Chemical Security: Overlapping Programs Could Better Collaborate to Share Information and Identify Potential Security Gaps – Government Accountability…

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What GAO Found

Eight federal programs addressing chemical safety or security from four departments or agencies that GAO reviewed contain requirements or guidance that generally align with at least half of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) 18 Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program standards. At least 550 of 3,300 (16 percent) facilities subject to the CFATS program are also subject to other federal programs. Analyses of CFATS and these eight programs indicate that some overlap, duplication, and fragmentation exists, depending on the program or programs to which a facility is subject. For example,

The departments and agencies responsible for all nine of these chemical safety and security programsfour of which are managed by DHS, three by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and one each managed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Department of Transportation (DOT)have previously worked together to enhance information collection and sharing in response to Executive Order 13650, issued in 2013. This Executive Order directed these programs to take actions related to improving federal agency coordination and information sharing.

However, these programs have not identified which facilities are subject to multiple programs, such that facilities may be unnecessarily developing duplicative information to comply with multiple programs. Although CFATS allows facilities to use information they prepared for other programs, CFATS program guidance does not specify what information facilities can reuse. Finally, DHS and EPA leaders acknowledged that there are differences between CFATS requirements and the security requirements for public water systems and wastewater treatment facilities, but they have not assessed the extent to which potential security gaps may exist. By leveraging collaboration established through the existing Executive Order working group, the CFATS program and chemical safety and security partners would be better positioned to minimize unnecessary duplication between CFATS and other programs and better ensure the security of facilities currently subject to fragmented requirements.

Facilities with hazardous chemicals could be targeted by terrorists to inflict mass casualties or damage. Federal regulations applicable to chemical safety and security have evolved over time as authorizing statutes and regulations established programs for different purposes, such as safety versus security, and with different enforcement authorities. GAO has reported that such programs may be able to achieve greater efficiency where overlap exists by reducing duplication and better managing fragmentation.

GAO was asked to review issues related to the effects that overlap, duplication, and fragmentation among the multiple federal programs may have on the security of the chemical sector. This report addresses the extent to which (1) such issues may exist between CFATS and other federal programs, and (2) the CFATS program collaborates with other federal programs. GAO analyzed the most recent available data on facilities subject to nine programs from DHS, EPA, ATF, and DOT; reviewed and analyzed statutes, regulations, and program guidance; and interviewed agency officials.

GAO is making seven recommendations, including that DHS, EPA, ATF, and DOT identify facilities subject to multiple programs; DHS clarify guidance; and DHS and EPA assess security gaps. Agencies generally agreed with six; EPA did not agree with the recommendation on gaps. GAO continues to believe it is valid, as discussed in the report.

For more information, contact Nathan Andersonat (206) 287-4804 or AndersonN@gao.gov.

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Chemical Security: Overlapping Programs Could Better Collaborate to Share Information and Identify Potential Security Gaps - Government Accountability...

American Institute of Chemical Engineers Celebrates Organizations and Leaders for Doing a World of Good – GlobeNewswire

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New York, NY, Dec. 11, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) honored DuPont and Thermo Fisher Scientific, along with those companies leaders, for exemplifying the good works of chemical engineering at its 2020 Virtual Gala, held December 10. For the first time, the annual fundraiser was presented online, as a measure against COVID-19. The online platform enabled the gala presentation to reach and include a broader audience.

DuPont was recognizedfor leadership in the developing ofinnovative sustainable products, and for the companys 2030 Sustainability Goals, which align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.The honor for DuPont was accepted by Edward D. Breen, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Thermo Fisher Scientific was honored for leadership in addressing global health care challenges, in particular for the companys leadership in bringing government and industry groups together to accelerate access to COVID-19 testing and vaccine development. Thermo Fisher Scientifics Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Marc N. Casper,accepted the award on behalf of the company.

In accepting the award, Breen saidthe need for chemical engineers, and the value of the AIChE organization, is more evident than ever as we face the threats to our health and economy from COVID-19. At DuPont, we believe in the power of science and engineering to solve and scale solutions for the pandemic and many other challenges that face our world and Im honored to accept this award on behalf of all our employees.

Casper thanked AIChE for recognizing Thermo Fisher Scientific, and lauded the scientific community for its extraordinary response in advancing solutions for the current health crisis. Weve made great strides thanks to the innovation and tenacity of scientists and chemical engineers, said Casper, and we at Thermo Fisher are proud to support this work. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner, and safer. And our response to the pandemic is the most profound example of how we fulfill it each and every day.

The gala also honored S. Shariq Yosufzai,retired Vice President of Global Diversity at Chevron Corporation,who received the AIChE Foundations Doing a World of Good Medal, a prize that recognizes the achievements of an individual who has advanced the societal contributions of engineers.Yosufzai was cited for his leadership in creating a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive workforce within Chevron and across the chemical engineering community.

Yosufzai expressed his appreciation to others who had influenced him as an advocate for greater diversity and inclusion in industry and across institutions. I am deeply honored and also humbled to accept this award not only on my behalf but on behalf of many people and many organizations that have inspired me in this journey, Yosufzai said.

Another highlight was the announcement of the Future of STEM Scholars Initiative (FOSSI) by Mark Vergnano, Chief Executive Officer at Chemours and founding chair of FOSSI. A collaboration of AIChE, the American Chemistry Council, Chemours Company, and HBCU Week Foundation, the initiative will provide scholarships, create internships, and facilitate mentorship and leadership training for students majoring in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).FOSSIs first year goal is to underwrite 150 STEM scholars at an investment of $7.2 million.

In announcing FOSSI,AIChE Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer June Wispelwey stated It is a privilege to partner with the Chemours Company, the American Chemistry Council and theHBCU WeekFoundationin the launch of FOSSI. Together, we are working towards the goal to support countless underrepresented students in pursuing careers in STEM. We look forward to having additional industry partners join us.

The 2020 AIChE Virtual Gala raised approximately $550,000 to underwrite programs to attract and retain students from underrepresented segments of the population to the STEM professions.

The annual gala supports transformative priorities of the AIChE Foundation and its Doing a World of Good campaign, which focus on advancing chemical engineering and bringing that expertise to bear for the good of society. To date, the campaign has raised more than $26 million toward those objectives.

The 2020 Virtual Galas dinner chairs were Erin Kane, President and Chief Executive Officer, AdvanSix Inc; Paul G. Parker, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Corporate Development, Thermo Fisher Scientific; Daryl Roberts, Chief Operations and Engineering Officer, DuPont; John Televantos, Senior Partner, Arsenal Capital Partners; and Michael P. Thien,Senior Vice President, Merck & Company. Inc.

For more information about AIChEs 2020 Virtual Gala, its honorees and supporters, visit http://www.aiche.org/gala.

# # #

About AIChE:

AIChE is a professional society of more than 60,000 chemical engineers in 110 countries. Its members work in corporations, universities and government using their knowledge of chemical processes to develop safe and useful products for the benefit of society. Through its varied programs, AIChE continues to be a focal point for information exchange on the frontiers of chemical engineering research in such areas as energy, sustainability, biological and environmental engineering, nanotechnology, and chemical plant safety and security. More information about AIChE is available atwww.aiche.org.

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American Institute of Chemical Engineers Celebrates Organizations and Leaders for Doing a World of Good - GlobeNewswire

Breaking the Rules of Chemistry Unlocks New Reaction With Applications From Creating New Drugs to Food Production – SciTechDaily

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Scientists have broken the rules of enzyme engineering to unlock a new method for creating chemical reactions that could unlock a wide range of new applications from creating new drugs to food production.

In their paper published recently in Nature Catalysis, Professor Francesca Paradisi and Dr. Martina Contente of the University of Nottingham and the University of Bern show a new method to produce chemical molecules more efficiently through a new one step reaction in the enzyme.

We have demonstrated how a very simple mutation in one of the key residues of a useful enzyme has dramatically expanded its synthetic scope, enabling the use of the mutant variant in the preparation of challenging chemical molecules, as well as natural metabolites that are vital in many biological processes in the body.

Professor Paradis, Professor of Biocatalysis in the School of Chemistry in Nottingham

Any textbook on enzymes will report on how the catalytic amino acids in any given enzyme family are highly conserved, they are in fact a signature of the type of chemistry an enzyme can do. Variations do occur and in some cases, if the replacing amino acid is similar, both can be found in significant proportion in Nature, but others can be much less common and are found only in a limited number of species.

In this study we have explored an untouched area of enzyme engineering and modified the a key catalytic residue in the active site of an enzyme adds Professor Paradisi, Previously it was thought that doing this would cause a loss of activity of the enzyme but we have found this is not the case when this biocatalyst is used in a synthetic direction and in fact challenging but very useful molecules can now be made under mild conditions which could be easily scaled up and replicated commercially for use in a wide range of products.

To change the substrate scope of an enzyme the approach has generally been to mutate the residues involved in substrate recognition, whether through rational design or directed evolution, leaving always untouched the catalytic ones.

The mutant variant of an acyl transferase enzyme was rapidly created and while the native biocatalyst would work with alcohols and linear amines, the mutant work with thiols and much more complex amines too. The research demonstrated that indeed the new variant has lost the ability to hydrolyse esters, but for synthetic applications, where an ester or other functional groups need to be made (thioesters and amides) and not cleaved, this is in fact a major advantage.

We have had fantastic feedback on this study from the scientific community as it is providing a new tool for chemistry that can be applied to a wide range of molecular reactions. The fact that it is a very stable reaction created without the need for specific conditions mean it has the potential for a low cost commercial application in the production of new pharmaceuticals. We believe we have unlocked a new combination in the catalytic triads which nature seem to have disfavoured, possibly to tighten the control on reactivity, but that for a chemist could be a real goldmine.

Dr. Martina Contente

Reference: A strategic Ser/Cys exchange in the catalytic triad unlocks an acyltransferase-mediated synthesis of thioesters and tertiary amides by Martina L. Contente, David Roura Padrosa, Francesco Molinari and Francesca Paradisi, 30 November 2020, Nature Catalysis.DOI: 10.1038/s41929-020-00539-0

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Breaking the Rules of Chemistry Unlocks New Reaction With Applications From Creating New Drugs to Food Production - SciTechDaily

Zuckerberg spoke to Ambani but there was no chemistry even with a multi-million dollar partnership between t – Business Insider India

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However, the headlines were few and far between. Their individual dispositions were exemplified by the lack of chemistry between the two of them during the last session of Facebook's Fuel for India 2020 conference. In fact, it seemed like the two of them didnt know each other as well as business partners should, considering the massive amount of money Facebook has invested in Jio.

Both Ambani and Zuckerberg praised each other and asked questions that, one would suppose, would have been addressed before the investment was made. The chat between Microsoft chief Satya Nadella and Ambani was a bit more free-flowing than this one. But that was also before the pandemic and they were sitting next to each other.

The entire transcript of their conversation, which lasted over 40 minutes, was around 11 pages long. We, at Business Insider India, have shrunk the tete-a-tete down to the most important things that you need to know.

Here are some of the highlights from the conversation between Ambani and Zuckerberg on December 15:

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I'm curious to hear how your company adapted to help you move forward in the midst of this pandemic.

Ambani: [Ambani spoke a lot about what the government, the Reliance Foundation and his teams had contributed to the COVID relief efforts before answering how he sees the current situation in India.] Mark, sometimes I wonder that if the pandemic had struck India just four or five years earlier, we would have not been in as good a shape as what we are today. With all the connectivity we have, and the credit for that must go to our Prime Minister's Digital India vision, where he motivated the entire industry to roll out broadband in the first five years of his first term.

[..]And, I believe, Mark, that our actions will speak louder than our words in the coming months and years time here.

So, I'm curious what role do you see technology, playing in this post COVID world? Especially as it relates to all of these small businesses that I know you share a passion with me that is just critical that we serve them.

Ambani: Absolutely, Mark. And, let me point out a very unique feature about our partnership. Perhaps, not many people have understood this, but before this partnership I believe that each one of us was mainly a communication platform.

And, let me explain this very simply, Whatsapp has hundreds of millions of subscribers in India Jio has hundreds of millions of subscribers in India. Jio Mart, which is our retail service, actually has the aspiration of serving tens of millions of small shopkeepers in India, who are the bedrock of employment.

So, what does this mean? This means Jio brings digital connectivity. WhatsApp, now with WhatsApp brings digital interactivity and the ability to move to close transactions and create value. And, Jio Mart brings the unmatched online and offline retail opportunity that gives our small shops, which exist in villages and small towns in India, a chance to digitize and be at par with anybody else in the world.

Ambani: Well, as I mentioned to you, Mark. I really see India accelerating as a premier digital society. I see us integrating 5G.

[...]And, I think that in a span of 10 years, we can set for ourselves an objective to really reskill India and the talent that you talked about can improve 10x. Today, you're just seeing the creamy layer. But, that's what technology can do to really make a better India in a better world.

[..]And, that is why I think that the next two decades are going to be historic in terms of the social and economic transformation.

As you said, now, I cant imagine going through the pandemic 10 years ago or even two decades ago when the internet was still nascent. It would have been a completely different experience. And, technology, of course, is allowing us to make sure that we can get accurate information out to people that has implications on health, education and helping serve people better.

I think it shows a lot of the promise for what's ahead and I think we've certainly fared better now than we would have if the pandemic hit us before.

Zuckerberg: [...]

I think we're working with 140 banks, or it's supported by 140 banks out of the gate. And, India's the first country in the world to do anything like this now.

So we're grateful to be able to support this kind of innovation to help to work to create more prosperity and help achieve a more Digital India. In fact, I think that a lot of other places around the world are going to be better off when they follow some of this lead that India has set in creating public goods like this.

Mark, all of us would love to know your views on how the world is changing. And, what you and Facebook are thinking about. And what you see the future as. Just give us your perspective, Mark.

Video is just a lot richer of a medium than photos. Even when my daughters took their first steps, I wanted to capture a video of that and share it, not just a photo. But I don't think video is the end of the line.

You can have holograms of digital objects that can kind of be as realistic as the physical objects that are there. Meaning in five or 10 years when we're having this conversation, it will just be a hologram version of me sitting on the couch next to you instead of having to do this over a screen. It'll feel a lot more realistic.

A big part of why I was excited to partner with you is because there are not many people around the world, who've just gone industry after industry revolutionized them and improve them, and continue to do it and have that hunger to improve the lives of so many people so I just have a deep admiration for that. SEE ALSO:Two in every three Pornhub videos are gone after a purge to remove child porn

"Banks must change every 3-4 years," says Aditya Puri, the recently retired chairman of HDFC Bank, dubbed as 'the world's best banker'

After Zomato, Swiggy scales down its grocery ambitions leaving the market open for JioMart, BigBasket, Amazon and others

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Inexperienced Muncie Central boys basketball team eager to fill roles, improve throughout season – The Star Press

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MUNCIE, Ind. Sitting on the south endof the court inside Muncie Central's gym, Chandler Thompson looks as the Bearcats runfull-court drills starting from the other end.

This team looks different than any that Thompsona former Central and Ball State star now in his fourth season as the head coach has had since he's been here.There's no "superstar" like Victor Young, Dylan Stafford, Reggie Bass or Christian Wells that have been there the past few seasons.

Young, Stafford, KJ Jackson and Jayden Long, among others, guys that accounted for 89 percentof the scoring from last year'ssectional runner-up team, have graduated. The Bearcats return three players seniors De'Mar Woods-Haskins (4.9 points), Benjamin Watkins (3.8 points, 3 rebounds) and Michael Lowe (1.4 points, 2.2 rebounds) who logged significant varsity minutes last season.

GAMES TO WATCH: 10 ECI boys basketball games to watch in the 2020-21 season

But among the inexperience and "raw" nature of this team, as Watkins puts it, Thompson and his players see strong chemistry and a group of guys willing to put in the work to get better each day.

"They're quick learners, they gel together and they really are a good unit," Thompson said. "I think last year's group was really a good group but this year's group is kind of like they don't have a superstar, so they all go out there to make sure that everyone is held accountable for their mistakes."

Thompson added: "They're helping the coaches coach the kids and that's a good thing because we have a new kid on the team andthey're trying to help out and they all try to make sure he's in the right place every time."

FILE -- Muncie Central's De'Mar Woods-Haskins shoots a ball during a game against Logansport at the Muncie Fieldhouse Friday, Dec. 13, 2019.(Photo: Jordan Kartholl)

To go alongwith thatstrong chemistry, Lowe, Watkins and Woods-Haskins all unprompted pointed out how unselfish this team is.

"As soon as we see somebody open, we're giving it to him," Lowe said. "Like, that's not even a question with us."

Lowe added: "We've all been playing with each other since before middle school, so we all know each other very well on and off the court. I just think we should have a lot of fun going into the season."

That unselfish nature could benefit Central this season, making opposingdefenses focus on the whole team rather than one or two guys. It's not going to be easy replacing the production from last year, but the Bearcats seemup to the challenge. While Thompson said you want "one of those guys" who can take over games, Central will likely rely on a committee approach early in the season. Instead of one guy scoring 20 points a game, maybe it's two players dropping 10.

Standing off to the side at Tuesday's practice, a week before Central opens up its season at home against a Hamilton Southeastern team that went 17-6 last season, Watkins smiled when asked how this team will replace last year's production.

"Well, we have the talent to do that actually," Watkins said. "So we've just been trying to work so we can get those pieces filled. I think our chemistry is going to take us a long way."

When they werefreshmen, Watkins said this group of seniors lost just two games. And thechemistry that ledto that success, well, it hasn't gone anywhere.

Central's Ben Watkins shoots past Delta's defense during their game at Delta High School Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019. (Photo: Jordan Kartholl / The Star Press)

But in order for that totranslate to success at the varsity level, Watkins, Lowe and Woods-Haskinsare going to have to leadas other players such as sophomore Malik Hassani, who averaged 5.3 points playing inthree late-season varsity gameslast season stepinto bigger roles this season.

"It's going to be hard filling those shoes because they were all good," Woods-Haskins said of last year's senior class. "Like, I was just ready to come off the bench and play, now I got to be that person that everybody looks up to and I've got to be one of those seniors."

Thompson has already seen that leadership in practice from Lowe and Woods-Haskins. He's excited to see how this Central team will compete inanother tough schedule that includes games againsttalented North Central Conference opponentsalong with anon-conference slatethat features tHSE (Nov. 24), Fishers (Dec. 1), Brownsburg (Dec. 29), Noblesville (Jan. 9), North Central (Jan. 23), Westfield (Jan. 30), and more.

Knowing the challenges that some of those contests will present,Central's players said they were ready to keep improving and bringing some of the moreinexperiencedplayers up to speed. Last season ended in a one-point loss to New Palestine in the sectional championship game.

And while constant improvement is the focus now, don't think that the Bearcats have forgotten about that game or the fact that Central hasn't won a sectional championship since 2014.

"Thats really the only thing on my mind because I really want to get to the sectional and win the championship because its been too long since weve been past sectionals," Woods-Haskins said.

Robby General covers East Central Indiana high school sportsfor The Star Press. Contact him via email atrgeneral@gannett.com,on Twitter @rgeneraljrorphone at 765-283-8864.

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Clinical Chemistry Analyzer Has Utility in Multiple Laboratory Settings and During COVID-19 Crisis with its Small Size and Vast Menu – BioSpace

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GREENSBORO, N.C., Nov. 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --The Medica EasyRA benchtop clinical chemistry analyzer, distributed and serviced by Greensboro-based company, Carolina Liquid Chemistries Corp. (CLC), allows healthcare providers to test routine blood chemistries to include metabolic panels, liver enzymes, kidney function tests, glucose and cardiovascular tests. These tests are especially useful at a time when it is critical to check the overall health of COVID-19 patients.

Medica EasyRA's tests are very useful at a time when it is critical to check the overall health of COVID-19 patients.

The analyzer can also be used to screen for drugs of abuse or pain management medication. Its extensive menu is excellent for a family practice, urgent care, oncology, and other specialty practices with laboratories.

TheEasyRAclinicalchemistryanalyzerfitsintomultiplesettingswherefast,actionableoutcomesare requiredtodiagnose and tracktheprogressionof a varietyof diseasesandinterventions. The EasyRA's small size and ease of operation make it well equipped for space-restricted locations such as mobile test centers, urgent care centers, COVID-19 hospital floors, physician office laboratories, or reference laboratories and hospitals with satellite locations.

The EasyRA clinical chemistry analyzer also offers photometric throughput of up to 240 tests per hour or up to 480 tests per hour with electrolytes. Technicians can analyze STAT samples in less than 8 minutes.

About Carolina Liquid Chemistries Corp.

Headquartered in Greensboro, NC, Carolina Liquid Chemistries Corp. (CLC) is an authorized manufacturer, re-packager, re-labeler and value-added distributor of chemistry systems and reagents, as well as COVID-19 testing supplies. CLC helps clinical laboratories of all sizes reduce chemistry analyzer and reagent costs, while also receiving accurate and timely results. The company has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by bringing several PCR and antibody tests to market under the FDA's Emergency Use Authorization. For more information, visitcarolinachemistries.comor emailcontactsales@carolinachemistries.com.

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Agilent to Host Virtual Energy and Chemical Summit, November 10, 2020 – PR Web

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Agilent to Host Virtual Energy and Chemical Summit, November 10, 2020.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (PRWEB) November 04, 2020

Agilent Technologies, a global leader in life science, diagnostics, and analytical laboratory technologies, will address the challenges in the analytical requirements of the oil, gas and chemical industries at the Virtual Energy and Chemical Summit being held November 10, 2020. To keep abreast of analytical developments and enhance the productivity of your lab, tap into the know-how of Agilents product experts and application scientists.

Produced on LabRoots robust platform, connecting across all desktop and mobile devices, the summit will present attendees with Agilents custom products and services designed to provide user-friendly solutions with expert consultation.

Specific learning points at the Virtual Energy and Chemical Summit conference include:

To view the complete speaker list, agenda, and to register, click here.

About AgilentAnalytical scientists and clinical researchers worldwide rely on Agilent to help fulfil their most complex laboratory demands. Our instruments, software, services and consumables address the full range of scientific and laboratory management needsso our customers can do what they do best: improve the world around us. Whether a laboratory is engaged in environmental testing, academic research, medical diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals or food testing, Agilent provides laboratory solutions to meet their full spectrum of needs. We work closely with customers to help address global trends that impact human health and the environment, and to anticipate future scientific needs. Our solutions improve the efficiency of the entire laboratory, from sample prep to data interpretation and management.

About LabRootsLabRoots is the leading scientific social networking website, and primary source for scientific trending news and premier educational virtual events and webinars and more. Contributing to the advancement of science through content sharing capabilities, LabRoots is a powerful advocate in amplifying global networks and communities. Founded in 2008, LabRoots emphasizes digital innovation in scientific collaboration and learning. Offering more than articles and webcasts that go beyond the mundane and explore the latest discoveries in the world of science, LabRoots users can stay atop their field by gaining continuing education credits from a wide range of topics through their participation in the webinars and virtual events.

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Agilent to Host Virtual Energy and Chemical Summit, November 10, 2020 - PR Web

Halle Berry’s Chemistry With Van Hunt Is ‘Through the Roof’ – Us Weekly

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A perfect match! Halle Berry is feeling better than ever about her love life after confirming her relationship with singer Van Hunt, a source exclusively reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly.

Shes had some negative experiences [with men] but Van has taught her to love again and love herself, the insider adds. Hes a wonderful, caring man. Their chemistry is through the roof.

The Oscar winner, 50, revealed via Instagram in September that she was dating the Ohio native, also 50, after weeks of hinting at a new mystery man in her life. Though theyve only been dating a few months, the source says the Kingsman: The Golden Circle actress thinks sometimes you just know when youve found The One.

A month before announcing the identity of her new flame, Berry shared a snapshot from her birthday getaway to Las Vegas, posting a photo of her feet intertwined with someone elses in bed.

Thank you for all the beautiful birthday wishes from my friends and my very supportive and loyal fans! You ALL helped to make my birthday extra special , she captioned the romantic Instagram post.

The X-Men actress was previously married to David Justice from 1993 to 1997, to Eric Bent from 2001 to 2005, and to Olivier Martinez from 2013 to 2016. She shares son Maceo, 7, with Martinez, 54, and daughter Nahla, 12, with ex Gabriel Aubry. During a February 2017 Q&A at the City Summit & Gala, Berry opened up about her search for a soulmate.

I have learned to deal with three failed marriages, which has not been easy, especially when theres children involved, she said at the time. [As] women, we go into marriage thinking its going to last forever and that this is our prince on a shiny horse. Thats what fairy-tales taught me as a kid and Im kind of anti-fairy-tales today.

Despite her rocky road to finding love, the Emmy winner credited her ups and downs with making her the strong woman she is today.

All of those relationships were necessary for me, she explained during the Q&A. We all come here with lessons that we have to learn, and those relationships provided me with lessons that got me to where I am right now. For that, Im grateful. But it has been hard. Its been a difficult part of my life.

For more on Berrys love life, watch the video above and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now.

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Halle Berry's Chemistry With Van Hunt Is 'Through the Roof' - Us Weekly

Chemists shine light on new way to think about reductive elimination – Chemical & Engineering News

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Reductive elimination reactions, in which a transition metal catalyzes new bond formation between two molecules, are one of organic chemists most powerful tools. For example, one flavor of these reactions, palladium-catalyzed allylic alkylations can make new CC bonds while tolerating many functional groups. In addition, these mild reactions are one of the few ways chemists can generate compounds containing hindered quaternary carbons.

Through a detailed computational study, Brian Stoltz and coworkers have figured out that some Pd-catalyzed reductive eliminations go through a different mechanism than previously thought, providing a new understanding of how reductive eliminations work (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2020, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c09575).

Traditionally, chemists thought the mechanism involved transition states featuring bond breaking and forming between three key atoms. Stoltz and coworkers studied a specific Pd-catalyzed reductive elimination reaction in which the desired C-C bond forms within the same molecule (shown). The chemists determined that the transition state for this reaction involves bond forming and breaking between seven atoms. Describing this seven-centered reductive elimination process allows chemists to expand the way they think about this fundamental reaction, Stoltz says. This mechanism is not the way chemists learn how reductive eliminations work in graduate school, he says, but it suggests that there are other ways that reductive elimination can happen. It could change the way people think about whats possible.

For this computational study, the researchers focused solely on the Pd-centered transition state. Generally, this transition state is difficult for chemists to study experimentally because its not the rate-limiting step of the reaction, so it exists briefly. Chemists have suspected that this transition state involves 7 key atoms, similar to well-known pericyclic reactions such as the Diels-Alder or Cope reactions. Not only did Stoltz and coworkers confirm this suspicion, but also they showed that the Pds d-orbitals allow the transition state to be aromatic, which means its stabilized through extended conjugation of orbitals across the seven atoms. This stabilization allows the transition-state energy to be low enough for the reaction to proceed. In addition, they found that because of the geometry of Pds d orbitals this aromaticity doesnt fit the traditional structure, instead it is shaped like a Mbius strip, which is a connected loop with one surface and a half turn.

The researchers also used a type of chemical bonding theory to explain the mechanism of the reaction in terms of arrow pushing. This drawing method in which arrows depict where electrons move in a chemical reaction is the way that many organic chemists are taught to understand these transformations.

Through detailed analysis, the researchers showed the inner workings of an important organometallic reaction, says Dean Tantillo, a computational organic chemist at the University of California, Davis. They used hardcore quantum chemistry to build a model using familiar, intuitive concepts, he says.

This study allows us to think about some of the things we can improve on, in the current reaction, and gives a high-level theoretical backing for the feasibility of new kinds of reaction, Stoltz says.

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Chemists shine light on new way to think about reductive elimination - Chemical & Engineering News

Clippers address Doc Rivers departure, Ty Lues hiring and lack of chemistry – USA TODAY

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SportsPulse: The Lakers and LeBron are back on top. LA gets their 17th. LeBron get his 4th. Both should look at this championship for what it is- arguably their most impressive feat yet. USA TODAY

The epic collapse called for some self reflection.

Less than two weeks after the Los Angeles Clippers squandered a 3-1 series lead to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer did something he would have previously considered unthinkable.

Ballmer met with Doc Rivers, a man he considered a fantastic championship coach and a mentor. Ballmer then said he and Rivers concluded they should end a six-year partnership that yielded six playoff appearances without advancing past the second round.

It's very important to me that we not do anything in the heat of the moment, Ballmer said in a conference call Wednesday. That's not rational, like, 'Oh, we lost a game.'That's not sane. We took our time. Doc and I took our time together and arrived to the point we did.

After that, the Clippers had an exhaustive coaching search. They then simply hired from within by elevating assistant coach Tyronn Lue, whom Ballmer considered to be the best coach in the NBA four years after coaching the Cleveland Cavaliers to a league championship.

Ty Lue has learned from accomplished coaches (Doc Rivers, Gregg Popovich, Brad Stevens, Nick Nurse, Erik Spoelstra, Stan Van Gundy, Scott Skiles).(Photo: The Associated Press)

It's no secret we have had a difficult month, Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said. We lost a series we were in position to win. We said goodbye to a coach we all greatly admire. We all take responsibility for what took place and have been working hard toward making the necessary improvements. The first step was finding the best head coach to lead us forward and grow with our group.

And with that, Lue has spent the past month pondering a question players have raised themselves. Why did a championship-contending team lack consistent chemistry?

We're talking about chemistry and continuity, and it's not more so off the court and guys not liking each other, Lue said. It was hard to get continuity and chemistry throughoutthe season because we didn't have a lot of practice time for our starting unit or our whole team for a large part of the season. When we talk about chemistry and continuity, it's more so on the basketball court of just being familiar with guys.

The Clippers spent the 2019-20 season missing a combined 114 games due to injuries and fielding 33 different starting lineups. That included Kawhi Leonard missing 13 games because of his left knee as well as Paul George sitting for 16 following surgery on both shoulders.

That did not stop the Clippers from finishing with the Western Conferences second-best record (49-23). But the Clippers experienced uneven performances during the season restart in the NBAs campus bubble partly because of their continued lack of continuity.

Lou Williams, the Clippers scoring specialist off the bench, spent 10 days in quarantine after veering from a pre-approved trip to his mentors funeral to stop at an Atlanta strip club for takeout food. Patrick Beverley, the defensive stalwart, missed four games. Montrezl Harrell, the NBAs 6th Man of the Year and adependable pick-and-roll scorer and defender, missed the season restart while spending time with his ailing grandmother.

Even when the Clippers finally fielded a full roster against Denver, they still struggled. George shot a combined 10-of-47 in Games 2-of-4 against Dallas in their first-round series, and attributed the slump toward mental health issues in the bubble. Despite rebounding with three more 30-point performances, George had only 10 points in a Game 7 loss to Denver. After staying consistent for most of the postseason, Leonard shot 6-of-22 in that same game.

I don't think we played our best basketball most of the time, frankly, we were in the bubble, Ballmer said. Certainly the way we ended our season, that really disappointed me.

Afterwards, the Clippers did not blame Rivers solely for that outcome.

We pride ourselves on being a tough, gritty, resilient team and for many different reasons, we weren't, Lawrence said. That's something we all have to look in the mirror; that we didn't respond to Denver's constant jabs to us; that we weren't able to be that tough, resilient group. So we have got to look deep within why that happened. But also give Denver credit. It's not as much as we lost as they took it, and you have to acknowledge that they were the better team for that series."

Still, the Clippers determined Lue as a better candidate both because of his familiarity with the roster and having a track record with a similar circumstance.

The Cavaliers fired head coach David Blatt midway through the 2015-16 season despite making the NBA Finals the previous season and starting off his second year with a 30-11 record. Lue then proved he could handle a group led by LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love that overcame a 3-1 series deficit to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.

Can Lue pull off a similar feat with the Clippers? No pressure, but his ability to do that might influence if Leonard and George stay since both can opt out of their contracts next summer.

I'm big on pressure because if you don't have pressure that doesn't mean you have a chance of winning the championship, Lue said. When you talk about pressure, that means you're in a situation to win. That's what I want to do. I want to be one of the greatest coaches.

Ballmer already sees Lue as one of those great coaches.

Lue learned from accomplished coaches (Rivers, Gregg Popovich, Brad Stevens, Nick Nurse, Erik Spoelstra, Stan Van Gundy, Scott Skiles). He played for the NBAs winningest coach (Phil Jackson). He played with a demanding superstar (Kobe Bryant). He coached a demanding superstar (James).

After the Cavs fired Lue following a 0-6 start in the 2018-19 season, he spent time bettering himself. He consulted his mentors, watched film and drew up plays. He improved his sleeping patterns and diet to lose 35 pounds.

Hes a thinker, he's a connecter, he's a dynamic leader who lifts you, even as he challenges you, Frank said of Lue. He's got the X's and O's. He's got the resume. He's also got the feel. It comes across in the way he sees the game from every angle and the way he relays his vision.

Still, Lue has some areas to address. Will Lue handle Leonards load management differently to ensure better chemistry?

It's something that I have to talk to with the medical staff and performance team, Lue said. I can't answer that question right now, but the most important thing is the health of our players.

Lue has already spoken to Leonard and George after his hiring. Once Lue finalizes hisstaff, how will he maximize what Leonard and George can offer on the court?

They have to adjust to my system and my program, but also have to be able to adjust to them, to their comfort zone and what makes them better, Lue said. It starts on the defensive end with those two guys of setting the tone every night.

Lastly, Lue conceded the team needs to play at faster at a better pace and improve its ball movement and spacing. But how will he handle a leadership vacuum that has entailed a stoic Leonard and George as well as a more outspoken bench unit in Williams, Beverley and Harrell?

You're not going to have the best players be the natural leaders at all times. It doesn't happen like that, Lue said. A lot of leadership has to come from me. I think it comes from Kawhi. I think it comes from PG and I think it comes from Lou and Pat Beverley. I don't think you can just say leadership isone person and put that demand on one person to do that. I think we have to do it as a committee.

Will that be enough for the Clippers to take the NBA championship trophy away from the Lakers? The team will find out within the next year whe
ther it can climb through its championship window.

I'm excited because the roster is unbelievable, Lue said. To have a chance and an opportunity to coach a team like the Clippers? I love their roster, I love the team, and I love what they stand for as an organization.

Follow USA TODAY NBA writer Mark Medina on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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Jackson: Broncos defense-vs.-offense sideline tiff shows team lacks chemistry needed to win in NFL – The Denver Post

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Bright football minds grace the Broncos coaching staff. Ed Donatell, Pat Shurmur and Vic Fangio have 83 years of NFL coaching experience among them. But football acumen is only half the battle.

Football coaches can drill you with Xs and Os and prepare you for any football scenario you encounter, but they cant teach you how to be a family. That you have to learn on your own. And thats exactly what the Broncos appear to be lacking.

Battling on the field together is one part. The other key is getting to know each other as people off the field. Eating together. Sitting around the locker room. Enduring endless meetings. Weight room sessions. Hot tub. Bus rides. Airplanes. Opposing locker rooms. Hotels. Restaurants. Parties. Charity events. Trips to Vegas. Afterparties. Gentlemens clubs. Shared experiences align the spirit, and spirit helps win football games.

The Broncos need to find some of that, and fast.

Tensions boiled over between the Broncos defense and offense last week in the loss to the Chiefs, revealing a fissure in the team that was bound to crack open eventually. The Broncos have a top-tier defense, while the offense is at the bottom of the league in nearly every statistical category.

Its the highest paid defense in the NFL and one of the youngest, most inexperienced offenses. Fangios expertise is on defense and the team was built in his image set up to dominate the offense every day at practice. This might appease the defensive ethos of the coaching staff during the week, but on game day, it results in lopsided performances.

Competitive football teams have balance. They are good in all phases because the standard is the same throughout the team. Every practice is competitive. Anyone can win depending on the day. They cut their teeth on one another with equal ferocity.

So if the defense is markedly better, which appears to be the case for the Broncos at the moment, then its on them to bring the offense up to their standard of play. Not by yelling at them, but by demanding more at practice, in meetings, and amid the daily grind.

So, how do you recalibrate a lopsided team? Only those in that building know how to address that, because only they know the intricacies of their work week. I have no idea where Coach Fangio spends his time during the day. In his office? In the defensive meeting room? I do know that the offense needs some love.

Maybe Vic could lend some of his valuable expertise to the wing that needs it most Pat Shurmur and the struggling Broncos offense. And while hes at it, maybe spend some time in special teams meetings, too. Ed, youve got the fellas this week, Im going to sit with Pat and Drew.

It is already a tall task for a new coach to unify a young team. Add COVID-19 restrictions to the landscape, and you get what you had last week an uneven team in search of an identity.

League protocol kept players away from each other during the offseason. And although they are on the field together now, off the field, theyre still separated. Meetings at home on Zoom, socially distanced at the facility, eating lunch in their cars. No parties. No dinners. No nothing. Just show up wearing a mask, keep your distance from each other and go play football.

Unfortunately for the Broncos, its not that easy.

Nate Jackson is a former wide receiver/tight end for the Broncos who lives in Denver. He works part-time for 104.3 FM The Fan.

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The Nobel prize that got binned | Opinion – Chemistry World

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The discoveries that are recognised by the chemistry Nobel prize often exhibit certain features: inspiration, intelligence, rivalry, disputes about credit and no small amount of sheer luck. I would add the ability to recognise something important when you see it to that list. There is a long list of journals that rejected the early Crispr papers that led to this years award, often with notes that the manuscripts werent important enough to even review, or that their discoveries were already known.

My classic example is ferrocene, the first-of-its-kind organometallic sandwich compound that set off waves of discovery in a whole field. Unbeknown to each other, at least three groups prepared it independently. Only the second (Thomas Kealy and Peter Pauson at Duquesne University, US) and third (Samuel Miller, John Tebboth, and John Tremaine at British Oxygen) published their discoveries of the unexpected and weirdly unreactive yellow-orange product, nearly simultaneously in 1952.

Neither group was quite sure about the structure of the new compound. The Miller paper proposed two cyclopentadienes attached to a central iron atom by single bonds. Pauson ventured the same guess. He was bothered by the compounds stability, though, and wondered if it might be more ionic, with two negatively charged rings and a +2 iron as an odd sort of salt.

Neither Ernst Fischer in Munich, Germany, nor the team of Robert Woodward and Geoffrey Wilkinson at Harvard University, US, felt comfortable with those proposals. Moreover, they all felt that there was something unusual and important about the orange stuff, because no conventional structure seemed to explain its properties and reactions. Both investigations came to the same conclusion in early 1952: a sandwich of two (now aromatic) coordinated cyclopentadienyl rings with a fully booked-up (and thus unreactive) iron atom in the middle.

Generations of chemistry students have since grown up with this structure, so its hard for us to imagine how bizarre a proposal this was. Famously, the editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society wrote to Woodward that, although he was accepting the paper, I cannot help feeling that you have been at the hashish again. But x-ray crystallography quickly confirmed the idea in every detail, and metal-organic chemistry has never looked back. A host of metallocenes followed in an extremely spirited competition between the Fischer and Wilkinson labs, and these led to even more unheard-of coordination complexes, along with new synthetic methods, useful reagents and catalysts and new ideas about chemical bonds themselves.

The Nobel award came in 1973, after more than enough time had passed to show the discsoverys importance. It went to Fischer and Wilkinson, which led two days later to a letter from Woodward to the chair of the Nobel committee. Woodward wrote, he said, to let you know, most respectfully, that you have inadvertently, I am sure committed a grave injustice. He spoke of Wilkinson as a junior colleague who was skeptical of Woodwards solo inspiration, but whom hed done a favour by including him in the work. Wilkinson, needless to say, disputed this version strongly. And the Nobel committee (as always) did not second-guess or revise their award, a job no doubt made easier by the fact that they had already given a chemistry Nobel to Woodward eight years before.

But now we have to return to the beginning. There were three groups that had prepared ferrocene, and I have not yet mentioned the earliest of them all. That was a team at Union Carbide, who had sent hot cyclopentadiene vapour through an iron pipe apparatus at some point in the late 1940s. They were annoyed to find the equipment had unexpectedly clogged with yellow sludge. Someone kept a sample and everyone went on to the next experiment. Years later, re-analysis showed that the sludge was (of course) ferrocene. Had anyone had the curiosity to analyse it, and enough imagination to realise what its structure might be, they might well have had a Nobel of their own. Instead, they scrubbed their Nobel prize out with a brush and threw it into the bin. That should make any chemist stop and think about their failed experiments, shouldnt it?

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RPI researcher uses simple formula for chemical reactions to predict COVID-19 trajectory – Times Union

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TROY A scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has created a coronavirus transmission model inspired by one he uses to predict chemical reactions to help the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention forecast COVID-19 deaths across the country.

Developed by Yunfeng Shi, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Rensselaer, and Jeff Ban, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Washington, the model uses fatality data collected by Johns Hopkins University and mobility data collected by Google to predict disease spread based on how much a population is moving within its community.

The researchers tested their model against data from 20 of the hardest hit counties in the United States and found it to be valid. Their findings are available in preprint on medRxiv, an online repository of papers that have been screened but not peer-reviewed.

The team has also been able to show how the forecasts change as schools open, communities lockdownand masks are mandated. The researchers website, which illustrates those forecasts, was developed by Tanooj Shah, a graduate student in Shis group.

Theres no mystery as to why theres an outbreak, Shi said. Theres no mystery to how we control it. The science is absolutely there. We want to use the model to give the local government some concrete predictive insight to implement certain policies.

Shi is a computational materials scientist who was curious about how simple chemical reaction analogs could be applied to forecasting COVID-19 transmission. Combined with Bans expertise in transportation and mobility, the two have developed a straightforward model that has been accurately predicting disease transmission.

They are now sharing their unique approach to forecasting COVID-19 spread with the CDC on a weekly basis, along with a collective of other research teams made up of infectious disease specialists, machine learning experts and modelers from across the nation. Combined, the models form an ensemble forecast from a multitude of perspectives.

The novelty of the model lies in the integration of physical modeling and data-driven approaches, which can bring useful insights about the infection and outbreak of COVID-19, Ban said. The findings of the research, such as the critical relative mobility indicator, can be used by policymakers for making informed decisions about when and how to reopen local economies.

The engineers plan to continue sharing their model results each week for the duration of the pandemic.

Pawel Keblinksi, the head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer, said the model is unique because of its simplicity and that it demonstrates that social mobility is a major contributing factor in controlling the spread of the virus.

"This is an example of the minimalist approach that Professor Shi used successfully to model complex physical reactive processes, including polymer or complex crystal growth," Keblinski said.

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Groups Sue Over Weak Emission Standards for Chemical Plants Linked to Cancer – Earthjustice

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Washington, D.C.

Today, 11 community, scientist, environmental, and environmental justicegroups represented by Earthjustice sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over a weak national emission rule for hundreds of chemical facilities whose pollution is linked to cancer. The Miscellaneous Organic Chemical Manufacturing, or MON rule, regulates toxic emissions for about 200 chemical plants across the country. These plants emit over 7,400 tons a year of dangerous air pollutants,includingatleast 2,000 pounds of ethylene oxide, an aggressive carcinogen. EPA updated the rule earlier this year after the national air toxics assessment showed this pollution is contributing tocancer risk hot spots in the United States.

Industrial plants covered by the MON rule handle chemicals used in the production of solvents, plastics, and pesticides. During this process, potent carcinogens, like ethylene oxide,1,3-butadiene, benzene, formaldehyde, and other toxic fumes that people breathe, are dumped into neighboring communities.The MON rule leaves people in surrounding areas exposed to cancer risks of 200-in-1 million, twice the level EPA admits is unacceptable under the Clean Air Act.

EPAs recognizes that communities are facing a blatantly unacceptable cancer threat from breathingtoxic airevery day, yet it does little to fixthis problem,saidEmmaCheuse, Earthjustice attorney. Its unjust and wrong that the agency isagainrefusing to set standards that fully protectchildren and families livingnext topetrochemicalsources. Now, in the middle of arespiratory pandemic, communitieshave totake EPA to court toensure that chemical plants use up-to-date pollution controls, and common-sensefencelinemonitoring for the toxic air theyrelease into nearby neighborhoods.

MON facilities are located around the U.S., but especially concentrated in Texas and Louisiana, and disproportionately affect Black, Latino, and low-income communities. Other states with MON facilities include West Virginia, Illinois, and South Carolina. EPA's MON rule allows periodic, uncontrolled releases of chemical pollution, while communities need around-the-clock protection from toxic air. This rule allows facilities to spew fugitive emissions into communities without monitoring, and permits facilities to do so repeatedly, even if pollution levels are too high.

Our neighborhoods are not sacrifice zones for petrochemical companies. EPAs national air toxics standards must be the strongest necessary to prevent cancers that EPA itself says the pollution from these chemical plants can cause. Those of us in Louisiana have seen first-hand the type of harm this type of pollution can do to communities, saidSharon Lavigne, founder of RISE St. James.

As communities push for monitoring and stronger rules for chemical plants, the petrochemical industry is expanding in places like Cancer Alley in Louisiana, which is already facing elevated cancer levels due to industrial fumes. In fact, Formosa Plastics petrochemical complex in St. James Parish is still on the table while RISE St. James and their partners are fighting its illegal permits in Louisiana state court. The complex would include 14 plants just one mile from an elementary school in a predominantly Black neighborhood. A weak MON chemical plant rule is disastrous for the health of St. James Parish, particularly if plans for the Formosa complexare allowed toproceed.

EPAhas known of the pollution and extreme health harms associated with MON plants for years; still, it chose inaction. According to federal law, EPA was supposed to review and update the national MON standards by 2014, but years later, the agency had still failed to meet the deadline. Communities affected by these emissions represented by Earthjustice, forced EPA to finish the rule through litigation and in 2017 a court ordered EPA to review and update this rule.

Earthjustice is representing RISE St. James, Louisiana Environmental Action Network, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, TX Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (t.e.j.a.s.), Air Alliance Houston, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform, Environmental Integrity Project, Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Sierra Club.These groups have also filed a petition for reconsideration with EPA.RISE St. James, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and allied groups, represented by Earthjustice, are alsofighting the illegal and dangerous air permitsLouisiana issued to Formosa Plastics, andchallenging another rule(ethylene production) that would apply to Formosa Plastics and similar petrochemical facilities as illegally weak.

It is morally reprehensiblethat EPA is treatingcertain communitiesasdisposable andleft to suffer unacceptable cancer threats from exposure to petrochemical pollution.We will continue to fight to ensure thatEPAs national air toxics standardsare as strong as possibleto save lives andpreventillnessesthatEPA should not allow communities to face just because they live near chemical plants, saidMichele Roberts, national co-coordinator of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform.

Todays suit is a step toward righting a grievous wrong. This administrationsweak MON rule does little to protect our health and instead leaves our communities at serious risk of cancer, both by the enormous emissions it allows and by pretending to be protective when in fact its just the opposite. We are all at risk from these emissions, but Black people in Louisiana are in the bullseye. Its past time to change this situation, and we are filing suit today to do justthat,saidAnneRolfes, LA Bucket Brigade.

We cannot applaud EPA for doingwhat it thinks isthe bare minimum, because the agency is not even doing what it knows is needed to protect peoples health, based on the best available science. EPA also cannot avoid ensuring that facilities use up-to-date pollution controls, and practices, including real-timefencelinemonitoring, to protect public health. People in Texas deserve the strongest protection available for our health,saidJuan Parras,t.e.j.a.sExecutive Director.

The EPA rule does not go far enough to reduce toxic air pollution and goes too far in allowing loopholes, including an unlimited number of so-called unforeseeable accidents known as force majeure. The problem is notactsof God, it is acts of man, saidLouis Zeller, Executive Director of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.

EPA missed an opportunity in the MON rule to use its authority under the Clean Air Act to reduce the chemical burden on environmental justice communities exposed to the highest emissions of hazardous pollutants, including ethylene oxide. The science supports stronger action to limit emissions and expand monitoring for communities who continue to experience oppression due to social, health, and environmental disparities exacerbated by a global pandemic. EPA may be willing to abandon its mission and leave communities behind, but we wont allow it, saidGenna Reed, Union of Concerned Scientists.

The EPA knows how many plastic/petrochemical and other factories are spewing their pollution onto communities predominantly populated by people of color. The EPA knows that people living near these plants are going to have a dramatically increased risk of cancer because of the pollution. Butit is clear that thisEPA doesnt care at all about harm to our communities. It really is a travesty that we have to sue our Environmental Protection Agency for environmental protections that the agency itself knows should be in place,saidVivianStockman, Executive Director at Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition,based in Huntington, WV.

Many communities face the insult of hosting more than one of these dangerous chemical facilities, yet USEPA still fails to strengthen the standards needed to protect communities from toxic air emissions they are releasing, which can cause particular harm to children and to women at risk of breast cancer, saidJane Williams, Chair
of the Sierra Club National Clean Air Team.

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Appvion Accused of Spilling Chemical Into Frankstown Branch – Morrisons Cove Herald

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Recreational Fishermen Noticed Fish Kill; Chemical Spilled Used in Security Paper

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has told Appvion that it failed to report a chemical spill and is asking the company to investigate, explain and plan to prevent future similar releases.

In a letter dated Sept. 17, 2020, the DEP stated, "On August 27, 2020 the [DEP} responded to a report of a fish kill in the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River. During an investigation of the incident, dead fish were observed over a 4.5 mile stretch of the river that extended upstream to an area approximately 500 feet below the Appvion industrial wastewater treatment plant outfall pipe."

Fishermen noticed

Recreational fishing social media websites noted the kill, with a moderator of paflyfish.com posting on Aug. 28, "Reported fish kill on the Frankstown Branch reported on FB ... Major fish kill being reported on the Frankstown Branch. Roaring Spring Paper Mill apparently had a chemical spill. No further details forthcoming. Please post more info as it becomes available."

Another fisherman posted, "I spoke to the person that made the report. No reported brown trout found dead and only warmwater species. I'm not saying this makes it any better, but just noting it was misreported with no wild trout OBSERVED to be affected."

Permit limit exceeded

The DEP stated that it contacted Robert Stasik, environmental manager for the Spring Mill plant, regarding the alleged spill.

"After contacting Mr. Stasik, Environmental Manager with Appvion Inc., the Department was notified of a chemical spill at the paper mill that entered the treatment plant on August 19, 2020. Mr. Stasik also mentioned that [a daily maximum permit limit] was exceeded on August 20, 2020."

The DEP subsequently conducted an investigation and noted that "Appvion failed to immediately report a spill of approximately 3,700 gallons of the chemical Chlorostain to their wastewater treatment process in violation of [the company's] NPDES permit."

NPDES stands for "National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System."

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a NPDES permit is issued under the The Clean Water Act, which prohibits discharging "pollutants" into a "water of the United States" without a NPDES permit.

A NPDES permit sets limits on what can be discharged, monitoring and reporting requirements, and other provisions to ensure that the discharge does not hurt water quality or people's health.

According to the product sheet from the company that makes it, chlorostain is manufactured especially for use in the production of security papers. This product cannot be detected as applied. However, when paper treated with Chlorostain is exposed to a commercial ink eradicator, an orange-brown stain develops. Chlorostain is often printed on check papers with the words "fraud" or "void", which appear immediately when an ink eradicator is applied.

The DEP report notes that chemical's official description sheet states that the substance is toxic to humans but does not indicate its effects if spilled into an aquatic environment.

Appvion produces thermal, carbonless and security papers at the Spring Mill plant. The company's headquarters is in Appleton, Wisc.

Investigation

Following news of the fish kill on Aug. 26, Frederick Clark, a water quality specialist with the DEP conducted an investigation, including a check of the affected streams.

Clark reported, "In the afternoon of August 26, 2020 I examined the stream from the Loop Road Bridge in Frankstown Township, Blair County, about 150 feet upstream of the elementary school and observed 8 dead fish. The fish were 6-12 inches long and included carp, catfish and white suckers. The fish appeared partially decomposed. The water in the stream was clear with a light reddish-brown tint. There was no noticeable sheen or odor, except for the smell of decaying fish."

Clark investigated further upstream and at the pipe where the plant discharges into the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River, where he noted, "The discharge had its normal dark reddish-brown tint and mild odor. I did not see any dead fish at the outfall but did start to observe dead and decayed fish starting about 500 feet downstream, near the end of Cottage Lane. There were about 10 dead fish along the bank, some partially decayed or eaten and sometimes just skin or bones."

Further upstream from the outfall, Clark noted, "the water is clear and there were no signs of fish fatalities."

Clark called Stasik, who reported, that there "was an incident last Wednesday August 19, 2020. About 3,700 gallons of a chemical called Chlorostain overflowed from a holding tank and was conveyed to the industrial waste treatment plant. This incident was not previously reported to the [DEP]."

Stasik told Clark that when he was notified of the spill in the late afternoon of the Aug. 19, he (Stasik) "instructed his operator to perform field checks of the effluent at points within the treatment plant for ammonia. He did this because a similar Chlorostain spill in 2016 caused a permit exceedance for ammonia."

Stasik told Clark that "none of the ammonia checks conducted on the 19th showed abnormally high results and the ammonia level of the effluent was below the permit daily maximum."

Stasik also reported that "none of the ammonia checks conducted on the 19th showed abnormally high results and the ammonia level of the effluent was below the permit daily maximum."

DEP's conclusion

The DEP concluded that "Appvion failed to immediately report a spill of approximately 3,700 gallons of the chemical Chlorostain to their wastewater treatment process in violation of NPDES permit" and "In addition, Appvion indicated that they violated [an] effluent limit on August 20, 2020 and August 21, 2020 in violation ... of [its] NPDES permit."

The letter from DEP requests that Appvion "investigate these violations and submit a written report" to the DEP by Oct. 2, 2020.

The report is to include:

a detailed timeline of the events leading up to and immediately after the spill took place

an explanation the cause of the violations

a description of any actions taken

any measures put into place or planned to prevent future violations.

Clark reported that Stasik said "that based on his observation of the treatment plant and the ammonia testing results, he did not believe the chemical spill had an adverse impact on the plant or the plant effluent and that is why he did not report the incident to the DEP" and that "the company is investigating ways to prevent another overflow of the chemical storage tank such as changing the valving or installing a high-level alarm."

The Herald's information regarding this event came from documents provided by the Pa. DEP when requested.

Appvion did not return calls from the Herald requesting comment.

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Wildfire Smoke Toxicity Increases Over Time, Poses Public Health Risk, According to UK Chemist – UKNow

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 15, 2020) Researchers in the University of Kentucky Department of Chemistry are studying how smoke from wildfires can affect public health even hundreds of miles away from the source.

Associate professor Marcelo Guzman, along with graduate student Sohel Rana, say that molecules released from forest fires can become more water soluble, and likely toxic, over the two weeks that smoke is transported through the atmosphere. In addition to warming the atmosphere, these molecules can cause a host of respiratory issues in humans when inhaled.

As the biomass in trees, bushes, grass and peat are burned, large quantities of smoke, soot and other pollutants are emitted to the atmosphere, Guzman said. The smoke can then rise several kilometers in altitude and spread across large continental regions, polluting the air of distant areas. For example, many residents in the states of California, Washington and Oregon have recently experienced the poor air quality of hazy smoke.

Every year, thousands of hectares of land are engulfed by forest fires across the globe. So far in 2020, more than 2.6 million hectares in the western United States have been consumed by fires.

This ongoing UK project, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, is examining how emissions from wildfires change with time in the atmosphere to create new chemicals that impact the health of societies and the Earths climate. In the lab, Guzman and Rana are studying the heterogeneous atmospheric chemistry of methoxyphenols, which are among the most abundant molecules emitted during biomass burning. The team highlighted that when methoxyphenols react at interfaces, such as on the surface of cloud and fog waters, as well as aerosol particles from pollution, electron and proton transfer processes are favored to quickly convert aromatic molecules into highly water-soluble products.

When you look at the mechanisms that these methoxyphenols and phenolic aldehydes undergo when exposed to background ozone gas and hydroxyl free radicals during atmospheric transport, you can start explaining the common observation of multifunctional carboxylic acids as abundant species in a lot of particles in the air we breathe, Guzman said. The report identifies unique reaction channels that can be used to distinguish the contribution of atmospheric processing of biomass burning emissions over other possible sources of multifunctional carboxylic acids. The work is not only fundamentally interesting, but identifies specific signatures for the daytime transformation of methoxyphenols emitted from forest fires as they age in the atmosphere.

To do this, the researchers use a special instrument in the lab that replicates the fast reaction between the methoxyphenols markers of biomass burning and ozone gas at the interface of air with micrometer-size water droplets. They then vary the concentrations and acidity in the experiments to see how the interfacial chemistry changes for different conditions occurring in the environment.

We are trying to understand the dominant transformations of the methoxyphenols from smoke in the atmosphere, determine their lifetime and establish how they chemically evolve at interfaces, Guzman said. We want to contribute new understanding of their impacts on human health and climate. Are the aged molecules more toxic? How do the structural changes of the molecules contribute to create particles that interact with sunlight affecting climate?

Guzman and Rana found that while in the air, the methoxyphenols in smoke react with ozone and hydroxyl radicals to become oxidized and highly reactive. A person breathing in these reactive compounds can suffer oxidative damage of cells, especially in the respiratory track and lungs. In addition, these reactive compounds can make some people more prone to other health problems.

Guzman also said that characterizing the chemical processing of pollution from wildfires and domestic woodburning can help to determine if so-called brown carbon in soot emitted from fires contributes to absorb more heat from the sun or not.

While the many small molecules in brown carbon can be quickly photobleached by the sun, the larger molecules are far more resistant, possibly contributing to the heating effect in the atmosphere, Guzman said.

Find out more about the research "Oxidation of Phenolic Aldehydes by Ozone and Hydroxyl Radicals at the AirWater Interface" in theJournal of Physical ChemistryatDOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.0c05944.

Also, read more about the projectat https://uknow.uky.edu/research/chemistrys-guzman-study-atmospheric-reactions-pollution.

Research reported in this publication was supported by theNational Science Foundation under Award Number1903744.The opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Wildfire Smoke Toxicity Increases Over Time, Poses Public Health Risk, According to UK Chemist - UKNow

1.1: What is Chemistry? – Chemistry LibreTexts

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Learning Objectives

Chemistry is the study of matterwhat it consists of, what its properties are, and how it changes. Being able to describe the ingredients in a cake and how they change when the cake is baked is called chemistry. Matter is anything that has mass and takes up spacethat is, anything that is physically real. Some things are easily identified as matterthis book, for example. Others are not so obvious. Because we move so easily through the air, we sometimes forget that it, too, is matter.

Chemistry is one branch of science. Science is the process by which we learn about the natural universe by observing, testing, and then generating models that explain our observations. Because the physical universe is so vast, there are many different branches of science (Figure (PageIndex{1})). Thus, chemistry is the study of matter, biology is the study of living things, and geology is the study of rocks and the earth. Mathematics is the language of science, and we will use it to communicate some of the ideas of chemistry.

Although we divide science into different fields, there is much overlap among them. For example, some biologists and chemists work in both fields so much that their work is called biochemistry. Similarly, geology and chemistry overlap in the field called geochemistry. Figure (PageIndex{1}) shows how many of the individual fields of science are related.

There are many other fields of science, in addition to the ones (biology, medicine, etc.) listed

Alchemy Is in No way Chemistry!

As our understanding of the universe has changed over time, so has the practice of science. Chemistry in its modern form, based on principles that we consider valid today, was developed in the 1600s and 1700s. Before that, the study of matter was known as alchemy and was practiced mainly in China, Arabia, Egypt, and Europe.

Alchemy was a somewhat mystical and secretive approach to learning how to manipulate matter. Practitioners, called alchemists, thought that all matter was composed of different proportions of the four basic elementsfire, water, earth, and airand believed that if you changed the relative proportions of these elements in a substance, you could change the substance. The long-standing attempts to transmute common metals into gold represented one goal of alchemy. Alchemys other major goal was to synthesize the philosophers stone, a material that could impart long lifeeven immortality. Alchemists used symbols to represent substances, some of which are shown in the accompanying figure. This was not done to better communicate ideas, as chemists do today, but to maintain the secrecy of alchemical knowledge, keeping others from sharing in it.

In spite of this secrecy, in its time alchemy was respected as a serious, scholarly endeavor. Isaac Newton, the great mathematician and physicist, was also an alchemist.

Alchemy and the ACS (American Chemical Society)

While watching the video below and answer the following questions.

Questions

The study of modern chemistry has many branches, but can generally be broken down into five main disciplines, or areas of study:

In practice, chemical research is often not limited to just one of the five major disciplines. A particular chemist may use biochemistry to isolate a particular chemical found in the human body such as hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying component of red blood cells. He or she may then proceed to analyze the hemoglobin using methods that would pertain to the areas of physical or analytical chemistry. Many chemists specialize in areas that are combinations of the main disciplines, such as bioinorganic chemistry or physical organic chemistry.

Chemists at work

The American Chemical Society (ACS) has designed a series of videos illustrating the different fields that a chemist could pursue. Please watch this 2 minute and 23-second video and answer the questions below:

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1.1: What is Chemistry? - Chemistry LibreTexts

Global Chemical Engineering Community Will Gather Online for Conference Offering an Expansive Technical Program and Prominent Lecturers, Nov. 1620 -…

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New York, NY, Oct. 13, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) will spotlight the roles that chemical engineers play in addressing societal and industrial challenges when the organizations 2020 Annual Meeting is held as a virtual event, November 1620.

Originally scheduled to take place in San Francisco, California, the conference is the largest AIChE meeting to date to be held virtually. Thousands of chemical engineering researchers, practitioners, entrepreneurs, and innovators from around the world will gather for the online conference, where they will engage with a program highlighting the professions latest developments and the myriad opportunities to apply chemical engineering expertise to help solve problems in energy, manufacturing, health care, and resource sustainability to name some of the topics on the agenda.

In addition to exploring growth areas in chemical engineering research and application, the Virtual Annual Meeting features new topical conferences that underline the imperative for workforce equity and inclusion across industry, academia, and all of societys enterprises. New topical conferences address the Evolving Role of Gender Dynamics, as well as Engineering for Inclusion. With global challenges necessitating a diverse workforce equipped with new skills, a Bridging the Skills Gap in Chemical Engineering track will offer skills training and highlight the value that diverse perspectives bring to projects and organizations of all kinds.

In the technical realm, a new conference will look at the challenges surrounding waste plastics. Additional program sessions amplify the Annual Meetings recent emphasis on the role of chemical engineers as innovators. These include conferences on Chemical Engineers in Medicine, Microbes at Biomedical Interfaces and Entrepreneurship in Chemical Engineering. The Synthetic and Renewable Fuels track explores the role of hydrogen in biofuels, while the Applications of Data Science to Molecules and Materials conference highlights advances at the nexus of data science and chemical engineering. The Next-Gen Manufacturing conference incorporates topics such as Industry 4.0, smart manufacturing, and cybersecurity.

At the associated Virtual Annual Student Conference (November 1316), chemical engineering undergraduates worldwide will take part in online career workshops, scholarly competitions, and networking events. Highlights include a welcome keynote address by Udit Batra, Chief Executive Officer of Waters Corporation; a research poster session; a recruitment fair; and the 22nd running of AIChEs signature Chem-E-Car Competition. Also, at the Virtual K-12 STEM Showcase, chemical engineering undergraduates and professionals will exhibit chemical engineering principles to an online audience.

With its emphasis on technical innovation and the professional growth of chemical engineers, AIChEs Annual Meeting is the foremost educational forum for chemical engineers working in research and development. Organizers expect more than 5,000 professional engineers, scientists, and business leaders to attend the meeting to acquire insight into developments in the fields growth areas and to connect with other professionals. The online platform is anticipated to extend participation to new audiences.

FEATURED LECTURES AND SPECIAL EVENTS

Meet the Leaders: Engineering for Inclusion (Monday, November 16). Inclusive workplaces are prerequisites for competing in a globalized world. Panelists at this plenary session will present success stories and unmet needs in the efforts to achieve equity in the workforce. Participants include Christine S. Grant (North Carolina State University), Jennifer Lopez-Reed (Eli Lilly), Gary S. May (University of California, Davis), and Lori Ryerkerk (Celanese).

The P. V. Danckwerts Lecture (November 16) will be presented by Massimo Morbidelli, Professor and Dean at the Polytechnic University of Milan and Emeritus Professor at ETH Zurich, who will discuss digitalization in the manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals. The lecture is co-sponsored by AIChE, Elsevier, the Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), and the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE).

The Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical Engineering Lecture (Tuesday, November 17) will be given by AIChEs 2019 Acrivos Award recipient, Michael S. Strano, Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Stranos lecture is entitled Two Sides of the Same Leaf: Fluids Under Extreme Confinement and the Nanotechnology of Living Plants.

The James E. Bailey Award Lecture (November 17) is sponsored by AIChEs Society for Biological Engineering, and recognizes contributions in biological engineering. The 2020 lecturer is Cato T. Laurencin, University Professor and Van Dusen Distinguished Endowed Professor, and Chief Executive Officer of the Connecticut Convergence Institute for Translation in Regenerative Engineering at the University of Connecticut. A pioneer in regenerative engineering, Laurencin will describe the status and future prospects of tissue engineering.

The John M. Prausnitz AIChE Institute Lecture (Wednesday, November 18) will be delivered by Michael F. Doherty, the Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp Chair in Process Systems Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. AIChEs 72nd Institute Lecturer, Doherty will discuss innovation at the frontiers of chemical engineering practice and science.

The Presidential Lecture (November 18) will be delivered by Frances H. Arnold, the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. In her talk, Engineering by Evolution: Bringing New Chemistry to Life, Arnold the 2018 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry will discuss her work in creating new enzyme catalysts and expanding the chemistry of life to include reactions that nature may not have explored.

The William R. Schowalter Lecture (Thursday, November 19) is named in honor of Schowalter, a pioneer in fluid mechanics. The lecture will be given Alice P. Gast, President of University College London, who will discuss Schowalters legacy in her talk On the Shoulders of Giants: Lessons in Leadership and Collaboration from Bill Schowalter.

The IACChE James Y. Oldshue Lecture (November 19) will be presented by Arturo Hernndez-Maldonado, Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagez. He will discuss advances in the design of porous materials for the adsorption of water contaminants. The Oldshue lecture is presented in alternate years by AIChE and the Inter-American Confederation of Chemical Engineering (IACChE).

For information about virtual conference registration and a schedule of events, visit http://www.aiche.org/annual.

# # #

About AIChE

AIChE is a professional society of more than 60,000 chemical engineers in 110 countries. Its members work in corporations, universities, and government using their knowledge of chemical processes to develop safe and useful products for the benefit of society. Through its varied programs, AIChE continues to be a focal point for information exchange on the frontiers of chemical engineering research in such areas as energy, sustainability, biological and environmental engineering, nanotechnology, and chemical plant safety and security. More information about AIChE is available at http://www.aiche.org.

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UTEP Professor joins United States-Mexico Foundation for Science Board of Governors – El Paso Herald-Post

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Luis Echegoyen, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and biochemistry at The University of Texas at El Paso, has been appointed by the United States-Mexico Foundation for Science (USMFS) as a member of its Board of Governors.

The binational board consists of 12 recognized leaders from academia, business and government who direct and supervise the foundations activities. Echegoyens four-year term, which can be renewed once, begins Jan. 1, 2021.

The United States-Mexico Foundation for Science has made an excellent choice in selecting Dr. Echegoyen, said Robert Kirken, Ph.D., dean of UTEPs College of Engineering. He has had an extensive and distinguished career as a chemist, but also as a leader. His vision and working experience with scientists and engineers will undoubtedly have an immediate and lasting positive impact that will benefit both countries.

The USMFS is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization created along with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1992 with support from organizations in the U.S. and Mexico. Its mission is to design, promote and articulate high-impact programs that promote the development of value ecosystems for regions and sectors of mutual interest through collaboration in science and technology for economic and social development based on innovation.

Currently, USMFS works with companies in diverse sectors such as agri-food, aerospace, auto parts manufacturing and health, among others. The organization has served over 5,000 companies, 1,000 entrepreneurs and 1,300 small producers in Mexico. It has collaborated with more than 200 universities, institutes and organizations promoting economic development in both countries and has allocated more than $100 million of public and private resources through its programs.

Echegoyen was selected for his essential role in establishing new funding programs and research centers at the National Science Foundation, his impressive career in academic research and teaching, as well as his experience living and working in a robust border community, said Jessica Lillie, U.S. executive director of USMFS.

Throughout his career, he has published numerous research articles and book chapters and earned many prestigious research awards. He was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society (ACS), the worlds largest scientific organization, where he was selected as the first recipient of the ACS Award for Recognizing Underrepresented Minorities in Chemistry for Excellence in Research & Development in 2011. In 2018 he was elected president of the ACS for a three-year term.

I will try to enhance the connections between Mexico and the United States in matters of science and technology, Echegoyen said.

Establishing potential student exchanges in both dimensions, as well as of faculty, would be some of my highest priorities, as well as establishing true scientific collaborations between science and engineering groups. An ultimate goal would be to identify opportunities, especially at the border, for innovation and investments that benefit the two sides in a meaningful and impactful manner.

Echegoyen has served as the Robert A. Welch Chair Professor of Chemistry at UTEP since 2010. He was the director of the chemistry division at the National Science Foundation from 2006 to 2010.

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UTEP Professor joins United States-Mexico Foundation for Science Board of Governors - El Paso Herald-Post

Hot Takes We Might Actually Believe: Brooklyn Nets will be a chemistry disaster – Yahoo Sports

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The 2020-21 NBA season is almost upon us, but Hot Take SZN is here, and at the end of another eventful offseason we will see how close to the sun we can fly and still stand the swelter of these viewpoints.

There is a single path to championship contention for the Brooklyn Nets: Kevin Durant, who has not played a game since rupturing his right Achilles tendon in Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals, plays to his peak form.

But there is an equally dominant force standing in Brooklyns way: chemistry. Mark my words, the Nets will be the Los Angeles Clippers of this season, a contender turned pretender by way of internal combustion.

Kyrie Irving has a doctorate in destruction of locker rooms. Over the past four years, he has given the silent treatment to Cleveland Cavaliers teammates, excoriated veterans and rising stars alike before reneging on a promise to re-sign with the Boston Celtics and thrown a number of his current teammates under the bus.

Its glaring, in terms of some of the pieces that we need in order to be successful at the next level, Irving said in January, two weeks before his season-ending shoulder surgery. Im going to continue to reiterate it. Were doing the best we can with the guys we have in the locker room now, and well worry about the other stuff, in terms of moving pieces and everything else, as an organization down the line in the summer. ...

Collectively, I feel like we have great pieces, he added, but its pretty glaring we need one more piece or two more pieces that will complement myself, KD, DJ, GT, Spence, Caris, and well see how that evolves.

That list of Irvings perceived Nets core Durant, DeAndre Jordan, Garrett Temple, Spencer Dinwiddie and Caris LeVert left out rotational mainstays Joe Harris, Taurean Prince and Jarrett Allen. Absentmindedness or not, Irvings larger point lingers. Brooklyn returned everyone from that core, save for Temple, the beloved teammate whose 28 minutes a night on the wing will be replaced by incoming ex-Clipper Landry Shamet.

Story continues

That cannot be the solution to what Irving described as a glaring absence of a piece or pieces to a title contender. Perhaps that is why Durant has reportedly discussed with James Harden the possibility of the Nets trading a package of his teammates and draft picks for the frustrated Houston Rockets superstar.

Durant denied that report, but this is indicative of the media circus that follows him and Irving, fair or unfair. They both have a history of fostering dysfunction behind the scenes, only to chastise the media for shedding light on that dysfunction. Case in point: Following a speculative videotaped discussion of free agency at 2019 All-Star Weekend, Durant later conceded that it was not the bulls--- Irving claimed it was.

I am not of the belief that two superstars who feed into the NBAs histrionics with their own disdain for it will cancel each other out in a chemistry experiment set in the leagues largest media market, regardless of how close their friendship is. The fun has already begun, with Irving opting out of his first media availability this season, leaving his teammates to answer for him. And the drama in Brooklyn may not be limited to them.

The Nets also signed Jordan, the 32-year-old former All-Star center, to a hefty four-year, $40 million contract in the 2019 offseason, seemingly as part of the recruitment effort to land his friends Durant and Irving. It was a strange move personnel-wise, considering Brooklyn already had Allen a solid 22-year-old rim protector on his rookie contract. Their battle for minutes could create some friction between the younger guard who led the Nets to the playoffs the last two years and the veteran stars taking over.

Same goes for LeVert and Dinwiddie. The former has been a primary option in the playoffs the past two years, using more than a quarter of Brooklyns possessions, mostly as a pick-and-roll creator. His role will be severely diminished alongside two ball-dominant superstars, and his 31.6% mark on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers last season raises questions about how much value he brings as a tertiary option.

LeVert is just beginning a three-year, $52 million extension, but Dinwiddie another playmaker who is used to having the ball in his hands is entering a contract year. Based on his attempts to transform his current deal into a publicly traded financial commodity, it is safe to assume Dinwiddie wants to maximize his next contract. He, too, will be handed a diminished role as a 27-year-old about to enter his prime earning years.

It is not unlike the natural friction Boston faced after Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown led the Celtics to the 2018 Eastern Conference finals, only to cede touches when Irving and Gordon Hayward returned from injury the following year. It happens all the time, most recently with the Clippers, who added Kawhi Leonard and Paul George to a roster that had an established identity as a more communal playoff team on the rise.

Now ask yourself: Are Durant and Irving the superstars you expect to bridge inherent chemistry divides?

Ben Rohrbach is a staff writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach.

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Hot Takes We Might Actually Believe: Brooklyn Nets will be a chemistry disaster - Yahoo Sports