: "So I am not vanilla!"

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Chemistry onstage makes Faith Hill and Tim McGraw a top tour ... - Lincoln Journal Star

May 5, 2017 Three droplets with circulating chemical fronts can store information. The first chemical bit has been demonstrated by researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Credit: IPC PAS, Grzegorz Krzyzewski

In classical computer science, information is stored in bits; in quantum computer science, information is stored in quantum bits, or qubits. Experiments at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw prove that chemistry is also a suitable basis for storing information. The chemical bit, or 'chit,' is a simple arrangement of three droplets in contact with each other, in which oscillatory reactions occur.

In typical electronic memory, zeros and ones are recorded, stored and read by physical phenomena such as the flow of electricity or the change in electrical or magnetic properties. Dr. Konrad Gizynski and Prof. Jerzy Gorecki from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPC PAS) in Warsaw have demonstrated a working memory based on chemical phenomena. A single bit is stored here in three adjoining droplets, between which chemical reaction fronts propagate steadily, cyclically, and in a strictly defined manner.

The chemical foundation of this form of memory is the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction. The course of the reaction is oscillatory. When one cycle ends, the reagents necessary to start the next cycle are reconstituted in the solution. Before the reaction stops, there are usually several tens to hundreds of oscillations. They are accompanied by a regular change in the colour of the solution, caused by ferrointhe reaction catalyst. The second catalyst used by the Warsaw researchers was ruthenium. The introduction of ruthenium causes the BZ reaction to become photosensitivewhen the solution is illuminated by blue light, it ceases to oscillate. This feature makes it possible to control the course of the reaction.

"Our idea for the chemical storage of information was simple. From our previous experiments, we knew that when Belousov-Zhabotinsky droplets are in contact, chemical fronts can propagate from droplet to droplet. So we decided to look for the smallest droplet systems in which excitations could take place in several ways, with at least two being stable. We could then assign one sequence of excitations a logic value of 0, the other 1, and in order to switch between them and force a particular change of memory state, we could use light," explains Prof. Gorecki.

Experiments were carried out in a container filled with a thin layer of lipid solution in oil (decane). Small amounts of oscillating solution added to the system with a pipette formed droplets. These were positioned above the ends of optical fibres brought to the base of the container. To prevent the droplets from sliding off the optical fibres, each was immobilized by several rods protruding from the base of the container.

The search began with a study of pairs of coupled droplets in which four types (modes) of oscillation can take place: droplet one excites droplet two; droplet two excites droplet one; both droplets excite each other simultaneously; both excite each other alternately (i.e., when one is excited, the other one is in the refractory phase).

"In paired droplet systems, most often, one droplet excited the other. Unfortunately, only one mode of this type was always stable, and we needed two," says Dr. Gizynski. "Both droplets are made up of the same solution, but they never have exactly the same dimensions. As a result, in each droplet, the chemical oscillations occur at a slightly different pace. In such cases, the droplet oscillating more slowly begins to adjust its rhythm to its faster 'friend.' Even if it were possible with light to force the slower oscillating droplet to excite the faster oscillating droplet, the system would return to the mode in which the faster droplet stimulated the slower one."

In this situation, the IPC PAS researchers looked into triplets of adjoining droplets arranged in a triangle (so each droplet touched its two neighbours). Chemical fronts can propagate here in many ways: Droplets may oscillate simultaneously in anti-phase, two droplets can oscillate simultaneously and force oscillations in the third, etc. The researchers were most interested in rotational modes, in which the chemical fronts passed from droplet to droplet in a 1-2-3 sequence or in the opposite direction (3-2-1).

A droplet in which the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction proceeds excites rapidly, but it takes much longer for it to return to its initial state and only then can become excited again. So if in the 1-2-3 mode the excitation were to reach droplet three too quickly, it would not get through to droplet one to initiate a new cycle, because droplet one would not have enough time to 'rest.' As a result, the rotational mode would disappear. IPC PAS researchers were only interested in rotational modes capable of multiple repetitions of the cycle of excitations. They had an added advantage: The chemical fronts circulating between the droplets resemble a spiral wave, and waves of this type are characterized by increased stability.

Experiments showed that both of the studied rotational modes are stable, and if a system enters one of them, it remains until the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction ceases. It was also proved that by correctly selecting the time and length of illumination of appropriate droplets, the direction of rotation of the excitations can be changed. The triplet droplet system, with multiple chemical fronts, was thus capable of permanently storing one of two logic states.

"In fact, our chemical bit has a slightly greater potential than the classical bit. The rotational modes we used to record states zero and one had the shortest oscillation periods of 18.7 and 19.5 seconds, respectively. So if the system oscillated any slower, we could talk about an additional third logic state," commented Dr. Gizynski, and notes that this third state could be used, for example, to verify the correctness of the record.

The research on memory made up of oscillating droplets was basic in nature and served only to demonstrate that stable storage of information using chemical reactions is possible. The newly formed memory reactions were only responsible for storing information, while its recording and reading required physical methods. It will likely be many years before a fully functioning chemical memory can be built as part of a future chemical computer.

Explore further: The prototype of a chemical computer detects a sphere

More information: Konrad Gizynski et al, Chemical memory with states coded in light controlled oscillations of interacting BelousovZhabotinsky droplets, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. (2017). DOI: 10.1039/c6cp07492h

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The first one-bit chemical memory unitthe 'chit' - Phys.Org

The Maine Legislature are considering L.D. 182, a bill with the goal of eliminating the chemical treatment of furniture to prevent fires. What? Are the folks behind this bill against safety? Actually, no just the opposite is true.

The history of this practice dates back to the 1960s, when chemical flame retardants were first invented for industrial use. Someone in California later had what seemed like a great idea. Since house fires were often triggered by cigarettes igniting furniture, couldnt we treat household upholstery to slow down the burn? The chemical manufacturers helped promote the idea to the state legislature, and a bill passed that established California standards for furniture treatment, which ended up being used nationally, since California is such a big market. California, by the way, rescinded the bill about five years ago because of toxicity concerns.

The worst flame retardants PDBEs were voluntarily discontinued by the chemical industry around a decade ago. Multiple animal studies documented an association between exposure to these molecules and imbalance in the delicate regulation of both the sex hormone and thyroid systems. Human exposure was tied to pregnancy complications, birth defects, and lower IQ scores. Their chemical properties put them in the category of endocrine disruptors able to interfere with the basic pathways in our cells that regulate body balance. Endocrine disruptors also are thought to be contributing to the obesity epidemic and the increase in type 2 diabetes.

The chemicals that have replaced PDBEs, unfortunately, have similar molecular structures and similar metabolites and are associated with the same toxicities.

Fire retardants work by either inhibiting the process of oxidation chemically (remember: burning is oxidation) or by having the materials form a char, creating a physical block to burning. This all makes sense, perhaps, if a cigarette really is the source of ignition. If the fire starts in the homes electrical system or stove, however, the addition of retardants delays the burning of the couch by 20 to 30 seconds, max. Tighter fabric weaves have the same effect.

It is remarkable how much of these chemicals are added to upholstery up to 5 percent by weight. They are not chemically bound to the furniture component, and can off-gas and be inhaled, or migrate to the surrounding indoor environment and become part of house dust. Old furniture ends up in landfills, leading to dispersion of these materials in the outdoor environment. All of us have measurable amounts in our bodies. American levels are much higher than European, because we put so much more into our furniture than they do overseas.

Worldwide, more than 4 billion pounds are produced yearly, leading to substantial environmental contamination. Because these substances are bio-accumulative, they make their way into soils, then up the food chain with subsequent storage in animal tissues. Levels in breast milk have increased 100 fold since the 1970s. Even North American polar bears have measurable blood levels with reproductive effects presenting another challenge to their survival on top of the disintegrating ice pack.

As a pediatrician, I am most concerned about their developmental impact on children, who are playing on the floor, more in contact with house dust, and mouthing their hands and toys. There is another group, however, who may be more at risk of toxicity than kids our volunteer and professional firefighters. When burned, fire retardants tend to form dioxins, a class of compounds that are known potent carcinogens. One of the replacement chemicals is TRIS, which was removed from infant sleepwear decades ago because of cancer concerns. While our firefighters wear protective equipment, repeated exposures on the job are inevitable.

Firefighters feel that the 20- to 30-second delay to the time that the couch or mattress catches fire does little to help them save lives or property. At the February legislative hearing on L.D. 182, the head of the state firefighters organization described his experience in losing friends to cancer, and argued passionately in favor of passage of the bill. The bill itself is titled An Act to Protect Firefighters though pediatricians would not object to adding kids to that title.

Both organizations that I represent the Maine Chapters of Physicians for Social Responsibility and the American Academy of Pediatrics would urge our legislators to support this bill. Flame retardants are like the lead we used to put in gasoline an example of better living through chemistry gone awry. They provide little or no benefit, contaminate our environment, and cause substantial harm.

Sydney R. Sewall, M.D./MPH, has been a pediatrician in Augusta for more than 30 years. He lives in Hallowell.

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Maine Compass: Flame retardants an example of better living through chemistry gone awry - Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel