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Class of '12: Lely graduate had good chemistry with school studies

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Danzig

Photo courtesy of Foster Photography Katie Hogan

EAST NAPLES When Katie Hogan took chemistry during her junior year at Lely High School, she was hooked.

"Everyone was complaining about how hard it was," Katie said as she sat in the library on her last day of school. "I said, 'It's not hard, it's easy.' I ended up helping other students. Science has always been easy for me."

So she asked her mother, Jackie, a pharmaceutical rep, what career was most like chemistry and began working toward that goal.

"Some jobs aren't needed anymore, but people always need medicine," the 18-year-old said. "Pharmacology, I feel like it will always be there."

Katie, who has a 3.869 gpa, is Lely's 2012 Graduate of Distinction. She juggled a full course load in addition to being an award-winning sports captain, volunteering and completing an online pre-calculus class for an extra math credit.

"It takes a lot of self-motivation," said Chris Black, the school's librarian and media specialist, who saw her working online every day. "Math is not an easy subject without someone to teach you."

Black, the school running coach and Katie's coach since seventh grade, called her "one of the best," a seventh-grader who excelled and continued getting better.

"No matter what she does, whether it's athletics or school work, she does whatever you ask her to and she does her best and always has a smile," he said. "She even runs with a smile."

Last week, Katie was awarded the Bright Futures Medallion, meaning 50 percent of her tuition is paid for at a state school. Katie, who lives with her mother; stepfather, Mark Urban; and brother, Danny, originally wanted to go to Florida State University in Tallahassee, but instead chose University of Central Florida in Orlando.

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Class of '12: Lely graduate had good chemistry with school studies

Like father (not) like son: Showed up in chemistry class

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Danzig

My son, Alexander, is completing his high school career by taking chemistry and physics.

Which makes him 50 percent smarter than I am.

Or maybe its 100 percent.

Im equally lost among the precepts of mathematics as I am fumbling around in convoluted formulas of chemistry and the insane concepts of physics.

This is why I labored through only chemistry in high school, achieving, by way of the dogged determination that is the clueless students only advantage, a flaccid C.

(I was pretty deft with a Bunsen burner, as well. And one time I tried to make nitroglycerine, a failed effort that seemed to amuse the teacher. Probably because I didnt hurt anyone.)

I have few distinct memories from chemistry class, but one retains that crystalline quality which our brains, in some cruel twist of human evolution, reserve for our most embarrassing episodes.

(Actually only part of the memory is still vivid; I have no recollection at all of the details of the problem we were supposed to solve.)

The occasion was a particularly rare one: An experiment that seemed to me, if not logical, at least understandable.

I volunteered to walk up to the blackboard (it was in fact green, but, as with the black kind, you wrote on it with chalk) and demonstrate the equation.

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Like father (not) like son: Showed up in chemistry class

Josh Brolin – Josh Brolin Shares Special Chemistry With Will Smith

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Danzig

Josh Brolin says he had a special chemistry with Will Smith when filming 'Men In Black 3'.

Josh Brolin says he had a special chemistry with Will Smith.

The 'No Country For Old Men' actor has revealed the natural chemistry and banter he shared with his 'Men In Black 3' comedy partner was one of a kind.

He said: ''When the camera rolls, something happens. It was very nice, I hadn't felt that with a lot of people. Usually you have to act at acting well. With Will Smith and I, something just happens when those cameras start rolling.

''And we're very different people, but I think we are both very mischievous in our own way (laughs), so we were having fun with this kind of back and forth, cat and mouse thing.

''But it's not a cat and mouse, it's something different. It was follying, it was a lot of fun! We created our own thing so it became less about how am I going to do Tommy Lee Jones, more in finding a rendition of Tommy, and then making it our own.''

Barry Sonnenfield's latest flick sees Josh play a young version of Tommy Lee Jones' character, Agent K, who teams up with Agent J (Will) when they go back in time to save the world.

The 44-year-old 'Goonies' star said that he knew from the very first ''make or break'' scene the pair shot together that the film was going to work.

Speaking about his favourite memory from filming, he added to Flicksandbits.com: ''The first scene me and Will shot was the first scene that's in the movie with us together. When I'm sitting there looking at J, who's looking around at all the 60s motif, and then he looks at me and he's telling me something and I say, 'How do you know my name?'

''That was the first scene we did in the movie, so that was an exciting moment for me because that's a make or break moment. All the talking and the rehearsing, all of the studying we did, it comes down to that moment. It was the moment of, 'Is this going to work or not?' That was a great moment.''

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Josh Brolin - Josh Brolin Shares Special Chemistry With Will Smith

Justin M. Kunick, chemistry teacher, baseball coach

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Danzig

Feb. 24, 1980April 27, 2012

A beloved chemistry teacher and varsity baseball coach who taught his students in Florida to rise above will be remembered Saturday at the Wales Center Community Baptist Church.

Justin M. Kunick was born in Naperville, Ill., and moved to Wales Center when he was four. He graduated from Iroquois High School in 1998 and then from Keuka College in 2002, where he played on the varsity baseball team, setting several team records.

From the time he was a newborn, Mr. Kunick struggled with heart problems but always overcame them with admirable determination. Ailments left him temporarily paralyzed on the right side of his body when he was a toddler. His family believes thats how he ended up a left-handed pitcher.

After working as a substitute teacher for a couple of years in Michigan, Mr. Kunick landed a full-time teaching job in Hudson, Fla.

Mr. Kunick had become the varsity coach at Fivay High School when, in January, he was diagnosed with colon cancer. Through his surgeries and chemotherapy, Kunick continued coaching from his hospital bed with the help of his father. Terry Kunick would call his son after each inning to report on how the team was doing.

Their final game, he coached from his hospice bed, Terry Kunick said.

Mr. Kunick died April 27 while in hospice in New Port Richey. He was 32.

He is survived by his father and mother, Marilyn Kunick; his wife, the former Anne Hastie; a brother, Joseph; and two sisters, Jeanette Wolff and Jody Smaszcz.

A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Wales Center Community Baptist Church, with friends and family gathering an hour beforehand.

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Justin M. Kunick, chemistry teacher, baseball coach

Chemistry in its element – potassium permanganate

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Danzig

It’s a stalwart of the undergraduate lab and can still be found introducing kids to the joys of science in even today’s modest chemistry sets. But potassium permanganate is good for much more than pretty colours and redox titrations… in fact, it could well save your life. Brian Clegg praises our purple pal in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.

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The silent killer

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Danzig

Over at Sciencegeist they’ve throw down the gauntlet and asked bloggers to write about their favourite toxic chemical as part of a carnival of toxins that also play important roles in everyday life. It’s all part of the campaign by chemists and bloggers alike against ‘chemophobia’ – an irrational fear of the chemicals we find all around us in everyday life or even the very word ‘chemical’. Recently there seems to have been a spate of these articles in newspapers with chemical-free labels even popping up in labs where they ought to be choosing their words with a little more care!

Canaries provided a CO early warning system for miners

So I’m going to kick off Chemistry World’s contribution to the carnival with carbon monoxide: the silent killer. It’s now pretty much common knowledge that this diatomic molecule can kill, thanks to television images of people committing suicide by gassing themselves with car exhausts (this is much less likely today as catalytic converters mop up and transform much of the CO in exhaust fumes) and public health campaigns highlighting the dangers of the gas in the home. But John Scott Haldane, the father of noted geneticist J B S Haldane, was the first to realise that this colourless, odourless gas was responsible for the deaths of many miners. The CO that killed these miners was the result of incomplete combustion of carbon during coal dust explosions. J S Haldane, belonging to that intrepid class of chemists that is all but extinct now, used himself as a guinea pig to investigate the effects of CO. By exposed himself to potentially lethal doses of the chemical, he discovered the dangers it posed, which led to the introduction of canaries in mines as early warning signals of danger. Good for miners, bad for canaries! You can hear more about J S Haldane in Chemistry World’s podcast on carbon monoxide.

CO’s killing power comes from its affinity for the haemoglobin in red blood cells, binding to it preferentially over oxygen to form carboxyhaemoglobin. People exposed to CO are figuratively drowning in air – there’s plenty of oxygen all around them but their bodies just can’t absorb enough of it. And, in a grisly twist, carboxyhaemoglobin is bright red, giving victims of CO poisoning a hale and hearty rosy hue.

Unsurprisingly, this has led to boilers, and the deadly gas they can produce, becoming inextricably linked in people’s minds with danger – to be guarded against in the home and on holiday. In the US alone, it is estimated that 40,000 people seek medical attention for CO poisoning each year, so it’s clear it’s still a serious problem.

That’s the dark side of CO, but is there a lighter side? Oddly enough, it was discovered in the 1990s that this deadly gas has a memorable and vital physiological function. It acts as a neurotransmitter in certain parts of the brain involved in long-term memory and has functions in many other parts of the body that are only just being understood. CO joins hydrogen sulfide and nitric oxide as another small and toxic gaseous molecule, which is a vital poison that our bodies both produce and need to function properly. As a result, companies like Alfama are now developing drugs that release CO in minute amounts to treat diseases involving inflammation and a range of other conditions. This turnaround in the way CO is now viewed really gives wings to the old axiom ‘the dose makes the poison’.

Patrick Walter

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Plate my lungs with nickel? No thank you, sir

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Danzig

Nickel tetracarbonyl - highly unpleasant, but extremely useful (Credit: Wikimedia commons/ Benjah-bmm27)

For my contribution to Sciencegeist’s toxic blog carnival, I decided to write about a decidedly enigmatic compound. Nickel tetracarbonyl is a transition metal complex but also a foul-smelling (and, given the context of this blog post, naturally highly toxic) gas. These are not generally two molecular properties that coincide. It also forms quite easily when nickel metal comes into contact with carbon monoxide.

Having not personally worked with it, I nevertheless respect and admire nickel tetracarbonyl from afar. However, this is a compound which can provoke intensely personal reactions from people who have had the opportunity to get a little more hands-on. I came across possibly one of the most vivid of these in our Chemistry in its element podcast series when Bernie Bulkin described his initiation into a lab working on metal carbonyl complexes:

‘One of the first things I was given to read when I started was the summary of the toxicological effects of nickel carbonyl. I learned, with some concern, that at 30ppm it was certainly fatal, and even a significantly lower dose of 3ppm caused death in 50% of a group of test animals.

‘When you breathe it in, it decomposes, giving you a dose of carbon monoxide and depositing some nickel on your lungs. If you survive the first few hours, the nickel causes a form of pneumonia, coughing, breathlessness, extreme fatigue. This lasts for several days, often resulting in cardiovascular or renal failure and death. I was relieved to find that the safety precautions in the lab were extremely rigorous.’

The concept of receiving a bolus dose of carbon monoxide – deadly enough in its own right as described in Patrick’s blog yesterday – plus the added spice of nickel-plated lungs, was enough to imprint an instant respect for the compound in my mind.

So why on Earth might we want to make or use this compound, given its extreme potential to cause harm?

Nickel as a metal is industrially important – it is hard, shiny and reasonably resistant to corrosion (except by carbon monoxide of course…). Alloyed into steel or plated over the surface it endows the metal with these useful properties too, so much so that it was used to make coins (before being largely replaced by iron, which is cheaper and doesn’t cause the same kind of skin irritation that some people experience when handling nickel). Some coins, particularly the US five-cent pieces known as ‘nickels’, still contain nickel alloyed with copper or plated on the surface of a steel blank.

Nickel’s hardness and corrosion resistance also makes it ideal as the basis for superalloys used to make jet engine turbine blades. These are generally grown as single crystals of the metal for optimum performance at the high temperatures and force loadings of a working jet engine.

So where does nickel carbonyl fit in?

Nickel is rarely found in ores on its own – it is usually combined with its transition metal neighbours iron and cobalt. In fact, the name nickel comes from colloquial German for ‘devil’ (think of ‘Old Nick’ in English folklore) and cobalt derives from the word for a gremlin or hobgoblin, reflecting their role as annoying impurities in iron ores. So a method for separating the metals would not only deliver the desirable nickel, but improve processes for purifying iron and cobalt as well.

Having discovered nickel carbonyl by accident, Ludwig Mond – a German chemist – found that nickel reacts with carbon monoxide much more quickly than does either iron or cobalt. As a savvy businessman, he realised the potential of this observation and, in the late 19th century, developed it into the Mond process for extracting nickel from mixed ores. Reacting impure nickel with CO releases it as gaseous nickel carbonyl and leaves behind the impurities. The nickel can then be reclaimed by heating the complex until it decomposes. This process is still used when the purest nickel (greater than 99.99% pure) is required.

From a research chemistry point of view, nickel complexes form a variety of useful catalysts. Many of these are prepared from nickel carbonyl in some form, owing to the ease of displacing the carbonyl ligands. However, the chemist aspiring to prepare such catalysts would be well advised to seek out alternative sources of nickel in which someone else has already done the carbonyl substitutions – nickel plated lungs and death by suffocation or pneumonia is certainly not to be recommended…

Phillip Broadwith

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Nicotine and the Chemistry of Murder

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Danzig

The 1850 murder of Gustave Fougnies in Belgium is not famous because of the cleverness of his killers.Not at all. They his sister and brother-in-law practically set off signal flares announcing their parts in a suspicious death.

Its not famous because it was such a classic high society murder. The killers were the dashing, expensive, and deeply indebtedComte and Countessde Bocarm.The death occurred during a dangerouslyintimate dinner at their chateau, a 18th century mansion on an estate in southern Belgium.

Nor it is remembered because the Comte died by guillotine in 1851 so many did after all.

No, this is a famous murder because of its use of a notably lethal poison. And because the solving of this particular murder changed the history of toxicology, helped lay the foundation for modern forensic science. The poison, by the way, was the plant alkaloid nicotine. And it was chosen because at the time, no one absolutely no one knew how to detect a plant alkaloid in a dead body. During the unsuccessful prosecution of a morphine murder only a few years earlier, a French prosecutor actually started shouting about it in the courtroom: Henceforth, let us tell would-be poisonersuse plant poisons. Fear nothing; your crime will go unpunished. There is no corpus delecti (physical evidence) for it cannot be found.

And that was certainly the idea when the Comte and his wife decided to murder her young brother for his money. That they could kill him with this very special poison. And never be caught.

We probably know nicotine best today for its role in creating the highly addictive chemistry of tobacco, a reason that so many people find it difficult to quit smoking even though the habit is so conclusively linked to disorders ranging from heart disease to lung cancer. The compound has such a potent effect on the brain that some researchers have even suggested that it provides a gateway for drugs such as cocaine. Others have wondered whether that potency could somehow be harnessed to good effect, as a treatment for disorders ranging from Alzheimers to depression, although its addictive nature makes such approaches obviously complicated.

But back in the 19th century, of course, there was no way to peel apart its neurochemical effects. What people did know was that nicotine was one lethal compound. Tobacco, a plant native to the Americas, had caught the attention of the Europeans during the 16th century. One of its strongest advocates was Jean Nicot de Villemain, the French ambassador to Portugal, who acquired plants and seeds from the Portuguese colony in Brazil and promoted their use during the 1560s. The tobacco plant, Nicotiana tabacum, is named after him, as is the plants primary alkaloid.

Nicotine was first isolated from tobacco leaves in 1928 by two German chemists, Wilhelm Heinrich Posselt and Karl Ludwing Reinmann (its structure would be determined in 1893 and it would be first synthesized in 1904). Do you wonder what its made of? Three of the most common elements on Earth carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen and this represents one of the things I like best about chemistry, the way nature takes the planets ordinary ingredients and mixes them up to such varied effect. The formula for nicotine is a straightforward: C14H10N2. Of course, that underestimates its complexity. If you look at a 3D model of nicotine (frankly, these always remind me balloon art) youll see what a clustering twist of compound it really is:

Note: Carbon (black), hydrogen (white), nitrogen (blue)

And its that elegant arrangement that turns nicotine into such an effective poison, moving through the bloodstream with exceptional speed. When inhaled, nicotine travels from lung to brain in an estimated seven seconds. Toxicologists estimate that a fully smoked cigarette delivers about 1 mg of nicotine to the lungs; this compares to a lethal dose estimate of 30-60 mg. (For comparison, the lethal dose range for arsenic is 70-200 mg.) The International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) notes that: Nicotine is one of the most toxic of all poisons and has a rapid onset of action. Apart from local caustic actions, the target organs are the peripheral and central nervous systems.

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Nicotine and the Chemistry of Murder

Karpovich wins chemistry teacher award

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Danzig

The Midland Section of the American Chemistry Society selected Dave Karpovich as the regions Outstanding College Chemistry Teacher Award winner for 2012. The award is presented annually to an individual in Bay, Gratiot, Isabella, Midland or Saginaw counties who makes a substantial contribution to science learning through his or her own voluntary efforts.

Dr. Karpovich is an exemplary instructor, said Deborah Huntley, dean of SVSUs College of Science, Engineering and Technology. He is down to earth, yet professional, and very clear in the expectations he holds for his students. He holds a strong conviction that research is a key component of a strong undergraduate education, which is why he incorporates hands-on experience. Plus, he brings just enough humor to the classroom to sustain student attention, but without sacrificing the message or the importance of the topic.

Karpovich joined the SVSU faculty in 1998 and accepted an appointment as the H.H. Dow Endowed Chair in Chemistry in 2010. He teaches courses in general, analytical and environmental chemistry; he also leads a tutoring program where SVSU students volunteer in local high schools.

A resident of Gagetown, Karpovich has a long history of scholarly interest in the Saginaw Bay Watershed. One current research project which includes SVSU students and is a partnership with Delta College was cited as a premier example for similar partnerships throughout the Great Lakes states and nationwide during the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement Symposium and Capitol Hill Poster Session in Washington, D.C., in March. The project includes field, classroom, teaching, lab and community-based research components, and aims to assess methods to restore the Kawkawlin River in a way that can be replicated elsewhere in the Saginaw Bay Watershed.

Karpovich completed a Ph.D. at Michigan State University and a bachelors degree at SVSU. He received the award at the annual American Chemical Society recognition banquet Thursday, May 3, at the Great Hall Banquet and Convention Center in Midland.

With more than 154,000 members, the American Chemical Society is one of the worlds leading sources of authoritative scientific information. Chartered by Congress, the group comprises chemists, chemical engineers and other experts in related fields, and creates a professional organization for members around the globe. For more information on the Midland Section, visit its website at http://www.midlandacs.org

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Karpovich wins chemistry teacher award

Cracking paper runs into authorship dispute

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Danzig

A couple of weeks ago Chemistry World ran a story on a cracking paper from a team in Korea. The researchers took inspiration from the way Egyptian stone masons cracked large stone blocks (they inserted a wedge into a hole and then soaked it with water, causing it to expand and crack the stone) to create a technique to make nanoscale cracks in a controlled manner. They did this by etching a guide of notches and grooves into a silicon substrate and then depositing silicon nitride on top. The notches and grooves create a pathway for cracks to propagate along and this technique could be very useful for electronic and microfluidic devices.

However, it now turns out that there’s an authorship dispute. The PhD student who said that she did much of the legwork didn’t get a note on the author list, according to this story in the Korea Herald (h/t @naturenano). The leader of the research group, Nam Koo-hyun at Ewha Womans University, Seoul, told the Herald that he made it clear from the start that the PhD student wouldn’t get a credit and that doing experimental work ‘does not qualify one for authorship’. I’m not sure how other PhD students would feel about this! Plenty of people have received a name check for far less than carrying out the experimental work. What do you think the cut off point should be for getting an author credit?

Patrick Walter

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Research and Markets: 2012 Encyclopedia of Radicals in Chemistry, Biology and Materials Highlights the Growing …

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Danzig

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/wdl5r8/encyclopedia_of_ra) has announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new book "Encyclopedia of Radicals in Chemistry, Biology and Materials" to their offering.

Over the last two decades the application of free radicals in organic synthesis, materials science and life science has steadily increased, this Encyclopedia presents methodologies and mechanisms involving free radicals of chemical and biological research, including applications in materials science and medicine.

The aim of this Encyclopedia is to offer for the first time a description of free radicals within an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary context, connecting structural characteristics and chemical properties to their applications in different areas of chemistry and related disciplines.

It covers not only basic concepts and chemical synthesis, but also touches on various aspects concerning the role of free radicals in materials and life sciences. The reader will find a balanced contribution of topics related to free radicals covering for example, their role in proteomics, genomics and lipidomics as well as their enormous potential in synthesis and technology.

Covers topical areas such as:

- Alzheimer's disease and antioxidants in food within medicine and life sciences

- Synthesis and catalysis, combustion and atmospheric chemistry within chemistry

- Ageing and signalling in biological processes

Of interest to anybody working in the field of free radicals in the broadest sense. It will address scientists who want to enter the interdisciplinary field of free radicals. In particular, it is aimed primarily at chemists and life science researchers who want to gain a wider and deeper understanding of free radicals which will allow them to apply free radicals in their own scientific field.

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Three African-Americans Earn Doctorates in Chemistry, Set UM Record for Single Year

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Danzig

Editor's note: The information in this release concerning numbers of graduates has been checked against a National Science Foundation report on "Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities." In 2008, African-American students earned 50 doctorates in chemistry, and in 2010, the number was 54.

Newswise OXFORD, Miss. Less than a year after launching an aggressive initiative to increase the number of graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, the University of Mississippi has recorded an impressive national achievement by graduating three African-American students with doctorates in chemistry, an exceptional number for any university.

"On average, about 50 African-American students receive Ph.D.s in chemistry nationwide each year, so UM produced 6 percent of the national total," said Maurice Eftink, associate provost and professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

The history-making candidates who received their degrees Friday were Kari Copeland of Coldwater, Margo Montgomery of New Orleans and Jeffrey Veals of Gloster. And a fourth African-American student, Shanna Stoddard of Louisville, Ky., is on track to earn her doctorate in chemistry in December.

"This is a significant achievement for these three graduates and their families, and it is also significant for the university," Chancellor Dan Jones said. "UM 2020, our new strategic plan, calls on us as the flagship university of our state to lead our state and region in preparing professionals in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, especially from underrepresented groups."

It is the second time in recent years that UM has set a benchmark in STEM fields. The university produced four African-American Ph.D.s in mathematics in 2006.

"That was an even more outstanding achievement given that there are only 15-to-30 African-American Ph.D.s in math granted each year. But the current achievement is still pretty noteworthy," Eftink said.

Charles Hussey, UM chair of chemistry and biochemistry, lauded his faculty for their support.

"Our three students represent a significant proportion of the national graduates," he said. "This department and its faculty are absolutely devoted to the success of minority students, regardless of whether they are undergraduate or graduate students."

Besides the three African-Americans, four more UM students were awarded doctoral degrees in chemistry and biochemistry this commencement: Rajesh Kota of India, Debra Jo Scardino of Moss Point, Lei Wang of China and Ashley Wright of Texarkana, Texas.

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Three African-Americans Earn Doctorates in Chemistry, Set UM Record for Single Year

UGA chemistry professor wins top international award

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Danzig

Gregory H. Robinson, Franklin Professor and Distinguished Research Professor of Chemistry at the University of Georgia, is one of a select group of international academics awarded a 2012 Humboldt Research Award from Germanys Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Gregory Robinson

The award is valued at 60,000 euro (approximately $80,000), and Robinson is the second UGA chemist to receive the award in as many years.

I have known for many years that UGA is home to some of the best faculty in the world, said UGA President Michael F. Adams. The fact that Dr. Henry Schaefer won the Humboldt Award last year and now Professor Robinson is this years recipient demonstrates that fact to the world. I am very proud of both of them and wish Dr. Robinson well in his research with colleagues in Germany.

Robinson has been invited to undertake prolonged periods of collaboration with colleagues in Germany, and he plans to work with chemists at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg and the Technical University of Berlin.

The award, which is presented to up to 100 scientists worldwide annually, is granted in recognition of a researchers entire achievements to date and is presented to academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future.

Robinson is internationally known for his work synthesizing chemical compounds that other scientists had dismissed as impossible. In a landmark 1995 paper, he demonstrated that metals can display electronic behavior that was previously only thought possible with carbon-based ring systems such as benzene. These chemical compounds, known as aromatics, are particularly stable, and Robinsons innovations have the potential to improve the performance of semiconductors and electronics. His research team subsequently installed a triple bond between two gallium atoms and later prepared a compound containing an iron-gallium triple bond. In another landmark paper published in 2008, Robinsons team stabilized a new form, or allotrope, of silicon and developed a technique to stabilize highly reactive molecules that otherwise would be fleeting.

Dr. Robinsons research continues to receive international acclaim, and his accomplishments underscore how research in the basic sciences creates new knowledge with far-reaching applications, said Hugh Ruppersburg, interim dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. The fact that Dr. Henry Schaefer earned a Humboldt Research Award last year is further indication of the esteem with which our faculty members are held.

Robinson earned his bachelors degree in chemistry from Jacksonville State University and his doctorate from the University of Alabama. Before joining the UGA faculty in 1995, he was a professor of chemistry at Clemson University in South Carolina.

The Humboldt Foundation dates back to 1860 and is named for the researcher and explorer who helped lay the foundation for fields such as physical geography, climatology, ecology and oceanography while also sponsoring other scholars and talents. The Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time researching in Germany and maintains a network of more than 25,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in over 130 countries worldwideincluding 48 Nobel Laureates.

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UGA chemistry professor wins top international award

194 Chemistry to be renamed Peter A. Rock Hall

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Danzig

Building named in honor of dean of Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Written by LILIANA NAVA OCHOA News Writer Published on May 24, 2012 Filed under Campus News, Front page story, Top Stories

In Fall 2012, 194 Chemistry building will no longer be Chem 194. Instead, the building has been renamed Peter A. Rock Hall.

Beginning Fall 2012, Peter A. Rock Hall, or Rock Hall for short, will be the new name for 194 Chemistry, named after Peter Rock, the founding dean of the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences for eight years before retiring in 2003. Rock had worked at UC Davis since 1964. Three years later, on June 14, 2006 he passed away and now, six years later, 194 Chemistry will be renamed in his honor.

Hes my predecessor and he [was] very passionate about the quality of teaching and as you know, Chemistry 2 is really fundamental to many and the quality affects the campus as a whole. And not only that, he felt passionate about it. He also taught a lot himself and his textbook in general chemistry, which he wrote with Professor McQuarrie, is a pretty well-known textbook, so we thought that we should honor him, said current Dean of Mathematical and Physical Sciences Winston Ko.

The Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences is under the College of Letters and Science which is celebrating its 60-year anniversary this year. Ko feels that renaming 194 Chemistry in Rocks memory is very fitting during the 60-year anniversary of the College of Letters and Science.

In order to have a building named after someone, it is a requisite that the person have been deceased for at least two years and the chancellor makes the renaming proposal to the president that comes from the department dean, according to Ko.

Ko said the chemistry chair made the case to rename the building and then he proposed it to the naming committee.

Neurobiology, physiology and behavior junior transfer student Lillian Ghaly said she didnt see any problem with the name change.

I dont think it makes a difference. I mean maybe at first itll be like Oh, its not Chem 194 anymore, but I mean theres no meaning for the name Chem 194 to me, said Ghaly.

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194 Chemistry to be renamed Peter A. Rock Hall

Hudson has good chemistry with Ross, Wilson

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Danzig

ByChris Girandola/Special to MLB.com|05/20/12 3:00 PM ET

ST. PETERSBURG -- David Ross was behind the plate on Sunday as the battery mate for Tim Hudson for good reason.

For one, it allowed Brian McCann a chance to rest after the 28-year-old catcher played six consecutive days and 11 of the past 12 games.

It also gave Hudson another chance to connect with Ross. The two combined to go 8-5 as a duo last season.

"They have a pretty good history, a really good history," manager Fredi Gonzalez said.

Ross started Hudson's May 9 start in which the 36-year-old right-hander made his season debut and tossed just 73 pitches over seven innings in a 1-0 loss to the Cubs.

McCann caught Hudson in his last start on May 15, when Hudson allowed two runs over seven innings in the Braves' 6-2 win over the Reds.

With Jack Wilson making the start at shortstop, Gonzalez somewhat joked that Hudson also had a personal shortstop.

"I like it like this because you play [Tyler Pastornicky] and you develop him," Gonzalez said. "You play Jack, you give Tyler a breather, keep Jack fresh. And you know you're going to get a lot of ground balls with Huddy. It's a good mix."

ST. PETERSBURG -- Chipper Jones was out of the lineup once again on Sunday because of a bruise on his left calf. Manager Fredi Gonzalez did not sound too optimistic about Jones' chances for playing on Monday when the Braves begin a four-game series against the Reds in Cincinnati.

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Hudson has good chemistry with Ross, Wilson

Research and Markets: Chemistry and Biology of Artificial Nucleic Acids

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Danzig

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/qw3xhx/chemistry_and_biol) has announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new book "Chemistry and Biology of Artificial Nucleic Acids" to their offering.

This is the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of the field of artificial nucleic acids. Covering a tremendous amount of literature on the chemistry, biology, and structure of artificial nucleic acids, it will constitute an invaluable source of information for the specialist and for young researchers interested in starting a career in this fascinating field of research alike.

This book combines the contributions of many of the major players in this research field, and covers the synthesis of sugar-, base- and backbone-modified nucleic acids, their structural characteristics studied by X-ray crystallography, and NMR in solution as well as their chemical and biological properties.

Key Topics Covered:

- Nucleic Acids with a Six-membered Carbohydrate Mimic in the backbone

- Oligonucleotide N3 P5 Phosphoramidates and Thio-Phoshoramidates as Potential Therapeutic Agents

- From Anionic to Cationic a-Anomeric Oligodeoxynucleotides

- The Resurgence of Acyclic Nucleic Acids

- Exotic DNAs Made of Nonnatural Bases and Natural Phosphodiester Bonds

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Research and Markets: Chemistry and Biology of Artificial Nucleic Acids

Award for ocean chemistry team

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Danzig

Members of the Niwa-University of Otago Centre for Chemical and Physical Oceanography (from left) Dr Evelyn Armstrong, Dr Sylvia Sander, Associate Prof Russell Frew, Prof Philip Boyd, Prof Keith Hunter and Dr Kim Currie. Photo supplied.

The award goes to the collaborative Niwa-University of Otago Centre for Chemical and Physical Oceanography, which last year also won the $500,000 top award in the Prime Minister's science prizes.

Last year's award was for the group's cutting edge research in evaluating ways to reduce greenhouse gases.

The new award recognises outstanding research performance at a high international level by a research group led from the university.

Based in the Otago chemistry department, the centre is a recognised world leader in the field of understanding the chemistry of the oceans' interactions with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The group's internationally influential contributions include undertaking large-scale ocean fertilisation experiments in which iron triggered vast phytoplankton blooms that take up carbon dioxide from the air.

Findings from the centre's ground-breaking investigations have been published in several international journals and have featured in international conferences on geo-engineering.

Deputy vice-chancellor, research and enterprise, Prof Richard Blaikie said the award helped recognise that achieving such "sustained research excellence", often resulted from sustained "good teamwork".

Centre co-director Prof Keith Hunter, who is also the Otago pro-vice-chancellor, sciences, said the Otago award was "the ultimate pat on the back" from peers.

He was "really pleased" about the recognition given to his centre colleagues, and postgraduate and postdoctoral students.

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Award for ocean chemistry team

'The Chemistry of Tears': the mournful mechanics of a broken heart

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Danzig

'The Chemistry of Tears'

by Peter Carey

Knopf, 230 pp., $26

Time may not be enough to heal all wounds in Peter Carey's heartbreaking novel about what happens when "the other woman" must mourn the loss of her forbidden lover, "The Chemistry of Tears."

At the center of this profoundly detailed study of love and grief is the "oddly elegant" Catherine Gehrig, a 40-something conservator at London's Swinburne Museum (a fictional museum a bit like Seattle's Museum of History & Industry) who specializes in horology, the science of timekeeping. She works in a world of "clocks and watches, automata and other wind-up engines" among "scholars, priests, repairers, sand-paperers, scientists, plumbers, mechanics train-spotters really."

The first female horologist in the Swinburne's history, her sense of being set apart is only heightened by the fact that for 13 years, she's been having an affair with the museum's head curator of metals, Matthew Tindall, "one of those physically graceful disheveled beauties my country does produce so very well."

Matthew is 10 years Catherine's elder. He's also married with kids, so their romance has blossomed in the darkness of total secrecy. But now Matthew has died, and since no one seems to know how close he and Catherine were, she only finds out about it at work one day.

Like a stopped clock, her heart becomes stuck in the past, with memories of Matthew flooding her daydreams. But there is hope for consolation.

She discovers that one person may be aware of the connection between her and Matthew, Head Curator for Horology Eric Croft, "the master of all that ticked and tocked," a specialist in fanciful Oriental music boxes with movable buildings and beasts on them that the British exported to China in the 18th century. Eric was a close friend of Matthew's for years.

To help distract her, the sly Eric gives Catherine a special project to work on: A box of mysterious mechanical pieces that look to be parts from a 19th-century automaton, in this case a bird with moving parts. She must bring the bird back to life, while her own is at a standstill.

'Chemistry of Tears' review: Where the silver swan will carry us

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Danzig

THE CHEMISTRY OF TEARS Peter Carey Knopf $26, 240 pages

Peter Carey's "The Chemistry of Tears" is a short novel that bristles with ideas. A meditation on grief, it also rambles freely through the history of technology, making reference to Charles Babbage (father of the computer), Karl Benz (father of the internal combustion engine), and an automaton that impressed Mark Twain and would make the title character in "Hugo" wet his pants.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill provides an oppressive backdrop to one-half of the story, and bankruptcy through reckless stock trading shadows the other half. The two main characters, racked with pain over the death or illness of the person closest to them, are assisted in their obsessions by mechanically adroit zealots who use their grief against them. Horology and the construction of automata are described in precise detail, and the plot has a clockwork precision that's chillingly inventive and maybe wound a quarter-turn too tight.

The frame Carey chooses to contain his cabinet of wonders is a sturdy and familiar one: parallel chapters that tell an overlapping story. Catherine Gehrig is a buttoned-tight conservator at a London museum who finds out on the first page that her married lover, her colleague and "secret darling" is dead. Unhinged with grief, she's given a special project by her boss, the one man who knows her secret: reconstruct a 19th-century automaton, a silver swan that picks up fish and then cranes its neck before swallowing them.

Gehrig begins reading the notebooks of Henry Brandling, who commissioned the swan as a gift for his gravely ill son. Brandling's story is presented in counterpoint to Gehrig's, but of course she falls through the wormholes and identifies with a man who tries to use a mechanical marvel to assuage his grief. Their stories merge in places and jump the tracks when Brandling's project is hijacked by a mysterious German inventor and Gehrig's efforts at rebuilding the swan are complicated by an assistant who gets stuck in the oily current between obsessiveness and insanity.

Luckily for the unwary reader, Carey is a master novelist capable of pulling all this together with a casual brio. You don't win two Booker Prizes by being indecisive about where you're going with your narrative, and the open-ended conclusion can be read as a commentary on where these machines we've created are carrying us. It's a question as modern as artificial intelligence or oil pouring out of an uncapped well in the Gulf of Mexico. Creating a lifelike machine to do our bidding or to ease our pain as a counterweight to the dehumanization of industrialization is one thing. Making an automaton as a work of art is something else. Twain saw in the silver swan "a living grace about his movement and a living intelligence in his eyes." Gehrig's swan finally "bent its snakelike neck, then darted, and every single human held its breath."

Reading: Carey reads from "The Chemistry of Tears" at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 S.W. Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton.

-- Jeff Baker

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'Chemistry of Tears' review: Where the silver swan will carry us

Chemistry in its element – muscone

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Danzig

Once prized by parfumiers for its musk-laden glands, the musk deer was heavily hunted. But today it can rest easy, thanks to canny chemists and their odorous alternatives to muscone. Josh Howgego is on the scent in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.

Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?feed=rss2

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