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Rae, Nanjiani have chemistry, but their shine greatly limited – Waterbury Republican American

Posted on May 22, 2020 by Danzig

Watching another couples terrifying night out can make for a passably decent night in with The Lovebirds. The film was initially going to premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival before a scheduled April theatrical release from Paramount, but then a global pandemic happened and it is now opening worldwide on Netflix.

Which is perhaps oddly fitting, as The Lovebirds is a movie about circumstances and complications. Directed by Michael Showalter from a script by Aaron Abrams and Brendan Gall, the film opens with the sweet and cute beginnings of romance between Leilani (Issa Rae) and Jibran (Kumail Nanjiani) before cutting to four years later, when the compounded small grievances and major annoyances of being a couple have them on the verge of breaking up. That is before they find themselves mixed up in a strange series of events, convinced they are wanted for murder and now on the run through nighttime New Orleans.

On a scale of other recent films that mixed the long-term rom-com with the action thriller, The Lovebirds lands somewhere between Game Night, starring Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams, and Date Night, starring Tina Fey and Steve Carell.

Rae and Nanjiani have a quicksilver chemistry, flashing from playful banter to genuine, hurtful arguing in an instant. Its often up in the air whether to root for this couple to even stay together someone holding them at gunpoint says, You seem like a nice though somewhat annoying couple which gives the movie an extra charge.

Whether improv or scripted, the film is at its best during moments such as when Rae offhandedly calls a college frat guy little Brett Kavanaugh, Nanjiani fastidiously parses the distinction between a reality show and a docuseries or the couple find themselves reconnecting by singing Kay Perrys Firework full voice in the back of a Lyft. (And after the conspicuous Uber placement in Nanjianis The Big Sick and Stuber, that feels like a joke unto itself.)

As with his direction on The Big Sick which starred Nanjiani in a story based on his real-life relationship with Emily V. Gordon and earned the couple an Oscar nomination for their screenplay Showalter is unflashy, efficient and willing to let the performers fully take the spotlight. But whats disappointing about The Lovebirds is that a group of talents this dynamic would produce a movie that is this much just kind of OK. With the collective cultural savvy of Rae, Nanjiani and Showalter behind it, The Lovebirds should have more bite and insight.

THE LOVEBIRDS

Two and a half stars

Starring:Issa Rae, Kumail Nanjiani

Directed by: Michael Showalter

Running time: 86 minutes

Rated: R

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Rae, Nanjiani have chemistry, but their shine greatly limited - Waterbury Republican American

Military sees surge in sites with ‘forever chemical’ contamination | TheHill – The Hill

Posted on March 21, 2020 by Danzig

The military now has at least 651 sites that may have been contaminated with cancer-linked forever chemicals, a more than 50 percent jump from its last tally.

The information was released Friday in a report from the Department of Defense (DOD), part of a task force designedto help the military remove a class of chemicals known as PFAS from the water supply near numerous military bases.

PFAS, used in a variety of household products as well as an AFFF fire fighting foam relied on by the military, has been deemed a forever chemical due to its persistence in both the environment and the human body.

The military has been under increasing pressure to clean up contaminated sites, previously estimated to be as many as 401 locations. Each of those sites where PFAS may have been used must still be evaluated to determine whether it's been contaminated, as well as the extent of the exposure.

This report also makes it clear that we are still learning the full extent of the impact on our communities. The identification of over 250 new sites where PFAS was potentially released is astonishing, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam SmithDavid (Adam) Adam SmithOvernight Energy: Military sees surge in sites contaminated by 'forever chemicals' | USDA closes office wing due to coronavirus | Watchdog raises concerns over Trump energy regulator Military sees surge in sites with 'forever chemical' contamination Stock market plunge should incentivize firms to develop a coronavirus cure MORE (D-Wash.) said in a statement.

It is critical that the department provide communities with timely assessment of these sites, communicate transparently with impacted households, and quickly act to protect civilians and service members alike from these forever chemicals.

Defense Secretary Mark EsperMark Esper'Endless wars' and political warfare Overnight Defense: 'Tens of thousands' of National Guard troops could be activated for coronavirus response | Hospital ships could take week to deploy | Trump says military to help Americans stuck in Peru Navy hospital ship to deploy in 5 to 10 days to help with coronavirus relief MORE started the PFAS task force on his first day in office in July.

We must approach the problem in an aggressive and holistic way, ensuring a coordinated DOD-wide approach to the issue, Esper wrote in a memo establishing the task force.

The 651 figure is current as of October and includes only sites where DOD is known to be the source of PFAS contamination.

The military has provided bottled water and filters to the affected areas and is prepared to ramp up blood testing for DOD firefighters that regularly apply firefighting foam.

No one on or off base is drinking water above EPAs [health advisory] level of 70 parts per trillion [ppt] where DoD is the known source of PFOS and PFOA, the agency wrote in the report, referring to guidelines set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

However, those voluntary EPA standards are in the process of being replaced with a mandatory drinking water regulation something that may fall below the 70 ppt currently being used by DOD.

Many critics have argued that the 70 ppt figure is too high to protect health and have advocated for setting the standard at a lower number, following the move of many states who have more aggressive PFAS regulations than the federal government.

Updated 5:09 p.m.

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Military sees surge in sites with 'forever chemical' contamination | TheHill - The Hill

What’s the Chemical Difference Between Hot- and Cold-Brew Coffee? – Popular Mechanics

Posted on April 9, 2020 by Danzig

Whats in your cold brew coffee, and how does it differ from a traditional hot brew?

For a new presentation poster, scientists brewed many batches to identify differences in the chemistry between cold and hot brew coffee. They confirmed ongoing study results that show hot brewed coffee has more antioxidants (and acidity) than cold brew. They also took their research a step further and examined these levels in different temperatures of roasts, from light to dark.

For their research, the scientists from Philadelphias Thomas Jefferson University had to develop the most standard possible brew. Coffee aficionados already face this question every day, and they agree that a burr grinder works best to grind beans into a uniform consistency. And many use water heaters to reach a consistent recommended temperature just below boiling.

Both of these mechanics are imperfect. Thats on top of varying levels of roast even within narrow ranges like light and medium. Coffee is one part science and one part fault-tolerant art form.

So to try to homogenize their research as much as possible, the researchers did everything they could to control the parameters. They developed a procedure for when the water should be added to the ground coffee, how to pour the water and for how long, how to shake the solution, how to press the brewed coffee and how to analyze it. They set time limits for each step, with margins of just a few seconds, the American Chemical Society (ACS) said in a statement.

What the scientists found will interest coffee lovers. Overall, pH of hot and cold brews at the same roastiness are similar, which goes against popular wisdom that cold brew coffee is less acidic than hot. (Other studies back up this finding.) The researchers observed that pH gets highermore basicas the level of roasting gets higher, so the darkest roasts have the lowest acidity.

Brewing hot coffee also results in a product with much higher antioxidant content. For lighter roast coffees, the difference is smaller, but for dark roast coffees, hot brewing extracts far more antioxidants than cold brewing. Hot brewing also has higher amounts of specific kinds of acids and dissolved solids, despite its overall similar pH.

The researchers dont speculate about this, but it could be this higher level of some acids that results in the perception that hot brew is more acidic than cold brew.

The researchers presented their poster as part of the ACSs spring national meeting. The meeting itself was canceled because of COVID-19 (coronavirus), but participants were invited to share their research presentations online. Even so, the website compiling that research is a bit of a ghost town. These researchers should be able to present their different papers and projects in a future, in-person ACS meeting.

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What's the Chemical Difference Between Hot- and Cold-Brew Coffee? - Popular Mechanics

Changing Science, Changing Scientists: How Technology Has Changed The Role of an Analytical Chemist – Technology Networks

Posted on February 8, 2020 by Danzig

Its an exciting day when a new piece of kit arrives in the lab. Between postdocs planning assays, PhD students wondering what will happen if they break it and lab managers wondering how they can fit it on the benchtop, technology advancements are something that affect every person involved in science. But certain advances in technology dont just promise new capabilities but threaten to change from the ground up how research is conducted in a lab group or company.Andrew Anderson, vice president innovation, informatics strategy at industry software solutions provider ACD/Labs, has had a unique vantage point into how technology affects the analytical chemistry field. In this interview, I ask Andrew how the day-to-day life of a chemist has been changed by technologies like AI and automation and how budding chemists can get their skillset up to scratch to handle the changing face of analytical science.

Ruairi Mackenzie (RM): How are technological advancements changing the current job specifications for a research scientist?Andrew Anderson (AA): Its a great question. If we had talked five years ago, I would have a different vision than I have today. In the pharmaceutical industry there are some good examples, particularly around commercializing Katalyst D2D (read more here). As you may recall we worked collaboratively with one major pharmaceutical company and then since then several others. In order to describe the changes Ive seen in scientists job roles in these companies Ill talk about what Im used to, particularly in chemistry. If you think about the pharmaceutical industry, traditionally therapeutics are made using small molecule technology and they matriculate through a drug discovery and development process, ultimately into commercialization.

If you go back five years, what we saw, particularly in discovery, was reliance on an external ecosystem of suppliers and contract research organizations, contract development and manufacturing organizations. Those ecosystems are healthy and vibrant. But what we are also seeing now is a resurgence, in my view of the market, of internal investment. This is based on that market immersion in working with these different perspectives and clients. What I see is a shift back to investment in core infrastructure, like technology platforms, robotics and automation. I wont go into the reasons behind that resurgence, but I do think that it feels like the scientists working on really pivotal projects want to have a shift back into a more balanced portfolio between internal and external work.

I could surmise or assume that theres several reasons for that. One might be the ability to collaborate at the project team level. I dont think that the technology that supports collaboration has fully replaced the level of, well call it quality, face-to-face collaboration Certainly there are efforts to use technology to make geographically disparate collaborators work more effectively together. But when you look at the level of cross-functional effort that goes on to work through the drug discovery and development and commercialization process, those folks at times need to work very closely together. Thats one reason. The other is, from my perspective, advances in experimentation technology. You can have in-house staff that are today using far more productive technology than they were in the past.

Early adopters of this new technology have realized productivity gains in their drug discovery and development processing. As an example, utilizing high throughput experimentation technology you can produce materials at a rate faster than you could in the past. Now there are drawbacks, but certainly the high throughput experimentation paradigm is yielding benefits. We do see an uplifted interest in investing in automation and so you have in-house capabilities that are highly productive. Youre certainly going to continue to leverage externalized resources for work that doesnt require automation. But I think balancing between the two is really important and we do see that senior leaders within these organizations are also recognizing the value of that balance. I do see an uplift in hiring of internal staff in parts of the world where major pharmaceutical R&D operations are being performed.

What I see is a lot of chemists moving into those organizations. Now, the chemist of today is a different chemist than they were even five years ago.

RM: How has the role of a chemist today changed from five years ago?AA: Lets pretend youre a medicinal chemist in a pharmaceutical organization. Your responsibility is to determine how to optimize a particular lead compound and make it into something that would be nominated for candidacy to clinical development. In the old world your responsibility was largely focused around a fume hood, and your work would be often devoted to some design work, understanding what molecule to make based on things like structure to activity relationships. You may even do modeling to determine how a particular molecule might fit into a particular drug target and optimize the molecule based on how it should fit in.

Now, a changing factor is artificial intelligence, where you have machines prescribing what to make. That is a realistic future where youre using in silico tools to help augment the scientists decision making around what to make next.

Following a machine-augmented approach to defining what to make, you now decide how to make it. Youll want to make these materials and subject them to physical assays, in vitro assays etc. You would then utilize tools to help prescribe the process of making a particular material. If you have heard anything about the innovation in retrosynthetic analysis and reaction prediction, that is an area where scientists of today will utilize those technologies. What that then implies is if youre having machine learning applications or artificial intelligence applications prescribing what to make and how to make it, presumably that process can be very fast with the speed of computers and other factors.

Where the bottleneck moves to is in how to make things in parallel and in high throughput. The next technological innovation is in high throughput experimentation. Where youre able to produce more materials faster than you could in the past. Historically, youd work on one or a small set of reactions at one time and weve seen in todays paradigm or maybe the short-term futures paradigm, depending on what company youre talking to, you can now use automation tools to produce up to 1500 molecules at a time. The rate of going through that traditional trial and error process to arrive at a drug development candidate is much faster if you utilize the combination of artificial intelligence for design, artificial intelligence for reaction planning and then automation tools for high throughput and parallel experimentation.

The final thing youll want to have is what Id call no loss fidelity decision support interfaces. What a lot of companies are also investing in is looking across, from design to execution to task, all of the data that is generated during those discrete unit operations in the scientific process to be able to present that data in a holistic fashion to decision makers.

From my perspective what that means for the scientist is in addition to their chemistry knowledge and their biology knowledge, their pharmaceutical knowledge they also need to be able to deal with a lot of data. Part of their job transitions from being a chemist to almost being like a data scientist or a data engineer.

RM: Does that mean that todays analytical chemist will spend less time in the fume hood, or will they be expecting to spend the same amount in the fume hood, and on top of that analyze data?AA: I would say that in the future there is no fume hood and what I mean by that is instead of interfacing with what youd classically visualize as a fume hood with reaction flasks and the like, the future paradigm or even the current paradigm is youre walking up to robots who are ins
ide the fume hood or glove box. Where youre effectively providing machine instructions to the robots who go and do the work for you, okay? The transition is that the scientists arent touching materials any more. Youre essentially providing machines with instructions across this set of unit operations you would execute during the process. Thats certainly different than what you would do even three years ago as a traditional chemist. Youre really interfacing with robotics and digital software interfaces.

RM: How can software help chemists in this new role?AA: Its the transcription and translation between systems. Certainly, there is a significant amount of human effort. We talked about this data engineering need currently to be able to transcribe information from one system to another and a simple example is if Ive executed a reaction with an automated reactor system I would say the majority of analysis that is performed is off the deck. What I mean by that is the reaction deck that has a robot, a robotic arm, that dispenses materials into containers, those containers will serve as reaction vessels, those reaction vessels are subjected to different environmental conditions, like heating or stirring or pressurization, etc.

At the conclusion or even during the experiment youll want to perform some sort of analysis to determine how the reaction is going. Often times what that means is the robot will sample either at the end of the experiment or during the experiment and create analysis samples. The analysis equipment is usually separate from the reaction equipment.

I need to make sure that the data that I generate from the analytical experiment is somehow associated through the sample provenance to my reaction experiment. Thats indeed one of the challenges right now is interfacing between these systems. What were a strong advocate for is to make software do that work of transcription and translation; make a software do that for you. What we work on is helping our customers interface the reaction equipment and the analysis equipment by creating digital representations of that sample provenance and then formatting those digital representations so that they can be consumed by, for example, analysis equipment.

A practical example is if Ive sampled a 96-well plates worth of reactions at the end of the experiment, the reaction, Im going to sample and drop into 96 HPLC vials and then Id walk over and load those HPLC vials. What I need are identifiers that associate the HPLC vial to the position in the 96-well plate so that I know what the sample belongs to.

Within our Katalyst application we have identifiers for the reaction plate, and we map those identifiers to the sample plate that you would load onto the system. Furthermore we prepare a sequence file for those samples, where the sample identifier relationships, are accounted for. Whether its a comment field or the name of the file or a variety of ways to make that association. Then, what we do is once the data is acquired, we read, so Katalyst will read the sample identifier, make the association to the appropriate reaction information.

What that then gives is a software experience that has all of the reaction information, like what reagents did I add and what product did I make, and I have all the analytical data associated to that reaction information. Now what Im able to do is walk up to a software interface that has all of that information in one place. Traditionally what scientists would have to do after this whole experiment is take data from the analytical software package and data from the reaction and make the associations themselves. That can be quite time-consuming work. We reduced that work practically to zero.

RM: Will software advances mean that scientists dont need all this data-handling training or will it just take a lot of the manual labor of data handling out of the equation?AA: Theres two schools of thought from my perspective. The first is that you build tightly integrated monolithic systems. There are certain companies that build these very high-end platforms with perfectly integrated monolithic applications. These are robotics platforms coupled with software, all tightly integrated. While those are great and, in that paradigm, you see less data engineering, because these are monoliths, theyre not modular.

Theres a consequence; if the scientific experiment youre performing doesnt fit into the platform, it wont be supported by the platform. Ill give you an example to illustrate the point. Say you had a type of chemistry that required a pressure level that the platform couldnt support. Now youre relegated back to doing the fume hood chemistry that you would do traditionally. Your platform doesnt support it. The breadth of experiments that you can perform with those monolithic platforms is limited. The analogy I like to say is that its like you have a house and all you want to do is move the couch, but you have to rebuild the house to do so. In these examples the monoliths, while they are efficient for the intended scope, if the scope changes its very difficult.

Another trend we see is modular automation. If you need to change a particular element or a unit operation in your automated process, there are plenty of options for that particular unit. Its the data integration that becomes a burden.

What we try to do is offer an ability to integrate or change different components of the platform using software and integration tools to reduce the risk of creating monoliths in a platform, make them modular a priori. You do that with effective software integration. Your data gets integrated. As opposed to doing hard code like building software that operates equipment in a monolith, were effectively using the software that exists in the modular component and providing instruction lists between them. That instruction list can be human-delivered or software-delivered. It depends on the modular components application programming interface and what it can receive and support, etc.

The point is: I dont think youll ever have to completely not understand data engineering because of that need for modularity. We certainly want to reduce the burden of manual transcription between systems, but we would facilitate either an automated or very convenient and efficient mechanism by which you can translate information, by virtue of automatically reformatting data. If we can reformat that data using software, it greatly reduces the burden on a scientist to transcribe information from one system to another.

RM: Do you have any other advice for new chemists coming into a field which has changed so rapidly in the last five years?AA: I would say that the more you have experience in dealing with predictive applications, certainly that is an important skill set to acquire. The second thing is being able to deal with data using some of the more modern data processing and analysis tools is also equally important. Finally, from my perspective, because were talking about high throughput and parallel, I cant help but think that a good understanding of statistics is an important skill set to acquire. The reason being that if you have access to highly scalable reaction equipment, the ability to assure that youre conducting an effective statistical design of experiment, so that you capture as many variables as possible with the minimum set of experiments, thats a really important knowledge set to have because if you can execute 1536 experience in parallel, its probably a good idea to maximize the amount of information youll glean from those 1536 experiments. One way to do that is to utilize statistical design of experiment math. I think thats an important thing to be aware of. By the way, a lot of AI and a lot of machine learning, a lot of those statistics that you can get double the benefit not just in your experiment design but also in the way you analyze data.

Andrew Anderson was speaking to Ruairi J Mackenzie, Science Writer for Technology Networks

Polymers get caught up in love-hate chemistry of oil and water – Mirage News

Posted on February 27, 2020 by Danzig

Without the knowledge of interfacial chemistry, however, creating functional bilayers from natural or synthetic molecules involves a certain degree of mystery. Chemical species interacting in a beaker of solution may or may not form analogous membranes with selective properties, such as the capability to store or filter sensory impulses that make up the nondigital language of neuromorphic computing.

To be able to train molecules for specific purposes and unlock new functionalities, we need to understand what is happening on a molecular level during self-assembly, Collier said.

For the experiment, researchers chose an oligomer, a small polymer variant with a similar structure to natural lipids, and used surface spectroscopy methods to probe the molecular monolayer one side of a bilayer formed between water and oil.

The ORNL team is one of only a few groups that has probed the liquid-liquid interface, an important area of research, but understudied because of technical challenges.

Our goal was to investigate how the asymmetry at the oil-water interface causes species to adsorb differently, to pack and order into a functional design, Doughty said.

The studied oligomer is an amphiphilic molecule, meaning parts of its structure are hydrophobic while others are hydrophilic. When samples stabilized in oil are introduced into a water-based solution, the molecules self-assemble in response to their mixed attraction and repulsion to water.

Like goes to like the oligomers slightly charged polar heads want to be in the water phase, which is also polar, and the nonpolar tails want to be in the oil phase, which is not.

Being able to observe in real time how these molecules arrange at a varied interface is a broadly applicable fundamental scientific accomplishment, Doughty said.

As shown in the animation, the charged oligomer heads home in on the water phase; but the flexible tails coil up in the oil when they have room to spare, or tighten to accommodate neighbors as the interface becomes crowded.

We discovered that adjusting the ions, or charged particles, in the water phase aided in the formation of well-defined interfaces, with oligomers taking on more tightly coiled structures, Doughty said.

Too few ions and the tails spread out loosely, leaving gaps; too many, and they squeeze in, ballooning from the surface.

The findings point to approaches for modifying the size and shape of monolayers, and at the next stage enabling bilayers with asymmetrical designs, just like natural lipids, Collier said. The work brings us a step closer to unlocking new potentials in biomaterials.

Tailoring surfaces on a molecular level to design new materials opens possibilities not only for biocomputing but also broadly for chemical separations, sensing and detection.

Observing the liquid-liquid interface helps us understand the chemistry that drives all of these technologies, said Doughty.

The journal article is published as Insight into the Mechanisms Driving the Self-Assembly of Functional Interfaces: Moving from Lipids to Charged Amphiphilic Oligomers.

The research was supported by ORNLs Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program. Measurements and materials synthesis performed by collaborators were supported by the DOE Office of Science and the National Science Foundation. A portion of the research was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences.

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Polymers get caught up in love-hate chemistry of oil and water - Mirage News

Chemical Industry’s Nancy Beck Tapped to Lead the Commission that Protects Consumers – Natural Resources Defense Council

Posted on March 7, 2020 by Danzig

The former industry executive has a long history of blocking protections when it comes to harmful substances.

Nancy Beck at the EPA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, November 1, 2017

Justin T. Gellerson/The New York Times/Redux

President Trump has nominated Nancy Beck, a former chemical industry official, to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), an independent federal agency tasked with protecting the public from the same toxic chemicals Beck has long defended, alongside more than 15,000 other regulated products.

Nancy Beck is a one-woman wrecking ball when it comes to protections from toxic chemicals in our food, water, and household products, says Daniel Rosenberg, the director of federal toxics policy at NRDC.

Beck, who currently serves as one of the lead political appointees for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys toxics office, has faced continual criticism over decisions that ignore science and prop up harmful substances,like asbestos and methylene chloride.Beck has driven the EPAs toxics office into a ditch, Rosenberg says. Shes rewritten rules and imposed policy decisions that make people less safethe exact opposite of what the public trusts her to do.

A federal court has in fact overturned a key Beck decision:a move that wouldve allowed the EPA to ignore the health impacts from lead and asbestos exposure.

Workers in hazmat gear clean asbestos-laden debris from a burnt home. Beck has tried to downplay the danger of asbestos exposure.

Jim Wilson/The New York Times/Redux

Recently, Beck was designated the administrations point person for responding to the crisis posed by PFASa class of harmful chemicals that now contaminates everything from our clothing and childrens toys to drinking water and even breast milk.But the administration has been hostile to publicly disclosing the extent of the health risk posed by PFAS. In 2018, the White House went as far as trying tosuppress a government studythat found EPAs current health standard is far too weak. And its response has been grudgingit has done almost nothing to address PFAS that hasnt beenspecifically mandated by Congressor compelled by overwhelming Congressional and public pressure.

The stakes are very high for consumers if Beck takes over the CPSC: The seven-year position would allow her to steer the commissions risk assessments toward industry-friendly methodswhat Rosenberg calls her specialtyand undermine state-led actions on PFAS, flame retardants, and other toxic chemicals. She would be poised to reverse the CPSCs planned rulemaking on the use of flame retardants in furniture, childrens products, and mattresses, as well as reverserecently adopted banson multiple phthalates from childrens products.

Confirming Beck would bring consumers seven years of bad luck and zero protection, says Rosenberg. If Congress cares about public healthand childrens safetydefeating this nomination is absolutely critical.

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Chemical Industry's Nancy Beck Tapped to Lead the Commission that Protects Consumers - Natural Resources Defense Council

Ellie Knaggs and tetrahedral carbon | Article – Chemistry World

Posted on January 20, 2020 by Danzig

Carbons tetrahedral bonding is a central pillar of modern chemistry, yet the first person to see it in organic molecules using x-ray crystallography is barely known to many chemists. In 1929, Isabel Ellie Knaggs published her x-ray derived structure of pentaerythritol tetraacetate, correctly interpreting the shape bonds around the atom at its centre took on.1

But thats not how history has recorded things. Instead, an International Union of Crystallography newsletter gave the credit to Japanese chemist Isamu Nitta for using x-ray crystallography to confirm the anticipated tetrahedral coordination in methane derivatives.

Nitta and Knaggs had pursued the question separately in the 1920s and 1930s, according to Bart Kahr of New York University in the US. Knaggs confirmed the tetrahedral shape first and more completely, Kahr believes. She went further in trying to place the side chains attached to the carbon atom, and proposing atomic models, he wrote in the paper where he first highlighted Knaggs claim.2

Seeing tetrahedral carbon in an x-ray structure was a big result

Kahr explains that Knaggs success came because she paid close attention to prior findings. By the time Knaggs did her work, the tetrahedral coordination of carbon had been established beyond a shadow of a doubt by Emil Fischer and many others, he says. Her work was more like icing on the cake. Seeing it in an x-ray structure was a big result, more for x-ray crystallography than for structural chemistry I would say.

Ellie Knaggs was born in 1893 in Durban, South Africa, where her English father had moved to relieve his suspected tuberculosis symptoms, Knaggs niece Elaine Mayer explains. Ellie and her sister Marjorie, Mayers mother, moved to England to live with their grandfather and his wealthy fourth wife after their mother died in childbirth. Their new guardians really were ahead of their time in terms of education, says Mayer.

The Knaggs girls attended the North London Collegiate School, where mathematician Sophie Bryant was head. Bryant would have been a striking role model. She the first woman to receive a first class honours Bachelor of Science degree and the first to receive a Doctor of Science degree in Britain and among the first women to own a bicycle. Riding in Bryants tyretracks, Ellie Knaggs studied chemistry at Girton College, not then a full part of the University of Cambridge. At the time, female students could study and sit the university exams but still not receive a degree. She would graduate with a PhD from Imperial College London in 1923, beginning the scientific adventure she would continue throughout her professional life.

Knaggs immediately joined William Henry Bragg at the DavyFaraday Laboratory of the Royal Institution. Her application form can still be found in the Royal Institution archives. It specifically says that her three day-a-week research project would build on her PhD work producing crystal structures of carbon compounds with the formula CX4. But many of Knaggs studies would also involve potentially explosive nitrogen-rich materials possibly related to what Mayer calls her secret war work. For example, she is probably best known for discovering that the azide groups in cyanuric triazide are linear.3

Crystallography entails a great deal of mathematical analysis, nowadays performed by computers. In Knaggs time, it involved analysing spots formed on photographic films by x-rays diffracting off atoms in crystalline materials. To interpret chemical structure information from the spots positions requires very difficult calculations. In their efforts to output the right structures, scientists need to work out which formulae to apply. The choice depends on the symmetry in the crystal, which in Knaggs time was usually only partly known, or completely unknown. Successful results therefore depended on choosing molecules that offered some kind of clue and then getting their symmetry right.

Knaggs work was the first unequivocal statement derived from x-ray data that a methane derivative has tetrahedral coordination

Knaggs knew that Bragg and his son Lawrence had determined that diamond comprises a tetrahedral carbon framework in 1913. Yet the idea that carbon atoms in discrete molecules were also tetrahedral, although widely accepted, had not been confirmed with x-rays. In 1925, Knaggs tackled the molecular carbon question in the explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate. Her calculations only produced reasonable structures if the central carbons bonds were arranged tetrahedrally.

Studying pentaerythritol tetraacetate, Knaggs also found a tetrahedral arrangement , first communicating her results in a private communication to the Council of Girton College in May 1927. In 1928 a German group published a pyramidal structure for pentaerythritol tetraacetate. In rebutting them in a Nature paper before publishing her full structure Knaggs asserts that the carbon atom plays the part expected of it, meaning it was tetrahedral.4 She makes the first unequivocal statement derived from x-ray data that a methane derivative has tetrahedral coordination as far as I am aware, Kahr writes.

Yet when T H Goodwin and R Hardy from the University of Manchester returned to refine Knaggs preliminary model in 1938 they were dismissive.5 Acknowledging that she had corrected the previously published space group for the crystal, they wrote that no good purpose would be served by discussing her molecular structure. Kahr thinks that this is hardly sporting, as x-ray diffraction was a fast-moving field and much had changed in 10 ten years. Denigrating someone elses work to elevate your own is a strategy that should not stand up to scrutiny, Kahr adds. The collective dismissal of the work of Ellie Knaggs succeeded.

Nitta, meanwhile, published work on pentaerythritols crystal structure in 1926.6 But he didnt commit to whether its central atom is tetrahedral or not. Instead, he partly follows the lead of previous scientists who had suggested an incorrect symmetry for pentaerythritols crystals. He uses his own data to narrow down the symmetry to just two options. But he concludes that these data may not be sufficient to decide upon the symmetry that would yield a tetrahedral structure.

In the influential textbook Fifty Years of X-ray Diffraction, however, Nitta gives a different impression. Going by the shape of pentaerythritol crystals, he writes, he chose a symmetry which enabled the central carbon atom of the molecule to conform with the tetrahedral distribution. Looking back at Nittas papers, Kahr discovered that he hadnt actually decided on the right symmetry until 1937.7 In that paper Nitta writes that there is no other x-ray investigation yet imparted which confirms the presence of tetrahedral carbon atoms in organic crystals, overlooking Knaggs work.

Her absence in the discussion is conspicuous

Research from Geoff and Marelene Rayner-Canham from Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, made Kahr aware of Knaggs contributions. The Rayner-Canhams have reconstructed womens roles in the early years of x-ray crystallography. In their book Chemistry Was Their Life, the Rayner-Canhams cite crystallographer Helen Megaw, another Girton College alumna, who wrote an obituary for Knaggs in 1981. Megaw described Knaggs as a kind and gentle person, rather shy. She attended scientific meetings, but did not put herself forward, Megaw says.

Mayer agrees that Knaggs was definitely not an extrovert. Among many fond family recollections, she proudly remembers going to a Royal Institution public lecture with her aunt as a child. Mayer moved to Sydney, Australia, in 1954 and Knaggs would ultimately follow in 1977, when she started showing signs of dementia. My sense is that Aunt would have been deeply disappointed and angered but not surprised, by Nittas actions, she says. Perhaps she did not even know the full extent of the scientific theft. Above all she would be protective of her rare position and privilege in working at the RI, which was her life and which sh
e had earned all on her own and against the odds.

Meanwhile, Kahr suspects that Nitta was aware of Knaggs findings, but found them inconvenient. Her absence in his discussion is conspicuous, Kahr says. Gracious authors dont write as he did. Science is a shared practice.

Andy Extance is a science writer based in Exeter, UK

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Ellie Knaggs and tetrahedral carbon | Article - Chemistry World

2020 Benjamin Franklin Medals in Physics and Chemistry Awarded to APS Fellows – Physics

Posted on February 5, 2020 by Danzig

Car and Parrinello are known for their invention of a method for mapping and predicting the behavior of atoms in motion, known as the Car-Parrinello method. Their original paper detailing this technique, which is a powerful tool for studying chemical structures with applications in both physics and chemistry, was published in Physical Review Letters and is one of the journal's most highly cited papers.

Kapteyn and Murnane, a husband-and-wife research team, are awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics for their groundbreaking research on lasers and light and their contributions to the field of coherent ultra-fast x-ray laser light sources. Their research has led to numerous applications in science, from imaging to energy-efficient electronics.

Laureates will receive their medals and a cash prize of $250,000 each at a ceremony on April 30, 2020, at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. The Franklin Institute of Philadelphia was founded in 1824 to honor the legacy of Benjamin Franklin. The 2020 recipients of Benjamin Franklin Medals join other notable scientists and inventors including Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Jane Goodall, and Bill Gates.

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2020 Benjamin Franklin Medals in Physics and Chemistry Awarded to APS Fellows - Physics

Sixers’ starting five already showing incredible chemistry with badass emojis – NBCSports.com

Posted on October 30, 2019 by Danzig

In a backup center, the Sixers could do a lot worse than Al Horford. The 13-year veteran is an improvement across the board over the Sixers backup fives last season.

His pick-and-roll defense is one of the most valuable ways in which hes an upgrade. We got some insight from Horford on how he and the Sixers approach pick-and-roll defense, and we already have plenty of evidence how Horford helps in that area.

The Sixers have a variety of pick-and-roll coverages in their back pocket, but Horford explained their core principles in simple terms.

I think the biggest thing is just communicating, making sure that its the big man, the ones who are looking at everything and communicating to the guards, Horford told NBC Sports Philadelphia before the teams preseason finale. And then once we alert them, its important for the guards to be able to get up onto the ball and force the ball off the screen.

The aggressive objective of forcing the ball off the screen is often difficult to achieve. Matisse Thybulle does it well on the play below, with the help of early communication from Horford, stepping on top of Robert Williams screen and staying attached to Kemba Walker.

When the guard falls a half step behind in his effort to fight over the screen, the Sixers encourage rearview contests. Though Luke Kennard gets in front of Thybulle, the rookie effectively makes his presence felt from behind.

On both of the plays above, Horford drops into what assistant coach Ime Udoka calls center field, which still seems to be at the heart of the teams pick-and-roll coverage. When watching Horford defend the pick-and-roll, you notice his nuanced sense for how far to drop and when to do so.

The more familiar you get with different guys throughout the league, you know their tendencies, he said. Weve watched a lot of film and I have a good sense of how far I need to be up, how much I need to be back. Usuallycoaches do a good job of preparing us and letting us know. But its just a feel in the game. Its kind of to your discretion.

In the play below from the Sixers game against the Pistons, Ben Simmons is buried by Thon Makers screen. Horford drops a few steps into the paint initially in response to Simmonsfalling out of the play, but its not a panicked backpedal. He maintains his balance and doesnt give up more ground than he has to, tightly contesting Tony Snells runner.

This next example is similar to one that hurt the Sixers on many occasions last season, with the guard James Ennis, this case falling out of the play and allowing the ball handler an open mid-range jumper.

The subtle difference, however, is Horford has the skill in those spots to at least contest Brad Wanamakers shot, even if he cant truly put a hand in his face. Its the best Horford can do in this situation when the guard badly loses the first battle.

When Horford drops back into center field, his main goal is frequently just to buy his guard some time to recover. He gives Josh Richardson a chance to make an excellent rearview block on Gordon Hayward here, at first stepping up above the foul line to deter Hayward, then falling back to take Daniel Theis on the roll whenRichardson has worked his way back into the picture.

The result of a Sixers guard being soundly beaten by a ball screen is typically a 2-on-1 for theopponent, at least temporarily. Horford is strong at coping when such a moment occurs.

He positions himself in the right spot during the sequence below, staying in front of Tim Frazier while simultaneously blocking Andre Drummonds path for a roll to the rim. Drummond catching the ball nine or 10 feet from the hoop with Horford on top of him does not pose a serious threat to the Sixers.

Two-on-ones are, of course, not ideal for the defense. Frazier accelerates off Drummonds screen here, which seems to catch Richardson by surprise, and Drummond rolls hard to the rim. Fouling a career 54 percent free throw shooter is not the worst result for the Sixers, given the circumstances.

Udoka has notedhe thinks highly of Horford and Embiids ability to switch, but Horford was clear in saying thats not the heart of the Sixers approach.

I think that to our preference, we probably want to keep our matchups, even though we can switch at least thats what Coach has expressed to us., he said. Well do it how he wants us to do it, and if for some reason we need to make adjustments throughout the game, we will.

Horfords defense at the end of the first half of the Sixers regular-season opener shows why the team is confident in him switching. He comes up high on a pick-and-roll between Walker and Marcus Smart, thenthe Sixers make the late call to switch. Hoforfd does a decent job hanging with the three-time All-Star, and it sure helps to have Embiid behind him in the paint.

Having the foot speed not to get obliterated on a switch, knowing how to survive in the second or two when his guard is out of the play, using fouls in the appropriate moments none of these are flashy qualities. They're all skills Horford possesses, though, and reasonsthe Sixers can feel good about asking their guards to defend pick-and-rolls aggressively.

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La Salle coach: Dayton might be one of the best teams in the country – Dayton Daily News

Posted on January 9, 2020 by Danzig

PHILADELPHIA

About 200 fans of the Dayton Flyers visited Tom Gola Arena on Thursday night. They were brave souls. Their team had lost four straight games at La Salle.

PHOTOS:Flyers vs. Explorers

Good Dayton teams had lost to average or poor La Salle teams. For whatever reason, La Salle had Daytons number in Philadelphia at least until the first game of 2020.

La Salle (9-4) entered the game with three losses to Penn, Temple and Villanova by a combined 32 points. Dayton beat the Explorers84-58. It was La Salles worst loss since a 77-39 defeat at UD on Senior Night last March.

All credit goes to Dayton, said second-year La Salle coach Ashley Howard. Theyre a really good team. Great chemistry. They play with great pace. Until you see it live, you dont really get a feel for it. Its hard to simulate. We had some scoring issues early in the game that really just affected our fight. I just felt like midway through the first half, we lost our fight once we couldnt generate easy offense, and thats all Dayton.

La Salle trailed 14-12 when Dayton began a 6-0 run. After one basket by La Salle, Dayton then ran off 18 straight points.

They do a great job, Howard said. They communicate at a high level. They have great interchangeable people. Its not just Obi Toppin. Its (Ryan) Mikesell, Trey Landers, (Jalen) Crutcher, Ibi Watson. Those guys are big-time players, and theyre confident and theyve got a good thing going right now. Theyre a great representation of the Atlantic 10.

BIG RUN:Examining Daytons 18-0 spurt in first half

Howard called the game a reality check for his team. La Salle has two top-150 victories, judging by the Ken Pomeroy ratings: 75-64 against No. 141 Murray State and 72-70 against No. 112 Wright State.

We played some opponents that were not at the same level as the Atlantic 10, Howard said. We won those games. I was afraid that we may get a little overconfident and a false sense of where we are. Today put us right back in check to understand we won these games and now we have a lot of work to keep getting better, and Dayton is really good. They might be one of the best teams in the country. They played like it tonight.

Looking ahead: Dayton ended a four-game losing streak at Tom Gola Arena and will try to end a nine-game skid at Saint Josephs on Sunday. The Flyers play the Hawks at Hagan Arena at 1 p.m. Saint Josephs (3-10) lost 84-52 at Richmond in its A-10 opener Thursday.

DECADE IN REVIEW:Best and worst of UD basketball

Philly stay: Dayton practiced at Tom Gola Arena after arriving in Philadelphia on Wednesday. Then on Thursday, they held a morning shootaround across the river in New Jersey on the campus of Rutgers-Camden.

Rising Flyers: Dayton moved from No. 9 to No. 8 in the Pomeroy ratings. Its the highest the program has ever been ranked since the ratings were first published in 2002.

Around the A-10: Duquesne (11-2) beat Saint Louis 73-59 in Pittsburgh on Thursday. Marcus Weathers scored 26 points for the Dukes. The Billikens (11-3) faded after cutting the deficit to four points with under six minutes to play.

Preseason favorite Virginia Commonwealth opened conference play with a 64-46 victory at home against Fordham (6-7). MikeL Simms scored 14.

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Professor/Associate Professor/Assistant Professor (Water/Wastewater Chemistry) job with CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG | 192179 – Times Higher Education…

Posted on January 13, 2020 by Danzig

Professor/Associate Professor/Assistant Professor (Water/Wastewater Chemistry) in the School of Energy and Environment[Ref. D/131/09]

City University of Hong Kong is a dynamic, fast-growing university that is pursuing excellence in research and professional education.As a publicly-funded institution, the University is committed to nurturing and developing students talents and creating applicable knowledge to support social and economic advancement. The University has nine Colleges/Schools. As part of its pursuit of excellence, the University aims to recruitoutstanding scholarsfrom all over the world in various disciplines, includingbusiness, creative media, data science, energy and environment, engineering, humanities and social sciences, law, science, veterinary medicine and life sciences.

Applications and nominations are invited for the above posts:

The School of Energy and Environment was established at City University of Hong Kong in July 2009 with the mission to perform cutting-edge research and provide professional education in energy-and environment-related issues. It is the first and only such School in Hong Kong and one of the few in Asia. The School has experienced tremendous growth over its ten years. For details of the School, please visit the website athttp://www.cityu.edu.hk/see.

The School is currently seeking outstanding candidates to submit applications for faculty positions in the following core areas: water or wastewater chemistry. This position is part of the strategic development of the School to strengthen research and education related to aquatic environments. The School welcomes research that involves field observation, laboratory experimentation and/or theoretical modeling. The successful candidate is expected to develop a vigorous, externally-funded research programme and provide excellence in teaching at all levels. The School collaborates with the State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution (http://www6.cityu.edu.hk/sklmp/sklmp_en/index.asp) to pursue interdisciplinary water related research; candidates should be able to complement existing expertise both within and outside the School.

Applications and nominations are invited for the above posts:

Duties

Teach at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, supervise research students at master and doctoral levels, conduct high-level research, develop new research directions and courses when necessary, and contribute creatively and professionally in the School, and for the benefit of the community and industry. The appointees will also be assigned to take up administrative duties to facilitate the development of the activities of the School.

Requirements

A PhD in closely-related disciplines with a strong research record in terms of grants, publications and patents, and good teaching ability.

Candidates for Associate Professor should have a number of high-impact publications and grants, and a demonstrated ability/potential to develop a research area on their own.

Candidates for Professor should have outstanding research and international reputation.

Information and Application

Information on the posts and the University is available athttp://www.cityu.edu.hk, or from the Human Resources Office, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong [Email :hrojob@cityu.edu.hk/Fax : 2788 1154 or 3442 0311]. Further information can be obtained from the School of Energy and Environment [Email :seedean@cityu.edu.hk/Fax : 3442 0688].

To apply, please submit an online application athttp://jobs.cityu.edu.hk, and include a cover letter, with the curriculum vitae, a detailed research plan (3 pages maximum), a teaching philosophy statement and plan (2 pages maximum), as well as a list of three referees. Nominations can be sent directly to the School of Energy and Environment [Email :seedean@cityu.edu.hk].The review process will continue until the position is filled. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted; and those shortlisted for the post of Assistant Professor will be requested to arrange for at least 3 reference reports sent directly by the referees to the School, specifying the position applied for. The University's privacy policy is available on the homepage.

City University of Hong Kong is an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to the principle of diversity. Personal data provided by applicants will be used for recruitment and other employment-related purposes.

Worldwide recognition ranking 52nd, and 4th among top 50 universities under age 50 (QS survey 2020); 1st in Engineering/Technology/Computer Sciences in Hong Kong (ARWU survey 2016); and 2nd Business School in Asia-Pacific region (UT Dallas survey 2017).

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Professor/Associate Professor/Assistant Professor (Water/Wastewater Chemistry) job with CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG | 192179 - Times Higher Education...

Chemist – Wikipedia

Posted on March 7, 2019 by Danzig

A chemist (from Greek chm (a) alchemy; replacing chemist from Medieval Latin alchimista[1]) is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms. Chemists carefully measure substance proportions, reaction rates, and other chemical properties. The word 'chemist' is also used to address Pharmacists in Commonwealth English.

Chemists use this knowledge to learn the composition and properties of unfamiliar substances, as well as to reproduce and synthesize large quantities of useful naturally occurring substances and create new artificial substances and useful processes. Chemists may specialize in any number of subdisciplines of chemistry. Materials scientists and metallurgists share much of the same education and skills with chemists. The work of chemists is often related to the work of chemical engineers, who are primarily concerned with the proper design, construction and evaluation of the most cost-effective large-scale chemical plants and work closely with industrial chemists on the development of new processes and methods for the commercial-scale manufacture of chemicals and related products.

The roots of chemistry can be traced to the phenomenon of burning. Fire was a mystical force that transformed one substance into another and thus was of primary interest to mankind. It was fire that led to the discovery of iron and glasses. After gold was discovered and became a precious metal, many people were interested to find a method that could convert other substances into gold. This led to the protoscience called alchemy. The word chemist is derived from the New Latin noun chimista, an abbreviation of alchimista (alchemist). Alchemists discovered many chemical processes that led to the development of modern chemistry. Chemistry as we know it today, was invented by Antoine Lavoisier with his law of conservation of mass in 1783. The discoveries of the chemical elements has a long history culminating in the creation of the periodic table by Dmitri Mendeleev. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry created in 1901 gives an excellent overview of chemical discovery since the start of the 20th century.

Jobs for chemists usually require at least a bachelor's degree, but many positions, especially those in research, require a Master of Science or a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.). Most undergraduate programs emphasize mathematics and physics as well as chemistry, partly because chemistry is also known as "the central science", thus chemists ought to have a well-rounded knowledge about science. At the Master's level and higher, students tend to specialize in a particular field. Fields of specialization include biochemistry, nuclear chemistry, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, polymer chemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, theoretical chemistry, quantum chemistry, environmental chemistry, and thermochemistry. Postdoctoral experience may be required for certain positions.

Workers whose work involves chemistry, but not at a complexity requiring an education with a chemistry degree, are commonly referred to as chemical technicians. Such technicians commonly do such work as simpler, routine analyses for quality control or in clinical laboratories, having an associate degree. A chemical technologist has more education or experience than a chemical technician but less than a chemist, often having a bachelor's degree in a different field of science with also an associate degree in chemistry (or many credits related to chemistry) or having the same education as a chemical technician but more experience. There are also degrees specific to become a chemical technologist, which are somewhat distinct from those required when a student is interested in becoming a professional chemist. A Chemical technologist is more involved in the management and operation of the equipment and instrumentation necessary to perform chemical analyzes than a chemical technician. They are part of the team of a chemical laboratory in which the quality of the raw material, intermediate products and finished products is analyzed. They also perform functions in the areas of environmental quality control and the operational phase of a chemical plant.

In addition to all the training usually given to chemical technologists in their respective degree (or one given via an associate degree), a chemist is also trained to understand more details related to chemical phenomena so that the chemist can be capable of more planning on the steps to achieve a distinct goal via a chemistry-related endeavor. The higher the competency level achieved in the field of chemistry (as assessed via a combination of education, experience and personal achievements), the higher the responsibility given to that chemist and the more complicated the task might be. Chemistry, as a field, have so many applications that different tasks and objectives can be given to workers or scientists with these different levels of education or experience. The specific title of each job varies from position to position, depending on factors such as the kind of industry, the routine level of the task, the current needs of a particular enterprise, the size of the enterprise or hiring firm, the philosophy and management principles of the hiring firm, the visibility of the competency and individual achievements of the one seeking employment, economic factors such as recession or economic depression, among other factors, so this makes it difficult to categorize the exact roles of these chemistry-related workers as standard for that given level of education. Because of these factors affecting exact job titles with distinct responsibilities, some chemists might begin doing technician tasks while other chemists might begin doing more complicated tasks than those of a technician, such as tasks that also involve formal applied research, management, or supervision included within the responsibilities of that same job title. The level of supervision given to that chemist also varies in a similar manner, with factors similar to those that affect the tasks demanded for a particular chemist.

It is important that those interested in a Chemistry degree understand the variety of roles available to them (on average), which vary depending on education and job experience. Those Chemists who hold a bachelor's degree are most commonly involved in positions related to either research assistance (working under the guidance of senior chemists in a research-oriented activity), or, alternatively, they may work on distinct (chemistry-related) aspects of a business, organization or enterprise including aspects that involve quality control, quality assurance, manufacturing, production, formulation, inspection, method validation, visitation for troubleshooting of chemistry-related instruments, regulatory affairs, "on-demand" technical services, chemical analysis for non-research purposes (e.g., as a legal request, for testing purposes, or for government or non-profit agencies); chemists may also work in environmental evaluation and assessment. Other jobs or roles may include sales and marketing of chemical products and chemistry-related instruments or technical writing. The more experience obtained, the more independence and leadership or management roles these chemists may perform in those organizations. Some chemists with relatively higher experience might change jobs or job position to become a manager of a chemistry-related enterprise, a supervisor, an entrepreneur or a chemistry consultant. Other chemists choose to combine their education and experience as a chemist with a distinct credential to provide different services (e.g., forensic chemists, chemistry-related software development, patent law specialists, environmental law firm staff, scientific news reporting staff, engineering design staff, etc.).

In comparison, chemists who have obtained a Master of Science (M.S.) in chemistry o
r in a very related discipline may find chemist roles that allow them to enjoy more independence, leadership and responsibility earlier in their careers with less years of experience than those with a bachelor's degree as highest degree. Sometimes, M.S. chemists receive more complex tasks duties in comparison with the roles and positions found by chemists with a bachelor's degree as their highest academic degree and with the same or close-to-same years of job experience. There are positions that are open only to those that at least have a degree related to chemistry at the master's level. Although good chemists without a Ph. D. degree but with relatively many years of experience may be allowed some applied research positions, the general rule is that Ph. D. chemists are preferred for research positions and are typically the preferred choice for the highest administrative positions on big enterprises involved in chemistry-related duties. Some positions, especially research oriented, will only allow those chemists who are Ph. D. holders. Jobs that involve intensive research and actively seek to lead the discovery of completely new chemical compounds under specifically assigned monetary funds and resources or jobs that seek to develop new scientific theories require a Ph. D. more often than not. Chemists with a Ph. D. as the highest academic degree are found typically on the research-and-development department of an enterprise and can also hold university positions as professors. Professors for research universities or for big universities usually have a Ph. D., and some research-oriented institutions might require post-doctoral training. Some smaller colleges (including some smaller four-year colleges or smaller non-research universities for undergraduates) as well as community colleges usually hire chemists with a M.S. as professors too (and rarely, some big universities who need part-time or temporary instructors, or temporary staff), but when the positions are scarce and the applicants are many, they might prefer Ph. D. holders instead.

The three major employers of chemists are academic institutions, industry, especially the chemical industry and the pharmaceutical industry, and government laboratories.

Chemistry typically is divided into several major sub-disciplines. There are also several main cross-disciplinary and more specialized fields of chemistry. There is a great deal of overlap between different branches of chemistry, as well as with other scientific fields such as biology, medicine, physics, radiology, and several engineering disciplines.

All the above major areas of chemistry employ chemists. Other fields where chemical degrees are useful include astrochemistry (and cosmochemistry), atmospheric chemistry, chemical engineering, chemo-informatics, electrochemistry, environmental science, forensic science, geochemistry, green chemistry, history of chemistry, materials science, medical science, molecular biology, molecular genetics, nanotechnology, nuclear chemistry, oenology, organometallic chemistry, petrochemistry, pharmacology, photochemistry, phytochemistry, polymer chemistry, supramolecular chemistry and surface chemistry.

Chemists may belong to professional societies specifically for professionals and researchers within the field of Chemistry, such as the Royal Society of Chemistry in the United Kingdom, or the American Chemical Society (ACS) in the United States.

The highest honor awarded to chemists is the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded since 1901, by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

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Chemist - Wikipedia

Bioanalytical Chemist is Inventing New DNA-based Probes – UMass News and Media Relations

Posted on October 30, 2019 by Danzig

Assistant professor Mingxu You, chemistry, recently received a five-year, $1.9 million NIH Maximizing Investigators Research Award (MIRA) to fund his research in developing new tools DNA-based probes to quantify intercellular mechanical forces and understand a variety of mechano-sensitive cell signaling events at the molecular level.

As he explains, intercellular forces are critical regulators in many physiological and pathological processes, but scientists have until recently lacked the tools and approaches to characterize these mechanical events. It is a whole new way to understand growth, division, intercellular motion and interaction, You says.

Cells are usually touching each other or a substrate, pushing and pulling each other to work together as a tissue, an organ and at the whole body level, he adds. But these forces are so tiny and ever-changing, it is very hard to see how cells are physically communicating with each other, for example, during development, cell differentiation, normal physiological and various disease processes.

The You Lab, which includes postdoctoral researcher Bin Zhao and chemistry Ph.D. students Yousef Baheri and Puspam Keshri, will team with biologists Barbara Osborne and Tom Maresca, Lisa Minter of veterinary and animal sciences and Yubing Sun, mechanical and industrial engineering, to further develop these DNA-based tools to visualize, monitor and quantify such cellular forces.

You says, In the near future, people will be able to apply these tools broadly to depict the basic principles of tissue morphogenesis, growth, and homeostasis. They will serve as a critical foundation for developing novel strategies in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, immunotherapy and cancer treatment.

Specifically, You says, We are interested in the Notch signaling pathway. Its widely conserved in most cells and organisms, very common to find, and its interesting because its really simple. There are only five Notch ligands and four Notch receptors but they regulate quite a diverse range of downstream functions, he adds.

Characteristics of Notch receptor-ligand expression vary in different physical environments, You says. Even though they are similar they can have very different effects, including opposite ones like tumor promoting or tumor reducing. Cells need force to activate the Notch pathway and we want to know how the different stress levels how strong the mechanical forces need to be to contribute to tumor growth or reduction. Using this new probe we can tell which protein ligand-receptor pair contributes to a particular intercellular force.

You says he learned about the force measurement challenge when he came to campus in 2016 and asked his friend, mechanical engineer Sun, to name an area in the emerging field of mechano-biology that needed attention. At the time, I had a system already developed that I used to modify DNA-lipid probe onto the cell membrane, and we realized we might be able to design a DNA structure to probe and detect intercellular forces, he notes.

DNA was a good candidate for the probe, he adds, because investigators can control its folding and hybridization, the sequence of nucleotides, very precisely. Also, we can control not only the structure but the dynamics, which in this case refers to zipping together and unzipping of the DNA. Once you have the probe, you can detect a distance-sensitive reaction between fluorophore, a dye, and a quencher that can suppress the fluorescence signal.

You can see this dye-labeled DNA directly under a fluorescence microscope, he explains. For some experiments we want to know just whether there is a force or not, but for others, we want to actually quantify the strength. We are now developing probes for both purposes.

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Bioanalytical Chemist is Inventing New DNA-based Probes - UMass News and Media Relations

The art of construction: Chemistry lab takes center stage in an artist’s exhibition – MIT News

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Fredricko

From many perspectives, a construction site represents a headache an area in flux, hovering between functional and unusable, a source of financial and emotional stress. When will the work be completed? When can the area return to its finished state? And will it be done by the estimated, yet counted upon deadline, for the estimated, yet counted upon budget? To perceive a space mid-renovation in any other way to take it even further and actually be inspired, as opposed to daunted requires a truly unique vision. Angel Chen MS '17, a recent masters degree recipient from MITs Program in Art, Culture, and Technology (ACT), not only possesses that vision, but defines it.

Chen, who received her bachelors degree in philosophy and computer science from McGill University in 2009, came to MIT in 2015, and made quite an impact over the course of her time in ACT. The 2017 second-place recipient of MITs Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize in the Visual Arts, Chens art practice at MIT has revolved around understanding complex and technical systems. [ACT] supports my background and interest very well because it encourages experiments in new modes of relating a critical art practice to culture and to technology, she explains.

When it came time to execute her thesis work, Chen set off in search of a construction site on campus to stage an art installation. She pitched her idea to create an artwork that would explore the connection between building construction and nanoscale fabrication to Dick Amster, MITs director of campus construction. Amster then put her in touch with Janis Burke, manager of the Institutes Committee for Renovation and Space Planning, who introduced Chen to four project managers and their respective renovation projects on campus.

One of the projects in contention was the renovation of Department of Chemistry laboratory spaces on the fourth and and fifth floors of Building 18, overseen by campus construction project manager Meredith Fydenkevez. Fydenkevez was assisted by project coordinators Julie Azzinaro and Mike Morizio. Members of the project team also included Department of Chemistrys administrative officer Richard Wilk and facilities administrator Brian Pretti. Columbia Construction Company was represented by project manager Mike Ausevich, assistant project manager Sarah Neff and field superintendent Erik Julio.

Chen presented her idea to the project team, and they determined the project could accommodate her request to utilize the space during construction. Department of Chemistrys senior administrative assistant Emrick Elias assisted by providing Chen daily access to the space, with construction beginning in May. The spaces will soon belong to Professor Laura L. Kiessling, and in order to accommodate her research group, they had to undergo a few changes. When Chen first viewed the fourth floor space in April, prior to the start of any construction, she was immediately drawn to it. I was initially attracted to quality of the natural light I experience walking down the hallway. It makes you want to believe in something, or at least be hopeful for something, she said.

Chen also discovered a meaningful connection to the building as a whole: My ACT studio is in an I.M. Pei building from 1985, and Building 18 is also designed by I.M. Pei, but in 1967. 1967 is also the year my program's predecessor, Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS), was created. Going in between these spaces inspired me to reflect on how artists and scientists came together to collaborate at different times in the history of the Institute. Having landed on the perfect location, Chen began production on the art installation, entitled Looking for Space: Arriving at a Laboratory Under Construction.

From April 18 through May 23, Chen was a daily fixture in the fourth floor construction site, arriving at various times of day, staying for intermittent amounts of time, and absorbing the environment as a whole as well as the minutiae that made up the space. Every little interaction was very meaningful to me, she says. All the interactions together make up one very memorable and impactful moment. I did really enjoy being surprised by what would happen at any given day running into people at the elevator, Brian and Meredith bringing me a MIT hardhat with my name on it, and the quiet but continuous alarm sound the cold room made when it was put to rest.

Ultimately, Chens project evolved into more than what she had originally intended; it became not only a place for an art installation, a site in transition/in flux/in limbo to be witnessed and photographed, but also a nest of sorts. Chen described the spaces evolution from her expectation to the ultimate result in the description of her installation as a place to spend time in, to reflect on my position as an art student. By forming this nest, through every day interacting, observing, and learning, I encountered specific people, procedures, processes, traces, gossip and memories that together make up this place.

On May 22, Chen opened the installation for her fellow ACT classmates, as well as professors both from MIT and beyond, as a public display of her thesis work. Groups donned hard hats and walked through the renovation that had become Chens nest, observing the items she had carefully arranged amidst the chaos, dust, and debris of an ongoing construction zone. Chens goal for the scene was to instigate a different way of thinking. My intention was to create a space that really urges people to look at a lab space differently, regardless of where they are coming from, through paying attention to different materials, to placements of objects, through trying to discern which things have been brought in by me from my studio, and through noticing traces of time as demonstrated by marks left by many different people, machines, and processes. That the lab is under renovation means that certain aspects electrical outlets, walls are quite literally open, adding to the mix of materials.

The exhibit was a multifaceted success, for Chen, for the Department of Chemistry, and for all who had the privilege of experiencing it firsthand. This project, Chen muses, experimental in nature, has given me an incredible opportunity to develop artistic research and exhibition-making methods that I will take with me and continue to refine for years to come. Chens work has inspired a thoughtfulness among those who work in Building 18. It has promoted the notion that the space that is experienced on a daily basis can be easily taken for granted. Moments are finite, and the lab renovation on the fourth floor of Building 18 will soon be complete, but Chens artistic vision helped to instigate an appreciation for the fleeting passage of time, and all of the tiny elements that make up an average day.

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The art of construction: Chemistry lab takes center stage in an artist's exhibition - MIT News

Eagles: Chemistry between Wentz and Jeffery will be key against Redskins – Inside the Iggles

Posted on September 7, 2017 by Danzig

The chemistry between Carson Wentz and Alshon Jeffery will be a determining factor in the Eagles week one contest with the Redskins.

Its finally here! Meaningful football is just around the corner and there are plenty of storylines to take a look at. The Philadelphia Eagles will travel down I-95 to take on the Washington Redskins, and if they want to walk away with a victory, theyll need big performances from quarterbackCarson Wentz and wide receiverAlshon Jeffery.

If theres one thing that all Eagles fans can agree on, its that the big plays through the air were few and far between last year. A big factor in that lack of production was lack of talent. The best wide receiver on the team was Jordan Matthews who was reliable but didnt really create those splash plays. The lack of big plays allowed teams to cover the shorter underneath routes more, and load the box against the run.

The addition of Jeffery however should help alleviate those concerns. Jeffery is a big bodied receiver who can make plays when Wentz just throws one up for grabs. The two have already created some of that chemistry in practice, but game situations are a whole different story. Even though Jeffery isnt a burner, hes still a legitimate downfield (20+ yards) threat. If the two players are able to grow together during the season, then the offense will really take off.

There is an old saying that goes the best ability is availability. Through the preseason, this certainly didnt apply to Jeffery. He missed significant time during camp and got very limited work in-game action. Now, we all know what he brings to the table as a player, but things are different when players change teams. This is especially true with receivers. They need todeveloptiming and a feel for their quarterbacks. If they are not on the same page, the lapses in communication can lead to turnovers.

Jefferys lack of playing time this preseason is a bit concerning, but it doesnt mean that fans should push the panic button quite yet. He and Wentz still have time to develop that chemistry, but with game one being against a division rival, a lack of chemistry could lead to a rough start.

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There is no doubt that Alshon Jeffery is one of the most talented receivers that the Eagles have had in the last few years. Still, all that talent could be wasted if there isnt a good rapport with Wentz. A division game is a rough way to start the season, but a lack of production in the passing game could make for a long afternoon. If everything is clicking, then this should be a fun game to watch. If not, well, well Philly will have to that bridge when we come to it.

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Eagles: Chemistry between Wentz and Jeffery will be key against Redskins - Inside the Iggles

Chemistry Major | Chemistry | SIU

Posted on January 16, 2019 by Danzig

Main Content Chemistry is all around us

It impacts everything we can see, touch, smell and taste. The programs of the Department will prepare you to understand,investigate and apply the principles of chemistry to a wide variety of careers from the study of the environment, to solving criminal cases, to working in a chemically related business, to using chemistry to understand biological systems and processes, to preparing for a career as a research chemist.

For those wishing to prepare for advanced study in chemistry we offer both Master's and Doctoral Programs in all major fields of Chemistry.

Our faculty provide teaching and research expertise in all major areas of Chemistry

Please Note: Our grateful thanks to Dr and Mrs Victor Garsky who have donated $10,000 to the Department in acknowledgement of the help and guidance given to Dr Garsky by Emeritus Professors Gerard V. Smith and David F. Koster. The gift will be used as financial support for part-time employment of undergraduate students with the expressed goal of giving these students laboratory research experience.

The Department offers weekly seminars by faculty from departments throughout the United States and beyond describing the latest advances in their fields.

Departmental Seminars are held in the Van Lente Auditorium (Neckers 240) at 4:00 pm unless otherwise indicated below.

ProfessorAndrew Ferguson, Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Friday, January 18, 2019

" Machine Learning and Data Science for Understanding and Design in Colloidal Assembly and Protein Folding "

Abstract:Data-driven modeling and machine learning have opened new paradigms and opportunities in the understanding and design of soft and biological materials. The automated discovery of emergent collective variables within high-dimensional computational and experimental data sets provides a means to understand and predict materials behavior and engineer properties and function. I will describe our recent work in the use of two machine learning techniques for collective variable discovery within molecular simulation nonlinear manifold learning using diffusion maps, and nonlinear dimensionality reduction using autoencoding neural networks (autoencoders). First, I will describe our applications of graph matching and diffusion maps to determine low-dimensional assembly landscapes for self-assembling patchy colloids. These landscapes connect colloid architecture and prevailing conditions with emergent assembly behavior, and we use them to perform inverse building block design by rationally sculpting the landscape to engineer the stability and accessibility of desired aggregates. Second, I will describe our use of autoencoders to perform automated discovery of collective variables in protein folding. We interleave deep learning variable discovery and enhanced sampling directly within the discovered variables to perform simultaneous on-the-fly variable discovery and accelerated sampling of protein folding funnels.

Materials Technology Center Seminar Series

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Chemistry Major | Chemistry | SIU

Meghan McCain "Refused a Chemistry Test" Before She Was Hired on ‘The View’ – Decider

Posted on May 22, 2020 by Danzig

Even before Meghan McCain was hired on The View, she refused to follow the shows rules. On Friday, the conservative co-host compared her experience auditioning for The Viewto Joe Biden choosing his vice presidential running mate, a process that has dominated political discourse this week. McCain said that while both the ABC talk show and Bidens camp have relied on chemistry tests to identify potential candidates, the method is ineffective, as anyone can turn on the charm for 20 minutes. In fact, McCain feels so strongly about the fruitless process that she refused a chemistry test before she was hired on The View. In hindsight, that tracks.

Moderator Whoopi Goldberg opened Fridays show with a discussion about Bidens escalating VP search. Joe Biden has been adjusting to campaigning in this crisis by holding virtual events with some of his potential VP picks, like Stacey Abrams, Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar, she explained at the top of the segment. Some people are saying [this] is the Biden Reality Show. Do you think thats the appropriate way to refer to this?

While Sunny Hostin praised Bidens creative and inventive strategy of at-home campaigning, McCain felt otherwise. Im not a big believer in chemistry tests across the board, said the conservative firebrand. I think they can be sort of a short illusion, and anyone can perform really well in a short period of time.

Not to make this about me, but when I was originally offered the job on this show, they wanted to test me with a bunch of the ladies, and I said, No. You see what I can do,' recalled McCain. Fast forward to a few years later, I again refused a chemistry test, and I ended up getting hired anyway. I think vice presidential picks are the exact same way. I think you probably know.

McCain went on to say that Sen. John McCain should have listened to this advice during his 2008 campaign. My father and I know people get very triggered when I talk about him, so just bear with me he chose an unorthodox running mate, and he chose someone that he hadnt had a lot of experience with, she said. In fact, I believe that he had only met Sarah Palin twice before announcing her as his vice presidential pick.

I think in the case of Joe Biden, and in the kind of times were in, he has to go with a person who is going to lead us out of this absolute epidemic, pandemic, generational crisis, said McCain. This sort of beauty queen contest, who can perform the best in front of a camera for 20 minutes, is probably completely ill-suited for this time.

Where to streamThe View

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Meghan McCain "Refused a Chemistry Test" Before She Was Hired on 'The View' - Decider

College of Charleston chemistry professor explains how sunscreen … – Moultrie News

Posted on July 11, 2017 by ev1

Most everyone knows to protect their skin from direct sunlight in the summer. But do you know how sunscreen works and whats actually in the stuff youre lathering all over your skin?

Tim Barker, an assistant professor of organic chemistry at the College of Charleston, answers some questions concerning ingredients in sunscreen and tries to separate the science from the hype.

Heres what he had to say:

Q: What chemicals are used in most sunscreens, and how do they work to protect us from damaging rays and from getting sunburns?

A: Both inorganic and organic chemicals serve as active ingredients in sunscreens. The inorganic compounds, titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, work by reflecting the radiation. The organic chemicals, two examples include avobenzone and oxybenzone, absorb the UV radiation with their chemical bonds before it interacts with the skin.

Q: What are some of the other applications for these same chemicals?

A: Zinc oxide is used in many things, but the most common use is in the vulcanization natural rubber into the rubber found in tires and other materials. Zinc oxide also has antibacterial properties so it has many medicinal uses.

Most of the organic compounds used as active ingredients in sunscreen are also used for sun protection in hair products and cosmetics.

Q: What should someone look for in a sunscreen for maximum protection?

A: It is important to use a sunscreen with active ingredients that protect against UV-A and UV-B rays. Avobenzone (organic) and zinc oxide (inorganic) are the only two active ingredients approved by the FDA and currently in use that protect against UV-A rays. Some studies with avobenzone and other organic chemicals used as active ingredients have suggested that these compounds may be endocrine disruptors. Especially for young children, zinc oxide would be the better active ingredient.

Q: What about sunscreen substitutes? Can natural ingredients whipped up at home provide protection against the sun?

A: The best natural sun protection would be to wear a hat and long sleeves. I would be wary of natural sunscreen ingredients. All natural ingredients are still chemicals.

Q: As a chemistry professor who can read a sunscreen label and actually know what the listed chemicals are, what type of sunscreen do you use?

A: I look for sunscreen with both UVA and UVB protection. Typically it will be SPF50 and contain zinc oxide which protects against UVA and UVB light as well as several other active ingredients.

Q: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating the efficacy and safety of spray-on sunscreens. Why would aerosol sunscreens be of particular concern?

A: When being exposed to a chemical there are different risks associated with the type of exposure. When you use a lotion, absorption through the skin is the main route of exposure. The aerosol sunscreens introduce inhalation as a route of exposure that has not been as well studied as absorption through the skin. If you like aerosol sunscreen, just spray it on your hand to apply it to your face to avoid inhalation.

Q: Have you ever had a bad sunburn? What went wrong?

A: I have gotten a sunburn at the beach when I did not reapply sunscreen after spending a lot of time in the water. The terms waterproof and water-resistant are really just marketing ploys on sunscreen bottles. The FDA has cracked down on the use of waterproof on sunscreen containers and made companies qualify how long a sunscreen is water-resistant since then, but I found out the hard way.

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College of Charleston chemistry professor explains how sunscreen ... - Moultrie News

What’s the Most Toxic Chemical? – Gizmodo

Posted on February 27, 2020 by Danzig

Illustration: Angelica Alzona (Gizmodo)

People say America doesnt make things anymore. But what about toxic chemicals? We make so many of those, we throw half of them in rivers, for free. The problem is, it can be hard to get a handle on which of those chemicals are extremely toxic and which of them are merely somewhat toxic. If one or another shows up in a scan of your stomach, should you freak out or just be grateful it wasnt something worse? For this weeks Giz Asks, we reached out to a number of experts to find out what the most toxic chemical is.

Associate Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health, George Washington University

You may find good agreement on this question but some may disagree. Most any toxicology class I took would say that the most toxic chemical is Botulinum Toxin. Toxicity can be measured in a variety of ways but one popular way is how much it takes to kill 50% of the individuals. We call this LD50 or Lethal Dose for 50% of the individuals. And Botulinum Toxin produced by anaerobic bacteria has a very low LD50. It can be found in spoiled foods that have been sealed off by processes like canning. Ironically, its also the stuff that some pay to have injected into their faces to reduce wrinkles and make us look younger, more commonly known as botox. The botox is a very dilute form of the botulinum toxin that relaxes the smooth muscles around our eyes and forehead to reduce wrinkles.

Adjunct Professor, Environmental Health, Harvard University

Toxicity is traditionally thought of as a result of the substance properties along with the dose plus its duration. As we have begun to identify many serious toxicants, such as lead, mercury, dioxin, and asbestos, it has become obvious what needs to be done to protect people against them. In practice, lead and other poisons have thereby become less toxic, not because they disappear, but because we at least know what to do.

But there is another factor that needs to be emphasized: Whether we know enough to make the call or not. Some industrial chemicals have turned out to be much more toxic than we thought, in part because toxicity reports were hidden by the producers. Accordingly, too little attention was paid to the possible health risks from these secret chemicals. Belatedly, we are now beginning to understand that the perfluorinated chemicals, such as PFOA used for raingear and non-stick kitchen utensils, are highly persistent in the environment and also much more toxic to humans than was claimed in the past. Likewise, certain pesticides, such as chlorpyrifos, thought for decades to be safe, now turn out not being highly toxic. So in my mind, the most worrisome are those secretly toxic chemicals, like PFOA and chlorpyrifos, that we are unwittingly being exposed to.

Assistant Professor, Environmental Health, Boston University

For me lead is the most toxic chemical.

I know from toxicology that the most toxic chemicals are those that would make you sick or kill you fastest at smaller doses. However, when thinking broadly in a public health sense through history, I think that by far lead is the most toxic chemical for humans. Lead may not kill you at small doses like some more potent poisons, however lead is a silent killer as there is no safety threshold of lead in our bodies. Lead has been identified as a poison since the ancient cultures and was further reaffirmed as toxic during the Industrial Age. Lead, however, has made its way into our everyday life still today because it was used for decades in gasoline, paint, and water pipes, therefore contaminating our soil, our duelings, and our water infrastructure. It is also still found in many everyday items like electronics, jewelry, toys, and cosmetics.

Lead poisoned children often experience developmental, behavioral, and many other health problems. Lead is associated with higher criminality and adverse mental health outcomes, as well as a decline in cognitive function and intelligence. When older, lead can still continue to affect our neurological and cardiovascular health, and even cause cancer. Lastly, lead contributes to todays public health disparities as it is often found in substandard housing affecting those in most need. Disproportionally, also those holding the most dangerous jobs and their families are at a greater risk of suffering the consequences of lead myriad of health issues.

Professor, Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan

Botulinum toxin is considered the most toxic chemical, based on the fact that a very small amount of ita nanogram quantitywill kill a human being. Its a naturally occurring chemical, made by a bacteria (Clostridium botulinum). It most commonly develops when certain vegetables are not canned properly. You might know it by its pharmaceutical name, Botoxits used to treat certain health conditions, like chronic migraine headaches, and to smooth out wrinkles on the face. The chemical inhibits one of the chemical transmitters that goes from the nerve to the muscle to make the muscle contract. The muscles become relaxed and wont contract. If you have a sufficient amount of this neurotoxin in your lungs, for instance, the body will stop being able to breathe.

Ricin is a close second. Its another naturally occurring toxin, derived from the castor bean plant. Ricin targets a structure in the cell called the ribosome. It attaches to the outside of this cell structure, and then gets taken up into it, and poisons it from inside. A single ricin molecule can inactivate thousands of ribosomes in a minuteit shuts down protein synthesis very rapidly, and then the cells die. Famously, it was used in the 1978 Umbrella Assassin case, in which the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was injected with a poison-tipped umbrella containing ricin while waiting for the bus. He felt a stinging pain, and subsequently died from the poisoning.

Do you have a question for Giz Asks? Email us at tipbox@gizmodo.com.

Layoffs to hit blast-damaged tire and rubber chemical plant in Texas – FreightWaves

Posted on February 27, 2020 by Danzig

After fiery explosions shut down a chemical plant near Houston last year, the company that owns the facility is cutting about 100 jobs and plans to temporarily stop production at the site.

The TPC Group Plant in Port Neches, Texas, will now be used as a transportation terminal and distribution center as it rebuilds the site from the devastating Nov. 27 explosion, according to company officials.

As the company continues site response efforts, it has become clear that a potential rebuild of our Port Neches plant could take up to five years. Unfortunately, this timeline necessitates a reduction in our current workforce, Houston-based TPC Group stated in a Tuesday news release.

TPC Group said the layoffs will impact salaried, union and hourly workers. Around 100 employees in total learned Tuesday that their role will be eliminated, according to the TPC release.

No fatalities were reported in the explosion and fire at the 218-acre plant, but state and county officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for 50,000 people within a four-mile radius. The plant had as many as 183 employees prior to the accident, according to the TPC Group.

On Dec. 5, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, an independent federal agency tasked with investigating the Port Neches plant explosion and fire, said a vapor cloud over a butadiene unit exploded in the early morning of Nov. 27, setting off the catastrophic explosion at the TPC Group. However, state and federal officials have not definitively determined what caused the TPC Group plant explosion and fire at this time.

The chemical manufacturing complex had produced synthetic rubber used for tires and hoses in the automotive industry. TPCs customers have included Goodyear Tires, Firestone Tires and Dow Chemical Co.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the TPC Group in Travis County District Court on Feb. 21. The suit alleges the TPC Group violated clean air laws multiple times from January 2018 to September 2019.

TPC Group officials responded to the lawsuit in a statement.

We remain focused on safely bringing this event to an end, minimizing impact to the environment while preserving the safety of the community, TPC Group spokeswoman Sara Cronin said. We have been working in cooperation with the relevant agencies and will continue to do so.

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Layoffs to hit blast-damaged tire and rubber chemical plant in Texas - FreightWaves

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