Nets hoping Big 3 finally will get chance to build chemistry – New York Post

It has been nearly a month since the Nets pulled off the megadeal for James Harden, but the team still hasnt been able to fully realize its Big 3.

From injuries to quarantine to personal leave, Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have averaged just over a start per week together. They havent played together since an impressive Feb. 2 win over the Clippers, but the trio hopes to be reunited Saturday, when Durant is expected to make his return to Golden State.

The terrific trio have looked good on the court together (theyre 4-1 as starters), but the Nets are waiting for the day when they look truly great like the superteam they bargained for.

[Harden] is in a much better shape than when he got here; hell probably get in better condition as the season goes, as well, coach Steve Nash said. Its funny. [Its been] four weeks already, Kevin and Kai and James have played 5 games, if you include the Raptors game, together.

So its kind of astonishing to have him for a month and theyve only played five [starts] together, or 5 games. So lots of time [left], but weve got to get going here and get all three of them on the court and our complete roster going, and try to build and continually improve even if its small margins, small improvements. If we keep getting better, weve got a chance to be a special team.

The Nets agreed to the Harden deal Jan. 13, and he debuted three days later. But at that point Irving was still out following a personal leave and the ensuing quarantine.

Then they lost Durant to his second contact-tracing incident of the season, which forced another weeklong quarantine. Hes expected back when the Nets tip off a five-game Western swing with his return to the Bay Area for Saturdays game.

He gives the team confidence. Hes obviously one of the best players in the history of the game, but for our team, he gives us confidence. The guys look to him, Nash said. Whether he has the ball in his hands or doesnt, hes an important part of what were trying to do.

The Nets are 3-0 with the Big 3 starting along with Joe Harris and DeAndre Jordan. Theyre 1-0 with the trio starting with Harris and stretch-5 Jeff Green, and 0-1 using a big lineup with both Jordan and Green.

They suffered a disjointed loss to the Raptors when Durant was scratched before tipoff for contact tracing, then logged 19 minutes and finally was yanked off the court when the person he had been in contact with tested positive for COVID-19.

The Big 3 have logged 164:38 together over six games, with the Nets a plus-18 in that stretch. But theyve lived up to their billing as fourth-quarter closers.

The Nets are a stellar plus-24 in the 41 minutes Durant, Harden and Irving have logged together over five games. Their net rating is 28.9, and their offensive rating is 148.2, the best of any trio that has played at least 40 minutes together.

Still, they can get better as Harden not only gets in better shape, but also gets more aggressive both in communicating defensively and asserting himself while Durant and Irving are on court.

Thats my job. I have to do a better job of just communicating and maybe watching more film, communicating more on where guys should be, just using my voice more so guys can be in their spots, Harden said. So, as one of the leaders of this team, Ive got to do a better job communicating: And I will be.

Harden had a couple of animated talks with Jordan during Tuesdays loss in Detroit, and the center responded with a double-double in Wednesdays win over the Pacers at Barclays Center. When Harden harnesses the same aggression playing with Durant and Irving as he does on the second unit, itll unlock the Big 3s potential.

Ultimately, we want to get to a place where all three are playing basketball together offensively instead of taking turns. In theory, he should be just as aggressive when theyre in the lineup, Nash said. An aggressive James is the way we want him to play.

This trip offers the Nets and the rest of the NBA a chance to see that.

Thats going to help us on the floor, being able to just build that chemistry with guys, Jordan said. And obviously once we get Kevin back from his timeout, well incorporate. This road trip will be good for us.

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Nets hoping Big 3 finally will get chance to build chemistry - New York Post

How the COVID-19 pandemic has affected NBA team chemistry – Axios

In a league where every movement is tracked and every statistic is measured, chemistry remains the rare, unquantifiable variable that dictates NBA wins and losses.

The intrigue: Fostering NBA chemistry has become increasingly difficult now that players change teams so often. But nothing has ever impacted chemistry-building quite like the pandemic. The question is: has it helped or hurt?

Consider this: Due to the short offseason, rookie Anthony Edwards made his NBA debut just 33 days after being drafted No. 1 overall by the Timberwolves.

The bottom line: So, amid the strangest season of their lives, have NBA teams come together or drifted apart? The truth is, we'll never know.

I reached out to Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to get his take on NBA chemistry and how it has been affected by the pandemic.

How important is chemistry in the modern NBA?

How do you think the pandemic has impacted chemistry this season?

What do the Mavericks do to foster chemistry? Has that been impacted?

Is basketball chemistry similar to chemistry in any workplace?

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How the COVID-19 pandemic has affected NBA team chemistry - Axios

Can I light something on fire today?: Woodland chemistry teacher captivates students during distance learning – KGW.com

To keep her high school students engaged, Stephanie Marshall has relied on eye-catching science experiments.

WOODLAND, Wash. Remember how tough chemistry class can be? Its extra challenging for some students trying to master the concepts from a distance.

But a teacher at Woodland High School has found a formula for success. Stephanie Marshall has found a way to make the difficult subject easier to understand and a whole lot more engaging. She said to try to keep her high school students engaged, shes relied on visually captivating science experiments.

My go-to is always, Can I light something on fire today, and thats what I go for," said Marshall. "Or, something that changes color. Those are my two big ones.

She tries to do interesting experiments in her labs, which typically have small groups of students logging in online.

Naturally, I know whats going to happen but my students never know, is it gonna be a big flame? Is the flame going to go out? What are we going to see? Marshall explained.

She reinforces concepts the class as a whole is working on and uses the opportunity to meet with small groups of students during lab to check for understanding and get students curious.

These visuals give me buy-in. I say, Hey come look at this cool thing. Im doing something super awesome in this class,' Marshall said.

I boiled every lab I could think of down to its basics. Making observations, can they tell me why something happened? Can they tell me whats happening? she said.

For her 10th grade students, the visual component is helpful. We spoke with three students, all of which said distance learning has been a struggle.

These labs have made it a lot more fun to do the distance learning, especially the ones with the fire and stuff, said Derek Fechtner, a 10th grade student at Woodland High School.

Its really made distance learning a great experience, Addison Holler said. Like Fechtner, she is also in 10th grade.

Fellow sophomore, Raeann Perry said the labs have been crucial to her success.

Without those videos with the labs and everything, I would be totally lost because Im a visual learner, said Perry.

This visual application of concepts is really paying off for some students and for Marshall.

Its been difficult to say the least, but also rewarding, Marshall said.

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Can I light something on fire today?: Woodland chemistry teacher captivates students during distance learning - KGW.com

The chemistry department: Alum couples reflect on College romance and beyond – The Williams record

This is probably a lesbian clich, but we played in the same soccer team, Rainer said. The two were teammates and friends for nearly three years before they began dating in the week leading up to Sinnenbergs graduation.

We found ourselves lingering, Sinnenberg said. When we would be hanging out with a group, we would stay and talk I remember standing in the Morgan staircase for an hour talking to Tyler.

Before their relationship with each other, neither Sinnenberg nor Rainer had ever dated another woman before. As they were navigating the formation of a new relationship, they were also navigating an unexplored facet of their identities.

Were obviously both gay, Sinnenberg laughed. So it was like, Oh, yeah, this is what its supposed to be like, you know what I mean?

Everything is more intense, Rainer agreed. Like more passion, more love, more fear, more all of this. All of the things are amplified.

At the same time, the fact that neither were public about their sexuality yet added a dimension of anxiety to their burgeoning relationship. Our Williams soccer community is some of the most loving, respectful, caring, open-minded humans that exist, Rainer said. But I think theres first-time fear and anxieties.

I think we had built it up, Sinnenberg agreed. It didnt end up being an issue. We used to go on dates to Northampton, so we could hold hands.

After Sinnenberg graduated, she moved to New York. While she originally planned to spend a year in South Africa, she ultimately decided to live and work closer to Rainer, who joined her the following year, after her own graduation. They separated for another year when Sinnenberg headed to Philadelphia, Pa. for medical school before Rainer joined her again.

Despite multiple periods of being long-distance, the two said they were simply happy to be together. We were basically not explicitly dating but in a romantic relationship over Skype, Sinnenberg said. It was definitely very emotional; it definitely felt like it was a relationship. So then, for it to go back to distance, I think probably felt kind of natural to us. It was sort of the way in which we had known each other.

When Sinnenberg proposed to Rainer, gay marriage had not yet been legalized nationwide. We kind of went into getting married thinking that we werent going to be able to make it legal on a federal level, Sinnenberg said.

But a month later, the Supreme Courts ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex marriage across the country. We actually had friends who got married the weekend after it was legalized, Sinnenberg said. That was a pretty emotional time.

Rainer and Sinnenberg themselves were married in the Catskills, N.Y. Though they chose not to return to Williamstown for their wedding, as many other alums did, the College still has a strong presence in their lives. The home we live in currently is from Williams alums, Rainer said.

And our grill is from Williams alums, Sinnenberg added.

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The chemistry department: Alum couples reflect on College romance and beyond - The Williams record

Chemistry in ancient India, from Harappan to Ayurvedic period – The New Indian Express

Chemical techniques in India can be traced back all the way to the Indus valley or Harappan civilisation (3rd millennium BCE). Following Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray (1861-1944), the eminent Indian chemist of the last century and a historian of chemistry, five stages in its development in India can be recognised. They are: (i) the pre-Vedic stage upto 1500 BCE, including the Harappan period, (ii) the Vedic and the Ayurvedic period upto 700 CE, (iii) the transitional period from 700 CE to 1100 CE, (iv) the Tantric period from 700 CE to 1300 CE, and (v) the Iatro-Chemical period from 1300 CE to 1600 CE. The dates cannot be considered definitive.

Metallurgy was intimately linked with chemistry in India. We will discuss Indian metallurgy and metal-working in a later article, focussing our attention on chemical techniques for now. Pre-Harappan Indians were acquainted with the art of making baked or burnt clay pottery as well as painting the same with two or more colours. This implies the construction of open and closed kilns. The pottery of the Harappan culture consisted of mainly wheel-made ware, turned in various shapes, sizes and colours out of the well-levigated alluvium of the Indus.

The colour and other characteristics of the wares depended upon the composition of the clay used and techniques of firing under either oxidising or reducing conditions. The Harappans also experimented with various mortars and cements made of burnt limestone, gypsum and mica, among other components. Finely crushed quartz, once fired, produced faience, a synthetic material; it was then coated with silica (perhaps fused with soda), to which copper oxide was added to give it a shiny turquoise glaze. Faience was then shaped into various ornaments and figurines.

Addition of iron oxide, manganese oxide, etc., resulted in different colours. The Harappan artisans must have had an intimate knowledge of the processing and properties of several naturally occurring chemical substances. The craftsmen were highly skilled in the art of shaping and polishing the precious and semi-precious stones used for the production of beads. In the second stage, Rigveda (earlier than 1500 BCE) mentions many fermented drinks and methods of fermentation, apart from various metals. Soma juice from the stems of the soma plant was highly extolled and considered a divine drink. Madhu and suraa (brewed from barley grain) also find mention.

Curd or fermented milk was an important food item. Cloths were mainly made of wool and the garments were often dyed red, purple or brown. Obviously, the Vedic Indians were acquainted with the art of dyeing with certain natural vegetable colouring matters. A type of pottery, now known as Painted Grey Ware, is associated with the Vedic period. This ceramic is a thin gray deluxe ware, mostly wheel-made, well-burnt, glossy and copiously painted. Later, Northern Black Polished Ware also came into being in the eastern part of the Gangetic plains. Also, plenty of iron objects of the later period have been found throughout India.

Glass beads dating back to the 10th century BCE have been discovered. In the succeeding centuries, the glass industry gained momentum and there were notable feats of excellence, as evidenced by the archeological finds in over 30 sites spread over India. The sites include Taxila in present Pakistan, Hastinapur, Ahichchhatra and Kopia in Uttar Pradesh, Nalanda in Bihar, Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, Nasik and Nevasa in Maharashtra, Brahmagiri in Karnataka, and Arikamedu in Puducherry. The glass objects include beads of different colours, including gold foil ones, glass vessels in green and blue colours, flasks of agate-banded type, bangles, ear-reels, eye-beads, etc.

There is no doubt that the glassmakers were skilful in controlling the temperature of fusion, moulding, annealing, blotching and gold foiling. The chemical composition of a typical glass specimen from Kopia is as follows: silica 66.6%, alumina 7%, alkalies (Na2O) 21.7%, ferric oxide 1.6%, lime 2.4%, manganese oxide .07%, and traces of titania and magnesia. Kautilyas Arthashaastra (3rd or 4th century BCE), a well-known text of governance and administration, has a lot of information on prevailing chemical practices. Apart from mines and minerals, it discusses the details of precious stones (pearl, ruby, beryl, etc.), and also of the preparation of fermented juices (sugarcane, jaggery, honey, jambu, jackfruit, mango, etc.) and oil extraction.

It also has classifications such as sour fruit juices, liquids, spices, vegetables, etc., based on their chemical practices. The earliest versions of the two great Ayurveda classics, Charaka Samhitaa and Sushruta Samhitaa, may date back to a few centuries before the common era. They give accounts of several minerals, metals, metallic compounds, salts and fermented beverages. More importantly, they discuss the preparation of various alkalis (kshaara). Alkalis are of three types: mild (mridu), caustic (teekshna) and average (madhyama).

They are prepared from some 25 plants that are mentioned in Sushruta Samhitaa. Hot alkaline solutions were used for treating thin sheets of metals like iron, gold or silver before incorporation into drugs. Caustic alkalis were also used for treating surgical instruments. Varahamihiras Brihat-samhitaa (6th century CE) gives detailed information on the preparation of various perfumes and cosmetics. It also gives recipes for the preparation of glutinous material to be applied on the roofs and walls of buildings.

M S Sriram (sriram.physics@gmail.com)Theoretical Physicist & President,Prof. K.V. Sarma Research Foundation

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University of Illinois: Mysterious organic scum boosts chemical reaction efficiency, may reduce chemical waste – India Education Diary

Chemical manufacturers frequently use toxic solvents such as alcohols and benzene to make products like pharmaceuticals and plastics. Researchers are examining a previously overlooked and misunderstood phenomenon in the chemical reactions used to make these products. This discovery brings a new fundamental understanding of catalytic chemistry and a steppingstone to practical applications that could someday make chemical manufacturing less wasteful and more environmentally sound.

The study led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researcher David Flaherty, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities researcher Matthew Neurock and Virginia Tech researcher Ayman Karim is published in the journal Science.

Matthew Neurock, a professor of chemical engineering and materials science at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

Combining solvents and metal nanoparticles accelerates many chemical reactions and helps maximize yield and profit margins for the chemical industry. However, many solvents are toxic and difficult to safely dispose, the researchers said. Water works, too, but it is not nearly as efficient or reliable as organic solvents. The reason for the difference was thought to be the limited solubility of some reactants in water. However, multiple irregularities in experimental data have led the team to realize the reasons for these differences were not fully understood.

To better understand the process, the team ran experiments to analyze the reduction of oxygen to hydrogen peroxide one set using water, another with methanol, and others with water and methanol mixtures. All experiments used palladium nanoparticles.

In experiments with methanol, we observed spontaneous decomposition of the solvent that leaves an organic residue, or scum, on the surface of the nanoparticles, said Flaherty, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Illinois. In some cases, the scumlike residue clings to the nanoparticles and increases reaction rates and the amount of hydrogen peroxide formed instead of hampering the reaction. This observation made us wonder how it could be helping.

Pranjali Priyadarshini, a former Illinois graduate student.

The team found that the residue, or surface redox mediator, oxygen-containing species, including a key component hydroxymethyl. It accumulates on the palladium nanoparticles surface and opens new chemical reaction pathways, the study reports.

Ashwin Chemburkar, a graduate student at Minnesota.

Once formed, the residue becomes part of the catalytic cycle and is likely responsible for some of the different efficiencies among solvents reported over the past 40 years of work on this reaction, Flaherty said. Our work provides strong evidence that these surface redox mediators form in alcohol solvents and that they may explain many past mysteries for this chemistry.

Vineet Maliekkal, a graduate student at Minnesota.

By working with multiple types of experiments and computational simulations, the team learned that these redox mediators effectively transfer both protons and electrons to reactants, whereas reactions in pure water transfer protons easily, but not electrons. These mediators also alter the nanoparticles surface in a way that lowers the energy barrier to be overcome for proton and electron transfer, the study reports.

Stuart Winikoff, a postdoctoral researcher at Minnesota.

We show that the alcohol solvents as well as organic additives can react to form metal-bound surface mediators that act much in the same way that the enzymatic cofactors in our bodies do in catalyzing oxidation and reduction reactions, Neurock said.

Additionally, this work may have implications for reducing the amounts of solvent used and waste generated in the chemical industry.

Yubing Lu, a Virginia Tech graduate student.

Our research suggests that for some situations, chemical producers could form the surface redox mediators by adding small amounts of an additive to pure water instead of pumping thousands of gallons of organic solvents through these reactors, Flaherty said.

The Energy and Biosciences Institute through the EBI-Shell program and the National Science Foundation supported this research.

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Chiefs’ Eric Bieniemy on being passed over for NFL head coaching position: The chemistry must be a fit – USA TODAY

SportsPulse: Our NFL insiders Jarrett Bell and Mike Jones discuss the 'travesty' it would be for Eric Bieniemy to not get a head coaching gig and where the NFL is consistently failing at providing equitable opportunities for the league's highest level positions. USA TODAY

Eric Bieniemyhas been the Kansas City Chiefs' offensive coordinator for the past three seasons. During that brief span, he's twice helped head coach Andy Reid oversee the NFL's top-ranked unit and twice been part of a Super Bowl participant.

But barring an unforeseen turn of events, Bieniemy will retain his current post going into the 2021 season after another head coach hiring cycle came and went. Bieniemy interviewed for all seven league openings last month withoutanother team choosing him for its top job.

"I learned a long time ago to learn how to persevere through adversity," Bieniemy said Tuesday during the lead-up to Super Bowl 55.

"But the beauty of it is, it's not so much that I have to persevere because that's gonna take care of itself it's making sure that whatever is taking place with Eric Bieniemyisn't becoming a distraction in us pursuing our dreams and our goals."

Eric Bieniemy has been a member of the Chiefs coaching staff since 2013.(Photo: Denny Medley, USA TODAY Sports)

Bieniemy and Reid indicated they haven't had the opportunity to cull feedback onwhy no job was forthcoming to Bieniemy, who said he'll think about that after the Chiefs face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.

"I'll handle Eric Bieniemy's business on Monday," he said, "sometime Monday evening or even Tuesday ... to start worrying about what I need to be concerned with with me moving forward as far as (how) the interviewing process went."

Asked by USA TODAY Sports whether finding the right head coaching job is at least as important as getting any opportunity to move up the ladder, Bieniemy replied:"It's always about getting the right job. And you gotta understand sometimes the job and the person have to connect.

"The only thing I can do is be my most authentic self, that's who I am, OK?I can only be me. Some team has to want me. On top of that, there has to be some kind of collaboration, making sure the chemistry is a fit. So for whatever reason, that chemistry has not been a fit, there has not been that opportunity to connect. But that's OK."

He underscored how much he loves working for Kansas City owner Clark Hunt, general manager Brett Veach and Reid.

"I'm excited about the opportunity that has been presented to me," Bieniemy said.

He added, despite blistering criticism the NFL has taken for its lack of Black head coaches there are three after the Houston Texans' newly hired David Culley joined Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin and Miami's Brian Flores that candidates don't want to be recognized primarily for their skin color but want to be hired on merit.

"I did not ask to be the poster boy of this particular situation that I have experienced," said Bieniemy, who was also passed over during the 2020 hiring cycle.

"At the end of the day, the only thing that you want to do is be recognized for all the things that you have accomplished. And, for whatever reason, that has not happened. And that's OK."

JARRETT BELL: Chiefs' Reid, Bieniemy take players' input for exotic plays

BIENIEMY IS READY TO BE A HEAD COACH: Which NFL team will finally take him? (Dec. 30)

Kansas City players were supportive of Bieniemy.

"He gives me every single tool that is needed," said quarterback Patrick Mahomes, "helps me go out there and be comfortable in the pocket and be able to get us to the right play and the right read. That comes straight from him it's film study, and his study of the opponent's defense."

Mahomes said there's been "no difference" in Bieniemy's approach or any note of despondencein the meeting rooms.

"He always preaches control what you can control," said the Super Bowl 54 MVP. "That's how he's been. Obviously you know he's disappointed he doesn't get the opportunity to become a head coach after this season."

Running back Le'Veon Bell likes what he's seen in his few months playing for Bieniemy.

"His focus is really impressive," said Bell, who's played for three head coaches during his NFL career, while praising Bieniemy's intensity.

"I know for a fact just being around EB ... he's definitely a head coach."

Reid still believes it will all work out for Bieniemy, saying:"Whoever gets him, whenever they get him, will be very, very lucky."

***

Follow USA TODAY Sports' Nate Davis on Twitter @ByNateDavis

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Amine might end palladium’s reign over classic cross coupling reaction – Chemistry World

In what experts have called an unexpected discovery, chemists have found that a simple organic molecule catalyses a classic cross coupling a reaction type that has long been the domain of transition metal catalysts, in particular palladium.

The Suzuki reaction is one of several cross coupling reactions developed in the 1970s that joins up two benzene fragments forming a new carboncarbon bond. Cross couplings are so robust and experimentally simple that more than 60% of carboncarbon bonds in medicinal chemistry labs are now made with this reaction.

But almost all cross coupling reactions require a metal catalyst, with the overwhelming majority using palladium an expensive and often toxic material. In the decades since its discovery, chemists have found cheaper and more benign catalysts, based on nickel or iron for example, but they can rarely compete with palladiums versatility.

Now chemists in China, led by Hai-Zhu Yu from Anhui University and Hua-Jian Xu from Hefei University of Technology, have found a simple diamine that could rival palladium when it comes to connecting arenes in a Suzuki-type transformation.

Unlike many other organocatalysed carboncarbon bond formations, the reaction uses the same starting materials as a traditional cross coupling aryl halide and arylboronic acid, hundreds of which are commercially available. Its scope seems to be very comparable to many of the Suzuki reactions that have been reported before, says Christian Malapit, an organic chemist at the University of Utah, US. Replacing the traditional Suzuki coupling step in the synthesis of the fungicide boscalid, the acne medication adapalene and the hepatitis C drug ledipasvir with their reaction, the team consistently achieved higher yields than other published methods.

This reaction would be advantageous in situations where the presence of trace metal in products is problematic, such as in pharmaceutical products, explains Shauna Paradine, an organic chemist at the University of Rochester, US. Having a soluble amine catalyst could be useful in flow chemistry setups, which often struggle with insoluble transition metals, Malapit adds.

The main downside is the high temperatures and higher loadings of the catalyst comparable palladium-catalysed couplings can often be run with ppm levels of palladium although higher loadings are less problematic with organocatalysts, Paradine says. For most couplings, the team used a catalyst loading of 5mol%. Some more stubborn substrates required as much as 30mol% catalyst, while a 50g scale-up reaction ran with only 0.5mol%.

Malapit notes that the team went to great lengths to show that it is really the amine doing the catalytic work, not traces of a metal. [There are] notable examples in the field where unusual catalytic reactivity turned out to be too good to be true, Paradine point out.

What exactly makes the amine catalyst so unique still remains a bit of a mystery. Computational studies show that the mechanism certainly is very different from palladium catalysed transformations. If theres a more definitive proof of the activation step, this could be useful not only in Suzuki reactions but in any reaction that takes advantage of organoboron reagents as the coupling partner, says Malapit.

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Amine might end palladium's reign over classic cross coupling reaction - Chemistry World

Blinding Plastic: In a First, IIT Madras Decodes Chemistry Behind Low Visibility in Delhi | The Weather Channel – Articles from The Weather Channel |…

Invisible India Gate due to Smog at Raj Path on November 08, 2020.

During winters, cities along the Indo-Gangetic Plains turn into hazy gas chambers year on year with little to no visibility. Interestingly, the visibility in these north Indian cities drops much lower even with similar and sometimes even lesser pollution compared to other parts of the world. The reason behind this has been a longstanding puzzle for scientists.

Now, a team of researchers from IIT Madras have attempted to solve this mystery. The lead author of this study, Dr Sachin S Gunthe, says that the research started with a fundamental question: If overall PM2.5 mass burden over Delhi is much lower than polluted megacity Beijing, then why is visibility reduction still a major problem in Delhi?

For the first time, they have tried to demystify the chemical compositions of winter haze to better understand this problem. And Chloride-rich particles were shown to be the reason behind the reduced visibility in cities like Delhi.

Chloride, the culprit

As the results indicated that the presence of chloride in particulate matter is the primary culprit that impacts visibility, the research took a bold new step towards solving the long-standing mystery behind extremely low visibility in northern cities. The findings indicated a persistent presence of high chloride in Delhi, while it was episodically high chloride in Chennai.

With the results from the first couple of days, it was very clear to us that Delhi is different; because generally for a polluted urban region like Delhi, one would expect sulfate to be the highest inorganic fraction of particulate matter; however, we found chloride to be the highest inorganic fraction of particulate matter, explains the co-author of the study Prof. R. Ravikrishna from IIT Madras.

Plastic burning to blame

The study states that a key ingredient for dampening visibility is the presence of Hydrochloric Acid (HCl), which is emitted through plastic burning and a few industrial processes. Moreover, the HCl concentration is also mixed with ammonia, which is also emitted in great amounts over the region. Together, they act as a deadly combo, causing around 50% of the reduced visibility, says the study.

Given that we find plastic burning as a potential cause of the reduced visibility, we hope these findings will help policymakers to efficiently enforce and implement policies that are already in place towards regulating open burning of plastic contained-waste and other potential chlorine sources, hopes Dr Gunthe.

The researchers claim that this is the first time that plastic burning has been linked to visibility and climate. Burning of plastic waste emits toxic fumes that are hazardous for human health. Now, the present study adds one more reason to tackle this menace posing risk to the lives of city residents. The poor visibility over the national capital region leads to financial burden and loss of human lives as it hampers the air and surface transport and results in deadly mishaps.

Chemical composition of pollution

None of the previous scientific studies has focused on the detailed chemistry of haze and fog formation over the Indo-Gangetic Plain, as per the official statement from IIT Madras. The current study sheds light on the precise role of PM2.5 in the chemistry of fog formation. Particulate matter or PM2.5particles of diameter less than 2.5 micrometreis regarded as a major pollutant in the National Capital Region.

The team deployed round the clock, state-of-the-art instruments to measure the chemical composition and important properties of PM2.5, along with relative humidity and temperature, in Delhi and Chennai. Furthermore, they used chemical models to process the observations and find answers.

Scientifically, our job is half done. Plastic-contained waste burning can emit highly toxic chemicals called dioxins, which can accumulate in the food chain causing severe problems with reproduction and the immune system. We further need to investigate in this direction. Enhancement in the fundamental science of air pollution should be given importance as much as technology development to tackle pollution, concludes Dr Gunthe.

The study has been conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, along with researchers from Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Germany, Harvard University, USA, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA and Manchester University, UK.

The study was published in the journal Nature GeoScience this week and can be accessed here.

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After Police Pepper Spray 9-year-old, Bill Tries To Ban Its Use On Children – NPR

A frame of a video released by the Rochester Police Department on YouTube. Rochester Police/YouTube/Screenshot by NPR hide caption

A frame of a video released by the Rochester Police Department on YouTube.

New York state lawmakers have introduced legislation that bans law enforcement officers from using chemical irritants on minors.

It was a quick response to Rochester Police pepper-spraying a handcuffed 9-year-old girl as officers were responding to a call of a family disturbance last week. Video of the girl's encounter with police was released by city officials, sparking protests in the city Monday evening.

City officials have "removed three officers from patrol duties" that were involved in the incident, according to the Rochester Police Department. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the encounter "disturbing and heartbreaking."

Braving freezing temperatures hovering in the 20s Monday afternoon, a crowd of roughly 100 demonstrators gathered outside a police precinct not far from where the incident took place.

"Keep your cuffs off our kids" and "Who keeps us safe? We keep us safe!" the crowd chanted.

A spokesperson with the Rochester Police told NPR on Tuesday no protest-related arrests were made.

The demonstrations, though smaller, were reminiscent of protests last summer when people took to the streets to demand justice for Daniel Prude, a Black man with a history of mental illness who died of asphyxiation after an encounter with Rochester Police.

Prude died in March, but circumstances surrounding his death were not made public until months later, leading to allegations of a cover-up. Several members of the Rochester Police Department were either terminated or resigned in connection with the Prude tragedy.

Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren late Monday ordered the suspension of officers involved in the pepper spray encounter. Interim Police Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan responded by suspending one officer while two others were placed on administrative leave, until an internal investigation has been completed.

"Unfortunately, state law and union contract prevents me from taking more immediate and serious action," Warren said in a separate statement Monday.

According to city officials, Rochester has a "Persons in Crisis" program, designed to have mental health professionals respond to mental health calls. However, the mayor said the new program which launched only a few weeks ago wasn't triggered in this case because of the way the emergency call came into dispatch.

It came in as a family distress call, not as a mental health emergency and officers determined the girl was possibly a danger to herself and others only after arriving on the scene, according to city officials.

Bill introduced in New York State Senate

The action to remove the officers from patrol duties was announced as New York lawmakers were holding a virtual press conference unveiling new legislation. It would amend current state law to prohibit the use of chemicals, including "oleoresin capsicum, pepper spray and tear gas" against minors under any circumstance.

"We can at least make sure that no child will ever again be treated like this: threatened with violence and sprayed in the face with chemical irritants," State Sen. Samra Brouk, a Democrat who represents Rochester, said Monday.

Brouk said the bill is a single "step" for a community that has been through "so much trauma in the last six months," referring to the Prude incident.

"At a time when this young girl was in the middle of a crisis, away from her parents, instead of being comforted, spoken to as a child, she was treated violently and pepper-sprayed in the face," Brouk said during a video conference Monday.

Fellow Democrat Demond Meeks, a New York Assemblyman also representing Rochester, said during the press conference that the legislation "simply scratches the surface," adding that police are not given adequate de-escalation training.

"It hurt me to my heart to see that adults can treat a child in such a manner," Meeks said referring to the child, who has not been named by police. "She was treated as less-than, and that's totally unacceptable."

Cuomo agreed, tweeting that the incident is further evidence that in many areas in New York and across the United States, the relationship between police and the communities they serve "is clearly not working."

"As a human, this incident is disturbing and as a father it's heartbreakingthis isn't how the police should treat anyone, let alone a 9-year-old girl," the Democratic governor said in a statement.

"Across New York and around the country, the relationship between police and the communities they serve is clearly not working, which is why we launched a statewide effort to bring everyone to the table and make real, lasting reform."

Cuomo added that the city of Rochester "needs to reckon with a real police accountability problem."

Police responded to a call about "family trouble"

A frame from a Rochester Police Department body-camera video shows a girl in handcuffs in the back of a police cruiser. Rochester Police-YouTube/Screenshot by NPR hide caption

A frame from a Rochester Police Department body-camera video shows a girl in handcuffs in the back of a police cruiser.

"I'm not making any excuses for what transpired," Rochester Executive Deputy Chief Andre Anderson said at a Sunday press conference, held the same day police released two officer-worn body camera videos from the incident.

"From what was observed, it didn't appear as if she was resisting the officer," Anderson said. "She was trying not to be restrained to go to the hospital."

Officials said the girl wanted to kill herself and her mother, and officers on the scene attempted to restrain the child. Anderson said the child "thrashed around" at one point causing an officer's body camera to fall to the ground.

The officer-worn camera footage, which features disturbing language and images, shows officers trying to restrain the girl as she falls in the snow. And as officers put handcuffs on her she screams repeatedly: "I want my dad!"

As police attempt to get the girl inside of a patrol car, she begs officers to get the snow off of her and tells them her arm is hurting.

At one point, an officer tells her: "You're acting like a child."

"I am a child!" she screams back.

The girl, who by this point is sitting in the back of the patrol car with her legs outside on the ground, refuses officers' commands to sit back and move fully inside the vehicle.

As this is playing out, an officer, seeming exasperated by the girl's refusal to obey commands, tells colleagues to "just spray her at this point."

A few seconds later, the girl screams as she is hit with pepper spray and then begs officers to wipe her eyes. It isn't clear which officer sprayed the eye irritant.

The police video ends with one officer exclaiming, "Unbelievable."

NPR's Liz Baker in Rochester contributed reporting.

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After Police Pepper Spray 9-year-old, Bill Tries To Ban Its Use On Children - NPR

Sharks rebuilding team chemistry with help from new book – The Athletic

The 2014-15 Sharks were not all that memorable. After a stunning collapse in the 2014 playoffs to the Los Angeles Kings in which they blew a 3-0 series lead, the organization took a planned step backward with the hope that it would be able to retool the roster and leadership group to set them up for success down the road. It was the only season of the 2010s that they did not qualify for the playoffs.

But the Sharks did have one of the leagues more notable personalities for that solitary season. Towering tough guy John Scott signed a one-year contract on July 2, 2014. As we integrate more younger players to our team, Johns presence alone can act as a deterrent and help keep teams and opposing players honest, general manager Doug Wilson said in a statement.

Scott was more than just an on-ice menace, though. He fit seamlessly into the dressing room, quickly endearing himself to a group that loved having him around. Just a year later, it would...

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Sharks rebuilding team chemistry with help from new book - The Athletic

Digital innovation is unlocking new pharmaceutical and chemical research horizons, according to MIT Technology Review Insights – PRNewswire

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --"Transforming R&D: Digital innovation in thepharmaceuticals and chemicals industries," a new report by MIT Technology Review Insights, explores how leading pharmaceuticals and chemicals companies are using artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and other digital technologies to transform scientific research and enhance R&D performance.

The report, produced in association with PerkinElmer Informatics, is based on in-depth interviews with R&D executives at organizations including Novartis, Roche, Merck, BASF, and Syngenta. The report finds that:

"As scientific research and data management become increasingly digital and move into the cloud, they create exciting opportunities for organizations to leverage information in new ways to accelerate and improve scientific discovery and product development," said Kevin Willoe, VP and GM of PerkinElmer Informatics. "We are delighted to collaborate with MIT Technology Review to gain insights on how leading pharmaceutical and chemical companies are forging a path on this exciting journey."

Download the report here.

For more information please contact: [emailprotected]

About MIT Technology Review

SOURCE MIT Technology Review Insights

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Digital innovation is unlocking new pharmaceutical and chemical research horizons, according to MIT Technology Review Insights - PRNewswire

Expert on nanoporous materials and chemical separations joins UB faculty – UB Now: News and views for UB faculty and staff – University at Buffalo…

An internationally recognized expert on nanoporous materials and chemical separations has joined UBsRENEW Instituteand the faculty of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Miao Yu will serve as an Empire Innovation Professor in RENEW an interdisciplinary institute dedicated to research and education on globally pressing problems in energy, environment and water and in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE).

His appointment was announced by RENEW Director Amit Goyal and Kemper Lewis, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, who said in a joint statement that Yu will boost UB's position as a premier public research university and will significantly impact the RENEW Institute.

Yus work aligns with RENEW'sNext-Generation Materials & Technologies for Energy, Environment, & Water Sustainabilityfocus area.

Sustainable energy, environment, water and food, to a large extent, depend on the ability to acquire, capture and utilize small molecules of water, ammonia, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, ethanol and liquid hydrocarbons. Precisely designing stable, molecular-scale pores for sieving these valuable molecules either from the final product or during their production processes could be an effective way of acquiring these molecules. Considering the very small sizes less than a nanometer of these molecules and the tiny size difference from their contaminants and/or byproducts, it is challenging to design these molecular-scale pores, especially using stable and desired materials.

One of the most important research directions of Yu's group is CO2 capture and utilization. He is leading or taking part in three Department of Energy (DOE) projects on CO2 capture from both flue gas and air, and two DOE projects on CO2 conversion to liquid fuels.

Yus long-term goals are to commercialize technologies developed from his research to impact energy, environment, water and food through the design of novel and scalable functional nanoporous materials and structures. This work is guided by deep fundamental understanding of materials synthesis and growth mechanisms, and their structure and property relationship.

Prior to joining UB, Yu was an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He served as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of South Carolina from 2012-17, and an assistant research professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder from 2010-12.

Yu has published about 70 peer-reviewed papers two in Science and others in Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Nano Letters, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, ACS Catalysis, Chemical Communications, among others. He received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2015, and has secured roughly $20 million in research funds.

Yu has transferred four DOE research grants totaling more than $2 million to UB. Earlier this month, the DOE awarded approximately $2 million from its new Advanced Manufacturing Office program to E2H2Nano, Yu's startupcompany, to explore ammonia synthesis, with a subcontract to UB of roughly $500,000.

Yu received a PhD in chemical engineering from University of Colorado, Boulder in 2007, and an MS in chemical engineering Tianjin University, China, in 2002. He was as a postdoctoral researcher at Boulder from 2007-10.

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Expert on nanoporous materials and chemical separations joins UB faculty - UB Now: News and views for UB faculty and staff - University at Buffalo...

What We Are Reading Today: Social Chemistry by Marissa King – Arab News

If you want to build a better future, you must believe in secrets.

The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.

Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if were too distracted by mobile devices. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Progress can be achieved in any area of business. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: Learning to think for yourself.

Tomorrows champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in todays marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique.

Zero to One presents at once an optimistic view of the future of progress in America and a new way of thinking about innovation: It starts by learning to ask the questions that lead you to find value in unexpected places.

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What We Are Reading Today: Social Chemistry by Marissa King - Arab News

5 Recent Actions That Epitomize Andrew Wheelers Caustic Chemical Safety Legacy – CleanTechnica

Fossil Fuels

Published on January 19th, 2021 | by Guest Contributor

January 19th, 2021 by Guest Contributor

Courtesy of Union Of Concerned Scientists.ByGenna Reed, Lead science and policy analyst

As peoples minds have rightfully been onthe state of our democracy and the Trump administration has been shedding agency heads left and right after inciting insurrection, the EPAs administrator, Andrew Wheeler, has stuck aroundto finalize a long list of destructive items that represent the administrations agenda all along: industry profits over public health.

Specifically, in its final days, the administration has taken a wrecking ball to the scientific basis for public protections against hazardous chemicals. Wheeler even had the gall to promote theEPAs Environmental Justice report, after we know that under his leadership,longstanding inequities have been neglected or made even worse. For example, environmental contaminants have not been as readily cleaned up at Superfund sites in communities of color. And Wheeler has weakened safety assessments of harmful chemicals by failing to use the best available science, which means fewer protections for those already carrying the burden of environmental toxins.

Its important to note that behind each of these actions there are EPA career scientists doing important work at the agency, but who have been thwarted by political officials at the EPA or the White House at different stages of the process.

Here are just five actions from the past two weeks that illuminate the Trump administrations toxic legacy on chemical safety:

In todays federal register, theEPA announced its intention not to finalize several bansproposed by its own staff under the Obama administration for three highly toxic chemicals: TCE, NMP, and methylene chloride. Over the past few years, the Trump administration has actively worked to delay or weaken these proposed bans and then reassess the chemicals using methods that were criticized by its own Scientific Advisory Committee on Chemicals. Last year,the White House was inappropriately involvedin rewriting the EPAs risk evaluation for TCE (a chemical used in dry cleaning and vapor degreasing facilities which can cause cancer and has development effects),downplaying the association between exposure and fetal heart defects. In 2019, the EPA issueda partial ban on methylene chloride (a chemical used in paint strippers linked to cancer and can be acutely lethal) for consumer uses, failing to adequately protect workers at risk of illness and death.

In response, the Environmental Defense Funds lead senior scientist, Richard Denison, stated that It appears that blocking these bans and denying crucial protections to workers and consumers for four years was not enough for the Trump EPA. This shameful move that epitomizes the Trump EPAs concerted attacks on public health is a transparent attempt to further constrain the incoming administration. It is yet another stain on Mr. Wheelers dismalrecord.

APoliticostoryon Wednesday reported on news from internal EPA sources that risk assessment for PFBS (a short-chain PFAS replacement for PFOS used in firefighting foam, food packaging, and other products) was significantly weakened by issuing a range for reference doses rather than a single number. The change was made by staffers in the agencys pesticides office at the direction of political officials, not the career scientists at the EPA who have been working on this assessment for years. In fact, several of those scientists would not put their names on the document as a result.

Typically, the EPAs IRIS program conducts a systematic review of the best available evidence and suggests a single reference dose (RfD), which is the amount of something one can be exposed to in the short-term (acute) or long-term (chronic), which is likely to result in a low risk of negative health effects. The inclusion of a range of values is something that industry has been advocating for because it allows states to pick the preferable end of the range to set their standards, possibly ignoring risks to the most sensitive populations. This also has the fingerprints ofNancy Beckand tracks all the way back to herhighly-criticizedattempt to meddle with risk assessments while working at OIRA in this2006 Draft Bulletin.

The additional White House review that this document was purportedly subject to opens it and future scientific documents up to political scrutiny and more delay. This is an unacceptable outcome for a scientific document that would serve to help states and the EPA set standards to protect all of us from the dangers of this PFOS-substitute in drinking water.

On Monday,The Hillreportedon documents they obtained that revealed White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) interference in the EPAs guidance on PFAS imports. The guidance sent to OMB weighed banning the import of products containing PFAS in any part of a product, but OMBs significant and substantive changes limited the ban to only products coated with PFAS. As Melanie Benesh from Environmental Working Group illustrates, Products disintegrate over time, so if you have something with PFAS on the inside then you may be exposed over time. As it dissolves it gets into household dust, eventually it gets thrown away in a landfill and can leach PFAS and get into the environment that way. OIRAs involvement inevaluating guidance documentsis aTrump administration overreach into agency discretionon matters on which the agency has extensive expertise.

Late last week, the EPA denied apetition submitted in Octoberby Center for Environmental Health, Clean Cape Fear River Watch, Clean Cape Fear, Democracy Green, Toxic Free NC, and the NC Black Alliance. It simply asked the agency to use its authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to require Chemours, a PFAS polluter based in NC, to submit testing data and fund independent health studies to determine the exposure risks of 54 PFAS present in the Cape Fear River watershed. The denial letter speaks to the problems inherent to our chemical regulatory system that allow the release of chemicals without adequate evidence of their safety and with no requirements for industry to pay for further testing or independent review.

The great irony is thatTSCA allows for these massive data gaps, fails to require industry to fill them, and then uses them as a justification for being unable to set health-protective standards.

This action also speaks to Wheelers utter failure to listen to the needs of impacted communities. LaMeshia Whittington, campaign director for the North Carolina Black Alliancestated,Its preposterous that the EPA has chosen to dilute the intent of the petition and prioritize corporate interest over the needs of the communities affected in North Carolina. This decision reflects the environment the outgoing administration created, poison over our health and profit over the people. We wont stop here. We will continue to fight against our water being poisoned, and children left without a basic human right of access to clean water.

On January 6th, the EPA announced its final rule that dramatically restricts the science the agency can consider in rulemaking. It would downweight studies that rely on any nonpublic data including studies involving private medical records, interfering with many key public-health studies the agency relies on to set safeguards for chemicals. This rule was issued despite opposition from the scientific community and nearly one million comments overwhelmingly against its finalization. It was also issued and made immediately effective, which goes against typical procedure of a 30-day finalization window. A new lawsuit from the Environmental Defense Fund, The Montana Environmental Information Center, andCitizens for Clean Energyare challenging thelegality of the processby which it was rushed through the door at the 11thhour.

In response, UCS Ce
nter for Science and Democracy Director Andrew Rosenbergstated that, Its even more egregious that EPA has chosen to finalize these restrictions on science during the worst public health crisis in our lifetimes. This rule would interfere with the agencys urgent, ongoing work on a range of issues including links between environmental factors and COVID-19, the impacts of wildfire smoke on public health, and the effects of the pesticide chlorpyrifos on children by undermining the EPAs ability to use the best available science. Its a willful decision to throw away the exact tools the agency needs now.

President-elect Biden has repeatedly said his administration will listen to the science and that science will guide policy decisions. UCS will hold him to this promise and fight to reverse all of the many damaging changes that have been made to undermine science-based assessments and related policies at the EPA. We look forward to working with the incoming administration to undo these destructive policy decisions. New leadership at the EPA must commit to listening to its scientists, upholding scientific integrity, and using the best available science to craft policies that protect everyones health and safety.

Featured image by Nithin Sameer on Unsplash

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Tags: Andrew Wheeler, Donald Trump, EPA Environmental Justice Report, Methylene Chloride, NMP, north carolina, PFAS, PFBS, TCE

Guest Contributor is many, many people. We publish a number of guest posts from experts in a large variety of fields. This is our contributor account for those special people. 😀

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5 Recent Actions That Epitomize Andrew Wheelers Caustic Chemical Safety Legacy - CleanTechnica

Oil companies are going all-in on petrochemicals and green chemistry needs help to compete – Salon

Global oil consumption declined by roughly 9% in 2020 as the pandemic reduced business and pleasure travel, factory production and transportation of goods. This abrupt drop accelerated an ongoing shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

U.S. government forecasts show that oil use for transportation, industry, construction, heating and electricity is declining and will continue to drop in the coming years. This trend has enormous implications for the oil industry: As the International Energy Agency observed in 2020, "No oil and gas company will be unaffected by clean energy transitions."

Many of these companies are trying to make up losses by boosting production of petrochemicals derived from oil and natural gas. Today roughly 80% of every barrel of oil is used to make gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, with the rest going into petrochemical products. As demand for petroleum fuels gradually declines, the amount of oil used for that "other" share will grow.

This makes sense as a business strategy, but here's the problem: Researchers are working to develop more sustainable replacements for petrochemical products, including bio-based plastics and specialty chemicals. However, petrochemicals can be manufactured at a fraction of the cost. As a biochemist working to develop environmentally benign versions of valuable chemicals, I'm concerned that without adequate support, pioneering green chemistry research will struggle to compete with fossil-based products.

Pivoting toward petrochemicals

Petrochemicals are used in millions of products, from plastics, detergents, shampoos and makeup to industrial solvents, lubricants, pharmaceuticals, fertilizer and carpeting. Over the next 20 years, oil company BP projects that this market will grow by 16% to 20%.

Oil companies are ramping up to increase petrochemical production. In the Saudi Arabian town of Yanbu, for example, two state-owned companies, Saudi Aramco and Sabic, are planning a new complex that will produce 9 million metric tons of petrochemicals each year, transforming Arabian light crude oil into lubricants, solvents and other products.

These changes are happening across the global industry. Several Chinese companies are constructing factories that will convert about 40% of their oil into chemicals such as p-Xylene, a building block for industrial chemicals. Exxon-Mobil began expanding research and development on petrochemicals as far back as 2014.

The promise of green chemistry

At the same time, in the U.S. and other industrialized countries, health, environmental and security issues are driving a quest to produce sustainable alternatives for petroleum-based chemicals. Drilling for oil and natural gas, using petrochemicals and burning fossil fuels have widespread environmental and human health impacts. High oil consumption also raises national security concerns.

The Department of Energy has led basic research on bioproducts through its national laboratories and funding for university BioEnergy Research Centers. These labs are developing plant-based, sustainable domestic biofuels and bioproducts, including petrochemical replacements, through a process called "metabolic engineering."

Researchers like me are using enzymes to transform leafy waste matter from crops and other sources into sugars that can be consumed by microorganisms typically, bacteria and fungi such as yeast. These microorganisms then transform the sugars into molecules, similar to the way that yeast converts sugar to ethanol, fermenting it into beer.

In the creation of bioproducts, instead of creating ethanol the sugar is transformed into other molecules. We can design these metabolic pathways to create solvents; components in widely used polymers like nylon; perfumes; and many other products.

My laboratory is exploring ways to engineer enzymes catalysts produced by living cells that cause or speed up biochemical reactions. We want to produce enzymes that can be put into engineered bacteria, in order to make structurally complex natural products.

The overall goal is to put carbon and oxygen together in a predictable fashion, similar to the chemical structures created through petroleum-based chemistry. But the green approach uses natural substances instead of oil or natural gas as building blocks.

This isn't a new concept. Enzymes in bacteria are used to make an important antibiotic, erythromycin, which was first discovered in 1952.

All of this takes place in a biorefinery a facility that takes natural inputs like algae, crop waste or specially grown energy crops like switchgrass and converts them into commercially valuable substances, as oil refineries do with petroleum. After fermenting sugars with engineered microorganisms, a biorefinery separates and purifies microbial cells to produce a spectrum of bio-based products, including food additives, animal feed, fragrances, chemicals and plastics.

In response to the global plastic pollution crisis, one research priority is "polymer upcycling." Using bio-based feedstocks can transform single-use water bottles into materials that are more recyclable than petroleum-based versions because they are easier to heat and remold.

Reducing the cost gap

To replace polluting goods and practices, sustainable alternatives have to be cost-competitive. For example, many plastics currently end up in landfills because they're cheaper to manufacture than to recycle.

High costs are also slowing progress toward a bioeconomy. Today research, development and manufacturing are more costly for bioproducts than for established petrochemical versions.

Governments can use laws and regulations to drive change. In 2018 the European Union set an ambitious goal of sourcing 30% of all plastics from renewable sources by 2030. In addition to reducing plastic pollution, this step will save energy: Petroleum-based plastics production ranks third in energy consumption worldwide, after energy production and transport.

Promoting bio-based products is compatible with President Biden's all-of-government approach to climate change. Biomanufacturing investments could also help bring modern manufacturing jobs to rural areas, a goal of Biden's American Jobs Plan.

But oil company investments in the design of novel chemicals are growing, and the chasm between the cost of petroleum-based products and those produced through emerging green technologies continues to widen. More efficient technologies could eventually flood existing petrochemical markets, further driving down the cost of petrochemicals and making it even harder to compete.

In my view, the growing climate crisis and increasing plastic pollution make it urgent to wean the global economy from petroleum. I believe that finding replacements for petroleum-based chemicals in many products we use daily can help move the world toward that goal.

Constance B. Bailey, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University of Tennessee

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

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Oil companies are going all-in on petrochemicals and green chemistry needs help to compete - Salon

LA Clippers News: Nic Batum already has rave reviews for the Clippers team chemistry – Clips Nation

Joining a new team always presents challenges. Theres a new playbook to learn, a new city to live in, and new teammates to adjust to. That last piece could be particularly troubling if a free agent joins a team that had well-documented chemistry issues the year before.

But Nicolas Batum hasnt found any challenges in his move to Los Angeles. Hes grateful to be in such a promising situation to compete for a title in his 13th year in the league, especially after being marooned in Eastern Conference mediocrity for half a decade. And team chemistry has been the least of his concerns, as he told the media Tuesday.

The transition has been pretty easy, Batum said. This is a great group, like you can hear a lot of stuff all around, but I didnt see it yet. Thats good. I dont think Im gonna see it this year. The group is great, you know, guys, they welcomed me with open arms. Like yesterday, Ive been here for a week and they already called me and texted me for my birthday yesterday, so that was great. So, you know, love these guys, love this group. Its been fun on the court, its been fun off the court as well.

Batum went on to say that he probably has the most conversations with Reggie Jackson, whose locker is next to his, but hes had a great time with Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Marcus Morris Sr., among others.

Hes also made a different connection with Serge Ibaka, as the two are both French speakers. Batum said that theyve already communicated in French while on the court together during the preseason.

Actually did it a couple times last game, and thats sometimes the strength you can have, you can talk in your own language about defense and stuff like that, Batum said. The opponent cant understand what youre saying, so it can be an advantage sometimes.

With a shortened preseason and an offense dictated by feel thus far rather than set plays, Batum noted how important it was for the team to develop chemistry. Its been a smooth process, but thats because the Clippers are making more of an effort this year than last. The returnees have reached out to the new players, and theyve all taken advantage of their limited practice time to build cohesion on and off the court.

Batum has been part of successful NBA teams in Portland and successful international teams playing for France, so he knows what works when he sees it. If he thinks the Clippers are on the right track in terms of their locker room dynamics, thats a good start for the 2020-21 season.

More news for Wednesday:

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LA Clippers News: Nic Batum already has rave reviews for the Clippers team chemistry - Clips Nation

Global Chemical Software Market Research 2020-2024 | Key Insights and Industry Planning Structure | Technavio – Business Wire

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The chemical software market is expected to grow by USD 192.36 million, progressing at a CAGR of over 5% during the forecast period.

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The rise in digitalization is one of the major factor propelling the market growth. However, the system integration issues and interoperability glitches will hamper the growth market.

More details: https://www.technavio.com/report/chemical-software-market-industry-analysis

Chemical Software Market: Application Landscape

Based on the application, the chemical process simulation segment led the market in 2019. The market is driven by the rise in digitalization in chemical companies to improve operational efficiency. However, market growth in the chemical process simulation segment will be slower than the growth of the market in the inventory management and ISO management segments.

Chemical Software Market: Geographic Landscape

By geography, North America is going to have a lucrative growth during the forecast period. About 38% of the markets overall growth is expected to originate from North America. Factors such as the presence of global chemical companies, the rising trend of digitalization in chemical companies, and the strict laws associated with the chemical industry are fostering the growth of the market in North America.

The US and Canada are the key markets for chemical software in North America. Market growth in this region will be faster than the growth of the market in South America.

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Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavios report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavios comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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SIUE Difference Maker: Chemistry professor Kevin Tucker shines as a teacher and mentor – AdVantageNEWS.com

Southern Illinois University Edwardsvilles Kevin Tucker, assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Chemistry, is the epitome of a teacher-scholar: offering numerous opportunities for students to engage in applied research and gaining funding to advance his novel research endeavors.

But a necessary addition to that designation is mentor. Amid a pandemic that has made it difficult for students and educators to conduct laboratory research, Tucker has demonstrated just how much emphasis he places on his role as a teacher-scholar-mentor.

An acknowledgement of his impact on students success is Tuckers nomination as a Difference Maker by chemistry graduate student and research assistant Katherine Maloof.

Dr. Tucker is more than an amazing professor and mentor, Maloof said. This past year has been one of the hardest in my life, but Dr. Tucker has helped me through it. Without him, I would not be where I am today, and I can say that confidently. He will pick you up when youre down, and give you what you need to build yourself back up. He truly has a passion for learning and ensuring the success of his students. He goes above and beyond for us, and absolutely deserves to be recognized.

I am honored and humbled by Katies words, Tucker said. I have a large research lab ranging from 15-20 students depending on the semester, and I truly enjoy mentoring each one of them as a student and as a person. I always want to know my students as a whole individual because it allows me to mentor them more effectively toward their goals professional and life.

Tuckers research focuses on the detection of pharmaceutical and personal care products, and other contaminants of emerging concern, within local and regional waterways and the surrounding soil systems. These compounds include antibiotics, and endocrine disruptors, soaps, cosmetics and agricultural products.

He has worked diligently to overcome the pandemic'schallenges by creating policies that allow his research team to continue their important work in a safe environment. He developed lab zones that are reserved via a group calendar to ensure proper spacing of students. Additionally, each student wears a mask and face shield in the lab for protection.

Tucker credits students for making his scholarship possible and knows from personal experience just how valuable effective mentorship is for academic, professional and personal development.

As I pursue novel research projects and form new collaborations, I know that it is my students and their support and commitment to the lab that will enable me to continue to deliver positive results in the future, Tucker said. I remember having professors as an undergraduate who mentored me into the student and professional that I have become. I revered them and am still in contact with them to this day. I expect nothing less of myself with every student that I mentor than what my mentors gave me.

SIUE is celebrating Difference Makers like Tucker throughout February. These individuals are just a few of the many university faculty, staff and students who have made hard times a little less difficult for others. They were nominated by colleagues and students.

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SIUE Difference Maker: Chemistry professor Kevin Tucker shines as a teacher and mentor - AdVantageNEWS.com

Batteries: The bedrock of the sustainable future | Sponsored – Chemistry World

You can watch the video version of this podcast above, or listen to the audio-only version from the Chemistry in its element podcast feed here:

Or read the edited transcript below.

Ben Valsler

Were in the midst of a climate crisis. In response, countries are pledging significant action to reduce their carbon emissions the European Union intends to be carbon neutral by 2050, for example, and China by 2060. The Paris Climate Agreement was adopted by almost 200 parties in 2015, obliging countries to set out their plans to reduce greenhouse emissions in increasingly ambitious five-year cycles. And carbon consciousness has also made its way into corporate culture, with organisations like BASF aiming for carbon neutral growth by 2030, and General Motors aiming for 2040.

When discussing large-scale carbon reduction, the focus is often on power generation replacing fossil fuels with solar, wind or tidal energy or on new technologies like carbon capture and storage. But for a truly sustainable future, we need a wider view.

Chris Stumpf

Im Chris Stumpf, and I work at Waters Corporation. Im a senior manager, and I focus on market development. Really, what Ive been looking at pretty extensively as of late is the area of electronics, and also sustainability. Ive kind of developed the title of green ambassador within the company because Im tying in a lot of the electronics, especially lithium ion batteries. It connects into carbon neutrality, but also into supporting sustainability goals of a lot of corporations and a lot of countries around the world as theyre trying to meet their carbon neutrality stated goals.

Ben Valsler

Waters Corporation is the worlds leading specialty measurement company they dont make lithium ion batteries or research new sustainable materials themselves, but they develop chromatography, mass spectrometry and thermal analysis techniques that enable scientists and industry worldwide to answer cutting edge questions.

Chris Stumpf

I think there is a common thread with this, and I think a lot of this is really accelerated due to Covid-19. What weve discovered is that supply chains are being disrupted and theres this need to be able to manufacture within countries. A lot of the supply chain, as it stands now, is not sustainable. So one way of reducing that is to use 5G, which enables the Internet of Things, which enables automated manufacturing. Theres also artificial intelligence, which can be focused directly on managing specific aspects of the supply chain, and continuous manufacturing, things like that. The underlying technology for a lot of that is energy, and how you can store and use energy where it needs to be used. One way to do that is with batteries, specifically lithium ion batteries. Theyre the dominant battery type today. Currently, they enable electric and hybrid electric cars, and theyre used in the electric grid, for smart grids. Their use is going to be very pervasive across the landscape. In addition, theyre heavily used in consumer electronics, our smartphones and our laptops, and all these types of devices that we use nowadays.

Ben Valsler

While all of these technologies play a role in fostering development and reducing our reliance on existing, outdated infrastructure, batteries perhaps seem the least exciting on the list. Its only about 30 years since the first commercial lithium ion battery, but in that time theyve become ubiquitous, commonplace, even forgettable.

Chris Stumpf

AI and 5G receive a lot of publicity. I mean, theyre even in pop culture you can think about Stephen Kings novel Cell, based on creating zombies with cellphone towers. And Steven Spielberg had a movie in 2001, based on artificial intelligence and creating like an [artificial] human person.

But right now, were taking this lithium ion battery technology for granted. Its everywhere: its in our laptops and our cell phones. And theres still a lot to be done.

The chemistry Nobel prize winners in 2019, Goodenough, Wittingham and Yoshino-san, said there are six things that still need to be done with regards to research: reducing the cost, improving the safety, increasing the charge density. For example, if youre going to put these lithium ion batteries on an aeroplane, or a big tractor-trailer truck or something like that, you need a lot more energy density.

Then theres the question of whether lithium ion battery technology, as its being practised today, with the liquid electrolyte fluid and the cathode and anode, is the right approach. Should we go with another type of technology? Do we use solid state, for example? Or do we replace the electrodes with other types of technology? The lithium and cobalt that are in the anode and cathode are not really that sustainable its a bit difficult to justify this from a sustainability perspective. Could you perhaps replace some of that with more common metals like sodium? Theres a lot of opportunity here for really basic R&D to decide which direction to go in, and which is the most commercially viable option.

Ben Valsler

Sustainability means different things to different people. For a business strategy to be sustainable, it needs to ensure profits are greater than costs. But this can conflict with the environmental bottom line ensuring no environmental or ecological damage to sustain the natural world for generations to come. Taking a global view, the United Nations has set out 17 sustainable development goals, which include affordable and clean energy, climate action and responsible consumption and production alongside gender equality, sanitation, peace and justice.

Chris Stumpf

In addition to a clean environment, they also want to promote civil stability, because they want to minimise extreme wealth inequality to reduce the possibilities of war. So with regards to lithium ion batteries, that framework of sustainability and trying to source your materials plays a part in those 17 development goals of the United Nations. Thinking about the Paris Climate treaty, if we can maintain our carbon emissions to 1990 levels, then we can arrest the increase in the Earths temperature. Basically, that justifies the investment in all this R&D for lithium ion batteries and all the products they are going into.

Yoshino-san talked about lithium ion batteries being the bedrock of the sustainable society. But theres other things that we dont quite realise, until we get to that world of having a lot of our consumer electronics and cars and aeroplanes and things like that running on lithium ion batteries or another alternative. Its an enabling technology. Its playing a small part in this overall scheme of sustainability. Its not the only thing thats going to help with this, because its kind of a hybrid situation where we have lots of things that we need to do in order to reach a sustainable future, but its the foundation of that, in my opinion.

Ben Valsler

If batteries are to be the bedrock of the sustainable society, its vital that we understand how to tailor them to specific uses the battery in your laptop has a very different specification to the ones in the latest electric cars. This is where measurement technologies come into their own, helping with everything from blue-skies research to efficient manufacture.

Neil Demarse

Hi, my name is Neil Demarse. I am a product manager for our microcalorimetry products.

Because theyrecontained and non-moving, you can think of batteries as a machine almost. Its a complex device. Theres not a lot of techniques that can be used to study whole cell batteries. A lot of them are destructive techniques. Having a test that you can use to look at the chemicals separately, but also look at whole cell batteries is important. Thats where calorimetry really has a very important contribution to the research field.

Research is also starting to look at bringing in some of the tools that biochemists or biopharmaceutical sciences are using because of their sensitivity: HPLC and mass spectro
metry. Theres also cryo EM, which was historically used just in protein science; now, its being carried over into material characterization for batteries. As the batteries change and the performance demands accelerate, thats where theyre drawing in some of these tools that wouldnt traditionally be used by chemical engineers or chemists. Theres not a one-size-fits-all battery, so theres going to be a lot of research to determine how best to build certain batteries for certain applications.

Chris Stumpf

In order to think about things like safety or energy density, as far as an analytical characterization perspective, you have to go back and think about the battery itself. Theres four primary things that you have to think about when you when you think about a battery. Theres the anode and the cathode, and were all familiar with the terminals of batteries that is basically the anode and the cathode. Inside, there is the electrolyte. Theres additives and all this stuff that is put in there partly to enhance the performance of the battery, but also to suppress potential fires and things like that. Then on the inside, there is a polymer separator. Its purpose is basically to prevent a short circuit between anode and cathode. If you actually have a short circuit if the polymer gets punctured, or if it shrinks the battery gets hot very quickly. And if the battery gets hot very quickly, it can cascade because a lot of the time, these cars will have thousands of these batteries in in a battery pack. It can cascade like dominoes.

Neil Demarse

Calorimetry can tell you how fast reactions are happening, how much of a reaction is happening, even the fact that there is a reaction happening [at all]. So a researcher might have some data on their chemistry before it goes into the battery, or if you were to cut it open, but calorimetry tells you how all those components together react are there reactions in there that we dont want? Were measuring heat; do those reactions get too hot?

The chemistry that goes into the battery is going to help the charge density and the battery life cycle. Safety is also something that can be looked at early on in the R&D process to make sure that chemicals are compatible. High-precision coulometry is another technique thats paired with calorimetry to understand these parasitic reactions, the small minute reactions that researchers want to understand because it points directly to how good their batterys going to be.

Chris Stumpf

But youve also got the capabilities of really understanding the chemistry thats going on, and all the side reactions. These side reactions basically rob the battery of its main goodness: the power that its generating. If you can understand that from a molecular perspective, with techniques such as mass spectrometry, or maybe for the whole battery itself using battery calorimetry, then you can really get to understand how you can actually make this battery last 20 years, 40 years, 100 years.

Ben Valsler

Fine-tuning the chemistry within a battery isnt enough to make a perfect product the right battery case is essential to allowing that chemistry to work in situ. To confirm a case wont collapse in the real world, researchers use techniques like thermo-gravimetric analysis, or TGA. By applying heat to a material in a controlled way, they can precisely measure not just physical deformation, but chemical changes that would indicate degradation or oxidation.

Chris Stumpf

The polymer that the casing is made out of is actually very important. Youd like to make a casing thats resistant to being crushed in a car accident, for example.So you can design a casing and use analytical characterization in order to build that polymer so that it resists that. You can put the right additives in the electrolyte on the inside so that if the thing does start to heat up, it can trigger some type of flame repression. Theres a number of these things that you can do from an analytical perspective to build a high performing battery that that has a lot of the energy performance that you want. But at the same time youve got to think about the safety perspectives as well.

Ben Valsler

One essential component of a sustainable future highlighted by the United Nations goal of responsible consumption and production centres around what happens to a product at the end of its useful life. Electronic waste is a growing problem the UN estimated 50 million tonnes was reported in 2018, and levels are expected to double by 2050. This includes complex equipment that is hard to recycle and can contain components that are toxic or hard to replace creating a vicious circle whereby materials are mined in environmentally damaging ways, only to be returned to landfill in just a few years. With batteries, as with other electronic components, research and characterisation can help us to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Neil Demarse

Theres a lot of work going into understanding recycling. Apple is one of the largest recyclers of batteries in the world. Its no surprise they have batteries in all of their devices. Im sure they want those back and they have a process that might be able to recycle some or all of the battery. Theres lots of other techniques, but there are still questions: how do you take something thats a static machine full of chemicals and take it apart? How do you recycle these small little pieces? Theres some initiatives or research that go into, were going to grind up the battery and try to purify certain parts of it by just making it smaller and smaller and smaller, mechanically. Others, open up a battery and extract certain materials, but I think it is a big challenge understanding how batteries are going to be recycled. Whats the best way to do that? I dont think it necessarily fits our current recycling process as we know it of separating [components]. Its easy to separate trash. With batteries, its a lot more complex.

Chris Stumpf

Right now, theres regulations in order to collect these batteries, because we dont want them to get into the waste stream. But as far as collecting enough material to reuse it, I think the amount of electric cars is actually not high enough to make that economically feasible. Theres two major areas that people look at with regard to recycling batteries. The first is relatively straightforward: you take the battery pack in some kind of casing from a car, you open that case off, and theres all these individual battery cells. You can test each one of those cells and you can pull out the ones that are bad and replace them with good ones. Then you can repurpose that battery pack, either by putting it back into another car, or you can put it into a Smart Grid, which might have less aggressive energy requirements. It actually might last a lot longer in the electric grid. Its basically a reconditioning of the battery.

The second one is to take that battery pack out of the car or the cell phone or whatever, open up the battery pack, take out the cells, and grind them up. Then try to separate things into cobalt, magnesium, lithium etc. to get back to virgin materials. Thats another area where you need analytical characterization; you need mass spectrometry, NMR, TGA, DSC, all these types of techniques in order to just understand the physical properties and the molecular properties of this, and to see if youve actually got yourself back to where you want to be.

Ben Valsler

Pure, virgin materials have fairly well understood properties. But when a material has been reclaimed from a disused battery, we need to be certain that it will behave in the same way before it returns to the manufacturing process. With many companies operating on a financial knife edge, the risks of using recycled or reclaimed materials that may contain impurities can be too much to bear.

Chris Stumpf

Without the analytical characterisation, without the molecular understanding of the anode and the cathode material, the electrolyte, and the polymer materials that the the battery cells made out of, without that molecu
lar and physical understanding with a TGA, you can actually take that polymer and you can melt it with a thermoplastic. You need to know when these polymers melt, because thats part of the manufacturing process. You melt these polymers and then you blow mold them, or you do different types of manufacturing with them. But you need to be able to understand that because if the temperatures shifted, somehow, its not going to work in the existing manufacturing process, and youre going to have to do all this adaptation. So really, you need to understand, Do I still have that same polymer or has it has it degraded somehow? If you take a polymer from a battery, for example and use it in a different application, maybe in a car bumper, if that polymer now is brittle, its going to break right away. Its not going to be a good application in a car because you need that bumper to resist that impact. So absolutely, analytical characterisation across the whole, from the very beginning of making a battery to the circular economy and reusing the components, youve got to understand that from each step of that process.

Ben Valsler

So as we collectively try to find ways to adapt to a challenging future, to meet the ambitious targets we set for our varying definitions of sustainability, its essential that we use every tool available to us to probe, analyse and understand the technology that we take for granted. And with that understanding we will be able to build, and rebuild, better batteries that can realise Akira Yoshinos vision of them as the bedrock of a sustainable society.

For more on this topic, check out the new Chemistry World sustainability collection curated content created with our partners. You can find that at chemistryworld.com/sustainability.

This podcast featured Chris Stumpf and Neil Demarse of Waters, and was produced in partnership with Waters Corporation. Im Ben Valsler from Chemistry World, thank you for joining me.

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Batteries: The bedrock of the sustainable future | Sponsored - Chemistry World