Any mask helps: Local chemistry professor tests how effective masks are against the spread of COVID-19 – WJHL-TV News Channel 11

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ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (WJHL) One chemistry professor saw different kinds of experiments surface on social media and decided to examine how effective different kinds of masks are against the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Milligan University Assistant Professor of Chemistry Kristen Mudrack told News Channel 11s Bianca Marais that she had seen plenty of studies and experiments on mask effectiveness, but she and her research assistant Madison Blanton, wanted to focus more on the different types of masks.

I did the experiment, I said all the tongue twisters, with a hospital mask, a cloth mask that I had made and an N95, which was not fitted to my face so there were some spaces that the air could get out and what my research assistant and I found was that any mask helps, Mudrack explained.

With no mask, theres a whole bunch of droplets on the plate, with a cloth mask or a hospital mask or an N95, theres maybe one or two droplets on the plate. Now, the thing to understand about this, is that those are bacterial droplets, we do know that COVID spreads through aerosol droplets, okay, so when you talk, even though you dont realize it, you are spraying things out of your mouth and nose. The virus travels through those particles. Whats on those plates is bacterial growth, not viral growth, but the priciple still stands. Viruses are going to travel further because theyre smaller but any aerosolized particle is going to get stopped by a mask, and thats essentially what I found: that any mask helps more than no mask, she explained.

This is how Mudrack said the experiment was conducted:

I held it in front of my face, about a foot and a half, said a bunch of tongue twisters, covered the plate and then set it in the incubator for about a week. The reason I let it go for a week instead of just a day, was to magnify the growth on the plates. After a day, I checked them and you couldnt see a whole lot, you could tell that there was something, but I knew that it would be better to see after about a week what was actually there, she said.

Mudrack also included a control Petri dish.

So that I knew that if something grew on that plate, there was something in the air that was settling onto the plate, she said. What actually happened, was on the control plate, nothing grew, which tells me that its not something thats in the air thats getting it here to the plate, its when Im actually talking, the aerosolized droplets are landing on the plate and growing.

Mudrack told News Channel 11s Bianca Marais that she was most surprised by the N95 mask.

The N95 has a really big spot on the plate and that is likely because the mask was not fitted to my face. The other reason N95s arent as good as we initially thought is because some of them have that valve. That valve only filters what goes in, but not what comes out and so youre still actually breathing out aerosolized particles, that would end up on a Petri dish like that, she explained.

She explained that scientists, over the last six months, have proven that COVID-19 spreads through droplets that have to somehow be projected. This happens when we talk or cough or sneeze, Mudrack explained.

What were trying to accomplish with social distancing is staying far enough apart, that those droplets kind of dissipate before they get to the person, thats also what a mask does, she explained. So, the mask is going to stop the droplets before they ever get into the air.

To her, someone who is immuno-compromised, the issue is personal. She asks that people wear a mask to help limit the spread of the coronavirus.

The science is there. It has been proven over and over how COVID is spread and youre seeing science move at such a fast pace right now, that weve never seen before and probably never will see again in our lifetime. Yes, we keep getting emerging information, thats how science works, and if it turns out that masks really dont help, whats the harm in wearing one? Even if they dont help, its just a small thing that doesnt hurt. Now, the science is there that it does help and it does reduce the spread of COVID, and thats why we are being asked to wear them in public, she said.

Continuing coverageof the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

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‘Intangibles’ examines team chemistry, with help from Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent – The Athletic

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One of the glorious things about Joan Ryans new book is how often her interview subjects tell her that her premise is utter baloney.

Willie Mays scolds her.

Chemistry? Chemistry. Theres no chemistry!

Jeff Kent scoffs.

Listen, the best players are some of the biggest pricks to ever play the game. The biggest assholes. Selfish. Greedy.

Jim Leyland takes another puff from his cigarette.

To me chemistry was a subject you took in school. I had teams thatd go to chapel together every Sunday and couldnt win a game. So that dont mean shit to me. Forget chemistry out here.

Ryan, a nationally award-winning journalist who is now a media consultant with the Giants, welcomes the skepticism. Thats the point of this whole enterprise, to sort through the fact and fiction of what locker-room camaraderie or lack thereof might mean to...

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'Intangibles' examines team chemistry, with help from Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent - The Athletic

Mechanical force used to trigger isomerisation in 3D molecule – Chemistry World

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The tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) has been used to precisely switch between three possible isomers of a single molecule. The approach offers a new way to manipulate the configuration of 3D molecules using mechanical force and could find applications in the field of molecular machines.

Small structural variations often lead to significant differences in the chemical and physical properties of molecules, so controlling isomerisation at the single-molecule level is crucial in areas such as catalysis or drug synthesis. Scanning probe microscopy is a powerful technique for studying on-surface isomerisation and several strategies involving light and electrical activation have been proposed. Although using mechanical force to trigger the process offers additional benefits, advances in this area are still limited.

Researchers in China and Germany have now discovered a new way to induce reversible isomerisation of a single molecule on a silver substrate using an STM tip. Mechanical force can be applied to specific atomic sites of the molecule, offering unprecedented control over the chemical process and products, points out Hong-Jun Gao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In our study, we designed and synthesised a 3D, butterfly-shaped molecule called N,N-dimethylamino-dianthryl-benzene. Gao explains that when this molecule is placed on a substrate, the two anthryl groups are in-plane, forming the butterflys wings, whereas the dimethylamino group is located out-of-plane, acting as the head. This structure is important to ensure asymmetric interactions between the molecule and the tip, he says.

When the tip approaches the molecule, it interacts with only one of the wings due to the steric hindrance coming from the head of the butterfly. Inversely, when the tip is retracted from the molecule, the wing interacting with it is pulled away from the substrate while the other one stays attached. Upon further retraction of the tip, the molecule eventually detaches from it and falls on the surface with one of the wings completely rotated to form another isomer. The researchers found that without the out-of-plane group, the isomerisation process was blocked. They carried out molecular dynamics simulations and control experiments to confirm this mechanism. Our method can be extended to other molecules, Gao says. The key is to have a 3D molecular topology to allow different mechanical interactions with the tip.

Thomas Frederiksen, who studies nanostructures and interfaces at the Donostia International Physics Center in Spain, notes that the study contributes to understanding possible strategies for manipulating single molecules on surfaces. Such a level of control is of fundamental importance and can, for instance, help towards the design and operation of molecular machines, he says. These results exemplify and enrich the active research field of atomic-scale manipulation and control, which has advanced substantially over the last decades.

Takashi Kumagai of the Fritz Haber Institute in Germany and the Institute for Molecular Science in Japan, who demonstrated the hopping manipulation of two hydrogen atoms in a porphycene molecule,2 mentions that force-induced switching also works for other systems, although in different ways. Since different molecules have different properties, the mechanism cannot be exactly the same, he says. But it should always be associated with a modification of the potential energy surface, which determines the chemical dynamics. He adds that although the results are not revolutionary regarding the measurement technology, examples of force-induced single-molecule switching are very limited. Therefore, this paper is an essential piece to establish single-molecule mechanochemistry, which I believe is an important emerging field.

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PolyU discovers the effect of chemical compound PTU on autophagy in zebrafish embryos, sheds light on cancer medication research – PR Web

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Professor YIP Shea-ping (right), Head of PolyUs Department of HTI said that this ground-breaking discovery will be included in the new guidelines on autophagy research this year.

HONG KONG (PRWEB) July 09, 2020

In most research using the zebrafish model, a chemical compound called 1-phenyl-2-thiourea (PTU) is commonly used to suppress pigment formation in zebrafish embryos, maintaining optical transparency to facilitate microscopic imaging. Over the past three years, the PolyU research team led by Dr MA has been using the zebrafish model to investigate the causes of leukaemia and its relationship with autophagy (self-eating) a mechanism of metabolism that involves the degradation of cells by lysosomes and the process of cell renewal and regeneration. It is a cellular reaction to various physiological and pathological conditions regulating important processes, including intracellular material turnover, cell death, proliferation, development, ageing and tumourigenesis.

According to Dr Ma, Upon 0.003% PTU treatment, aberrant autophagosome and autolysosome formation, accumulation of lysosomes and elevated autophagic flux were observed in various tissues and organs of the zebrafish, He pointed out that Autophagy is crucial in the process of drug resistance of various cells and over-activation of autophagy may potentially interfere with the efficacy of drugs. The research finding means that when we are using this prominent model to study any autophagy-related processes like cancer, the results may not be truly reflected. These studies could have produced skewed results. Researchers should avoid using PTU in autophagy-related research in the future. Dr MA added that the team has already suspended the use of PTU in zebrafish research. Light-sheet microscopy, which offers greater imaging depth, will be employed as an alternative, for image autophagy in the zebrafish embryo with pigment for their study on leukaemia.

Furthermore, the new research findings also provide a direct mechanistic link between autophagy and melanoma, suggesting autophagy probably regulates melanoma development and drug resistance through interaction with tyrosinase, a key rate-limited regulator of melanin synthesis. Investigation into details of the molecular mechanism between autophagy and melanoma is expected in the future.

Professor YIP Shea-ping, Head of Department of Health Technology and Informatics, said, We are pleased to see our research teams recent discovery published in Autophagy, the highest impact journal in the field. Dr MA has also been invited as co-author for new guidelines on autophagy research using zebrafish embryos, a revision that takes place every four years. With the new guidelines in place, we will be able to modify the way we conduct autophagy-related studies with the zebrafish model and, hopefully, to open the door to new treatments for various deadly diseases.

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Chemists amid coronavirus: Dave Berkowitz | Opinion – Chemistry World

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During this difficult time, Chemistry World is checking in with chemists around the globe to see how they are weathering the Covid-19 pandemic.

Its an odd time for Dave Berkowitz, whose work at the University of NebraskaLincoln sits at the interface of synthetic organic chemistry and enzymatic chemistry, to take the helm of the chemistry division at the US National Science Foundation (NSF), which funds about one-quarter of all federally supported basic research conducted at American universities.

Yet, amid a global pandemic, on 24 May Berkowitz officially started his new job as director of the division, whose annual budget is nearly $250 million and primarily funds individual investigator awards. Although the agency is located just outside of Washington, DC in Arlington, Virginia, he is back in Lincoln working remotely. He interviewed for the job before Covid-19 struck, quashing his plan to move right after the semester ended in May.

Berkowitz is essentially on loan to the NSF from the university, where hes been a faculty member in the schools chemistry department since 1991 and previously served as its chair. He will continue his research programme during the appointment.

Berkowitzs lab closed due to the pandemic in mid-March. All researchers at the university started working remotely, except for essential personnel involved in Covid-19-related work.

Shuttering the lab was emotionally hard, Berkowitz says. There were some safety issues that needed to be addressed ahead of time, including solvents stills that contained chemicals like sodium that needed to be quenched before shutting down. There were also regular checks of the -80C freezer to ensure that it was running properly throughout the closure.

Nebraska has begun easing its lockdown and Berkowitzs lab started back up again on 1 June, with researchers working in shifts, practicing social distancing and wearing masks. The lab had to submit a plan that detailed these measures to the university leadership before it was allowed it to reopen.

Normally it would be about 10 people in the lab, and now its four at a time with careful spacing, Berkowitz explains. The morning shift is 7am1pm and the afternoon shift is 28pm, plus one group has Saturdays and the other has Sundays. We are fortunate to have enough space that we can do this safely, he adds.

Now that his research group has returned to the lab, they have begun the process of assessing the quality of their biological and other samples. If our enzymes have lost activity, for example, we will have to go back and grow up cells, repurify, reassay, Berkowitz says.

He has only been to his lab a couple of times since it reopened. Since I am not doing experiments most of the time, I want to contribute to the de-densification of the labs, Berkowitz explains.

Meanwhile, the NSFs building in Virginia opened up this month, but just to be retrofitted with safety features like barriers in high-density areas. It remains unclear, however, when staff can return, so Berkowitz is staying put in Nebraska and participating in agency meetings via Zoom.

He says the chemistry division, which has a staff of about 30, is on track to fund research awards at the normal rate. Before Covid-19, about one-third of the agencys grant reviews panels were virtual, so the switch to 100% online has been relatively easy.

When it comes to applying for NSF grants, his advice is for chemists is to push on. A lot of people are getting nervous that they dont have enough preliminary results because they are just getting back into the lab, Berkowitz says. Be aggressive, come forward with your best ideas, he recommends. If you are not sure if you should submit write a one-pager and send it to your programme officer, or the programme officer or two whose programmes seem to fit your science the best, and they will follow up and give you good advice.

An advantage of being in the US heartland is population density Nebraska is over 400 miles long and has fewer than 2 million residents. We have, I think, more cattle than people here, certainly more cattle than chemists, Berkowitz remarks.

His county of Lincoln/Lancaster has fared relatively well during the pandemic compared to others, with nearly 1500 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 10 associated deaths, as of 16 June. Overall, there were more than 16,500 cases of the virus across Nebraska and less than 220 related deaths in the state, compared with almost 2.1 million cases across the US and over 115,000 associated fatalities.

In the meantime, Berkowitz is working from home with his wife, a Montessori school teacher who is instructing young children by Zoom now. The two must be careful not to talk over each other as he is also teaching a weekly three-hour graduate seminar over Zoom.

For Berkowitz its all a bit surreal working two jobs remotely while planning a big move whose timing is completely uncertain. He admits hes a bit Zoomed out.

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Here are two reasons why Hansol Chemical Co (KRX:14680) could be a stock to watch – Yahoo Finance UK

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The Hansol Chemical Co (KRX:14680) share price is currently trading at 121500. But to try and predict what the price will look like in the next 12 months and beyond, it's worth knowing its strengths and potential weaknesses. The good news for shareholders is that it stacks up well against some important financial and technical measures...

Hansol Chemical Co is a mid-cap share with strong exposure to two of the most influential drivers of investment returns in the stock market: high quality and strong momentum.

Quality and momentum are highly prized among investors looking for reliable investment ideas. That's because good quality stocks tend to be resilient, cash-generating businesses that can compound investment returns over time. And those with strong momentum in price and earnings have a habit of beating expectations.

To understand why quality and momentum are so important in a share like Hansol Chemical Co, here's a close-up view:

GET MORE DATA-DRIVEN INSIGHTS INTO KRX:14680

When it comes to stock analysis, company quality tends to show up in high profitability and strong industry-leading margins. These kinds of firms are stable, growing and often have accelerating sales and earnings. They also have strong and improving financial histories with no signs of accountancy or bankruptcy risk.

One of the stand out quality metrics for Hansol Chemical Co is its 5-year Return on Capital Employed, which is a solid 14.6%. Good, double-digit ROCEs are a pointer to companies that can grow very profitably.

Positive momentum trends show up in share prices and earnings growth. You can find the clues in stocks that are trading close to their 52 week high prices and outperforming the market. Theyll often be beating broker estimates and getting forecast upgrades and recommendation changes.

This is true at Hansol Chemical Co, where the share price has seen a 56.8% return relative to the market over the past 12 months. Market volatility and economic uncertainty can be a major drag on momentum, but previously strong stocks can be quick to recover when confidence returns.

In summary, good quality and momentum are pointers to some of the best stocks on the strongest uptrends. This combination of factors can be a clue to finding shares that can compound investment returns over many years.

In good times, these shares can become expensive to buy. But in volatile markets, there may be chances to buy them at knock-down prices.

Finding good quality stocks with strong momentum behind themis a strategy used by some of the world's mostsuccessful investors. If you want to find more shares that meet these rules,you can see a comprehensive list on Stockopedia's StockRanks page.

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Here are two reasons why Hansol Chemical Co (KRX:14680) could be a stock to watch - Yahoo Finance UK

Program will show children the fun of chemistry – Sunbury Daily Item

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LEWISBURG Think a catalyst causing an exothermic molecular reaction isnt your thing? Then try watching a puking watermelon without laughing.

The Lewisburg Childrens Museum (LCM), in partnership with the Bucknell University Chemistry Department, is hosting a simulcast streaming of the Backyard Chemistry Show on Tuesday, June 23, at 6 p.m. on the LCM Facebook page. Though free to the public, donations are encouraged to support the museums mission.

Topping off the Backyard Chemistry Show will be a special appearance by Billy Kelly, a Grammy-nominated family singer, songwriter and comedian living in Lewisburg.

Kahla DeSmit, executive director of the Lewisburg Childrens Museum, noted the museum has partnered in the past with Bucknells Chemistry Department to host an annual Halloween Chemistry Show

Pat Martino (Bucknell University chemistry outreach coordinator) is fabulous at creating unique science opportunities that really engage both parents and children, DeSmit said.

Our department wanted to come up with a way to give back to the local communities during these challenging times, and so we figured wed do what we do best: entertain the public with a series of fun and exciting chemistry demos! Martino said. We also wanted to help raise support for the Lewisburg Children's Museum, a nonprofit that has allowed children from all over the Susquehanna Valley and beyond to explore so many different fields of study in a safe and supportive environment.

Also known as Science Pat, Martino said Bucknell chemistry students provide opportunities for children to enjoy hands-on STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) activities. Facebook videos show groups of children cheering as a row of carved pumpkins, donated by Ards Farm Market, erupt with a combination of household chemicals. This is the first time the show will be performed virtually.

We are so excited to inspire and entertain the local communities with this new format, Martino said. Were bringing back everyones favorite demos from our annual Halloween show, but with a watermelon theme. Everyone loves the puking pumpkins, so were definitely going to feature a lot of those, but with watermelons. If you like our annual Halloween show, youre definitely going to love this.

Through this simulcast event, the LCM and chemistry department will stream a series of chemistry demonstrations, including the puking watermelons and also flamethrowers, liquid nitrogen reactions, and more.

The museum chose the online format to provide children with a fun activity while adhering to social distancing guidelines. They are looking forward to portraying science beyond the sterile, lab coat vision, DeSmit said, adding, Besides the exploding produce, children will really enjoy seeing how science can be fun and exciting.

Cindy O. Herman lives in Snyder County. Send email comments to her at CindyOHerman@gmail.com.

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Angewandte essay calling diversity in chemistry harmful decried as ‘abhorrent’ and ‘egregious’ – Chemistry World

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A now-deleted essay in Wileys Angewandte Chemie arguing that diversity actually harms organic synthesis research has sparked indignation and outrage among chemists. Sixteen of the journals 44 international advisory board members have now resigned and the community has been left questioning how the manuscript was peer reviewed and then published in one of the highest profile chemistry journals.

When I think about the efforts to which underrepresented groups and young people go to try to get a publication in Angewandte and then something of this incredibly low quality is reviewed and accepted this is the definition of privilege, says Cathleen Crudden from Queens University in Canada, and the first board member to resign.

This kind of behaviour has been tolerated far too long

Cathleen Crudden, Queens University

Brock University chemist Tom Hudlicks piece was published on Thursday 4 June, as a reflection on Dieter Seebachs 1990 review Organic synthesis Where now?. Hudlick looks at eight factors that influence chemistry using a figure reproduced from his 2007 book The Way of Synthesis, published by Wiley. It purports to show that certain factors such as information technology can be either positive or negative, while others like diversity only exert a negative influence on the field.

Hudlick laments that diversity training has influenced hiring practices to the point where the candidates inclusion in one of the preferred social groups may override his or her qualifications. He also claims that efforts to increase womens participation in science like Gordon Research Conferences power hour diminishes the contributions by men. Hudlick also asserts that skills transfer can only occur successfully if there is an unconditional submission of the apprentice to his/her master.

This caught the attention of University of Nottingham, UK, chemist Matt Cliffe, who on Friday tweeted at Angewandte Chemie: Im sorry, your RSS feed appears to be broken again. This anti-diversity screed appears to be from thirty years ago.

Hundreds of chemists replied to Cliffes post, expressing outrage over the scientifically unfounded and morally questionable claims. Richmond Sarpongs team at the University of California, Berkeley, US, called the essay abhorrent, while Donna Blackmond and Phil Baran at Scripps in the US said it was egregious. The sections in question are pure opinion uncontaminated by expertise, Andrew Bissette, senior editor at Nature journal Communications Chemistry, pointed out.

The Chinese Chemical Society responded to a section on literature integrity, calling it slander. Hudlick alleged that publishing pressures on Chinese academics mean it is not surprising that fraud and improper publication protocols are common.

Hudlick declined to comment.

Most chemists were unsurprised by the sentiments expressed in the essay. It is very important that our community understands how toxic attitudes have shaped (and now we see continue to shape) the demographics of our field, wrote Carolyn Bertozzi from Stanford University, US.

Some in our community still hold attitudes that are outdated, offensive and discriminatory

Alliance of six chemical societies

We spend an awful lot of time talking about unconscious bias in the academic world, but it makes us forget that there is perfectly conscious bias going on as well, which this is a very clear example of, agrees Tom Welton from Imperial College London, UK.

Some in our community still hold attitudes that are outdated, offensive and discriminatory, said a statement signed by six chemical societies, including the Royal Society of Chemistry and the German Chemical Society. We will not stand for this. Diversity and equality are fantastic strengths in workplaces, in culture and in wider society. This is not only demonstrated by overwhelming evidence from decades of research, but we also hold it is morally the only acceptable position.

What shocked the community most was the essays publication in a prestigious journal. Welton questions what the reviewers were asked to do and how they were selected in the first place. You would have to positively avoid reviewers who would not look at that article and say: Theres a problem with this, he says.

The journal promptly deleted the manuscript on Friday afternoon, stating that it wasnt the final version and is pending further editing and final review. Something went very wrong here and were committed to do[ing] better. The essay was marked as accepted article, meaning it was awaiting editing, proofing and formal publication, but had been accepted after peer review.

We are deeply sorry and know we have failed the community that puts their trust in us

Neville Compton, Angewandte Chemie

We are deeply sorry and know we have failed the community that puts their trust in us, said Neville Compton, Angewandte Chemies editor-in-chief, in a statement later on Friday. In a joint statement released on Monday, Annette Beck-Sickinger, chair of Angewandte Chemies editorial board, and German Chemical Society president Peter Schreiner confirmed that two editors had been suspended and the essays two international referees removed from the journals reviewer pool. A full investigation of the case has been initiated, they wrote.

Many of the journals international advisory board members felt further action needed to be taken. After I read through the article, I just didnt think there was any way I could remain on the board, says Crudden. She was the first to resign on Friday afternoon. I have had other issues brought to my attention in the Canadian context of bias in publishing at Angewandte, Crudden adds. When I got involved in the discussion, nothing really happened. I didnt feel that the issue of bias was taken seriously.

On Monday, 15 other board members a third of the entire board, including three Nobel laureates followed suit. We believe the disturbing act of Angewandte Chemie accepting and publishing an essay that promotes racist and sexist views points to a larger problem wherein systems in the journals publishing practices have suppressed ethnic and gender diversity, they wrote in a joint statement.

Whether the essays publication will have any consequences for Hudlick professional standing remains to be seen. Do I wish we lived in a world where actually his employer would at least look and take action? I do, says Welton. But I dont think we yet live in that world. In a statement, Brock University distanced itself from Hudlicks views, but didnt state that any action would be taken.

The time for boilerplate statements is done, says Crudden. We need to tell the community what is going to happen. This kind of behaviour has been tolerated far too long.

Correction: The publication date of the essay was updated 10 June 2020

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Essay criticizing efforts to increase diversity in organic synthesis deleted after backlash from chemists – Chemical & Engineering News

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Credit: Angewandte Chemie, International Edition

Hudlick's essay has now been removed from Angewandte Chemie's website.

A June 5 essay on the state of organic synthesis sparked immediate outcry from chemists due to the authors criticism of efforts to increase representation of women and underrepresented groups in the field. The journal that published the essay, Angewandte Chemie, International Edition, has since removed the article from its web site and suspended two of its editors, while it investigates the editorial process that led to the essays publication. Several members of the journals international advisory board have also resigned in protest over the essay.

The piece, written by Tom Hudlick of Brock University in recognition of the 83rd birthday of organic chemist Dieter Seebach, reflects on factors that influence how the field of organic synthesis continues to develop. One of the factors that Hudlick discusses is workforce diversity. He argues that efforts to promote diversity have prioritized inclusion of certain groups of people at the expense of meritocracy.

After immediate and intense criticism of the piece by chemists on social media, the journal quickly deleted the essay from its website. The digital object identifier (DOI), a universal code used to identify published articles, first sent readers to a page not found error message, and now redirects to a statement by the journals editor in chief, Neville Compton.

Credit: Guacamoleman/Wikimedia

Hudlick.

In that statement, Compton writes that while diversity of opinion and thoughts can spur change and debate, this essay had no place in our journal. Compton added that the journal will share the actions we are implementing within the next week to ensure this will not happen again. Angewandte Chemie is the official journal of the German Chemical Society (GDCh). In a follow-up statement released on June 8, the German Chemical Society apologized for the publication of the essay. The statement added that two editors involved in the essays publication have been suspended and the referees who reviewed the essay will no longer be used as peer reviewers for the journal.

On June 9, Angewandte Chemie shared a more detailed list of actions that the journal and its publisher have taken since the essay was published. The publisher has established an interim editor-in-chief committee made up of four employees from the editorial department of Wiley-VCH. This committee will take full editorial responsibility for Angewandte Chemie. Wiley-VCH has not confirmed Comptons status at the publication. The journal says it is introducing a new process for peer-reviewing opinion pieces that will rely on experts in the topic of the essay instead of reviewers from the field of the journal. The journal also pledges to build more diversity within the editorial and advisory boards and develop new editorial guidelines incorporating diversity equality and inclusion principles and practices. An external review is planned to evaluate the journals processes, while an internal review is ongoing.

On social media, some researchers have stated that they have already withdrawn articles for consideration by the journal and others have told C&EN that they are considering ending their membership of the GDCh.

On June 8, 16 chemists issued a joint statement announcing they were resigning from Angewandte Chemies international advisory board. In the statement, the chemists denounced the essay and the process by which it was published before adding that their resignation provides the journal with an opportunity to reconstitute the Board in a way that reflects our broader communty and society. One of the 16, Cathleen Crudden, a chemist at Queens University, had originally announced her resignation from the board on June 5. She says she felt she could no longer have her name associated with the journal. In addition to this one instance, Angewandte Chemie has shown a significant lack of leadership in terms of addressing issues related to equity, so I felt it was time for me to remove my name from their board, she wrote in statement emailed to C&EN.

The Royal Society of Chemistry, American Chemical Society, German Chemical Society, and Chemical Research Society of India released a joint statement on June 8 that didnt address the essay directly but stated that sexism, racism, discrimination against LGBTQ+ people and many other forms of inequality are sadly all too prevalent in the chemical sciences, both at individual and institutional levels. And the provost of Brock University, Greg Finn, released an open letter on June 7, in which he wrote that The statements contained in the paper are not representative of the Brock community and that further response was being considered.

Chemists criticizing the essay say that the opinions expressed by Hudlick point to much wider problems within the chemistry community, which has failed to adequately address overt and covert discrimination against chemists who are members of underrepresented groups. Fixing this is not about removing one article, says Jen Heemstra, a chemist at Emory University and author of C&ENs Office Hours column. It is about dismantling the pervasive, toxic culture that selects for and promotes these values.

As an experienced recruiter and a leader of a large group of chemists in the pharmaceutical sector, I can tell you that these views [expressed by Hudlick] are not only factually wrong, they represent the exact types of biases that have long plagued the field of organic chemistry, says L.-C. Campeau, executive director, head of Process Chemistry and Discovery Process Chemistry at Merck & Co. In our own work, weve benefited immensely from a more inclusive culture and increased diversity leading to more creative solutions to the unprecedented scientific problems that we solve every day in our quest to improve human health.

In fact, studies have shown that students from underrepresented minority groups innovate at higher rates than majority students, but their novel contributions are discounted and less likely to earn them academic positions (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2020, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1915378117). Also, in one study, scientists from groups underrepresented in the sciences were less likely to get invited or assigned to give talks at scientific meetings (Nature 2019, DOI: 10.1038/d41586-019-03688-w).

Hudlick feels that his essay had been taken out of context and he stands by what he wrote, adding that he has received emails of support as well as criticism since the article was published and then deleted. He points out the diversity of his own research group, and explains that he is not against diversity, instead he is arguing against preferential hiring of one group over another.

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Hudlick confirms that the article had gone through peer review and that Angewandte Chemie had not informed him before it removed his article from the journals site. He describes attempts to destroy his career and those of the editors who handled his essay as going beyond censorship. He argues that his article should not have been deleted from the literature record and instead the journal should have invited chemists to write rebuttals.

The real tragedy is that this article does not represent an isolated opinion, says Andy Cooper, an organometallic chemist at the University of Liverpool. Most of us have seen or experienced this kind of stuff up close, and it needs to change.

The surprise, says Csar A. Urbina-Blanco, a postdoc at the University of Ghent, is that the views made it through peer review and were published by what he felt was a respected journal. The hard work that chemistry needs to do, he says, involves looking at where these attitudes survive, something that has too often fallen to those who are most affected by them. Minorities are the only ones starting these conversations when we shouldnt have to be, he says. Academia is where we belong, but its not us who need to change.

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Essay criticizing efforts to increase diversity in organic synthesis deleted after backlash from chemists - Chemical & Engineering News

Mineral vs. chemical sunscreens: How they work and which one is better – CNET

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Mineral vs. chemical sunscreen: Is one safer?

Every year and every season brings about new wellness, fitness and beauty trends. You know, things like charcoal toothpaste, bioceramic infrared therapy pajamas and nonsurgical face-lifts.

For the last couple of years, all-natural or mineral sunscreens have been growing in popularity, and as summer approaches, your Facebook feed is sure to be full of suspiciously timely ads for what's supposedly a healthier version of conventional sunscreen.

Whether or not mineral sunscreen is safer or healthier than chemical sunscreen is a gray area (for now), but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is working to more tightly regulate the US sunscreen market and find out which ingredients in currently approved sunscreens, if any, are harmful to human health.

Chemical sunscreens tend to go on the skin easier, while mineral sunscreens are often difficult to rub in.

Sunscreens are divided into two major classes, Dr. Tyler Hollmig, director of dermatologic surgery at University of Texas Dell Medical School in Austin, tells CNET. They're either classified as chemical or physical, based on how they work.

Both classes have been shown to reduce short- and long-term damage to the skin, reduce the risk of sunburn and of skin cancer, Dr. Hollmig says: The only real difference, he points out, is how they do that.

"Chemical sunscreens act almost like a sponge, absorbing UV light, while physical sunscreens act more like a shield, deflecting the sun's rays," Dr. Hollmig explains.

Common ingredients in chemical -- or conventional -- sunscreens include oxybenzone, avobenzone, octisalate, octocrylene, homosalate, and octinoxate. Because of their makeup, chemical sunscreens tend to "be more elegant in terms of ease of application and minimizing that icky white residue," Dr. Hollmig says.

Physical (also called mineral) sunscreens, on the other hand, contain zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, and often feel sticky going on the skin.

You can absorb chemicals through your skin, but no dangerous ones are approved for use in the US.

Part of the reason mineral sunscreens have become so mainstream is that many people worry about their bodies absorbing the ingredients in chemical sunscreens. While it's possible you could absorb a small amount of mineral sunscreen, it's unlikely based on the way they work: They sit atop your skin and deflect the sun's rays, and are easily washed off with sweat or water.

It's a fair concern: Ingredients from certain sunscreens have been demonstrated to be absorbed and enter the bloodstream, although no data to date shows that any FDA-approved chemical sunscreens are harmful, Dr. Hollmig says.

Two ingredients can be harmful when absorbed through the skin (more on that below), but as of this writing, claims that approved chemical sunscreens are toxic or a hazard to human health have not been proven, says Dr. Hollmig.

So, while it's true that chemical sunscreen does indeed get absorbed by the body, more information is needed on what exactly the health implications are when this happens with currently approved sunscreen ingredients.

The FDA is working to gather more safety data about the extent to which our skin absorbs approved sunscreen ingredients and, most importantly, whether absorbing sunscreen has any effects on your skin or body. In February 2019, the FDA issued a proposed rule asking manufacturers to provide more data about the safety of certain sunscreen ingredients which have been used in the US for years.

In January 2020, the FDA released a brief about a clinical trial that looked at the absorption of sunscreens. The brief reports that "there is evidence that some sunscreen active ingredients may be absorbed. However, the fact that an ingredient is absorbed through the skin and into the body does not mean that the ingredient is unsafe, nor does the FDA seeking further information indicate such."

The FDA continues to advise that everyone use sunscreen to protect their skin.

There are 16 active ingredients found in sunscreens, including:

In the February 2019 proposed rule, the FDA proposed that only two of the above ingredients be classified as "generally recognized as safe and effective" (GRASE) -- zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, which are found in mineral sunscreens. As for the other 14, the FDA wants more data on the safety and effectiveness of 12 of them. And for the final two ingredients, theFDA proposes that they are labeled as not GRASE.

Those two ingredients are Para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) and trolamine salicylate. The FDA evaluated those ingredients and concluded that "the risks associated with use of these active ingredients in sunscreen products outweigh their benefits."

For what it's worth, neither PABA nor trolamine salicylate are currently allowed in FDA-approved sunscreens.

"It's important to note that the FDA asking for more data does not mean the ingredients are unsafe," Dr. Hollmig says. "In fact, many dermatologists feel like the FDA is overly strict in regulating sunscreens in our country."

"Some fabulous sunscreens have been used for decades in Europe, and with a wonderful safety record, and yet these have never been approved in the US," he continues. The FDA regulates sunscreen as an over-the-counter drug, rather than a cosmetic product, which contributes to the stricter rules.

To sum up, aside from the two ingredients that are not approved for use in the US, we know that chemical sunscreen ingredients are absorbed, but we don't know exactly what happens when they're absorbed and how that ultimately affects our short-term or long-term health.

Either type of sunscreen will work to protect your skin.

Because the science is currently lacking, Dr. Hollmig doesn't recommend one type of sunscreen over the other -- if your concern is protecting your skin, either will work.

"Well, I am a dermatologist," Dr. Hollmig says, "so I have to first recommend avoiding the sun altogether, at least at peak hours. I'd probably have us all live in caves if I could!"

Since we can't all live in caves (and we need adequate vitamin D for good health, anyway), Dr. Hollmig offers some tips that go beyond the avoidance strategy, namely: sunproof clothing and accessories, such as broad-brimmed hats, and sunscreen, no matter which type.

In other words, either mineral or chemical sunscreen is far better than nothing when it comes to skin health.

"The known benefits of wearing a chemical sunscreen -- reduction in risk for skin cancer, reduction in sunburn, reduced skin aging -- absolutely outweigh the theoretical risks of absorption," Dr. Hollmig says, although he adds that further scientific study is a good idea.

"Still, it would be surprising if a strong link to health problems is found simply because sunscreen use has been so prevalent for so long," he says, "almost like finding out that, when it comes to safety, maybe seat belts aren't all they are cracked up to be!"

The bottom line: Wear protective clothing or any kind of sunscreen when you're going to be out in the sun for a while (but be sure to find a balance between protecting your skin and getting enough vitamin D).

If you have decision paralysis because of the mineral-versus-chemical debate, you might be overthinking it, Dr. Hollmig says: Regardless of the UV-blocking mechanism (physical or absorptive), you should look for a few key characteristics in sunscreens.

Sunscreens should be "broad-spectrum," Dr. Hollmig says, meaning they have UVA and UVB protection, with an SPF (sun protection factor) of 30 or higher, and are water-resistant.

"SPF refers to how well the product reduces penetration of UVB light, which causes sunburn and certain skin cancers," Dr. Hollmig explains. "UVA light is more difficult to block, but has been shown to contribute to skin aging and certain melanomas. The 'broad-spectrum' denotes a product that mitigates both UVA and UVB."

As for the SPF 30 specification, Dr.
Hollmig says it's recommended because SPF 15 blocks about 93% of UV light, while SPF 30 blocks 97%.

Sunscreens with an SPF above 30 really only have the potential to prevent an additional 3% of UV from being absorbed by the skin, which is typically not worth the high price tag of many of these products, Dr. Hollmig says.

"As a general rule, you don't have to break the bank to find a great sunscreen," Dr. Hollmig says. "More expensive products often feel better as they are applied to the skin, but this doesn't mean they are better at managing harmful UV rays. La Roche might feel more elegant, but Walmart can get the job done, too."

Whatever you buy, make sure to reapply throughout the day for optimal efficacy, Dr. Hollmig advises.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

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Mineral vs. chemical sunscreens: How they work and which one is better - CNET

Could quality and value be the key for shares in Kpx Chemical Co? – Yahoo Finance UK

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Good shares at cheap prices are what the very best investors look for. At this time of economic turmoil and market volatility, could Kpx Chemical Co (KRX:25000) be one of them?

When it comes to the proven drivers of stock market profits, "good" and "cheap" is the best blend of quality and value that you can get. Research shows that poor quality, expensive shares tend to underperform - but high quality, cheap shares can deliver stunning profits.

The Kpx Chemical Co share price has moved by -1.20% over the past three months and its currently trading at 48600. The good news is that it scores well against some important financial and technical measures. It's a large-cap share with strong exposure to high quality and a relatively cheap valuation.

Here's an idea of where you can see that:

GET MORE DATA-DRIVEN INSIGHTS INTO KRX:25000

Good quality stocks are loved by the market because they're more likely to be solid, dependable businesses. Profitability is important, but so is the firm's financial strength. A track record of improving finances is essential.

One of the stand out quality metrics for Kpx Chemical Co is that it passes 8 of the 9 financial tests in the Piotroski F-Score. The F-Score is a world-class accounting-based checklist for finding stocks with an improving financial health trend. A good F-Score suggests that the company has strong signs of quality.

While quality is important, no-one wants to overpay for a stock, so an appealing valuation is vital too. With a weaker economy, earnings forecasts are unclear right across the market. But there are some valuation measures that can help, and one of them is the Earnings Yield.

Earnings Yield compares a company's profit with its market valuation (worked out by dividing its operating profit by its enterprise value). It gives you a total value of the stock (including its cash and debt), which makes it easier to compare different stocks. As a percentage, the higher the Earnings Yield, the better value the share.

A rule of thumb for a reasonable Earnings Yield might be 5%, and the Earnings Yield for Kpx Chemical Co is currently 23.8%.

In summary, good quality and relatively cheap valuations are pointers to those stocks that are some of the most appealing to contrarian value investors. It's among these shares that genuine mis-pricing can be found. Once the market recognises that these quality firms are on sale, those prices often rebound.

Finding good quality stocks at attractive prices is a strategy used by some of the world's most successful investors. If you want to find more shares that meet these rules, you can see a comprehensive list on Stockopedia's StockRanks page.

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Could quality and value be the key for shares in Kpx Chemical Co? - Yahoo Finance UK

COVID-19 Impact and Recovery Analysis- Third-Party Chemical Distribution Market 2020-2024 | Growing Focus on Chemical Distribution to Boost Growth |…

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LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Technavio has been monitoring the third-party chemical distribution market and it is poised to grow by USD 106.81 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of almost 7% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Request for Technavio's latest reports on directly and indirectly impacted markets. Market estimates include pre- and post-COVID-19 impact on the Third-Party Chemical Distribution Market Download free sample report

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Azelis group, Biesterfeld AG, Brenntag AG, HELM AG, IMCD NV, Omya International AG, Sinochem Hong Kong (Group) Co. Ltd., Stockmeier Holding GmbH, Tricon Energy Inc., and Univar Inc. are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

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Growing focus on chemical distribution has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Technavio's custom research reports offer detailed insights on the impact of COVID-19 at an industry level, a regional level, and subsequent supply chain operations. This customized report will also help clients keep up with new product launches in direct & indirect COVID-19 related markets, upcoming vaccines and pipeline analysis, and significant developments in vendor operations and government regulations. https://www.technavio.com/report/report/third-party-chemical-distribution-market-industry-analysis

Third-Party Chemical Distribution Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Third-Party Chemical Distribution Market is segmented as below:

To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR41550

Third-Party Chemical Distribution Market 2020-2024: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. The third-party chemical distribution market report covers the following areas:

This study identifies the increasing emphasis on outsourcing distribution services as one of the prime reasons driving the third-party chemical distribution market growth during the next few years.

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Third-Party Chemical Distribution Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

Table of Contents:

Executive Summary

Market ecosystem

Five Forces Analysis

Market Segmentation by Type

Customer landscape

Geographic Landscape

Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

Vendor Landscape

Vendor Analysis

Appendix

About Us

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

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Molecular dynamics used to simulate 100 million atoms | Opinion – Chemistry World

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The TV series Devs took as its premise the idea that a quantum computer of sufficient power could simulate the world so completely that it could project events accurately back into the distant past (the Crucifixion or prehistory) and predict the future. At face value somewhat absurd, the scenario supplied a framework on which to hang questions about determinism and free will (and less happily, the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics).

Quite what quantum computers will do for molecular simulations remains to be seen, but the excitement about them shouldnt eclipse the staggering advances still being made in classical simulation. Full ab initio quantum-chemical calculations are very computationally expensive even with the inevitable approximations they entail, so it has been challenging to bring this degree of precision to traditional molecular dynamics, where molecular interactions are still typically described by classical potentials. Even simulating pure water, where accurate modelling of hydrogen bonding and the ionic disassociation of molecules involves quantum effects, has been tough.

Now a team that includes Linfeng Zhang and Roberto Car of Princeton University, US, has conducted ab initio molecular dynamics simulations for up to 100 million atoms, probing timescales up to a few nanoseconds.1 Sure, its a long way from the Devs fantasy of an exact replica of reality. But it suggests that simulations with quantum precision are reaching the stage where we can talk not in terms of handfuls of molecules but of bulk matter.

How do they do it? The trick, which researchers have been exploring for several years now, is to replace quantum-chemical calculations with machine learning (ML). The general strategy of ML is that an algorithm learns to solve a complex problem by being trained with many examples for which the answers are already known, from which it deduces the general shape of solutions in some high-dimensional space. It then uses that shape to interpolate for examples that it hasnt seen before. The familiar example is image interpretation: the ML system works out what to look for in photos of cats, so that it can then spot which new images have cats in them. It can work remarkably well so long as it is not presented with cases that lie far outside the bounds of the training set.

The approach is being widely used in molecular and materials science, for example to predict crystal structures from elemental composition,2-3 or electronic structure from crystal structure.4-5 In the latter case, bulk electronic properties such as band gaps have traditionally been calculated using density functional theory (DFT), an approximate way to solve the quantum-mechanical equations of many-body systems. Here the spatial distribution of electron density is computationally iterated from some initial guess until it fits the equations in a self-consistent way. But its computationally intensive, and ML circumvents the calculations by figuring out from known cases what kind of electron distribution a given configuration of atoms will have.

The approach can in principle be used for molecular dynamics by recalculating the electron densities at each time step. Zhang and colleagues have now shown how far this idea can be pushed using supercomputing technology, clever algorithms, and state-of-the-art artificial intelligence.6 They present results for simulations of up to 113 million atoms for the test case of a block of copper atoms, enabling something approaching a prediction of bulk-like mechanical behaviour from quantum chemistry. Their simulations of liquid water, meanwhile, contain up to 12.6 million atoms.

For small systems where the comparison to full quantum DFT calculations can be made, the researchers find electron distributions essentially indistinguishable from the full calculations, while gaining 45 orders of magnitude in speed. Their system can capture the full phase diagram of water over a wide range of temperature and pressure, and can simulate processes such as ice nucleation. In some situations water can be coarse-grained such that hydrogen bonding can still be modelled without including the hydrogen atoms explicitly.7 The researchers say it should be possible soon to follow such processes on timescales approaching microseconds for about a million water molecules, enabling them to look at processes such as droplet and ice formation in the atmosphere.

For small systems where the comparison to full quantum DFT calculations can be made, the researchers find electron distributions essentially indistinguishable from the full calculations, while gaining 45 orders of magnitude in speed. Their system can capture the full phase diagram of water over a wide range of temperature and pressure, and can simulate processes such as ice nucleation. The researchers say it should be possible soon to follow such processes on timescales approaching microseconds for about a million water molecules, enabling them to look at processes such as droplet and ice formation in the atmosphere.

Both of these test cases are helped by being relatively homogeneous, involving largely identical atoms or molecules. Still, the prospects of this deep-learning approach look good for studying much more heterogeneous systems such as complex alloys.8 One very attractive goal is, of course, biomolecular systems, where the ability to model fully solvated proteins, membranes and other cell components could help us understand complex mesoscale cell processes and predict the behaviour of drug candidates. One challenge here is how to include long-range interactions such as electrostatic forces.

Its a long way from Devs-style simulations of minds and histories, which will perhaps only ever be fantasies. But one scene in that series showed what might be a more tractable goal: the simulation of a growing snowflake. What a wonderful way that would be to advertise the simulators art.

1. Jia et al., arXiv, 2020 http://www.arxiv.org/abs/2005.00223 (submitted, ACM, New York, 2020)

2 C C Fischer et al, Nat. Mater., 2006, 5, 641 (DOI:10.1038/nmat1691)

3 N Mounet et al, Nat. Nanotechnol., 2018, 13, 246 (DOI: 10.1038/s41565-017-0035-5)

4 Y Dong et al, npj Comput. Mater., 2019, 5, 26 (DOI:10.1038/s41524-019-0165-4)

5 A Chandrasekaran et al, npj Comput. Mater., 2019, 5, 22 (DOI:10.1038/s41524-019-0162-7)

6 L Zhang et al, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2018, 120, 143001 (DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.143001)

7. L Zhang et al, J. Chem. Phys., 2018, 149, 034101 (DOI:10.1063/1.5027645)

8. F-Z Dai et al., J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2020, 43, 168 (DOI:10.1016/j.jmst.2020.01.005)

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Molecular dynamics used to simulate 100 million atoms | Opinion - Chemistry World

Chemistry 101: General Chemistry Course – Online Video …

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Course Objective

The course objective is to learn the basics of organic and inorganic chemistry.

Your grade for this course will be calculated out of 300 points. The minimum score required to pass and earn real college credit for this course is 210 points, or an overall course grade of 70%. The table below shows the assignments you must complete and how they'll be incorporated into the overall grade.

Quizzes are meant to test your comprehension of each lesson as you progress through the course. Here's a breakdown of how you will be graded on quizzes and how they'll factor into your final score:

The proctored final exam is a cumulative test designed to ensure that you've mastered the material in the course.

Items Allowed on Study.com Proctored Exam for Chemistry 101:

Items NOT Allowed on Study.com Proctored Exam for Chemistry 101:

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Chemistry 101 consists of short video lessons that are organized into topical chapters. Each video is approximately 5-10 minutes in length and comes with a quick quiz to help you measure your learning. The course is completely self-paced. Watch lessons on your schedule whenever and wherever you want.

At the end of each chapter, you can complete a chapter test to see if you're ready to move on or have some material to review. Once you've completed the entire course, take the practice test and use the study tools in the course to prepare for the proctored final exam. You may take the proctored final exam whenever you are ready.

This course has been evaluated and recommended by both ACE and NCCRS for 3 semester hours in the lower division baccalaureate degree category. To apply for transfer credit, follow these steps:

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Chemistry and physics departments looking to limit cheating – Daily Free Press

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Chegg, an online student services platform that rents students textbooks and other study materials, is cooperating with professors in Boston Universitys chemistry and physics departments after it was discovered students were using the platform to cheat on online exams. ILLUSTRATION BY AUSMA PALMER/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Boston University professors in the Department of Chemistry and Department of Physics professors are working with Chegg, an online student services platform where users can rent textbooks and get tutoring help, to crack down on students using the site to cheat on quizzes after evidence surfaced last week.

General Chemistry 2 students who contact their professor and admit to cheating will have their semester grade marked down by one letter grade. Students who do not admit to cheating, but are discovered to have cheated, will receive an F in the course, according to an email sent to chemistry students.

Binyomin Abrams, one of three professors teaching General Chemistry 2 this semester, wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press that students were able to use notes and the textbook to complete quizzes remotely, but were prohibited from using other extraneous resources.

Abrams wrote that despite this rule, students were found to be using a specific Chegg feature to obtain answers to quiz questions.

They used the Chegg Tutors feature, he wrote. It seems that this is designed for students to pose questions that a tutor from Chegg then answers. They uploaded the questions from the exams the PDF.

Abrams also wrote that his team discovered that students were cheating through an investigation, but feels it is inappropriate to discuss the specifics of how the investigation took place while the situation is ongoing.

A faculty member in our department shared the experiences of a colleague, Abrams wrote. We then investigated whether this was happening in our course as well.

Cheggs honor code prohibits using the site to cheat, and says that universities can contact Chegg to investigate cheating, according to their website. However, it does not specify how Chegg conducts these investigations with the universities.

General Chemistry 2 professors are not the only ones with cheating concerns during remote learning. In an email to his Organic Chemistry 2 students, Pinghua Liu, a professor of chemistry, wrote that he received emails from students who were concerned about others cheating on the classs third exam.

For some of the cheating behaviors (reports we received in the weekend), Prof. [John] Porco, [Arturo] Vegas and I will discuss with the Deans office and the Chair, Liu wrote, so that we can protect these hard working students.

Ayla Celik, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, is enrolled in a General Chemistry 2 class taught by Tom Tullius, a professor of Chemistry, Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in the BUs School of Medicine. Celik said she thinks that remote learning makes it easier for students to cheat.

Im not surprised that people used Chegg, Celik said. I didnt use Chegg, but it seems like such an easy way to cheat, whereas in a classroom youd have to put in so much more effort to try to cheat.

Tessa Sharma, a sophomore in CAS, said she thinks the one letter grade penalty for cheating is fair given the coronavirus-related challenges students are facing. She herself is a student in Abrams General Chemistry 2 class.

I think [the General Chemistry 2 professors] recognize that this kind of cheating is probably a result of peoples extenuating circumstances and all the craziness thats going on right now, Sharma said. I think the professors are being fair about the punishment.

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Chemistry and physics departments looking to limit cheating - Daily Free Press

Cal Poly Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty, Staff and Students Produce Hand Sanitizer for Campus Use – Cal Poly State University

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SAN LUIS OBISPO When hand sanitizer started flying off local shelves about two months ago, Cal Poly chemistry assistant professor Scott Eagon decided to turn a difficult situation into a hands-on learning opportunity for several students, and help the community in the process.

There have been times recently when its been difficult to obtain sanitizer, and we wanted to help the local community as much as possible, said Eagon, who led a group of students and staff in producing two kinds of hand sanitizer for Cal Polys campus community.

Eagon, who runs a medical chemistry lab, emailed his research students to see if anyone was still in San Luis Obispo and wanted to help. A lot of them want to help in any way to fight the pandemic, he said.

Six volunteered: biochemistry majors Spenser Platt, Eric Schwegman and Julia Gibbs; biomedical engineering major Maetja (Metty) Verbarendse; biological sciences major Jessica Travis; and biological sciences and psychology major Trevan Klug.

I was really excited, because it meant I could do something to help against the coronavirus and I could get back in the lab, Schwegman said.

Biochemistry instructional support technician Andrea Labschuer prepared the sanitized water, and chemistry instructional support technician Shelley Zoff helped procure critical supplies, including alcohol, glycerol and peroxide.

On May 15, the students gathered in the general chemistry laboratories in the Baker Center for Science and Mathematics. Wearing protective equipment, they split into two groups and mixed two different types of sanitizer: ethyl-alcohol based and isopropyl-alcohol based, in proper ratios designated by the World Health Organization.

Both are simple mixtures of alcohol, sterilized water and glycerol. A smallamount of peroxide was added to destroy any microbes that may have gotten in the batch. Then, the mixtures were allowed to cure, Eagon said, during which time the remaining peroxide breaks down into water.

The glycerol acts like a moisturizer and keeps your hands from drying out too much, he said. We avoid adding any fragrances, dyes, foaming agents, etc.,to minimize the chance of any allergic reaction.

They produced six 16-liter batches of sanitizer, or around 25 gallons.

A lot of our projects take months if not years to come to fruition, but making hand sanitizer was a way to immediately able to help our community and make a difference, especially with the uncertainty of this pandemic, said Verbarendse, a third-year biomedical engineering student.

It was great to be back on campus, see my research team and help the community, she added. Being able to come onto campus even for a short time made me excited to return to campus and work in lab when this is all over.

Cal Polys Facilities Services office will store the finished product in its warehouse and use it to supplement current campus supplies by transferring the product to smaller, user-friendly spray bottles. These supplies are being used by current on-campus essential personnel, including University Housing, Cal Poly police, and Facilities Management and Development.

There is a very good chance we will need this supply before we are able to replenish stock via normal supply chain methods, said Jude Fledderman, executive director of Facilities Operations.

Biological sciences and psychology majorTrevanKlug, left,biological sciences majorJessica Travis,andbiomedical engineering major Maetja (Metty) Verbarendse help produce hand sanitizer for Cal Poly campus use on May 15, 2020.

Cal Poly chemistry assistant professor Scott Eagon and several students in his medical research lab produced six 16-liter batches of hand sanitizer for campus use on May 15, 2020.

In photo at the top,Biochemistry major Julia Gibbs, left, with chemistry assistant professor Scott Eagon, prepare to produce hand sanitizer in Cal Polys Baker Center for Science and Mathematics on May 15, 2020.

Photos by University Photographer Joe Johnston. Higher-resolution images available upon request.

Contact: Cynthia Lambertcmlamber@calpoly.edu

May 20, 2020

# # #

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Cal Poly Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty, Staff and Students Produce Hand Sanitizer for Campus Use - Cal Poly State University

Dragons of immunology | Opinion – Chemistry World

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Since everyone is being forced these days to think about immunology, lets consider it in terms of chemistry and drug discovery. You can get two very different perspectives based on where you stand. From one view, inflammation and immune response might look like a wonderfully productive area for small molecules. Aspirin, dexamethasone, ibuprofen, hydrocortisone there are classic drugs that work on and near these pathways and have been used successfully by uncounted millions of patients. In the modern era, the list of best-selling prescription drugs prominently features antibodies and fusion proteins aimed at immunologic targets such as TNF-alpha and CD20, as treatments for inflammatory diseases from rheumatoid arthritis to cancer.

But from another vantage point, the whole field is full of trap doors, dead ends, and irritable dragons. Dexamethasone and other such steroids have such powerful effects (and powerful side effects) that they have to be administered carefully and for short periods. Thats why compounds such as ibuprofen were hailed as being anti-inflammatories that (good news!) werent steroids. The list of potential side effects for those antibodies is also long and impressive. To pick a particularly dramatic example that many will recall, a 2006 attempt by TeGenero to create a super-agonist for the T-cell receptor CD28 led to catastrophic effects in the Phase 1 volunteers, many of whom barely survived the initial dose.

Thats what the immune system has to offer: tremendous power, but power that can be aimed in all sorts of directions. And because immunology itself is so wildly, insanely complicated, there are a bewildering number of potential targets to think about. Were looking at hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary tinkering; there are layers upon layers of tangled, interlocking signaling pathways and mechanisms. Theres the innate immune system always on but rather nonselective and the adaptive system that features a gigantic combinatorial chemical library of antibodies that we all carry around with us for our entire lives slower to get going, but capable of feats of recognition that we still have trouble matching in the laboratory. Those aeons of evolution have been a walk down the narrow path between too little activity, opening the door to fatal infections, and too much, leading to autoimmune syndromes and responses to an infection that are worse than the disease itself. Its little wonder that the systems are encrusted with regulatory loops, flywheels, and gear-shifting mechanisms.

As usual, most of what drug discovery has to offer is an assortment of grit, sand, and spanners to throw into this apparatus. We are far, far better at shutting particular enzymes and receptors down than we are in turning any particular signal up. When you do see a drug mechanism that enhances some sort of activity, odds are good that it works by inhibiting something else that was in turn suppressing the desired target. A great number of interesting ideas in the field dont seem to be amenable to small-molecule manipulation at all, which is where those antibodies come in. The requisite binding sites can be too large and the selectivity needed to target them may be too great for anything other than a good-sized protein to have a chance.

Thats meant that immunology has been a proving ground for new therapeutic ideas and new modes of action. Monoclonal antibodies and fusion proteins are just the beginning. Mechanisms targeting protein expression, intra- and extracellular localisation, degradation, and the intricate varieties of post-translational modification are all highly relevant to immune and inflammation pathways. Add in the number of genetic immunological problems that can occur in the population, which would be targets for gene therapy or RNA mechanisms, and you have the whole range of cutting-edge drug research being brought in.

Most of these are too early in the process to be of likely use against the Covid-19 pandemic, of course. But we are learning a great deal about immunology very quickly under these conditions, with the huge efforts going into characterising the pathogen; treating the overactive immune response to it; and developing antibodies and vaccines against it. Well come out of this, and well come out of it with more tools and more knowledge than when we went in all acquired at a faster pace than we ever would have achieved otherwise. Lets take the benefits where we can find them!

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Dragons of immunology | Opinion - Chemistry World

Scientists finally solve the mystery behind a 100-year-old chemistry experiment – Livescience.com

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Scientists may finally understand the mysterious transition behind a century-old chemistry experiment. The details of this transformation, in which adding electrons to a bright blue ammonia solution morphs it into a lustrous, metallic bronze, have long eluded scientists.

The new study reveals the subtle details of this change, and shows that this transformation is gradual, rather than sudden. "What we've done successfully is that we've pretty much understood how these solutions behave at a wide range of concentrations using a microjet technique," said study co-author Ryan McMullen, a doctoral student in chemistry at the University of Southern California. This technique, which involves shooting hair-thin streams of the solution through a vacuum, has not been used on the lustrous liquid before.

And the discovery could open up new types of reactions in organic chemistry in the future, McMullen told Live Science.

Related: 8 chemical elements you never heard of

Metals are a diverse group. Some, like lithium, are light enough to float, while others, like lead or osmium are extremely dense. Some require incredibly high temperatures to melt, while others melt easily (Mercury, for example, melts at minus 38.3 degrees Celsius, or minus 37.9 degrees Fahrenheit). Ultimately, what metals have in common is their ability to conduct electricity at absolute zero, the point at which molecular movement from heat essentially halts.

But how do some nonmetals transform into metals? In a new study, researchers answered that question by adding metals to liquid ammonia.

First, the researchers condensed ammonia, which is a gas at room temperature, into a liquid by cooling it to negative 27.4 F (minus 33 C). They then added either sodium, lithium or potassium, which are all alkali metals. (Rather famously, these metals react explosively when submerged in water.) The experiments were done in collaboration with scientists from the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin, as well as researchers in Japan and France.

Related: The top 10 greatest explosions ever

The result was an expected reaction: The liquid ammonia pulled electrons from the metal. Those electrons then became trapped between the ammonia molecules, creating the so-called solvated electrons the researchers hoped to study. At low concentrations, the result was a blue, non-metallic liquid. As the solvated, or trapped, electrons piled up, though, the solution transitioned to shiny bronze.

The next challenge was to investigate how the solvated electrons behaved at different concentrations. This involved shooting a microjet of the solution about the width of a human hair through a beam of synchrotron X-rays, which are high-energy X-ray beams. The X-rays excited the solvated electrons, causing them to hop out of their liquid cage of ammonia molecules. The researchers could then measure how much energy it took to release the solvated electrons.

The researchers found that the greater the concentration of solvated electrons, the more the pattern of energy release matched what is seen in a metal. Here's what that means: If you graph the amount of energy required to free electrons from their liquid ammonia cage, metals typically have what's called a "Fermi edge," a very abrupt transition, McMullen said. At lower concentrations of solvated electrons, this energy-release graph looks more like a rounded hill. Only at higher electron concentrations did this Fermi edge emerge. The edge reflects how much energy electrons have at a given temperature, McMullen added.

"When you increase the concentration to the metallic range then you see, this wonderful pattern emerges that is very, very characteristic of a metal," McMullen said.

The results were interesting because they showed that the metal-like liquid created by combining alkali metals and ammonia actually is a metal on a fundamental physical level, he said.

"It is a genuine metal, it's not something that just looks like one," McMullen said.

Lower-concentration solvated electrons are used in a type of reaction called a Birch reaction, which adds electrons to molecular structures called aromatic rings. This kind of reaction was used in the manufacture of the first oral contraceptive pills in the 1950s, McMullen said. By understanding how solvated electrons work at high concentrations, researchers can potentially find new kinds of chemical reactions, he said. For example, they might excite the solvated electrons with beams of light to get them to behave in new ways.

"If you tickle the electrons a bit so that they're more energetically excited, you can start looking at some crazy reactions that would never otherwise happen," McMullen said.

The researchers reported their findings June 5 in the journal Science.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Scientists finally solve the mystery behind a 100-year-old chemistry experiment - Livescience.com

Texas A&M Chemist Karen Wooley Elected To National Academy Of Sciences – Texas A&M University Today

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Texas A&M Chemist Karen Wooley has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Texas A&M College of Science

Texas A&M University Distinguished Professor of ChemistryKaren L. Wooleyhas been elected to theNational Academy of Sciences.

Wooley, holder of the W.T. Doherty-Welch Chair in Chemistry and one of the worlds top chemists in the burgeoning field of materials and polymer chemistry and in creating new materials at the nanoscale level, is among the 120 new members and 26 foreign associatesannounced Monday, April 27)by the Academy on the final day of its 157th Annual Meeting in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Election to Academy membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive.

The 2020 election brings the total number of active members to 2,403 and the total number of international members to 501. International members are nonvoting members of the Academy, with citizenship outside the United States.

All of us at Texas A&M are delighted that Dr. Wooley has received this prestigious recognition, said Texas A&M President Michael K. Young. National Academy memberships not only attest to the impressive achievements of an individual researcher, they also elevate academic excellence across the institution. Her election to the Academy is a well-deserved credit to her groundbreaking work in the field of chemistry, as well as an honor to our entire university community.

A member of theTexas A&M Department of Chemistryfaculty since 2009, Wooley also holds joint appointments in theDepartment of Chemical EngineeringandDepartment of Materials Science and Engineering. In addition, sheserves as director of theLaboratory for Synthetic-Biologic Interactions. She was appointed as a distinguished professor in 2011 and was named one of Texas A&Ms 24 inaugural Presidential Impact Fellows in 2017. She also serves as chief technology officer for United Kingdom-based Teysha Technologies, whichsigned a sponsored research agreementlast year with Texas A&M to streamline degradable polymers development and expand the scope of bioplastics technology developed within the Wooley Laboratory.

Being elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences is a remarkable achievement and well-deserved recognition of Dr. Wooleys tremendous impact in the field of chemistry, said Texas A&M Provost and Executive Vice President Carol A. Fierke, a fellow professor of chemistry with a joint appointment in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics.

Wooley is the most recent faculty member to earn the prestigious accolade while at Texas A&M since fellow Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Dr. Marcetta Y. Darensbourg and Distinguished Professor of Mathematics Dr. Ronald A. DeVore were elected in 2017. Other Academy members among the current Texas A&M faculty include Dr. Leif Andersson (2012), Dr. Dudley R. Herschbach (1967), Dr. Roger E. Howe (1994), Dr. Robert C. Kennicutt Jr. (2006), Dr. David M. Lee (1991), Dr. Darwin Prockop (1991), Dr. Peter Rentzepis (1978), Dr. Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe (2010), Dr. Marlan O. Scully (2001), Dr. Patrick J. Stover (2016) and Dr. James E. Womack (1999), along with emeritus professors Dr. Perry Adkisson (1979) and Dr. Max D. Summers (1989). Of those Texas A&M 16, seven (Adkisson, Darensbourg, DeVore, Scully, Summers, Womack and Wooley) were elected during their time at Texas A&M.

Karen Wooley is a brilliant scientist with all the skill sets required to achieve the level of recognition that is deserved, Darensbourg said. Chief in my mind is her extraordinary ability to organize. That is what science is, after all. In her research, she coaxes small organic molecules to organize into larger and larger composites that fold into intricate and useful shapes of soft materials. She has an exceptional ability to organize and inspire coworkers and collaborators into teams that are effective in tackling complex problems. As a co-editor of the prestigious Journal of the American Chemical Society, handling hundreds of submissions per year, she maintains the standard of excellence for which the journal is so well known. Her energy unabated, she also teaches and serves the College of Science and Texas A&M University, most recently as an overseer of the seven-year external review of the Department of Chemistry.

Congratulations, Karen. We are so fortunate to have you as a colleague.

Wooley holds a Texas-shaped sample of her teams biodegradable natural polymer that could prove to be a game-changer for the worlds plastics pollution problem, currently estimated in excess of 10 million metric tons and growing.

Texas A&M College of Science

Wooleys groundbreaking work in organic nanomaterials-based chemistry spans the gamut of basic and applied research that affects a host of biomedical, environmental and engineering-related areas and industries. Her research interests include degradable polymers derived from natural products, unique macromolecular architectures and complex polymer assemblies, and the design and development of well-defined nanostructured materials. Current projects focus on the development of novel synthetic strategies, fundamental study of the materials properties and exploration of their functional performance in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, as non-toxic anti-biofouling or anti-icing coatings for the marine environment, as materials for microelectronics device applications, and as pollutant remediation systems.

My laboratory has always had a balance of fundamental basic science investigations that have allowed us to create materials that have never been created before and then to study their properties, Wooley said. The process we use is going from an idea to a hypothesis to a design of a material that logically would meet that hypothesis. Once we understand how the materials behave and how their composition and structure relates to their properties, then we can define potential applications for those materials.

Recent achievements made possible by Wooley and her research group include a sustainable plastic that degrades in water; a wound dressing that the body absorbs; a non-toxic polymer coating that can prevent marine animals from sticking to a ships hull; and nanoparticles that can absorb 10 times their weight in spilled crude oil.

Election to the National Academy of Sciences is a tremendous honor, and I think Dr. Wooleys contributions to environmental sustainability make her election even more noteworthy, said Dr. Valen E. Johnson, dean of the College of Science. The College of Science is thrilled with her selection.

In addition, Wooley served for more than 10 years as the director of a $33 millionProgram of Excellence in Nanotechnology (PEN)funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in support of nanoparticle-focused research expected to dramatically alter the future of medical practice with regard to detection, diagnosis and treatment of lung and cardiovascular diseases. Her research, education and outreach activities have been continuously supported for nearly 30 years by the National Science Foundation, along with a host of additional federal and state agencies, corporate and industry partners and private foundations.

Karen is one of the most influential and innovative organic polymer chemists today, said Dr. Simon W. North, professor and head of Texas A&M Chemistry. The breadth of her scientific accomplishments and the boundless energy she demonstrates in tackling challenges is absolutely awe-inspiring. It is a joy to celebrate in the well-deserved recognition of a colleague who continues to be a tremendous departmental leader, mentor, educator and role model for us all.

Wooley is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2014), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2015), National Academy of Inventors (2019) and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2020). Her major career awards to date
include the Royal Society of Chemistrys 2014 Centenary Prize and the American Chemical Societys 2015 Oesper Award. No stranger to trailblazing accomplishment, she previously made history in 2014 as the first woman to receive the ACS Award in Polymer Chemistry, a prestigious accolade honoring outstanding fundamental contributions and achievements toward addressing global needs for advanced polymer systems and materials.

Honestly, it is neither possible to describe the magnitude of this honor nor to sufficiently express the immense gratitude I feel for the contributions that have been made by many talented students, collaborators, mentors, supporters, family and friends, Wooley said with regard to her most recent career accolade. I feel exceptionally fortunate to have professional and personal opportunities to pursue my scientific passions and translate academic research into materials that are designed to address global challenges while educating and training dynamic next-generation scientists.

Wooley earned her Ph.D. in polymer/organic chemistry from Cornell University in 1993 and began her independent academic career that same year as an assistant professor of chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis. She was promoted to professor with tenure in 1999 and named a James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences in 2006 prior to receiving a joint appointment in the School of Medicine, Department of Radiology in 2007.

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Texas A&M Chemist Karen Wooley Elected To National Academy Of Sciences - Texas A&M University Today

Trump administration will not regulate rocket fuel chemical in drinking water – The Guardian

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US environmental regulators have decided they will not put restrictions on perchlorate a rocket fuel ingredient known to harm fetal brain development in drinking water.

The Environmental Protection Agency argued that the federal government, states and public water systems have already taken proactive steps to reduce perchlorate levels.

Perchlorate is found in rocket fuel, explosives, fireworks and other products. It can also be naturally occurring.

The chemical disrupts the thyroid function and can harm the developing brains of fetuses and young children. The chemical has been found in the water, soil or sediment of 45 states, according to a 2010 Government Accountability Office study.

Andrew Wheeler, the EPA administrator, said the decision is built on science, and fulfills President Trumps promise to pare back burdensome one-size-fits-all overregulation for the American people.

Health and environment experts quickly decried the move and promised to sue.

Betsy Southerland, the former director of the EPAs water office, called the decision shameful, and unconscionable. She said the EPA in a proposed standard cooked the books in evaluating how much perchlorate in drinking water is harmful, using uncalibrated models and an insensitive health endpoint.

The EPA then determined that almost none of the drinking water in the US had high enough levels of perchlorate to be regulated, she said.

The agency is revoking its 2008 finding that no more than 15 parts per billion (ppb) of perchlorate in drinking water was safe. EPA in its proposed rule suggested 56 ppb of perchlorate in water would be safe.

Massachusetts and California have set their own standards far lower, at 2ppb and 6ppb.

Trumps EPA was forced by a lawsuit to make a decision on perchlorate, following the Obama administrations finding in 2011 that a standard was needed.

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Trump administration will not regulate rocket fuel chemical in drinking water - The Guardian