Nobody likes having their holiday or picnic ruined by insect bites, but these are minor irritations compared to some of the diseases the biting blighters can pass on. Phil Robinson looks at the chemistry behind the widely used insect repellent DEET in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/3tdb7f/telomerases_chemi) has announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new book "Telomerases. Chemistry, Biology and Clinical Applications" to their offering.
This book is a comprehensive and up-to-date review and evaluation of the contemporary status of telomerase research. Chapters in this volume cover the basic structure, mechanisms, and diversity of the essential and regulatory subunits of telomerase. Other topics include telomerase biogenesis, transcriptional and post-translational regulation, off-telomere functions of telomerase and the role of telomerase in cellular senescence, aging and cancer. Its relationship to retrotransposons, a class of mobile genetic elements that shares similarities with telomerase and serves as telomeres in selected organisms, are also reviewed.
Key Topics Covered:
1 The Telomerase Complex: An Overview
Johanna Mancini and Chantal Autexier
2 Telomerase RNA: Structure, Function, and Molecular Mechanisms
Yehuda Tzfati and Julian J.-L. Chen
3 TERT Structure, Function, and Molecular Mechanisms
Emmanuel Skordalakes and Neal Lue
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Research and Markets: Telomerases. Chemistry, Biology and Clinical Applications 2012 Book Features Topics such as Off ...
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart may be one of Hollywood's most private couples, but Rob just couldn't help spilling the beans on falling for Kristen in a recent interview, revealing he knew they would have amazing chemistry before they even met.
ROB AND KRISTEN: ROMANCE IN PICS
Speaking to E!'s etalk Canada, Robert Pattinson told how he knew before he met Kristen Stewart that they would instantly hit it off, after watching one of her old movies.
'I knew before I met her [that we had chemistry],' Rob laughed, to which Kristen giggled, 'Yeah, me too.'
Referring to seeing 14 year-old Kristen star in an adventure movie, he continued: 'I was watching Zathura one day when she was frozen.'
Far from keeping quiet, usually shy Kristenpiped up: 'When you meet people that you want to embark on a creative endeavour with, it's like so intense and exciting it's palpable.' Looking to R-Patzbeside her, she added: "You're like, 'It's him!"'
Now that's love.
At Comic-Con last week Robert Pattinson opened up on his Twilight beauty secret, revealing he was asked to don a ginger wig to re-shoot some key scenes for the upcoming final instalment of the Breaking Dawn movie.
Rob said: 'We had to do the re-shoots on [Breaking Dawn - Part 2] a few weeks ago, and it was the first time I had to wear a wig.
His advice? 'Don't succumb to peer pressure and start wearing a wig like everybody else in this cast.'
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Robert Pattinson talks 'chemistry' with Kristen Stewart
ScienceDaily (July 19, 2012) Humans get most of the blame for climate change, with little attention paid to the contribution of other natural forces. Now, scientists from the University of Toronto and the University of California Santa Cruz are shedding light on one potential cause of the cooling trend of the past 45 million years that has everything to do with the chemistry of the world's oceans.
"Seawater chemistry is characterized by long phases of stability, which are interrupted by short intervals of rapid change," says Professor Ulrich Wortmann in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Toronto, lead author of a study to be published in Science this week. "We've established a new framework that helps us better interpret evolutionary trends and climate change over long periods of time. The study focuses on the past 130 million years, but similar interactions have likely occurred through the past 500 million years."
Wortmann and co-author Adina Paytan of the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California Santa Cruz point to the collision between India and Eurasia approximately 50 million years ago as one example of an interval of rapid change. This collision enhanced dissolution of the most extensive belt of water-soluble gypsum on Earth, stretching from Oman to Pakistan, and well into Western India -- remnants of which are well exposed in the Zagros mountains.
The authors suggest that the dissolution or creation of such massive gyspum deposits will change the sulfate content of the ocean, and that this will affect the amount of sulfate aerosols in the atmosphere and thus climate. "We propose that times of high sulfate concentrations in ocean water correlate with global cooling, just as times of low concentration correspond with greenhouse periods," says Paytan.
"When India and Eurasia collided, it caused dissolution of ancient salt deposits which resulted in drastic changes in seawater chemistry," Paytan continues. "This may have led to the demise of the Eocene epoch -- the warmest period of the modern-day Cenozoic era -- and the transition from a greenhouse to icehouse climate, culminating in the beginning of the rapid expansion of the Antarctic ice sheet."
The researchers combined data of past seawater sulfur composition, assembled by Paytan in 2004, with Wortmann's recent discovery of the strong link between marine sulfate concentrations and carbon and phosphorus cycling. They were able to explain the seawater sulfate isotope record as a result of massive changes to the accumulation and weathering of gyspum -- the mineral form of hydrated calcium sulfate.
"While it has been known for a long time that gyspum deposits can be formed and destroyed rapidly, the effect of these processes on seawater chemistry has been overlooked," says Wortmann. "The idea represents a paradigm shift in our understanding of how ocean chemistry changes over time and how these changes are linked to climate."
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Scientists connect seawater chemistry with ancient climate change and evolution
MOORESVILLE -
Pinning down Olympic dreams is an inexact science - even for a chemistry teacher.
Mooresville High School's Zach Errett has been grappling with his love of wrestling since he was wearing the smallest of tights.
As a youngster he realized there wouldn't be any Olympic medals in his future, so he decided that he could get to the games another way.
"I started refereeing when I was in middle school and started working my way up," said Errett. "So to kind of be able to make it there and be a part of the experience and to be around wrestling and be involved with some of the best wrestlers in the world, it's really just a tremendous honor to be a part of that as once a former athlete in that sport."
From middle school to junior high, through high school and college, Errett hones his officiating skills. Forthe lastten years he's been a chemistry teacher and the head wrestling coach at Mooresville High School. At the same time he's also become one of the best wrestling referees in the world.
This summer his Olympic plan paid off. Errett is one of onlythree officials from the United States who will work the summer games in London.
"To be selected was a great honor just because there have been so many great referees that have worked the Olympics along with some great referees that have been really close and not able to make the Olympics," Errett said.
The wrestling team at Mooresville never doubted their coach.
Says senior Brent McCreary, "I think it's a really good opportunity for him I know he's worked almost all of his life to get there. I've actually reffed with him a few times at some local tournaments and he really takes pride in his work and it's a good opportunity for him."
Continue reading here:
Mooresville chemistry teacher to referee wrestling at London Olympics
Twice in the last week, the topic of chemistry has been raised in regards to disappointing seasons.
Seth Curry gave this quote to reporters at the NC Pro-Am: The biggest thing is just trying to be more of a family. Get to know each other off the court. This summer weve been hanging out a lot more, getting to know each other. It seems like everybody likes each other this year, so it should be a fun year.
The bolded section found its way onto to twitter, however, which resulted in the college hoops blogosphere coming down hard on Austin Rivers. Obviously, the thinking went, Curry was taking a subtle shot Rivers.
Down in Memphis, rising junior Chris Crawford had this to say to the Commercial Appeals beat-writer Jason Smith:
We had a lot of like, you know it was some people that separated. Our chemistry wasnt really there, Crawford said. This year, everybody is talking to each other. We want to be a better team. Everybody is hanging out more. Everybody is trying to be one instead of in our separate groups.
Chemistry is important, and its not just with basketball. Its outside of basketball, too. Campus life, being together, going to the movies or anything, youve got to have that kind of bond.
Team chemistry is one of those vague terms that seem more like a press conference cliche than an actual issue. But rest assured, it is vital to a teams success. Whether it is role players accepting the fact they are role players, team leaders picking up struggling teammates instead of putting them down, or simply liking each other off the court, chemistry can be a deciding factor for a season.
Ask UCLA.
Or UConn. Or Pitt.Or Mississippi State.
Or, for that matter, Missouri. Frank Haiths ability to unify that team and get them to buy into the system he wanted to run was a huge reason the Tigers were so successful.
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Thoughts on team chemistry
By Jaclyn Reiss, Globe Correspondent
Boston firefighters and a hazmat team spent more than two hours testing the air at a Boston College chemistry building Sunday night after a strange odor was reported, but found no culprit, fire officials said.
The incident is the third time in just over a year that Boston firefighters have responded to the colleges Merkert Chemistry Center.
Students noticed a strange smell after entering a third-floor lab of the chemistry building, located at 2609 Beacon St. in Brighton, around 6:45 p.m. The students called Boston College Police, who notified the Boston Fire Department.
Fire officials declared the incident a level-three hazmat response, which means the firefighter entry team were fully suited up when they entered the building, said fire department spokesman Steve MacDonald.
However, after three different hazmat team entries, all tests came back negative for anything hazardous. No one was injured.
These are students used to being in chemistry labs, so for them to smell a strange odor is of course cause for concern, MacDonald said. They did the right thing.
Crews had cleared out by around 9:15 p.m., and the building was turned back over to to the college.
BCs own safety team dealing with the lab on a daily basis will check it further, but everything on our end came back negative, MacDonald said. They have lab safety managers and a whole team of people who deal with things like this.
City Public Heath will also check the building again Monday morning, he said.
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Hazmat situation at Boston College chemistry lab over after fire department finds no danger
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/m7b92s/clinical_chemistry) has announced the addition of the "Clinical Chemistry Market Report & Forecast (2012 - 2015): Global Analysis" report to their offering.
Valued at more than US$ 9 Billion in 2011, Clinical Chemistry market is likely to grow moderately from 2012 to 2015. In Clinical Chemistry Tests segment: Toxicology, Hemoglobin and Cholesterol testing contributed more than 40% of market revenues in 2011, and in future also they are likely to dominate the market till 2015. Faecal Occult Blood testing market, Cardiac Enzyme testing market and Prothrombin Time/International Normalized Ratio (PT/INR) testing market all these three testing markets are expected to grow with double digit CAGR from 2012 - 1015.
In countries analysis segment, United States and Europe together holds more than 85% market share in 2011. But by 2015 China is expected to nearly double its market revenue from 2011; thus reducing the market share of Europe in worldwide Clinical Chemistry market by 2015. Brazil Clinical Chemistry market is bigger than India but it is expected to grow with a CAGR of single digit compared to double digit of India from 2012 - 2015. In the coming years, the Clinical Chemistry market will undertake important change. These changes will be caused by the convergence of new and more stringent regulations, advances in diagnostic technologies, automation, IT and intensifying competition.
Renub Research report entitled Clinical Chemistry Market Report & Forecast (2012 - 2015): Global Analysis provides a comprehensive assessment of the nine clinical chemistry tests market & reviews, analyses and projects clinical chemistry market for global and seven countries market. The report also provides market landscape and market share information in the clinical chemistry market. The report also entails major drivers and challenges of clinical chemistry market.
Tests Covered
- Blood Gas & Electrolyte Test
- Cardiac Enzyme Test
- Faecal Occult Blood Test
- Drugs of Abuse Test
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Research and Markets: Clinical Chemistry Market Report & Forecast (2012 - 2015): Global Analysis - China Set to Double ...
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/g85wnz/analytical_techniq) has announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new book "Analytical Techniques for Clinical Chemistry. Methods and Applications" to their offering.
This resource details the role played by analytical techniques in clinical research, from fundamental studies to practical applications. Chapters report on the progress made in developing fit-for-purpose instrumentation, and identify continuing challenges for laboratory analytical techniques. The book opens with an overview of the regulatory framework around clinical lab analysis and then details applications including biomonitoring, diagnostics, food quality, biomarkers, drugs, and forensics. This handy reference provides an essential go-to while helping laboratory chemists reduce everyday problems and understand standardized lab techniques.
Key Topics Covered:
1. Good Clinical Practice Principles: Legal background and applicability
2. Clinical chemistry and the quest for quality
3. Uncertainty in clinical chemistry measurements including pre-analytical variables
4. The role and significance of reference values in the identification and evaluation of trace elements from diet
5. Sample collection, storage, and pre-treatment in clinical chemistry
6. Metal toxicology in clinical, forensic, and chemical pathology
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Research and Markets: Analytical Techniques for Clinical Chemistry. Methods and Applications Provides an Essential Go ...
A member of RSC staff (and Chemistry World fan) recently suggested to me that it’s been 100 years since the idea of solar fuels was born. His evidence? A paper by Italian chemist Giacomo Luigi Ciamician published in Science on 27 September 1912. In it, Ciamician proposes how we might harness the enormous power of the Sun to produce fuels from plants:
‘Is it possible or, rather, is it conceivable that…the cultivation of plants may be so regulated as to make them produce abundantly such substances as can become sources of energy…? I believe that this is possible.’
Although he doesn’t use the term, Ciamician is clearly talking about biofuels:
‘…it seems quite possible that the production of organic matter may be largely increased… The harvest, dried by the sun, ought to be converted, in the most economical way, entirely into gaseous fuel…’
And from there he goes on to describe artificial photosynthesis:
‘For our purposes the fundamental problem from the technical point of view is how to fix the solar energy through suitable photochemical reactions. To do this it would be sufficient to be able to imitate the assimilating processes of plants.’
The paper covers the use of sunlight to power the production of all kinds of useful compounds, not just fuels. But it’s this idea of capturing energy from the sun – deliberately and directly – to store in chemical form for later use that is arguably its most compelling. The idea falls within a generalised concept of solar power (or solar energy) but can be demarcated from making electricity directly from sunlight, as photovoltaic solar cells do.
And it’s a hot topic today. Earlier this year, the RSC published a report into solar fuels and artificial photosynthesis describing the rapid rate of progress in this area in recent years.
Indeed, the whole paper seems very prescient. Ciamician highlights a widespread and growing dependence on fossil fuels and questions how industry would cope with a sudden and unexpected price spike.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, he makes a few false steps in his comments about biofuels:
‘There is no danger at all of using for industrial purposes land which should be devoted to raising foodstuffs. An approximate calculation shows that on the Earth there is plenty of land for both purposes, especially when the various cultivations are properly intensified and rationally adapted to the conditions of the soil and the climate.’
But to be fair there were fewer than two billion people on the planet back in 1912. Who could have predicted the impact of a four fold increase over the next 100 years?
In predicting how our rampant thirst for energy would lead us to the Sun, Ciamician seems to be peering into the future with remarkable clarity.
Andrew Turley
Fancy a giggle? Brian Clegg looks at the important – and frivolous – uses of nitrous oxide in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.
— Grotto or artwork?
They (whoever they are) say that moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do. But what about when you need to move a chemistry filled artwork and the entire installation needs to be moved from it’s original site in London to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, around 200 miles away?
The artwork in question is Seizure, a flat (or apartment for our transatlantic readers) encrusted in shimmering blue crystals of copper sulfate pentahydrate that Bibi first blogged about in 2009.That puts my attempts with dangling a string into a jam jar of copper sulfate solution on the kitchen windowsill to shame.
Although Seizure had remained in the block of flats since it was first made, the council estate that contained it was condemned and so for the artwork to be saved it had to be removed intact. Luckily for the removal men, the flat had already been encased in a watertight steel box back when the artwork was first made, to allow the copper sulfate solution to be safely poured into the flat without it then leaking everywhere. After cutting away from around it, the steel-encased flat has now been removed and will be set in the greenery of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park inside a new housing.
So, until I can take a trip up to see the artwork in its new home, did any of our readers go and see it in its original location? Let us know if you have any good pictures.
Laura Howes
With goggles covering their eyes and gloves protecting their hands, laughing children splattered their shirts as they learned to tie-dye.
The activity was part of this week's Colorful Chemistry camp offered by the Northwest Ottawa Recreational Authority at Lakeshore Middle School.
NORA Recreation Programmer Gentry Soule said the organization offers a variety of athletic programs in addition to the science camps, which included Polymer Palooza and Water Wonders.
Not every kid can play sports, so we want something for those kids, too, she said.
During the four-day camp, the third- through fifth-grade students spent two hours a day participating in a variety of activities making bouncy balls, slime and bubble wands. They also watched a fire demonstration by their instructor, Melissa Jaeger.
Jaeger said she enjoys watching the excitement on the kids faces when theyre in awe of an activity. How excited they get (is the best part), she said.
Jaeger, a seventh-grade science and math teacher at Lakeshore Middle School, ran the NORA Science camps with her husband, George.
Melissa Jaeger said the camp is 90 percent fun. Once the students finished an activity, she explained the scientific process behind it.
To read more of this story, see todays print or e-edition of the Grand Haven Tribune.
For more photos from the camp, see the "Colorful Chemistry" photo gallery.
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Colorful Chemistry
Artist's impression of how arsenic life would look
The saga of arsenic life appears to be finally coming to a close. Two papers out in Science this week put under the microscope the claim that the bacterium could incorporate arsenic into its DNA in place of phosphorus. And the two teams found no evidence that the bacteria could make use of arsenic.
When the arsenic life story kicked off back in December 2010, it was big news. (You can read our coverage of it here, here and here.) The discovery by a Nasa team led by Felisa Wolfe-Simon that a bacterium could make use of an exotic element not normally used by life cracked open the door an inch to the idea that there could be life on more planets than ever thought possible. After all, if we could find bacteria thriving in the arsenic laced lakes of California, then surely they could be eking out a living on inhospitable planets.
However, some researchers were less than impressed with the science and they took to social media channels to register their concerns with the paper, with Nasa and with Science for letting the paper get through. The paper quickly became a serious headache for the journal, and in June 2011 they took the unusual step of publishing eight short critical responses to the original paper that caused all the controversy, followed by a defence from Wolfe-Simon.
One of the most vocal critics of the arsenic life claim, Rosie Redfield, was soon blogging what she saw as the problems with the authors’ interpretation of the data. One of her biggest gripes was the way the authors inferred that the bacterial DNA contained arsenic – by examining the molecule’s arsenic to phosphorus ratio. She and others pointed out that if phosphate were being replaced by arsenate, the DNA ought to be extremely susceptible to hydrolysis. If arsenate containing DNA were stable, it would fly in the face of years of chemical data on how these compounds behaved.
Redfield is the lead author on the first paper, which examines whether arsenate DNA even exists. They grew the bacteria up in the same way as Wolfe-Simon’s group, isolated the DNA and washed it thoroughly. They picked up very little arsenic in the sample and conclude that the original result was all down to contamination. They also performed tests on the DNA immediately after it was isolated from the bacterium and then two months later to check for the expected hydrolysis of arsenate containing DNA and found none.
Another controversial point in the original arsenic life paper was that the bacterium was metabolising arsenate in levels of phosphate thought to be too low to allow it to grow. Alex Bradley, a microbiologist at Harvard University, US, pointed out, however, that the medium Wolfe-Simon’s team said contained too little phosphate for bacteria to survive on actually contained 300 times more phosphate than that found in the Sargasso Sea in the middle of the North Atlantic – a place where microbes thrive.
The second paper examined this by attempting to grow the bacterium in a truly phosphate free environment. They found no evidence that the bacterium can replace arsenate with phosphate. They did discover some arsenate-based compounds when growing up the bacteria, but concluded that this was the result of abiotic processes as the compounds disappeared with more stringent washing of the cells.
I guess the takeaway message here is that GFAJ-1 is just a hardy bacteria that can survive levels of arsenic toxic to most life. That and calling the bacterium that is meant to be the crowning achievement of your research career ‘Give Felisa A Job’ is unwise – unless you’re absolutely certain you’ve covered all your bases.
Patrick Walter
In late June, the American Chemical Society (ACS), a nonprofit organization chartered by Congress, held its 16th annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference in Washington, D.C. The conference, which was sponsored by the American Chemical Societys Green Chemistry Institute (ACS GCI), had a theme this year of Innovation, Jobs, Sustainability The Role of Green Chemistry. A number of noteworthy new green chemistry processes were presented at the event.
Textile manufacturing involves some of the worlds most resource-wasting processes. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, it takes about 2,900 gallons of water to produce a single pair of jeans. Most of this water is used in whats known as wet processing, as well as in the dyeing of fabric.
Specialty chemicals company Clariant may soon change that. It has debuted a new process called Advanced Denim, which it says can produce a pair of jeans using up to 92 percent less water and up to 30 percent less energy than conventional methods. The process also generates up to 87 percent less cotton waste (which is often burned) and virtually no waste water, according to Miguel Sanchez, a textile engineer at Clariant.
While traditional denim production requires up to 15 dyeing vats that contain a cocktail of chemicals, Clariants process uses a single vat of liquid sulfur dyes that require only a single, sugar-based reducing agent, says Sanchez. The reducing agent, sodium hydrosulfite, is a much greener alternative to traditional reducing agents.
The result is a more eco-friendly process that cuts out most of the waste from traditional jean production. Sanchez says that if even one-quarter of the jeans produced in the world were made via the Advanced Denim process, enough water about 2.5 billion gallons would be saved to cover the needs of 1.7 million people each year. It would also prevent the release of 8.3 million cubic meters of wastewater each year and save up to 220 million kilowatt hours of electricity. At the same time, it would cut down carbon dioxide emissions significantly.
The jeans produced via Advanced Denim look similar to other commercially produced jeans, or even better, Sanchez says. Clariant claims that the process can produce looks and effects not possible today with current technologies.
One thing the world has a lot of today is algae. One thing its getting short on is fuel. For years, scientists have been searching for ways to make fuel out of algae, and many have succeeded at least in the lab. Its an economical process that, thus far, has eluded most researchers.
At the Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, a team of researchers from Yale University presented a breakthrough toward a long-sought viable process, which turns algae into biodiesel.
The new process extracts from algae fatty molecules called lipids and transforms them into usable fuel in a single process. It would make biodiesel from algae much cheaper, faster and greener than current multistep methods that require separate stages and chemicals. The reaction involves supercritical carbon dioxide, which at elevated pressures and temperatures fills its container like a gas but is as dense as a liquid, according to the researchers.
Algae has great promise as a next-generation biofuel, a fuel that is sustainable and renewable, says research team leader Julie Zimmerman,
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New Breakthroughs Propel the Field of Green Chemistry
Attention! This competition isnt only open to writersproducers, you are also welcome. The joy. Science communication isnt only about great proses but also about effective multimedia reports. As such, this competition has two categories: writing and multimedia.
Chemistry World, a popular magazine published by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and ChemCareers invite budding science reporters, students, postgrads and early-career scientists around the world to participate in their first science communication competition. Writers can write any piece they want (be in news, opinion, feature) in a maximum of 800 words while producers should come up with an audio or video documentary of 5 minutes or less. Your awesome works must of course be related to the chemical sciences and should be sent in before August 31.
Your work will be reviewed by well-respected science journalists and academics such as the Financial Timess science correspondent, Clive Cookson, and the RSCs soon-to-president Prof. Lesley Yellowlees. Even more exciting perhaps, 20 participants will be shortlisted and invited to a (very sciencey) reception on October 10 in London. The winners of each category will have their work published in Chemistry World and pocket a cool 300 (about $465). An equally cool 100 (about $155) to each runner-up.
So, to recap: open to participants from around the world, both writing and multimedia, related to the chemical sciences, 20 shortlisted participants to attend cool reception in London, winners get published in Chemistry World and win 300 cash prize.
You should be interested so here are the details in more comprehensive point form:
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Science Writing And Multimedia Competition By Chemistry World
A bequest from the estate of Margaret Kirkwood Philipsborn has established an endowed professorship in Yales Department of Chemistry. Named in memory of her brother, John Gamble Kirkwood, the professorship will support a full-time faculty member in the area of theoretical chemistry.
Kirkwood was a member of Yales faculty from 1951 until his death in 1959 at age 52. Known for his groundbreaking work in statistical mechanics, theory of liquids, and statistical physics, he served as chair of Yales chemistry department and was named as a Sterling Professor, Yales highest faculty honor.
The bequest comes at an important time for Yales growing chemistry department, which ranks among the top 15 departments nationally and has been home to Nobel Prize-winners such as Lars Onsager and Thomas Steitz. The department plans to hire as many as five new faculty members.
John Kirkwood was a giant in his field, and he was also a dedicated mentor and administrator, said President Richard C. Levin. This generous bequest from Mrs. Philipsborn will help the University and the chemistry department advance a tradition of excellence in teaching and research.
Our ambition is to continue to be a powerhouse in theoretical science, added Scott J. Miller, the Irne du Pont Professor and chemistry department chair. Many students are drawn to theoretical chemistry, as it touches on all aspects of the field. We need to meet this demand with a faculty of the highest caliber.
Yale Provost Peter Salovey recently called the chemistry department one of the jewels of Science Hill, a corner of campus in the midst of a dramatic upgrade. In 2005, the department moved into the state-of-the-art Class of 1954 Chemistry Research Building and will take advantage of renovated Sterling and Kline Chemistry Laboratories in the coming years. These physical improvements are occurring in tandem with a campus-wide effort to create a new model for teaching in the STEM fields science, technology, engineering, and mathematics focused on active learning for undergraduates.
John Gamble Jack Kirkwood was born in 1907 and raised in Wichita, Kansas. Following a distinguished career at Cornell University and the California Institute of Technology, he arrived at Yale in 1951 and was named a Sterling Professor in 1956. In addition to serving as chair of the chemistry department, he later was the Universitys director of science. A winner of the 1936 American Chemical Society Award in Pure Chemistry as well as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Kirkwood died of cancer in 1959, and is buried in Grove Street Cemetery next to his contemporary Lars Onsager.
Since 1962, Yales chemistry department and the New Haven section of the American Chemical Society have awarded the John Gamble Kirkwood Award, which honors outstanding theoretical or experimental research in the physical sciences.
A freelance journalist, Margaret Kirkwood Philipsborn was born in 1921 in Wichita, and lived mostly in London and Chicago until her death in 2011 at age 90. In her later years, she frequently communicated with Yale and its chemistry department and visited campus in the 1990s to present the Kirkwood Award. Everyone that met her knew her to be an especially kind and generous person, Miller said. In particular, she was very thoughtful about how to celebrate her brothers scientific contributions.
Our family is enormously proud of Uncle Jacks achievements, and my aunt very much wanted to honor his legacy by supporting the field he so loved, said Rob Bonner, Philipsborns nephew.
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Chemistry’s newest endowed chair honors pioneering Yale scientist John Gamble Kirkwood
How’s your hay fever this summer? Phil Robinson looks at the role of histamine in the immune system and allergies in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast – and it’s not to be sniffed at!
Over on the BBC Nature site is an amazing story explaining how the cold, desolate Antarctic, with poor quality soil, can play host to several species of moss and the reason is enough to get anyone with a slightly childish mind (including me) excited – frozen penguin poo.
— Arctic moss can grow into large beds despite the harsh environment
The elevated site in East Antarctica hasn’t had any penguins for several thousand years but between 3000 and 8000 years ago the site was home to a colony of Adelie penguins, as evidenced by the remains of the penguins’ rock nests and the nutrients from the birds’ poo. In the BBC story they just say that a ‘chemical signature’ shows that the nitrogen in the soil passed through a marine predator, so what does this mean? Well at a wild guess I figured this might be something to do with our good friends isotopic ratios. Long used to date and trace the origin of archaeological finds, in recent years ecologists have started to use the technique to map food webs.
You see, it seems that soil that has been pooed on by seabirds is enriched with more 15N than normal, but why? Well, when producing urea and uric acid, 14N is preferentially used and then excreted, leaving behind more 15N than found in the environment. This, I suspect, is due to the kinetic isotope effect, making the rates of reactions using 14N faster than those using the heavier element. Any predator will then ingest more 15N and further concentrate it, until you get up to the apex predator. Therefore a predator high up the food chain, like penguins, will have a higher concentration of 15N in their flesh, and presumably their poo will have an isotopic ratio reflecting their isotopically enriched diet.
Of course, this has got me wondering whether that means we’re also 15N enriched due to our protein heavy diets? Could you even distinguish a seafood eater from a meat eater and/or a vegetarian based on the amount of 15N in our bodies? Well I’m behind the times: there are studies doing just that to work out the diets of our predecessors and suggestions that the same can be used to diagnose eating disorders.
So now you that it’s the remains of ancient penguin poo that fertilised the Antarctic, creating a habitat for small insects and other animals, and how that was worked out.
Laura Howes
Kendall N. Houk holds UCLAs Saul Winstein Chair in Organic Chemistry. (Credit: Reed Hutchinson/UCLA)
(Phys.org) -- In 1928, chemists Otto Diels and Kurt Alder first documented diene synthesis, a chemical reaction important for synthesizing many polymers, alkaloids and steroids. Their work on this mechanism, which came to be known as the DielsAlder reaction, won them the 1950 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Since then, the iconic reaction has become the most commonly used and studied mechanism in organic chemistry. But what happens during the reaction has never been entirely clear.
Now, Kendall N. Houk, UCLA's Saul Winstein Professor of Organic Chemistry, and colleagues report exactly how the DielsAlder reaction occurs. Their research is published this week in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and will be published in an upcoming print edition.
"We have examined the molecular dynamics of the DielsAlder reaction, which has become the most important reaction in synthesis, in detail to understand how it happens," said Houk, who is a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA.
Houk and his colleagues created a number of simulations he calls them short movies of molecules coming together and reacting.
One of Houk's DielsAlder movies:
(Houk isn't the only one making movies about DielsAlder. UCLA organic chemistry students in Professor Neil Garg's class have produced a series of amusing music videos in which they reference the reaction: Watch "Chemistry Jock" [reference at 2:08], "Hey There Neil Garg" [1:44] and "Payphone" [1:07].)
"The idea," Houk said, "is to understand how the reaction happens not just that A goes to B and B goes to C, but to actually follow how the bonds are forming and how the atoms are moving as these things come together. Using the massive computing power we have now, we get a degree of resolution of the mechanism that was not really possible before. It took a lot of computer time, but as a result, we now have unprecedented insight into how this reaction occurs."
Organic chemists have argued about this for years: If two bonds form during a reaction, do they form at the same time, or does one form first and then the other?
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New insights into how the most iconic reaction in organic chemistry really works