Mohamed Sanu gives update on chemistry with Tom Brady – WEEI

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FOXBOROUGH -- When it comes to playing wide receiver for the Patriots, one of the most important things is developing chemistry with Tom Brady.

Speaking after his first game with the team Sunday, Mohamed Sanunoted he was working towards what Brady has with Edelman.

So, how is it going?

I am working my way," Sanu said."I am slightly on the first couple letters of the sentence, but I am getting there.

He added:It is getting better and better. Just learning it, day-by-day, moment-by-moment and taking it in stride.

Sanu is doing whatever he can, whether it is in the meeting room or on the practice field.

Its great," he said."Taking full advantage of each rep.

The former Falcons receiver finished Sunday with two catches on five targets. Given he only had three practices before the game, it's likely his role will be expanded and that likely will lead to more production.

The wide receiver position as a whole will be interesting to watch this week considering rookie N'Keal Harry is eligible to return, so will the Patriots go with six wide receivers, or will someone be inactive?

Related: Tom Brady among 8 Patriots limited Wednesday

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Mohamed Sanu gives update on chemistry with Tom Brady - WEEI

Why Al Horford isn’t surprised the Celtics already have strong chemistry – Yahoo Sports

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Al Horford hasn't played with Kemba Walker or Enes Kanter.

He hasn't been inside the BostonCeltics' locker room without Kyrie Irving, Marcus Morris and Terry Rozier in the fold.

The Philadelphia 76ers big man has played for Brad Stevens, though, and that experience gave him all the evidence he needs.

In a chat with the Boston Herald's Steve Bulpett over the weekend, Horford weighed in on his former team's hot start and said he's not surprised to see Stevens' group jelling so quickly.

"Coach, you know, he's going to put everyone in position to be successful," Horford said."I mean, even the year that we were there that Kyrieand Gordon were missing and we had Shane Larkin starting or Semi (Ojeleye), he figured out how to do the most with what he had. So I'm not surprised by this."

When pressed on why Stevens couldn't make things work last season, Horford pointed to an overabundance of talent that led to chemistry issues.

"Last year was just too much," Horford added. "There were too many guys for coach to satisfy everyone."

Horford was one of five Celtics to average more than 27 minutes per night last season, and that group didn't even include Hayward or Jaylen Brown. That the 33-year-old decided to leave Boston forPhilly in the offseason was a sign he saw the writing on the wall with Boston's crowded roster.

Horford apparently shares the same view as Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge, who pointed to the"equal depth" on last season's squad as a potential cause of Boston's chemistry issues.

The new-look C's seem to be getting along quite well, though. They're 14-5 entering Tuesday and have the chance to avenge one of those five losses when they host Horford's Sixers next Thursday.

Don't miss NBC Sports Boston's coverage ofCeltics-Heat, which tips off Wednesday at 7p.m.with Celtics Pregame Live, and thenTommy & Mike have the call at 7:30p.m.You can alsostream the gameonthe MyTeams App.

Why Al Horford isn't surprised the Celtics already have strong chemistry originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

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Chemistry professor leads student research on impact of wildfires – Mustang News

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Chemistry professor Matthew Zoerb and a group of undergraduate students are conducting research to help people better understand the effects wildfires have on health and the environment.

In the past few years, California has seen the most destructive wildfires in the states history, including the Camp Fire in 2018 and the Kincade Fire last October. Zoerb and his students are researching the health and environmental impact following wildfires.

Zoerb said he was inspired to begin his research after the Soberanes Fire that burned the Big Sur Coast in 2016.

We are looking at different fuel sources such as forests or wood from homes and the chemistry of those particles and how the physical and chemical transformations evolve over time, Zoerb said.

When something burns, those particles are released into the air and will drift hundreds of miles from their starting point, according to Zoerb. By taking air samples from Cal Polys campus and the Cal Poly Pier, located in Avila Beach, Zoerb and his students saw the particles that people were breathing as well as the concentrations of those particles depending on the proximity of the wildfires.

Zoerb and his team gathered many samples downwind from Northern California fires because 2019 had less local fires than previous years. According to Zoerb, San Luis Obispo generally has good air quality which allows from him and his team to see every trace emission that makes it to the area.

Zoerb and his team can then see how much the wildfire particles are diluted and what the impact is. These samples show how much the wildfire particles remain in the air. This helps the team identify types of fires and decipher the general location where the fires started. With these samples, the team began to understand the amount of time these particles remain in the air.

Seth Bush, the chair of the chemistry and biochemistry department, said Zoerbs work is an important milestone.

The ability to accurately measure microscopic, trace particles generated in wildfires across the state is interesting from a scientific standpoint on its own, Bush said. However, the fact that they can use this tool and the data they collect to address complex real world problems amplifies the importance of their work beyond the academic community.

The College of Science and Mathematics Dean Dean E. Wendt said Zoerb and the team of students is relevant to the state as a whole.

The work of [Zoerb] is a great example of Cal Poly research at its best engaging students, focusing on problems that are meaningful to California, and contributing basic knowledge to a scholarly discipline, Wendt said.

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Continuity and chemistry key for Steelers offensive line | FOX Sports – FOXSports.com

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LATROBE, Pa. (AP) Alejandro Villanueva was in mid-answer trying to put his new contract the one that puts the former Army Ranger-turned-NFL left tackle in charge of protecting Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisbergers blind side for the rest of the decade in perspective when Ramon Fosters distinct Tennessee drawl came crashing over the top.

Oh yes, Al! Foster said as he walked past. Pay the man! Get us new chairs in the O-line room.

Villanueva smiled and shook his head at Fosters impromptu interview bomb, though the veteran guard and elder statesman on the unit most vital to Pittsburghs chances at ending New Englands long run at the top of the AFC might have a point.

The seats in the groups meeting room are getting well worn. Call it the byproduct of the kind of stability thats a rarity in the salary cap era. The way the Steelers figure it, better to break in new furniture than new faces.

Villanuevas deal, signed minutes before the defending AFC North champions opened training camp, means Pittsburghs entire front five Villanueva at left tackle, Foster at left guard, Maurkice Pouncey at center, David DeCastro at right guard and Marcus Gilbert at right tackle are all signed through the end of the 2018 season, with all but Foster in the fold through at least 2020.

Its rare, especially in this league, DeCastro said. Guys are all under their second contracts. It doesnt really happen. You have to make it show.

It certainly did last season. Pittsburgh ripped off seven straight wins after a 4-5 start to win its second division title in three years, with the line opening gaping holes for LeVeon Bell and keeping Roethlisbergers No. 7 jersey pristine in the process. Bell averaged 139 yards rushing during the stretch, with Roethlisberger being taken down just three times.

While Roethlisberger is serious when he says hes working on a season-by-season basis at this point, there are certain factors could see him walk off into retirement later rather than sooner. Namely, staying upright nearly all the time behind a line among the best in the business.

If they play as well as theyve been playing and getting sacked 17 times in a year, that might keep me around a little longer, he said with a smile.

Compare that to the early days of the 35-year-old Roethlisbergers career, when he spent a considerable portion of his time picking himself up off the turf.

Roethlisberger was sacked an average of three times a game I his first decade. Over the last three years, that number has dropped below two. Part of it is Roethlisbergers embracing of Todd Haleys get it and get rid of it ethos, part of it is playing behind a group thats grown in lockstep and part of it is the arrival of Hall of Famer Mike Munchak as the line coach in 2014.

He brings all the pieces together, Villanueva said. Hes the one that can put in anybody and make him excel just like he did with me.

Villanueva arrived in Pittsburgh a few months after Munchak, simply looking for a chance to learn following a military career that included three tours in Afghanistan. Villanueva landed a job on the practice squad that fall. Thanks in large part to Munchaks guidance, Villanueva was starting by the end of 2015 and didnt miss a game in 2016 as the Steelers reached the AFC championship.

His rapid rise also put the thoughtful, introspective Villanueva in a tough spot. He believed hed earn a raise and Pittsburgh wanted to keep him around. The sticking point came on how much it was going to take. Forever wanting to blend in not an easy thing when youre 6-foot-9 and 320 pounds Villanueva found the attention surrounding his status embarrassing.

I didnt want to break the bank, he said. I didnt want to be compared to the top left tackles that signed a deal recently. I couldnt conceive a situation where I would hold out to get more money. It was more if the situation was fair, I wanted to be here.

And so he is, where his unique backstory blends right in a group that mixes sure things like Pouncey and DeCastro, both first-round picks, with Foster and Villanueva, undrafted success stories.

They are now all well compensated and in their primes, with the 31-year-old Foster the only one not in his 20s. Yet there are no concerns of complacency. Munchaks draining individual drills and searing wit keeping things fresh. So does chemistry and a sense of accountability. Nobody wants to be the guy who gets exposed in the film room, where Munchaks searing wit rarely misses its target.

Whenever your guy makes the play, whenever you give up a pass rush or something, its just something that sticks with you for a long time, Pouncey said.

Those moments are getting fewer and farther between. Yet nothing lasts forever. Injuries happen. Contracts end. Guys move on. The five friends who hold Roethlisbergers health, and perhaps Pittsburghs season, in their collective hands understand how unique the opportunity is.

We have to take advantage of that, DeCastro said. We have a small window to really take advantage of it and play good football.

For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL

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Podcast: When rocket chemistry blasted off and came back to Earth – Chemical & Engineering News

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Rocket propellant research had its heyday in the mid-20th century, when the space race and the Cold War meant chemists had plenty of money and long leashes. Only a few of their most interesting ideas ended up in working rockets, but they charted new areas of chemical space, some of which, like boron chemistry, have proved useful in other fields. Geopolitical shifts, along with a growing emphasis on health, safety, and the environment, put a damper on propellant chemistry in the last decades of the 1900s. But the need for high-performance propellants hasnt gone away, and neither has chemists interest in pushing the envelope. In this episode of Stereo Chemistry, we hear from chemists who lived through the heady days of the 50s and 60s and the ones carrying rocket chemistrys torch today.

Subscribe to Stereo Chemistry now on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or TuneIn.

The following is the script for the podcast. We have edited the interviews within for length and clarity.

Kerri Jansen: Back in 2012, astronaut Chris Hadfield was getting ready to blast off to the International Space Station. Before he did, though, he got on Reddit to host an Ask Me Anything, where users of the social news site could ask Chris all of their most burning questions. And during the Q&A, Chris described what its like to blast off.

Launch is immensely powerful, he said, and you can truly feel yourself in the centre of it, like riding an enormous wave, or being pushed and lifted by a huge hand, or shaken in the jaws of a gigantic dog. . . . The weight of over 4 Gs for many minutes is oppressive . . . until suddenly, after 9 minutes, the engine[s] shut off and you are instantly weightless. Magic.

Today on Stereo Chemistry well be talking about that magic. Or the chemistry behind the magic, I should say. Specifically, the chemistry of rocket fuel. And Ive got the perfect copilot here to propel our journey. Hi, Sam.

Sam Lemonick: Hey, Kerri.

Kerri: So, Sam, the idea for this episode came from you. What got you interested in rocket chemistry?

Sam: Well, a lot of the space stories I write rely on rockets. Rovers wouldnt be roving on Mars, telescopes like Hubble wouldnt be exploring the universe, if rockets hadnt put them there. So what Id like to say is that I developed a deep respect for these workhorses and the unsung chemistry that makes them work. But the truth is I read a really smart and fun book about rocket chemistry, and I wanted to dig in and learn more.

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Kerri: And what is this book you speak of?

Sam: Its called Ignition!, with an exclamation point. It was first published in the early 70s and written by rocket chemist John Clark, who was also a sci-fi author who palled around with people like Isaac Asimov.

Clarks accounts of rocket research are completely captivating. The book was out of print for a while, although there were excerpts circulating on the internet, which is where I first found it. Anyway, its back now and if you want to learn more about the heyday of American propellant chemistry than we could include here, you should definitely go check it out.

Clark died in 1988, so unfortunately I couldnt talk with him, but I did the next best thingI talked to some of the other rocket chemists who were there at the beginning. Well, the beginning of modern rocket science.

Kerri: Oh, cool. So how do you define modern rocket science, and when did it start?

Sam: Modern rocketry is basically what let humans escape Earths gravity for the first time, and it started in the late 1800s.

Kerri: Okay, but unless you have a Ouija board youre not telling me about, Im guessing the scientists you talked to would have been active a bit later than that. So when did they come in? And big picture, what did they tell you?

Sam: Yeah, youre right. The most seasoned people I talked to did their work in the 1950s and 60s. That was a really wild, unique period when almost unlimited funding for rocket chemistry was available. Unfettered by budgets and, in some cases, by what you might think of as common sense, rocket scientists during that era pursued some truly wild chemistry looking for better propellants. What was fascinating to me is that even though the scientists during that time made a lot of really important discoveries, very few of those molecules ended up being used in working rockets. Instead, those important discoveries have transformed multiple fields of chemistry.

Kerri: But were still gonna talk about the rockets, though, right?

Sam: Well definitely talk about rocket chemistry. Unfortunately, there arent that many scientists still living from the early part of that heavily funded era. But the ones still with us have some amazing stories. As you might expect, there were accidents. And they tested some fascinating substances. But what I also learned is that rocket chemistry isnt a done deal. It seems like a second stage of rocket research is now taking place, with scientists in the US, China, and elsewhere pushing into new areas of chemical space.

Kerri: Before we get into all of that, though, lets start with the basics: What exactly is rocket fuel, and how does it work?

Sam: Okay, so Chinese inventors made the first rockets in the 13th century, powered by gunpowder. But remember when I said modern rocket chemistry started in the late 1800s? That was thanks to Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. In 1896 he published a paper titled Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices, meaning chemical rockets. In it, Tsiolkovsky showed mathematically that gunpowder doesnt have enough energy to put a rocket into space. He proposed instead reacting liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen as a propellant.

Kerri: Oxygen and hydrogenwhy those two?

Sam: Well, any propellant is going to need two basic components: a fuel and an oxidizer. In Tsiolkovskys proposal, the hydrogen is the fuel and the oxygen is the oxidizer. They react by combusting. Now, you can think of a really basic rocket as a chamber that controls the geometry of the reaction. As the reactants combust, the rocket shoots hot gas, the reaction products, out in one direction. That produces a force that pushes the rocket in the opposite direction. Thats Newtons third law for you physics nerds.

Now, back to Tsiolkovsky. He came up with an equation that can tell you if your rocket will make it to space. To be fair, other scientists also independently derived the same formula to describe propulsion, but scientists call it the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation because he was the one thinking explicitly about rockets going into orbit and beyond. And what that equation tells you is that, if you want to escape gravity, you want a chemical reaction that runs hot and generates low-weight products. High temperature means reactions that release a lot of energy. Combustion ticks that box.

Kerri: Okay, I see. And the product of the hydrogen and oxygen combustion reaction is water, which is a small molecule, low-weight. But why is it important to have low-molecular-weight products? Wouldnt more massive molecules push the rocket harder?

Sam: Actually, no. The way several rocket scientists explained it to me is that lighter, smaller products means the exhaust can be denser. And that means more force.

Kerri: Got it. So, that was more than 100 years ago. What are we using now?

Sam: So remember how I told you that a lot of the propellants that chemists tested during the 50s and 60s didnt make it into rockets? Well, this past August, when the US Air Force launched a GPS satellite into orbit, they used a rocket powered by, you guessed it, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

Kerri: Okay, so a century ago a scientist proposed using hydrogen and oxygen to propel rockets into space. And were still using those propellants? Thats our shortest episode ever.

Sam: Dont worry, theres still a lot of the story left to tell. First of all, not all rockets today run on those propellants. Those scientists
in the 50s and 60s did actually change rocket chemistry. To understand how rocket chemistry ended up where it started, we need to understand the things those chemists did, and what happened after.

I want to start with Fred Hawthorne. He might be the living person who best represents the arc of 20th century rocket chemistry. Hawthorne is the winner of a National Medal of Science and an inorganic chemistry expert. Hes 91, and some people call him Mr. Boron, which youll understand soon. He was a rocket chemist at the company Rohm and Haas when they were leaders in the propellant world. Later, he was a chemistry professor. But before all that, he was a kid with a chemistry set.

Fred Hawthorne: When I was about 12 years old, I got a chemistry set. A Gilbert chemistry set. And it fascinated me.

Sam: You can probably picture a Gilbert chemistry set. They came with test tubes and vials of all kinds of different chemicals. The sort of thing that could never be sold to kids today.

Fred Hawthorne: And I spent all my free time learning chemistry. I was just very drawn to it.

Kerri: Hang on. Let me do some quick math here. If hes 91 now, that means that when he was 12 it was like, what, 1940? So this is right around the beginning of World War II.

Sam: Yeah, and the timing is important. Two years before Fred was born, American physicist Robert H. Goddard launched the worlds first liquid rocket using liquid oxygen as an oxidizer and gasoline as a fuel. That set off a flurry of rocket research, in the US, Europe, and Russia. Fast forward a few years and the German Werhner von Braun started his rise to prominence and infamy in rocket science. He was a member of the Nazi party. Thousands of von Brauns V-2 rockets killed civilians in Allied European cities. Thousands more died in the concentration camps that built the rockets.

At the end of the war, von Braun surrendered to the Americans, who were keen to use his expertise in their own rocket program. In 1950, von Braun moved to the Armys Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, to lead the countrys rocket program.

Kerri: So this is what kicked off that unique period of rocket research in the US, when rocket scientists were just rolling in money. Where does Fred Hawthorne come in?

Sam: Right. Redstone is also where Fred ended up in 1954 after getting his PhD. He was working as a research chemist for the Rohm and Haas chemical company, which had its rocket labs on the Army base. The US military funded Rohm and Haass rocket research, and it was going all-out in pursuit of higher performing rockets, because the US didnt want to get beaten by Russia into space and in the nuclear missile race.

Fred Hawthorne: Money was not a big problem. Time was a problem, because we were competing with the Russians. So things were very crude and a little bit sloppy at first.

Sam: Redstone was a little frustrating for Fred as a scientist. He says there wasnt time or interest in understanding exactly what made a good propellant. People werent really interested in the fundamental chemistry.

Fred Hawthorne: They simply threw a lot of things together, had a lot of troubles and very few real successes.

Kerri: But you said at the start that Fred eventually did do some fundamental research that would change chemistry, even if it didnt necessarily change rocket science.

Sam: True. Fred would eventually work with compounds called carboranes, which are caged molecules made of carbon, boron, and hydrogen. But at first he was working with a propellant called petrin acrylate. And if youre listening to this episode to hear about rockets blowing up, youll want to hear Freds petrin acrylate story.

Credit: CEN

Petrin acrylate is a polymer with a hydrocarbon backbone and side chains sprouting from it that are made from esters of PETN, which is one of the molecules used in plastic explosives. And petrin acrylate is a solid propellant, so its not in a tank like liquid hydrogen or kerosene would be; its poured into the rocket and then hardens into a rubber. Fred describes petrin acrylate as a little twitchy. And the Army wanted a lot of this twitchy propellant for a test rocket. Six thousand pounds to be exact.

Fred Hawthorne: Thats about three tons of stuff. Its a hell of a lot of explosive material.

Sam: Fred and other Rohm and Haas chemists and engineers managed to build the rocket, and they set it up on the test range. Because they didnt want it to actually launch, Fred says they buried it in dirt, concrete, and anything else they could put on top of it. They also wired it up with instruments to learn more about how this new propellant performed, which made the test rocket a very valuable piece of equipment.

On the day of the launch, Fred and a couple dozen other people gathered on a grandstand about 300 meters from the rocket, excited to watch the test fire. The engineer who filled the rocket with propellant was sitting in front of Fred, and Fred asked how the propellant looked.

Fred Hawthorne: And he said, Well, its got a crack in it, but we filled the crack with epoxy, and that should be okay.

Sam: Fred means there was a crack in the surface of that rubber column of propellant. And as you might guess, it was not okay.

Fred Hawthorne: We started counting down. Five, four, three, two. And when we got down to zero, we were too far away to hear anything yet. And then we saw a shock wave coming through the grass and then that came through and hit us. So we got a pretty good ride out of that.

Sam: Despite the shock wave and supersonic rocks whizzing over the crowd, Fred says nobody was hurt. An office building about 500 feet away was destroyed, but it had been evacuated before the test. And about 50 cars in a nearby parking lot were crushed by falling concrete.

Even closer to the rocket was a trailer full of equipment collecting data from the instrumented rocket. Fred says it was shot through with holes, but somehow the two technicians inside were unhurt, and they managed to collect the data as well.

It turned out that instead of burning from the bottom up, the petrin acrylate had started burning up the surfaces of that crack in the propellant. The rocket wasnt designed to handle pressures of hot gases there, thus the explosion.

This wasnt the only petrin acrylate mishap at Redstone, and shortly after, Rohm and Haas decided to abandon the molecule, which was apparently just too twitchy to pursue further.

Kerri: I mean, if my research project exploded and threw a bunch of rocks and concrete at me, Id be inclined to abandon it, too. So this is when Fred switched to carboranes?

Sam: Yeah. So Rohm and Haas brought in a new director of chemistry research at Redstone, Warren Niederhauser. He set his chemists on two new lines of research. One targeted inorganic compounds, specifically boron. This was the group Fred was in charge of.

Fred Hawthorne: You see, boron is next to carbon in the periodic table. It ought to behave very much like carbon. There ought to be a corresponding chemistry there that is waiting to be developed. That was my thinking. And sure enough, it worked.

Sam: The US military had actually been investigating boron compounds as potential jet fuels because they burn about 50% hotter than hydrocarbons. But burning boron compounds also damages jet engines and produces toxic boron oxides. So Freds group got involved in carboranes, which were discovered by another group of rocket chemists. Remember, these are caged molecules made of carbon, boron, and hydrogen. These were more stable than the original boron compounds. Freds group figured out how to make acrylate esters of carboranes, among other compounds. And it was all slow-going at first. They were testing everything in small batches and they made their starting material, decaborane, from scratch. Decaborane has, you guessed it, 10 borons atoms in its caged structure.

Credit: CEN

Just to illustrate once again how this period in rocket science was fueled by extreme amounts of research funding and a
desire to compete with the Russians, lets go back to Fred. He says one day, he got invited to give a talk to a group of Air Force scientists studying solid rockets.

Fred Hawthorne: I talked about 20 minutes, and the guy said, Hold it, Ill be back. And he left the room. And he came back about 15 minutes later and said, Ive just given orders for you to receive a long tonthats 2,200 poundsof high-grade decaborane to be delivered to Rohm and Haas.

Sam: Before that, Fred says his team was spending about $10 a gram on decaborane. A long ton translates to almost 100,000 g, or $10 million worth of the stuff.

Kerri: I see what you mean. Money was really flying around back then. So did their investment in Fred pay off?

Sam: Well, in some ways, yeah. One of the carborane compounds he made burned 10 times as fast as petrin acrylate, the culprit in that spectacular test failure. And it was easier to handle, too. But it didnt end up delivering any more energy than petrin acrylate in their experiments.

But, after Fred left Rohm and Haas in 1962 and went into academia, he took boron chemistry to new heights. Fred figured out how to make metallic compounds with carborane ligands, complexes that have proven useful as chiral catalysts and radioactive markers for medical imaging. Hes also explored carborane derivatives that could be used to selectively target tumors with radiation therapy. Today, hes an emeritus professor at the University of Missouri.

I asked him if its fair to say that propellant chemistry is one of the reasons boron chemistry developed the way it did.

Fred Hawthorne: Yeah. Oh yeah.

Kerri: Hence the nickname Mr. Boron.

Sam: Right. Its a similar story for other rocket chemists pushing the envelope at that time. Emil Lawton was a contemporary of Freds. Emil worked on fluorine chemistry at Rocketdyne, a rocket engine company in Southern California. He made a whole bunch of fluorine compounds, including wild molecules like chlorine pentafluoride and oxychlorine trifluoride.

Kerri: Whats so wild about those?

Sam: These interhalogen compounds are incredibly strong oxidizers. Theyre known for combusting with basically anything they touch. Chlorine trifluoride, a tetrahedral molecule made of a chlorine atom and three fluorines, is maybe the most reactive of the bunch. Its hypergolicmeaning it ignites on contactwith wood, cloth, and most metals, but also with sand, asbestos, and even water.

But, like Fred, Emil told us these fluorine compounds were dead ends, at least for rocket chemistry. I asked him if any of his molecules ever made it into rockets.

Emil Lawton: Surprisingly, none of my molecules did.

Kerri: Did Emil say why not?

Sam: Emils group never scaled up their fluorine reactions because the compounds were too reactive to be practical. He says people were initially interested in these molecules because they had high performance for their weight, which meant rockets that could carry more payload for their size. But engineers found ways to miniaturize electronics and guidance components, and those weight savings made it so that rockets didnt need the dangerous fluorine propellants. Emil was done with halogens, but he did stay in rocket chemistry, and later in his career would help the military investigate rocket accidents.

Kerri: Okay, so the chemistry Fred and Emil worked on didnt end up in todays rockets. But . . . something did. So what did end up taking off?

Sam: Well, to answer that, I have to tell you about what happened later on, after this period of lavish spending we just talked about. Rocket chemistry entered a sort of dark ages. The sense of urgency was gone, and so was the funding support.

Kerri: Wow. So what happened to bring about the dark ages of rocket chemistry?

Sam: Ill tell you. But after the break. Well hear about that plateau, and where rocket chemistry went next. Stay tuned.

Giuliana Viglione: Hi there. This is Giuliana Viglione, C&ENs editorial fellow. I hope youre enjoying this explosive episode as much as I am. We at C&EN work hard to bring you the very best stories on Stereo Chemistry. And we wanted to take this opportunity to ask for your feedback. What do you like? What can we do better?

There are a bunch of ways you can let us know. If youre listening to this episode on Apple Podcasts, you can leave a review or a rating without even leaving the app. That helps other chemistry enthusiasts find this podcast and it will help us make this show better for you and all our future listeners. And you can always email cen_multimedia@acs.org with your feedback. Have an idea for a chemistry story youd like to hear? Let us know!

Thanks to everyone who has rated Stereo Chemistry already. Your support means a lot to us, and were excited to bring you even more captivating stories from the world of chemistry in the coming months.

And now, back to the show.

Kerri: Im on the edge of my seat here, Sam. What happened to put the brakes on rocket chemistry?

Sam: The scientists I talked to had a lot of ideas about why rocket chemistry research lost some speed. Money and politics definitely played a role. Rocket scientists in the 50s and 60s were awash in government cash and racing with the Soviets to build rockets that could reach the moon or deliver nuclear warheads across the globe. After the moon was in reach, and the Vietnam War sapped Americas interest in military adventurism, and the Cold War was growing stale, the political will and financial support for exotic rocket chemistry research started to dry up.

Kerri: So the funds are gone, political support has tanked. How did rocket research continue? I mean, it didnt stop completely, right?

Sam: It didnt stop, but it was definitely slower going than the 50s and 60s had been. One thing researchers had to do was get creative with their projects. They worked on the same propellant molecules but showed that those molecules had other uses as well. Karl Christies research program went this direction.

Hes now a professor at the University of Southern California. Emil hired Karl at Rocketdyne in 1967, and Karl spent almost three decades there working with halogen compounds. Later, at the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Lab, he made polynitrogen molecules. He did a lot of really wild chemistry, probably as much as Fred or Emil. Early in his career it was halogen compounds, like chlorofluoro compounds under Emil. Later, he was the first to make stable polynitrogen compounds, including pentazenium, a five-nitrogen cation.

Kerri: That sounds like a lot of nitrogens.

Sam: Yeah, which makes it super energetic. Nitrogen-containing compounds are popular propellants and explosives, because the conversion of nitrogen-nitrogen single bonds in those molecules to nitrogen-nitrogen triple bonds in molecular nitrogen gas is incredibly exothermic. In pentazenium, resonance structures make the molecule more stable than it might seem at first glance, which makes it a useful propellant. Still, even though he was able to work his way toward such an interesting new molecule, Karl is very aware that the conditions of propellant chemistry had changed. He was at Rocketdyne when winter arrived for rocket chemistry.

Karl Christe: I mean you could not get any support; after the Apollo program there was zero money for new rocket propellants.

Sam: To give you a sense of how sad this period must have been for chemists, Karl rattled off a list of exotic chemicals that were unceremoniously destroyed at the Air Forces rocket propulsion lab, where he worked for a decade after Rocketdyne, because no one was going to use them: Ten thousand pounds of pentaborane set on fire with bullets fired into the tanks. They destroyed all their chlorine trifluoride, too, and apparently the worlds supply of oxygen difluoride as well.

Karl Christe: So it gives you a good idea, you know, that people are not going to use it very much anymore.

Sam: Cost was a factor here, according to Karl. The Apollo program proved you could get to the moon o
n a combination of hydrogen, oxygen, and jet fuel, all of which are cheaper than those exotic chemicals. And actually, hydrogen is pretty expensive, too, so these days rockets like the Russian Soyuz and SpaceXs Falcon 9 just use oxygen and jet fuel.

Kerri: And so you mentioned Karl had to get creative to keep working on propellants? How did he do that?

Sam: Karls nitrogen and fluorine research program at Rocketdyne survived because his team transitioned to chemical lasers. These basically convert the chemical energy of a propellant into laser light. The lasers were meant to fly on huge jets or ride on trucks and shoot down incoming missiles. Other rocket chemists of Karls generation had similar stories.

Kerri: Okay, so rocket propellant research continued, although slowly. So what are we using today, besides the liquid hydrogen and oxygen that launched that satellite you mentioned earlier.

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Podcast: When rocket chemistry blasted off and came back to Earth - Chemical & Engineering News

Hinsdale Central graduate wins gold medal at International Chemistry Olympiad – Chicago Tribune

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Harrison Wang, a 2017 graduate of Hinsdale Central High School, received a gold medal in the International Chemistry Olympiad held July 6-15.

Wang was part of four-member team that represented the United States in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, competing against 293 students from 75 other countries.

"My parents are pretty proud," said Wang, who lives in Hinsdale.

The other members also won gold medals, making it the best performance by a U.S. team since the U.S. began participating in the Olympiad in 1984, said Joan Coyle, spokeswoman for the American Chemical Society, which sponsors the U.S. team.

When asked whether he thinks the gold medal is a big deal, Wang said the chemistry in the Olympiad is different from the chemistry research being done, so professional chemists are not overly impressed by the achievement.

"But education-wise, I think we are role models and we motivate kids to study chemistry," said Wang, who has a younger brother and sister.

The other members of the team are Joshua Park of Massachusetts, Steven Liu of California and Brendan Yap of Carmel High School, Indiana.

The medals were awarded based on scores from a five-hour written exam and a five-hour practical lab at the Olympiad. Wang had the fifth-highest ranked score, Coyle said.

Wang first became interested in chemistry when he took honors chemistry freshman year at Central. In sophomore year, he competed in physics and math Olympiads. In junior year, he advanced as far as alternate to the U.S. team going to the International Chemistry Olympiad.

His parents pushed him to compete and challenge himself, Wang said. "I still do enjoy it."

Wang said there definitely is a difference between studying chemistry and competing at such a high level. Competition chemistry is concentrated on problem solving and analyzing.

For the 2016 International Olympiad, Wang estimates he studied an hour or two a day for four to five weeks.

To prepare for the 2017 Olympiad, he studied 15 to 20 hours a week, starting in June 2016 and continuing through May of this year.

He took only one science class at Central this year, AP biology.

"I intentionally chose a course load (senior year) that was light on homework, so I could have time to study," Wang said.

He said it was not very difficult to work so hard on a goal that is not shared by your classmates.

"I've been working hard by myself since a young age," Wang said.

He also became friends with other students who would attend the Chemistry Olympiad Study Camp at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in June.

The students receive college-level training in chemistry, with an emphasis on organic chemistry, during the camp, which is the final step to qualify for the team that will go to the international competition.

"I enjoy organic chemistry a lot because there is a certain style to it that is unique," and involves intuition, Wang said.

His classes senior year included AP literature and honors philosophy, subjects Wang found interesting because they involve a different kind of thinking than he uses in science and math classes.

"In literature, there is no one right answer," Wang said. "Some answers may be more correct than others. But in science, at least in competitions, there is only one right answer."

Wang is undecided what major he will pursue at Massachusetts Institute of Technology this year, but the literature and philosophy classes piqued his interest enough to get them on his list of possible majors that also include physics and computer science.

kfornek@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @kfDoings

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A New Quantum Understanding is About to Turn Chemistry on Its Head – Futurism

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In BriefResearchers have discovered that quantum indistinguishability necessarily plays a significant role in some chemical processes. This changes the way scientists will view chemistry, and will influence isotope fractionation and enzymatic catalysis.

In a world of quantum oddities, the phenomenon of indistinguishability, the impossibility of distinguishing between two quantum particles, remains notable. Superposition is one of the underlying causes of indistinguishability because there is no sure way to lock down an exact position of a quantum particle. This, in turn, makes it impossible to know which particle is which when two quantum particles interact in the same place. This leads to exotic particle behaviors, especially at low temperatures. Under those conditions, behavioral qualities of particles can resemble each other closely, causing phenomena such as Bose-Einstein condensates and superfluidity.

Chemistry, though, requires relatively high temperatures, which cause most substances to shed their quantum properties. This is why indistinguishable physics and chemistry have traditionally been approached as if they were completely distinct, allowing chemists to ignore the effects of quantum indistinguishability with confidence. However, University of California Santa Barbara researchers Matthew Fisher and Leo Radzihovsky are turning the field of chemistry on its head, proving this confidence has been misplaced.

The pair has now demonstrated for the first time that even at ordinary temperatures, quantum indistinguishability plays a significant role in some chemical processes. This means that indistinguishability most likely causes entirely new chemical phenomena such as isotope separation, and may also give betterexplanations for poorly understood phenomena such as reactive oxygen species and their enhanced chemical activity. The quantum coherence of atomic nuclei is of particular interest to the team.

Things like spin-isomers and symmetry are important in chemistry because many reactions depend upon molecules being able to fit together precisely. Fisher and Radzihovsky have demonstrated that quantum indistinguishability changes the way molecules fit together, then quantum indistinguishability prevents reactions that dont achieve symmetry between nuclei. Theyve also shown that para molecules with their greater range of possible symmetrical matches are necessarily more reactive than ortho molecules.

This research will have a major impact on enzymatic catalysis. Hydrogen, for example, is subject to the influence of quantum indistinguishability and is also central to the work of many enzymes. This is easier to predict than to test, however, since it is difficult to separate ortho- and para-versions of molecules.

Fisher and Radzihovsky also believe quantum indistinguishability will influence isotope fractionation by providing it with a new mechanism, and offer insight into reactive oxygen species and their enhanced chemical activity, not to mention biochemical molecules in general. Testing these predictions may be an uphill battle, but understanding some of the most critical and subtle phenomena in chemistry will be a worthwhile payoff.

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A New Quantum Understanding is About to Turn Chemistry on Its Head - Futurism

UI losing vice chancellor for research, top chemistry professor to Yale – Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette

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Peter Schiffer

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CHAMPAIGN The vice chancellor for research at the University of Illinois and a top chemistry professor on campus are both leaving after five years for two newly created positions at Yale.

Vice Chancellor Peter Schiffer and his wife, Professor Sharon Hammes-Schiffer, who holds one of the prestigious Swanlund endowed faculty chairs on campus, were recruited by Yale, officials at the two schools announced Thursday.

Schiffer, a Yale alumnus, will be the Ivy League school's inaugural vice provost for research, starting in October.

He will be joined at Yale in January by Hammes-Schiffer, who will be the inaugural John Gamble Kirkwood Professor of Chemistry. At the UI, she is a renowned theoretical chemist who specializes in modeling quantum mechanical processes in systems relevant to both energy and biological sciences. She was recently named to the Center for Advanced Study at Illinois, the highest honor the campus bestows.

"It's a really exciting opportunity for me and for Sharon," Schiffer said Thursday. "Yale is, like Illinois, a great research institution."

It's also a chance to be closer to their sons, Zachary and Benjamin, who are students at MIT and Princeton, respectively, he said.

Hammes-Schiffer was out of town and unavailable for comment Thursday.

Schiffer, an experimental physicist, joined the UI in 2012 as vice chancellor for research after five years as associate vice president for research and director of strategic initiatives at Penn State.

He earned his bachelor's degree in physics from Yale in 1988 and a doctorate in physics from Stanford in 1993. He then did postdoctoral work at AT&T Bell Laboratories before launching his faculty career as an assistant professor of physics at Notre Dame.

Schiffer said his job at Yale, upgraded from a deputy provost's position, will be similar to his UI post.

It was created to bring a new level of strategic attention to Yale's science and research enterprise, according to President Peter Salovey and Provost Benjamin Polak. They cited Schiffer's decade of experience in university leadership and noted his record of strategic planning, policy development and leadership in campuswide cross-disciplinary initiatives.

Schiffer's UI tenure coincided with the growth of the university's interdisciplinary research enterprise, recognized as "one of the very best in the world," with seven campus institutes, UI Chancellor Robert Jones said in a statement. Those include two new entities the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment and the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute, both identified as priorities in an earlier campus strategic plan.

Schiffer said he expects those research areas to continue to grow, especially with the addition of the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. In the last month, the UI has announced a new Cancer Center and a $104 million Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

He is also proud of the improved support for researchers in the humanities and areas outside the traditional science, technology, engineering and math fields, or STEM.

"It's a great place, and I've really enjoyed working here," he said.

Hammes-Schiffer is considered one of the world's leading experts in computational studies of proton-coupled electron transfer, an important process for many chemical reactions, Department of Chemistry head Martin Gruebele said. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

She will continue her research and teaching this fall before leaving for Yale in January, he said.

Her "collegiality and citizenship will be missed along with the high quality of her science," he said.

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With Chemistry And Care, Conservators Keep Masterpieces Looking … – NPR

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Senior conservator of paintings Ann Hoenigswald works to fill in elements of Paul Czanne's Riverbank c. 1895 in the National Gallery of Art's Paintings Conservation Lab in Washington, D.C. Liam James Doyle/NPR hide caption

Senior conservator of paintings Ann Hoenigswald works to fill in elements of Paul Czanne's Riverbank c. 1895 in the National Gallery of Art's Paintings Conservation Lab in Washington, D.C.

Behind the scenes at major art museums, conservators are hard at work, keeping masterpieces looking their best. Their methods are meticulous and sometimes surprising.

The painting conservation studio at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is filled with priceless works sitting on row after row of tall wooden easels, or lying on big, white-topped worktables.

Associate conservator of paintings Joanna Dunn uses a microscope to examine Jacopo Tintoretto's Summer, c. 1555. Liam James Doyle/NPR hide caption

Associate conservator of paintings Joanna Dunn uses a microscope to examine Jacopo Tintoretto's Summer, c. 1555.

The studio is where I first met Senior Conservator Ann Hoenigswald years ago as she was fixing the sky on one of Claude Monet's impressions of the Rouen Cathedral in France. Bits of paint had flaked off over time, and Hoenigswald was carefully mixing her blue to match the old master's. Seeing the painting outside of its fancy frame, it felt like being inside the artist's studio. (I greatly wanted to try my hand at filling in some tiny bare spot in Monet's sky, which had once been covered by paint. Of course, the thoroughly professional Hoenigswald politely refused to hand over her brush.)

Conservators must take classes in studio art, art history and chemistry. Sometimes guidance comes from artists themselves. For example, Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo, asking for specific shades of paint Prussian Blue, Ultramarine, Geranium Lake. Painters in earlier centuries rarely left such clues.

Conservator Michael Swicklik peers through thick lenses that give him a 3-D view of a 15th-century canvas that Italian Renaissance artist Fra Angelico may have painted. They can't be sure, because The Entombment of Christ is in awful condition freckled with pocks where paint flecked off, and the gold on the saint's halo has worn away. The entire surface is dulled from varnish that's aged to the color of caramels.

Swicklik gets to work with cotton, solvent mixture and a bamboo stick. (Sometimes they just use spit, which gets grime off nicely!) He focuses in on the caramel-colored varnish obscuring the saint's robe moving over the surface in very light circles, to avoid abrading the paint.

Senior conservator of paintings Michael Swicklik works to clean up the yellowed layers of Fra Angelico's The Entombment of Christ, c. 1450. Liam James Doyle/NPR hide caption

Senior conservator of paintings Michael Swicklik works to clean up the yellowed layers of Fra Angelico's The Entombment of Christ, c. 1450.

Varnish is the enemy here. Painters, dealers or buyers often put a clear coat of it on to preserve a painting, or give it a nice sheen. Jay Krueger, Head of Painting Conservation, says over time the varnish ages and actually changes the colors of the painting.

"You remember that sky being blue and it's kind of green now, or, you'd remember that this was a lovely silvery dress and it's yellow now," he says. "It's just a matter of that surface, that transparent layer, discoloring over time. So it'll turn reds more orange, it'll turn blues kind of greenish. It darkens the light colors and, in an odd way, it flattens out and lightens the dark colors."

Head of painting conservation Jay Krueger's restoration supplies as seen at work station, left, while intern Kathryn Harada carefully removes layers from Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot's Gypsy Girl with Mandolin, c. 1870. Liam James Doyle/NPR hide caption

Head of painting conservation Jay Krueger's restoration supplies as seen at work station, left, while intern Kathryn Harada carefully removes layers from Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot's Gypsy Girl with Mandolin, c. 1870.

There are all sorts of chemicals involved in the quest to remove the offending varnish, so big blue vacuum tubes they look like elephant trunks hang from the ceiling, sucking up fumes and smells.

"You don't want a 40-year career cut short because you're in a room full of open solvents," Krueger says.

The solvents are tailored to meet the needs of a particular painting. Conservator Joanna Dunn is wearing blue rubber gloves to protect her hands from the strong solvent she's working with. Looking through a very fancy microscope, she bends over a 16th-century Tintoretto called Summer. The big canvas it's more than 3'x6' shows a zaftig blonde, reclining in a field, her right breast peeking out from her pretty pink drape. For some reason, a parrot turns his back on her. Armed with cotton swab, skinny stick, solvent and a scalpel, Dunn goes after the usual suspect: Varnish.

Joanna Dunn works to restore Jacopo Tintoretto's Summer, c. 1555. The blue vacuums suspended from the ceiling assist with ventilation. Liam James Doyle/NPR hide caption

Joanna Dunn works to restore Jacopo Tintoretto's Summer, c. 1555. The blue vacuums suspended from the ceiling assist with ventilation.

"This coating is so old I can't dissolve it without harming the paint," Dunn explains. "So the way to do it is to soften it with the chemicals that I'm using, and then ... it becomes gelatinous and I can push it off with the scalpel."

She does this all verrrrrrry carefully. At some point she'll put down the scalpel, pick up a paintbrush and fill in any spots that are missing paint.

"I'm only going to put my inpainting in the area where the paint is missing," she says. "I'm not going to cover any of the original paint."

Jay Krueger, head of painting conservation, sits next to one of his recent conservation efforts, Mark Rothko's Untitled, 1969. Liam James Doyle/NPR hide caption

Jay Krueger, head of painting conservation, sits next to one of his recent conservation efforts, Mark Rothko's Untitled, 1969.

In addition to varnish, conservators also need to get rid of paint that was applied in earlier restorations and then replace it with colors that match sometimes centuries-old originals. They hope to leave these canvases in better shape so that future conservators have an easier time of it when their turn comes.

Every day, these conservators hop between centuries and styles to preserve masterpieces for future art-lovers. A few years ago, Hoenigswald had a 19th-century Mary Cassatt on one easel, and a 16th-century El Greco on another and they almost seemed to be in conversation with each other.

Mary Cassatt was a great admirer of El Greco's work, Hoenigswald explains: "I was practically in tears thinking: Oh my god, if she ever thought she'd literally be side by side ... it was a very emotional."

Moments like these, she says, can make these behind-the-scenes conservation studios feel downright magical.

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Liam James Doyle/NPR hide caption

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

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With Chemistry And Care, Conservators Keep Masterpieces Looking ... - NPR

Chicago Bears QB Mike Glennon develops chemistry with Cameron … – ESPN (blog)

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BOURBONNAIS, Ill. -- Every day at Chicago Bears training camp is about the quarterbacks. There is no quarterback controversy -- Mike Glennon is the clear-cut No. 1 -- but plenty of intrigue surrounds Glennon (still a relative unknown), Mark Sanchez (former high-profile starter) and Mitchell Trubisky (No. 2 overall pick of the 2017 NFL draft).

Heres a closer look at their day Wednesday:

Mike Glennon

Wow moment: Glennon is clearly on the same page with wide receiver Cameron Meredith, one of Glennons favorite targets on the practice field. Arguably Glennons best throw of the day happened in the opening 7-on-7 period when he rifled the ball to Meredith, who broke hard toward the right sideline approximately 15 to 20 yards downfield. Glennon put the ball on the money. Glennon later found Meredith over the middle in 11-on-11.

Whoa moment: Glennon and Meredith did have a misfire on a deep ball in a full-team period. Meredith had a step on a defender downfield on the left seam, but Glennon sailed the ball over his head. Glennons ability to hit on those big plays is important. Again, teams are going to stack the box to stop running back Jordan Howard -- second in the NFL in rushing yards in 2016 -- which will create opportunities for the Bears in the vertical passing game. Glennon has to keep defenses honest.

Mark Sanchez

Wow moment: Cant remember a wow moment from Sanchez on Wednesday. He spent most of practice with the third team as the Bears wanted Trubisky to get some extra work.

Whoa moment: Sanchez was intercepted in the end zone by rookie Eddie Jackson, who rotated over from safety to pick off the ball by the front-corner pylon. Jackson also intercepted Trubisky over the weekend.

Mitchell Trubisky

Wow moment: First of all, Trubisky spent most of the day working with the second-team offense. That development is noteworthy in itself, although Bears coach John Fox downplayed it after practice.

Dont read much into it, Fox said. Its just a matter of getting guys through different centers, different groups. Its something that we mentioned would happen at some point throughout the camp.

Trubisky has shown throughout camp that hes mobile. The rookie successfully climbed the pocket in one team period and found Daniel Braverman wide open over the middle. Trubisky also targeted Kevin White on a couple of plays. White had one of his best practices of camp, catching multiple passes from both Trubisky and Glennon.

Whoa moment: Trubisky overshot Deonte Thompson in 7-on-7. Thats a throw Trubisky probably wishes he had back because Thompson was all alone in the middle of the field.

The Bears' next practice is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. CT Thursday.

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Brandon Marshall takes chemistry building with Eli Manning to next level – Giants Wire

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When the New York Giants signed veteran wide receiver Brandon Marshall earlier this offseason, they knew exactly what they were getting a hard working, high IQ player willing to do whatever it takes to win.

Marshall has lived up to that reputation in his short time with the Giants, going above and beyond to not only learn their offensive system and coach up the young players, but to build chemistry with quarterback Eli Manning.

He sent me a text yesterday and said, Hey, can we get on FaceTime and keep going over some of these signals? I dont want to forget everything that Ive learned in the past two months,' Manning said via NJ Advanced Media.

Thats what its all about having a guy who has a passion and a desire to get better, to keep learning the game of football, to keep having something to prove and were both in that same boat going into Year 12, Year 14. Always want to get better and make improvements and build a championship team, so thats what were working on.

Marshall admits theres still more than a few loose ends to tie up as he adjusts to the teams timing-based offense, but feels increasingly comfortable the more he works with Manning & Co.

I think I dropped every other ball the first two weeks. I was like, These guys probably think they made a bad investment right now,' Marshall said. Im still trying to figure out the timing of the hitch route. I think our last practice Eli just threw it at my feet and said, Im just going to throw it so you get the timing. Im just going to do my job and youve got to do yours.'

Things certainly arent where the Giants would like them to be, but theres also plenty of time between now and the start of the regular season. The good news is that both Manning and Marshall continue to work together and eventually, its all going to click.

I think thats one of the reasons why we have a great opportunity because everyone knows where theyre supposed to be and knows where the ball is going to be and when its coming, Marshall said. Thats something I never had to deal with my entire career. Ive never had a quarterback be so precise in his preparation and also just ball placement and getting the ball out quick. Thats been the biggest adjustment for me.

The willingness even the eagerness to get it all right ahead of training camp is a testament to not only Mannings preparation, but Marshalls. The two realize they need work and are spending every second trying to get things down to the point of situational reaction over thinking.

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Brandon Marshall takes chemistry building with Eli Manning to next level - Giants Wire

Sanford gets national award in chemistry – The Providence Journal

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G. Wayne Miller Journal Staff Writer gwaynemiller

PROVIDENCE, R.I. City native Melanie S. Sanford, a prominent scholar now at the University of Michigan, has been named one of three researchers to receive a $250,000 Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists.

Starting with a pool of 308 nominees the most promising scientific researchers aged 42 years and younger nominated by Americas top academic and research institutions a distinguished jury first narrowed their selections to 30 finalists, and then to three outstanding laureates, one each from the disciplines of Life Sciences, Chemistry, and Physical Sciences & Engineering, the Blavatnik Family Foundation and New York Academy of Sciences said.

Sanford, 42, is this years Blavatnik national laureate in chemistry. Feng Zhang, of MIT and Harvard, is the national laureate in life sciences. Stanford's Yi Cui, is the national laureate in physical sciences and engineering.

A graduate of Classical High School, Sanford earned her bachelors degree from Yale University and a doctoral degree from the California Institute of Technology. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University and is a MacArthur genius grant recipient.

One might think of organic chemist Dr. Melanie Sanford as an architect and a builder, the Blavatnik foundation and the New York Academy wrote. Instead of designing and constructing buildings, however, her research team works on building molecules. These molecules have major applications, ranging from carbon dioxide recycling to drug discovery.

gwmiller@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @GWayneMiller

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BATGIRL Writer To Highlight ‘Insane Chemistry’ Between DICK & BABS – Newsarama

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Credit: DC Comics

"It's complicated."

Batgirl writer Hope Larson admits that the relationship between Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon isn't the easiest to re-ignite. But in the upcoming "Summer of Lies" storyline, the writer will be exploring what happened in the couple's "Rebirth" past and whether their "insane chemistry" can help the couple come together to defeat a new villain and maybe more.

The Batgirl title saw Barbara just finishing up a disastrous relationship with Ethan Cobblepot (yes, that family). And in this week's Batgirl #11 and July's #12, the hero will be immersed in one-shot adventures. But starting in Batgirl #13 in August, "Summer of Lies" brings Barbara together with Dick to deal with events from their past that have "come back to haunt them," Larson said.

Newsarama talked to Larson to find out more about the path Barbara has taken so far in the Batgirl series and what readers can expect from her reunion with Dick.

Newsarama: Hope, how do you think Batgirl has grown since you took over her book? And what has she learned?

Hope Larson: Batgirl has developed new ways of manipulating and suspending her eidetic memory, which is useful. And I'd say she's grown a bit as a person, and become more confident in who she is and who wants to be.

Nrama: The Batgirl of the New 52 was positioned as a kind of "hipster" hero. Do you feel like she still fits that description? How would you describe her now?

Larson: I'd say she's still a hipster hero. She's in her 20s. Aren't most urban 20-somethings more or less hipsters?

Nrama: Now that the Cobblepot threat seems tempered at least, who's the next threat for Batgirl? What will we see in June's Batgirl #12?

Larson: Batgirl #12 and Batgirl #13 are both one shots, which were super fun to write. #12 takes place at the Burnside Y, which may or may not be haunted. A lot of the action takes place in the pool itself.

Nrama: Issue #12 features art by Eleanor Carlini. What does she bring to the book?

Larson: Her art has a lovely, manga-inspired flavor to it, and she includes lots of nice character acting moments in her cartooning. I particularly appreciate subtle stuff like that.

Nrama: In Issue #13, you've got Catwoman guest starring. What's the relationship like between Selina and Barbara?

Larson: It's a bit antagonistic. There's some professional respect, but Babs doesn't trust Selina nor should she.

Nrama: Issue #13 features art by Inaki Miranda. What does the style bring to the tale of the Cat and Bat?

Larson: Lots of beautiful, splashy pages with figures that aren't confined by panels.

Nrama: Let's talk about the "Summer of Lies" storyline you've got coming up beginning in August. After the disastrous relationships Barbara has experienced lately, what brings her back to Dick?

Larson: I'm so excited for this arc. We've been working on it for a while and it's gone through several very different versions before arriving where it is now. My editor Rebecca Taylor described it at some point during the process as our "I Know What You Did Last Summer" arc basically, events that took place when Babs and Dick were teenagers are coming back to haunt them.

Nrama: How would you describe the relationship between Dick and Barbara right now?

Larson: It's complicated. They know all of each other's secrets, and they have this insane chemistry, but they've got a lot to lose if either of them makes a move.

Nrama: Can you tease the villain who's featured in the "Summer of Lies" storyline?

Larson: I can! She's called the Red Queen, and she's a new villain. We were all shocked there wasn't already a DCU villain called the Red Queen.

Nrama: What does Christian Wildgoose bring to the story?

Larson: Brilliant, warm art, genius acting, and stunning environments. And he's giving Rafael Albuquerque a run for the Nicest Comic Artist award. I know he's going to shine on this arc!

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Scientists catch plants in the act of changing chemistry thought to be immutable because necessary for life – Phys.Org

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June 26, 2017 For the first time scientists have caught the cell machinery that makes a vital molecule in the process of evolving. A key enzyme plants use to make tyrosine, an amino acid necessary for life, was thought to be conserved across the plant kingdom but the scientists found it has mutated to another form in legumes. In cherry tomatoes the canonical form of the enzyme dominates, peanuts can switch hit and some strains of soybeans (lumpy beans to the right) have lost the canonical form. Credit: Jez Lab

Because plants can't get up and run away, they've had to be clever instead. They are the chemists of the living world, producing hundreds of thousands of small molecules that they use as sunscreens, to poison plant eaters, to scent the air, to color flowers, and for much other secret vegetative business.

Historically these chemicals, called "secondary metabolites," have been distinguished from "primary metabolites," which are the building blocks of proteins, fats, sugars and DNA. Secondary metabolites smooth the way in life but the primary metabolites are essential, and the failure to make them correctly and efficiently is fatal.

Secondary metabolism is thought to have evolved to help plant ancestors deal with living on dry land rather than the more hospitable oceans. The idea is that the genes for enzymes in the molecular assembly lines of primary metabolism were duplicated. The duplicates were more tolerant of mutations that might have destabilized the primary pathways because the originals were still on the job. With evolutionary constraints thus relaxed, synthetic machinery was able to accumulate enough mutations to do new chemistry.

Primary metabolism, however, is widely conserved, meaning that it remains unchanged across many different groups of organisms because it has been fine tuned to operate correctly and efficiently and because its products are necessary for life. Or so the textbooks say.

But now a collaborative team of scientists has caught primary metabolism in the act of evolving. In a comprehensive study of a primary-metabolism assembly line in plants, they discovered a key enzyme evolving from a canonical form possessed by most plants, through noncanonical forms in tomatoes, to a switch-hitting form found in peanuts, and finally committing to the novel form in some strains of soybeans.

This feat, comparable to pulling the tablecloth out from under the dishes without any breaking any of them, is described in the June 26 issue of Nature Chemical Biology. It is the work of a collaboration between the Maeda lab at the University of Wisconsin, which has a longstanding interest in this biochemical pathway, and the Jez lab at Washington University in St. Louis, which crystallized the soybean enzyme to reveal how nature changed how the protein works .

"The work captures plants in the process of building a pathway that links the primary to the secondary metabolism," said Joseph Jez, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor in the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences. "We're finally seeing how evolution creates the machinery to make new molecules."

It may also have practical importance because the old and the new pathways make the amino acid tyrosine, which is a precursor for many secondary metabolites with biological and pharmaceutical activity everything from vitamin E to opioids. But the old pathway makes only tiny amounts of these compounds, in part because they must compete for carbon atoms with the greedy process for making lignin, the tough polymers that let plants stand tall.

The discovery of the new pathway for making tyrosine is much less constrained than the old one. This raises the possibility that carbon flow could be directed away from lignin, increasing the yields of drugs or nutrients to levels that would allow them to be produced in commercial quantities.

A tale of two enzymes

Tyrosine is made on an assembly line called the shikimate pathway, a seven-step metabolic pathway that plants use to make the three amino acids that have aromatic rings. Animals (including people) shed the ability to erect this assembly line deep in the evolutionary past. Because we cannot make these amino acids on our own and they are essential for life, we must instead obtain them by eating plants or fungi.

That aromatic ring is important, said Jez, because it is a distinctive structure that can absorb light or energy. So the aromatic amino acids also are the precursors for many secondary metabolites that capture light, transfer electrons, or color flowers. Moreover, the aromatic amino acids are also precursors for chemicals that poison other plants or plant predators and attract pollinators. Many medicinal drugs include an aromatic ring, Jez commented.

In most plants the shikimate pathway is in the chloroplast, the organelle that does the work of converting the energy of sunlight to energy stored in carbon bonds. Once made, however, tyrosine can be exported out of the cytosol for incorporation or conversion into other compounds.

In the last step of one branch of the pathway an enzyme called arogenate dehydrogenase (ADH), catalyzes a reaction that makes the compound arogenate into tyrosine. The ADH enzyme is considered "regulatory" because it is a bottleneck in tyrosine production. It must compete for the arogenate substrate with the branch of the shikimate pathway that makes a different aromatic amino acid and it is strongly inhibited by the buildup of tyrosine

ADH activity is common in plants, but in the course of studying the shikimate pathway the Maeda lab discovered that the DNA sequences coding for ADH in some flowering plants were significantly different from those in most plants. They called the enzymes produced by these sequences noncanonical ADH. Then, in 2014, they reported that some legumes also make tyrosine with a different enzyme, called prephenate dehydrogenase (PDH).

PDH differs from ADH in many ways. It is active outside the chloroplast, it acts on the substrate prephenate rather than on arogenate, because it is outside the chloroplast it does not have to compete for its substrate with other branches of the shikimate pathway, and it is not inhibited by rising levels of tyrosine.

Why are there two different assembly lines for tyrosine? The scientists believe the PDH enzyme evolved via two gene duplication events and the accumulation of mutations in the "extra" copies of the gene. The first event gave rise to nonstandard ADHs in some flowering plants and the second to PDH in a subset of legumes. But why did this happen?

That's not a question the scientists can answer yet except in general terms, Jez said. What sticks out, however, is that the more recently evolved metabolic pathway is not tightly regulated and could potentially churn out product at a hectic pace. Perhaps the legumes were in dire need of secondary metabolites for some reason. It is certainly suspicious that legumes have an ecology quite different from that of other plants, since they live symbiotically with nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

Fiddling the bits

By this point the scientists knew that the novel enzyme, PDH, bound a different substrate than the original enzyme, ADH. They also knew that PDH, unlike ADH, did not bind tyrosine itself. But what changes in structure led to these differences in chemical activity?

To find out, Craig Schenck, a graduate student in the Maeda lab, compared the gene sequences for the ADH or PDH enzyme in many different plants, carefully chosen to be on the boundaries of the switchover from one enzyme to the other. But they encountered a problem. There were enough differences in the DNA that it was difficult to see what was relevant, Jez said.

Encountering Maeda at a conference, Jez offered to try crystallizing the novel enzymes so that their structure could be reconstructed from X-ray images. His graduate student Cynthia Holland was able to crystallize the soybean PDH and produce detailed images of its three-d
imensional shape.

"Once you looked at the structure you could see that there were only two differences from the typical ADH found in most plants and only one of the differences actually changed things," Jez said. Stunningly that difference was a single amino acid in the active site on the enzyme. At that spot the asparagine had replaced aspartic acid.

Schenck double-checked this structural insight by flipping that amino acid in mutant forms of the enzyme. The ADH mutant turned out to have PDH activity, and the PDH mutant had ADH activity, just as the team had suspected.

"That one difference changes the enzyme's preferred substrate and its ability to be inhibited by tyrosine feedback," Jez said. "And if you look at it, it's literally the difference between a nitrogen atom or an oxygen atom. In these proteins, which are made up of nearly three hundred amino acids or forty-two hundred atoms, one atom makes all the difference. That's just kind of cool."

The work is important because it demonstrates that primary metabolism does evolve. And because it shows how nature steals machinery from primary metabolism and cobbles it together for making novel secondary metabolites. They do this with much more finesse than genetic engineers can yet manage.

"When we want a plant to make a new molecule," Jez said, "we drop in a gene and hope it integrates with existing pathways. We still don't know how to readily connect the wiring between what we drop in and what is already there. So it is interesting to see how nature contrived to connect the wiring and change things without breaking them."

Explore further: Fundamental plant chemicals trace back to bacteria

More information: Molecular basis of the evolution of alternative tyrosine biosynthetic routes in plants, Nature Chemical Biology (2017). DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.2414

Journal reference: Nature Chemical Biology

Provided by: Washington University in St. Louis

A fundamental chemical pathway that all plants use to create an essential amino acid needed by all animals to make proteins has now been traced to two groups of ancient bacteria. The pathway is also known for making hundreds ...

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Purdue University scientists have defined a hidden second option plants have for making an essential amino acid that could be the first step in boosting plants' nutritional value and improving biofuel production potential.

(Phys.org)Purdue University researchers have discovered a microbial-like pathway in plants that produces phenylalanine, an amino acid that is a vital component of proteins in all living organisms.

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(Medical Xpress)Purdue University researchers have captured evolution in action through the discovery of a new set of metabolites synthesized by Arabidopsis plants, according to research findings published this week in ...

Because plants can't get up and run away, they've had to be clever instead. They are the chemists of the living world, producing hundreds of thousands of small molecules that they use as sunscreens, to poison plant eaters, ...

Inside each and every living cell, there are miniscule structures called membraneless organelles. These tiny powerhouses use chemistry to cue the inner workings of a cellmovement, division and even self-destruction.

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Scientists have developed a new low-temperature catalyst for producing high-purity hydrogen gas while simultaneously using up carbon monoxide (CO). The discovery-described in a paper set to publish online in the journal Science ...

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Iron chemistry matters for ocean carbon uptake – Phys.Org

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June 26, 2017 by Kristen French Upsala Glacier, Argentina, where scientists collected glacial dust samples. When glaciers move across bedrock, they scrape against it (see glacial grooves in the foreground), and grind it into smaller particles, which may then get blown out to sea, fertilizing phytoplankton. Credit: Michael Kaplan/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

For many years, scientists have speculated that seeding the ocean with iron might help to stave off climate change. Iron in seawater promotes the growth of phytoplankton, which in turn devours carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Iron basically allows the ocean to soak up carbon.

But only dissolved iron, not the undissolved particle forms, was thought to stimulate phytoplankton growth, despite iron's low solubility in seawater and the abundance of particulate iron in the ocean. Further, the quantity of iron rather than its chemical signature was thought to determine the rate of phytoplankton growth.

Now an interdisciplinary team of scientists led by Elizabeth M. Shoenfelt and Benjamin Bostick of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has discovered that particulate iron does stimulate phytoplankton growth, and that the chemical form that particulate iron takes is critical to ocean photosynthesisnot just the quantity of iron available. The team found that the iron in dust and sediment that comes from glaciers is better at promoting phytoplankton growth and photosynthesis than iron found in dust from other sources. This means that glaciers may play a larger role in the carbon cycle than had been thought.

"It's not that soluble iron doesn't matter, but particulates, which are the biggest components of the iron in the ocean, can do quite a bit," said Bostick.

The findings, published in the June 23 edition of the journal Science Advances, show that in lab culture, a well-studied coastal diatom grows equally well with particulate iron versus soluble iron, and up to 2.5 times faster, and with greater photosynthetic efficiency, when fed a form of particulate iron produced by the grinding of glaciers against rock. The authors estimate that the carbon uptake rates of the diatoms consuming glacier-produced iron would be five times higher than those consuming non-glacier iron when enhanced growth and photosynthesis rates are combined.

Earlier research had shown that during glacial periods, ocean concentrations of iron tend to rise. Glaciers grind up iron-rich bedrock that lies beneath the ice when they extend and recede through seasonal cycles. The resulting iron dust is carried on the wind out to sea. But no one had connected the chemical forms of iron found in glacier-produced dust versus other forms to phytoplankton photosynthesis.

"Basically glaciers make fertilizer for the ocean," said Bostick. "We show that it's not just how much dust the glaciers make, but the fact that the glaciers grind up certain kinds of rocks that makes a big difference."

The research team took the so-called glaciogenic dust they used in lab culture from South America's Patagonia region. But they said that the mineralogy of glaciogenic dust is similar around the world. The water they used came from the Southern Ocean.

The team's results set up a number of avenues for future research. These include studying the geological record to identify changes in the chemical forms of iron available in the ocean over time, and matching those to glacial fluctuations, said Bostick. He said further study could use genetics to study how diatoms use iron.

"We'd like to know mechanistically how it's happening," said Bostick. "This allows you to understand how the system can be manipulated, so we can know how the environment would respond."

Explore further: Study finds iron from glacial melting serves as significant source of iron to North Atlantic Ocean

More information: High particulate iron(II) content in glacially sourced dusts enhances productivity of a model diatom Science Advances 23 Jun 2017: DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1700314

Journal reference: Science Advances

Provided by: Earth Institute, Columbia University

This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University: blogs.ei.columbia.edu .

(Phys.org) A team of researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the US has found significant amounts of particulate iron in runoff from glacial melting in Greenland. Their paper is published today in Nature ...

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Australia's under-pressure Great Barrier Reef is an asset worth Aus$56 billion (US$42 billion) and as an ecosystem and economic driver is "too big to fail", a study said Monday.

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Seminar on Combining Theory and Experiment to Develop New Chemical Reactions – Seton Hall University News & Events

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Professor Osvaldo Gutierrez

The Rose Mercadante Chemistry and Biochemistry Seminar Series is pleased to present a seminar by Professor Osvaldo Gutierrez from the University of Maryland entitled "Combining Theory and Experiment to Develop Selective C-C Bond Formations via Open-Shell Intermediates."

The seminar will be held from 5:45 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday February 25, 2020 in the Helen Lerner Amphitheater, Science and Technology Center, Seton Hall University. Refreshments are available at 5:30 p.m.

Dr. Gutierrez was born in Mexico and raised in Sacramento, California. He attended Sacramento City College and transferred to UCLA in 2006 where he worked as an undergraduate at the laboratories of Prof. Houk. He obtained his B.S./M.S. in 2009 and completed his Ph.D. in 2012 (UC Davis) under the guidance of Prof. Tantillo. From 2012-2016 he worked as a postdoc with Prof. Kozlowski at the University of Pennsylvania where he used computational and experimental tools to study transition metal-catalyzed processes. He is now at the University of Maryland College Park where his research combines computational and experimental approaches to advance our understanding of iron- and photo-catalyzed reaction mechanisms.

Despite advances in high-throughput screening methods leading to a surge in the discovery of catalytic reactions, our knowledge of the molecular-level interactions in the rate- and selectivity-determining steps of catalytic reactions, especially those involving highly unstable and reactive open-shell intermediates, is rudimentary. These knowledge gaps prevent control, suppression or enhancement, of competing reaction channels that can drive development of unprecedented catalytic reactions. In this talk, Gutierrezwill focus on theuse of high-level quantum mechanical calculations, rigorously calibrated against experimental data, to interrogate the mechanisms and to guide the development of new catalysts and reagents for currently sluggish or unselective reactions. In particular, the talkwill focus on theuse of combined experimental and computational tools to understand and develop new (asymmetric) iron-catalyzed radical cascade/cross-coupling reactions.

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistryat Seton Hall University offers BS, MS and PhD degrees with specializations in all areas of chemistry. Our unique research environment, including traditional full-time students and part-time students is designed to foster collaborations with industry and colleagues in other disciplines. The Rose Mercadante Seminar Series is named for Rose Mercadante, the departmental secretary for over 40 years, in honor of our alumni, her "boys and girls."

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Seminar on Combining Theory and Experiment to Develop New Chemical Reactions - Seton Hall University News & Events

Personal chemistry key as Trump meets India Prime Minister for first time – Chicago Tribune

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President Donald Trump meets for the first time Monday with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and personal chemistry as much as policy could determine the direction of future relations.

The leaders of the world's two largest democracies will convene at the White House. They will look to expand ties on defense and fighting terrorism, but strains are likely on trade.

Trump has so far focused on outreach to China, India's strategic rival, as he looks to Beijing to rein in nuclear-armed North Korea. But Washington and New Delhi share concerns about China's rise as a military power that has underpinned increasingly close relations in the past decade.

The Trump administration says it wants to provide India the kind of defense technology it does to the closest U.S. allies. In a concrete indication of that, the U.S. is set to offer a $2 billion sale of U.S.-made unarmed drones to help in surveillance of the Indian Ocean.

Although Modi's two-day Washington visit, which began Sunday, is lower key than his previous three trips to the U.S. since he took office in 2014, there will be plenty opportunity for face time with Trump.

After their talks, Modi and Trump will make statements in the Rose Garden. Modi will also have dinner with the president and first lady the first dinner Trump has hosted for a foreign dignitary at the White House, although he has hosted the leaders of Japan and China at his resort in Florida.

Before he goes to the White House, Modi will meet separately on Monday with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

Trump and Modi share a populist streak and a knack for social media, but their economic nationalist agendas could clash. While Trump champions the idea of "America First" and wants to stop the migration of jobs overseas, Modi has his own drive to boost manufacturing at home, dubbed "Make in India."

India is among the nations singled out by the Trump administration for their trade surpluses with the U.S., and it is also reviewing a visa program used heavily by skilled Indian workers.

Both sides want better market access. U.S. is seeking stronger Indian protection of intellectual property rights, reductions in tariffs and narrowing of the $30 billion trade deficit. India has its own concerns, including over regulatory barriers faced by its producers of generic medicinal drugs.

Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Wilson Center, predicted that Wednesday's summit would be a "no-frills, let's get acquainted affair" whose outcomes, from their body language to the post-meeting joint statement, will offer clues about the future of U.S.-India relations.

"For Trump, the personal is political," said Atman Trivedi, an Asia specialist at Hills & Company consultancy.

On fighting terrorism, Kugelman said the two leaders have a similar worldview that "it needs to be destroyed wherever it rears its murderous head."

Modi will be hoping that as well as tackling the Islamic State, Trump will step up pressure on militant groups based in Pakistan accused of launching attacks on India. He'll also want to learn about the administration strategy to stabilize Afghanistan, where India has committed $3 billion in aid since 2001.

Climate change could be a contentious issue. New Delhi was irked by Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris accord, and his claim that India had made its participation contingent on receiving billions in foreign aid. India denies that and says it will continue to be part of the accord, regardless of U.S. participation.

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Personal chemistry key as Trump meets India Prime Minister for first time - Chicago Tribune

The Giants chemistry is suffering because a guy they all hated is gone – Yahoo Sports

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Ive spent years arguing with people about team chemistry. You know the battle lines on all of that now: people who talk a lot about team chemistry tend to attribute winning or losing to good or bad chemistry, respectively. I tend to think that characterizing chemistry is a retroactive exercise in which teams that win are happy and then cite their happiness as the reason and vice versa. Jim Leyland agrees with me, for what its worth, so Im pretty happy with my take.

Not that Ill claim a monopoly on wisdom here. Ive never played on a professional baseball team. I dont know what its like to try to prepare to play baseball while surrounded by jackwagons who dont get along with anyone. I cant imagine that makes life easier. Indeed, based on the testimony of players I have spoken to, I will grant thatthere is at least some intangible yet real benefitif everyone is happy an gelling. I dismiss team chemistry arguments for the most part, but if I ran a team Id at least try to get rid of bad seeds if their bad seeding was not outweighed by seriously outstanding on-the-field play. You want your workers happy, folks.

All of which makes me wonder what the heck to do about this passage from Ken Rosenthals latest column. Its about the reeling San Francisco Giants. They have all kinds of issues their offense is putrid, their pitching isnt much better and theyve been without their ace most of the year but today Rosenthal looks at their team chemistry. Its a quiet and subdued clubhouse, he notes, and it has a lot of people wondering if something is wrong there. What could it be?

Sandoval, who was an often noisy and boisterous presence during his time with the club, departed as a free agent after that season. Pence has suffered a number of injuries in recent years and declined offensively, making it difficult for him to be as vocal as he was in the past. Some with the Giants muse that the team even misses Angel Pagan, who created an odd sort of unity because most of the players disliked him.

Read that last sentence again. And then go on with your talk about how team chemistry is a legitimate explanatory concept regarding what makes teams win or lose as opposed to a post-hoc rationalization of it.

Not that its not a good article overall. Theres some interesting stuff about the Giants bullpen culture. And, of course, we now know why no one signed Pagan last winter.

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The Giants chemistry is suffering because a guy they all hated is gone - Yahoo Sports

Two people taken to hospital, 10 evacuated after chemical reaction at warehouse north of Sydney – 9News

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Two people have been taken to hospital suffering from chemical exposure after a workplace incident north of Sydney.

Initial reports suggested up to 40 people have been exposed to a chemical substance, but 10 had to be evacuated from the warehouse on Pile Road, Somersby, west of Gosford.

The reaction caused a large vapour cloud at the facility. Paramedics assessed several patients and three suffered from throat irritation, watery eyes and coughing, NSW Ambulance said.

"The issue with chemical exposure is you have no idea what you are dealing with before arriving at the scene," Inspector Greg Wiggins, Duty Operations Manager, NSW Ambulance said.

"On top of that, when you hear 40 people have been exposed, it can become quite tense and stressful and you start thinking about the best way to manage a scene that can be really chaotic.

"Paramedics moved quickly to get through the crowd and assess as many people as they could - they did a fantastic job.

"Often, it is scary for us as we have the potential to be exposed to the same chemical we have to ensure we are safe and protected to be able to provide the best possible care for those who are exposed.

"Whether you think you need it or not always let us assess you. We have no idea of how much damage is actually being done to your body. It's our job and we want to do everything to help," he said.

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Two people taken to hospital, 10 evacuated after chemical reaction at warehouse north of Sydney - 9News

EPA warns of chemical contamination in the air in part of Olde Towne Bellevue – KETV Omaha

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The Environmental Protection Agency reports groundwater near a corner in Olde Towne Bellevue is contaminated by a harmful chemical. Emergency coordinators say that chemical, tetrachloroethylene or PCE, could potentially be in the air of nearby homes and businesses.At a public information session Tuesday, Michael Davis explained that the EPA believes sometime between 1992 and 1995, the groundwater at 21st and Franklin was contaminated by dry cleaning chemicals. Carriage Cleaners used to be located at the site there until 1995."Honestly, I'm so terrified. I get paranoid about that kind of stuff anyway, but it's a serious issue," said Kristian Farland. Farland lives with her family in the area potentially contaminated.Davis said in 2017, samplers discovered the PCE at the site. In 2019, the EPA notified those living and working in the properties near the source.Davis said the EPA has already tested 12 Bellevue properties. Half came back positive for PCE in the air. He said although they were positive, those levels were "extremely low." Those buildings now have vapor mitigation systems installed to keep the chemical out of the indoors."We have not seen thus far with the sampling we've done, that there's levels in indoor air that is a cause for imminent concern for health threats," Davis told KETV.Bellevue Mayor Rusty Hike owns property in the area. Hike said the situation reminded him of radon contamination."I'm not real scared about it, but it's a little bit alarming. At least we found it now then go another 10 years, 20 years," said the mayor.The EPA is asking everyone in the potential contamination zone to fill out access request forms to allow investigators to sample their properties. Any property that tests positive with high enough levels of PCE in the air will receive a vapor mitigation system at the EPA's expense."We want to do that sooner rather than later. It's not necessarily because of a severe, urgent toxicological concern, but it's for the concern of being expeditious in terms of doing our sampling investigations," said Davis.There is another public information meeting at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at the Bellevue Volunteer Firefighters Hall.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, high levels of PCE may lead to dizziness, drowsiness, headaches and loss of coordination. Long-term exposure can affect your vision and memory. The chemical can also cause cancer.

The Environmental Protection Agency reports groundwater near a corner in Olde Towne Bellevue is contaminated by a harmful chemical. Emergency coordinators say that chemical, tetrachloroethylene or PCE, could potentially be in the air of nearby homes and businesses.

At a public information session Tuesday, Michael Davis explained that the EPA believes sometime between 1992 and 1995, the groundwater at 21st and Franklin was contaminated by dry cleaning chemicals. Carriage Cleaners used to be located at the site there until 1995.

"Honestly, I'm so terrified. I get paranoid about that kind of stuff anyway, but it's a serious issue," said Kristian Farland. Farland lives with her family in the area potentially contaminated.

The blue highlights the properties potentially contaminated by PCE. (Map from the EPA)

Davis said in 2017, samplers discovered the PCE at the site. In 2019, the EPA notified those living and working in the properties near the source.

Davis said the EPA has already tested 12 Bellevue properties. Half came back positive for PCE in the air. He said although they were positive, those levels were "extremely low." Those buildings now have vapor mitigation systems installed to keep the chemical out of the indoors.

"We have not seen thus far with the sampling we've done, that there's levels in indoor air that is a cause for imminent concern for health threats," Davis told KETV.

Bellevue Mayor Rusty Hike owns property in the area. Hike said the situation reminded him of radon contamination.

"I'm not real scared about it, but it's a little bit alarming. At least we found it now then go another 10 years, 20 years," said the mayor.

The EPA is asking everyone in the potential contamination zone to fill out access request forms to allow investigators to sample their properties. Any property that tests positive with high enough levels of PCE in the air will receive a vapor mitigation system at the EPA's expense.

"We want to do that sooner rather than later. It's not necessarily because of a severe, urgent toxicological concern, but it's for the concern of being expeditious in terms of doing our sampling investigations," said Davis.

There is another public information meeting at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at the Bellevue Volunteer Firefighters Hall.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, high levels of PCE may lead to dizziness, drowsiness, headaches and loss of coordination. Long-term exposure can affect your vision and memory. The chemical can also cause cancer.

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EPA warns of chemical contamination in the air in part of Olde Towne Bellevue - KETV Omaha