MIT's Prof. Klavs Jensen Wins IUPAC-ThalesNano International Prize for Outstanding Work in Flow Chemistry

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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC and BUDAPEST, HUNGARY and BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire -03/20/12)- IUPAC and ThalesNano have announced at the 2nd International Conference of the Flow Chemistry Society in Munich that the International Flow Chemistry Prize was awarded to Prof. Klavs Jensen, Warren K Lewis Professor and Department Head, Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT. The prize was awarded in recognition of Prof. Jensen's extensive activities and publications, which have made an outstanding contribution to the field of flow chemistry both in academia and industry.

During his acceptance speech, Prof. Jensen said: "Dr. Ferenc Darvas, thank you for this tremendous honor and for your leadership of the Flow Chemistry field. Also thank you to Prof. Droescher for supervising this special IUPAC prize. I would also like to thank my many colleagues in the flow chemistry and microreactor communities, my colleagues at MIT (Prof. Bawendi, Buchwald, and Jamison), and importantly, my students and postdocs. I have learnt a lot from everyone!"

Dr. Ferenc Darvas, President and Chairman of ThalesNano Inc., commented: "It's a great honor for both ThalesNano and myself personally to be able to present this award to Prof. Jensen in recognition of such a talented scientist and contributor to the field flow of chemistry. It is my hope that this award will turn the face of the chemistry community in 2012 towards this interesting and elegant synthetic technique."

Dr. Michael Droescher, Chairman of the IUPAC Committee on Chemistry and Industry, added: "Congratulations to Prof. Jensen on this award. The dramatic impact of flow chemistry in recent years and decades deserves an acknowledgement from the IUPAC. As a respect for all the chemists' work in this field, we are delighted to contribute to this prize hoping it will bring more attention towards such a valuable technique."

About ThalesNano, Inc.:

ThalesNano is a world-leading provider of continuous process chemistry instruments in the rapidly developing market of laboratory and process scale flow reactors. The company has the widest portfolio of bench-top continuous process instruments. Its R&D 100 award winning H-Cube continuous-flow hydrogenation reactor is used in hundreds of laboratories and has become the new industry standard for hydrogenation. http://www.thalesnano.com

About IUPAC:

IUPAC was formed in 1919 by chemists from industry and academia. For over eight decades, the Union has succeeded in fostering worldwide communications in the chemical sciences and in uniting academic, industrial and public sector chemistry in a common language. Recently, IUPAC has been pro-active in establishing a wide range of conferences and projects designed to promote and stimulate modern developments in chemistry.

About the Flow Chemistry Society:

The Flow Chemistry Society was formed by internationally recognized flow chemistry experts in 2010 to unite and represent those who are actively working on this rapidly developing field. The Society is dedicated to enhancing the public appreciation of flow chemistry and its integration into everyday practice throughout the world by delivering the latest knowledge and making it available for the entire chemistry community.

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MIT's Prof. Klavs Jensen Wins IUPAC-ThalesNano International Prize for Outstanding Work in Flow Chemistry

Cosmic rays modify chemistry of lunar ice

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Washington, Mar 20 (ANI): Cosmic rays bombarding moon fundamentally change chemistry and colour of the lunar ice and dirt, a new study has revealed.

Space scientists from the University of New Hampshire and multi-institutional colleagues report they have quantified levels of radiation on the moon's surface from galactic cosmic ray (GCR) bombardment that over time causes chemical changes in water ice and can create complex carbon chains similar to those that help form the foundations of biological structures.

In addition, the radiation process causes the lunar soil, or regolith, to darken over time, which is important in understanding the geologic history of the moon.

The paper is based on measurements made by the CRaTER instrument onboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission.

The telescope provides the fundamental measurements needed to test our understanding of the lunar radiation environment and shows that 'space weathering' of the lunar surface by energetic radiation is an important agent for chemical alteration.

CRaTER measures material interactions of GCRs and solar energetic particles (SEPs), both of which present formidable hazards for human exploration and spacecraft operations.

CRaTER characterizes the global lunar radiation environment and its biological impacts by measuring radiation behind a 'human tissue-equivalent' plastic.

Serendipitously, the LRO mission made measurements during a period when GCR fluxes remained at the highest levels ever observed in the space age due to the sun's abnormally extended quiet cycle.

During this quiescent period, the diminished power, pressure, flux and magnetic flux of the solar wind allowed GCRs and SEPs to more readily interact with objects they encountered - particularly bodies such as our moon, which has no atmosphere to shield the blow.

"This has provided us with a unique opportunity because we've never made these types of measurements before over an extended period of time, which means we've never been able to validate our models," said paper's lead author Nathan Schwadron, an associate professor of physics at the UNH Space Science Center within the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS).

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Cosmic rays modify chemistry of lunar ice

NBA High-5: Grizzlies flirt with chemistry experiment by courting Gilbert Arenas

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The five most interesting stories, rumors and notes in the NBA: 1. Chemistry test: Paging Lionel Hollins. Professor Hollins, please report to the chemistry lab.

The Memphis Grizzlies are having a very nice season, overcoming the loss of forward Zach Randolph to put themselves in position to finish with a upper-division Western Conference playoff seed. At 25-18, they are a half game behind the Clippers for the No. 4 spot.

On Friday, Randolph returned after missing 37 games with a knee injury. In two games since returning, Randolph is averaging 14 points and nine rebounds in 24.5 minutes off the bench.

But do the Grizzlies need one more piece? Apparently they think so, and on Monday, they brought in veteran guard Gilbert Arenas for a physical and will sign him if he passes, the Commercial Appeal's Ronald Tillery reports.

This should be interesting. Arenas, 30, has played 10 NBA seasons. During three of them -- 2004-05, '05-06 and '06-07 -- he was among the league's best offensive players, averaging 25.5, 29.3 and 28.4 points.

But knee injuries and off-court issues -- especially his conviction on a gun charge and subsequent suspension in 2010 -- changed things. Before this season, Orlando -- which obtained him via a trade last season -- waived him under the league's amnesty clause.

Arenas is one of six players who were amnestied this season, and none have bounced back to really make their old teams regret it. If Arenas plays, he would be one of three amnestied players currently active in the NBA, joining the Kings' Travis Outlaw (waived by Nets) and Knicks' Baron Davis (waived by Cavaliers).

The Clippers' Chauncey Billups (waived by Knicks) is out for the season with a torn Achilles' tendon, Charlie Bell (waived by Warriors) is playing in Italy, and, as we all know, Brandon Roy has retired.

If the record of amnestied players hints that Arenas won't be an All-Star for Memphis, can he be an effective backup point guard, as Davis has become for the Knicks? That's the role the Grizzlies need filled -- a backup behind established starter Mike Conley. They don't necessarily need a gunner off the bench, a role filled by O.J. Mayo, who ranks third on the team in shot attempts.

The signing of Arenas shows that the Grizzlies are looking to contend now, and there might be a good reason. There are rumblings in Memphis about a possible ownership change. Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle who was a finalist to buy the Golden State Warriors and also made an attempt to buy the New Orleans Hornets, is apparently making a run at the Grizzlies.

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NBA High-5: Grizzlies flirt with chemistry experiment by courting Gilbert Arenas

Cosmic Rays Alter Chemistry of Lunar Ice

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Space scientists from the University of New Hampshire and multi-institutional colleagues report they have quantified levels of radiation on the Moon's surface from galactic cosmic ray (GCR) bombardment that over time causes chemical changes in water ice and can create complex carbon chains similar to those that help form the foundations of biological structures. In addition, the radiation process causes the lunar soil, or regolith, to darken over time, which is important in understanding the geologic history of the Moon.

The scientists present their findings in a paper published online in the American Geophysical Union's Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR). The paper, titled "Lunar Radiation Environment and Space Weathering from the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER)," is based on measurements made by the CRaTER instrument onboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission. The paper's lead author is Nathan Schwadron, an associate professor of physics at the UNH Space Science Center within the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS). Co-author Harlan Spence is the director of EOS and lead scientist for the CRaTER instrument.

The telescope provides the fundamental measurements needed to test our understanding of the lunar radiation environment and shows that "space weathering" of the lunar surface by energetic radiation is an important agent for chemical alteration. CRaTER measures material interactions of GCRs and solar energetic particles (SEPs), both of which present formidable hazards for human exploration and spacecraft operations. CRaTER characterizes the global lunar radiation environment and its biological impacts by measuring radiation behind a "human tissue-equivalent" plastic.

Serendipitously, the LRO mission made measurements during a period when GCR fluxes remained at the highest levels ever observed in the space age due to the Sun's abnormally extended quiet cycle. During this quiescent period, the diminished power, pressure, flux and magnetic flux of the solar wind allowed GCRs and SEPs to more readily interact with objects they encountered -- particularly bodies such as our Moon, which has no atmosphere to shield the blow.

"This has provided us with a unique opportunity because we've never made these types of measurements before over an extended period of time, which means we've never been able to validate our models," notes Schwadron. "Now we can put this whole modeling field on more solid footing and project GCR dose rates from the present period back through time when different interplanetary conditions prevailed." This projection will provide a clearer picture of the effects of GCRs on airless bodies through the history of the solar system.

Moreover, CRaTER's recent findings also provide further insight into radiation as a double-edge sword. That is, while cosmic radiation does pose risks to astronauts and even spacecraft, it may have been a fundamental agent of change on celestial bodies by irradiating water ice and causing chemical alterations. Specifically, the process releases oxygen atoms from water ice, which are then free to bind with carbon to form large molecules that are "prebiotic" organic molecules.

In addition to being able to accurately gauge the radiation environment of the past, the now more robust models can also be used more effectively to predict potential radiation hazards spawned by GCRs and SEPs.

Says Schwadron, "Our validated models will be able to answer the question of how hazardous the space environment is and could be during these high-energy radiation events, and the ability to do this is absolutely necessary for any manned space exploration beyond low-Earth orbit."

Indeed, current models were in agreement with radiation dose rates measured by CRaTER, which together demonstrates the accuracy of the Earth-Moon-Mars Radiation Environment Module (EMMREM) being developed at UNH. EMMREM integrates a variety of models describing radiation effects in the Earth-Moon-Mars and interplanetary space environments and has now been validated to show its suitability for real-time space weather prediction.

Media Contact: David Sims +1 (603) 862-5369 david.sims@unh.edu

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Cosmic Rays Alter Chemistry of Lunar Ice

Cosmic rays alter chemistry of lunar ice, may create building blocks of life

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ScienceDaily (Mar. 19, 2012) Space scientists from the University of New Hampshire and multi-institutional colleagues report they have quantified levels of radiation on the moon's surface from galactic cosmic ray (GCR) bombardment that over time causes chemical changes in water ice and can create complex carbon chains similar to those that help form the foundations of biological structures. In addition, the radiation process causes the lunar soil, or regolith, to darken over time, which is important in understanding the geologic history of the moon.

The scientists present their findings in a paper published online in the American Geophysical Union's Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR). The paper, titled "Lunar Radiation Environment and Space Weathering from the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER)," is based on measurements made by the CRaTER instrument onboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission. The paper's lead author is Nathan Schwadron, an associate professor of physics at the UNH Space Science Center within the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS). Co-author Harlan Spence is the director of EOS and lead scientist for the CRaTER instrument.

The telescope provides the fundamental measurements needed to test our understanding of the lunar radiation environment and shows that "space weathering" of the lunar surface by energetic radiation is an important agent for chemical alteration. CRaTER measures material interactions of GCRs and solar energetic particles (SEPs), both of which present formidable hazards for human exploration and spacecraft operations. CRaTER characterizes the global lunar radiation environment and its biological impacts by measuring radiation behind a "human tissue-equivalent" plastic.

Serendipitously, the LRO mission made measurements during a period when GCR fluxes remained at the highest levels ever observed in the space age due to the sun's abnormally extended quiet cycle. During this quiescent period, the diminished power, pressure, flux and magnetic flux of the solar wind allowed GCRs and SEPs to more readily interact with objects they encountered -- particularly bodies such as our moon, which has no atmosphere to shield the blow.

"This has provided us with a unique opportunity because we've never made these types of measurements before over an extended period of time, which means we've never been able to validate our models," notes Schwadron. "Now we can put this whole modeling field on more solid footing and project GCR dose rates from the present period back through time when different interplanetary conditions prevailed." This projection will provide a clearer picture of the effects of GCRs on airless bodies through the history of the solar system.

Moreover, CRaTER's recent findings also provide further insight into radiation as a double-edge sword. That is, while cosmic radiation does pose risks to astronauts and even spacecraft, it may have been a fundamental agent of change on celestial bodies by irradiating water ice and causing chemical alterations. Specifically, the process releases oxygen atoms from water ice, which are then free to bind with carbon to form large molecules that are "prebiotic" organic molecules.

In addition to being able to accurately gauge the radiation environment of the past, the now more robust models can also be used more effectively to predict potential radiation hazards spawned by GCRs and SEPs.

Says Schwadron, "Our validated models will be able to answer the question of how hazardous the space environment is and could be during these high-energy radiation events, and the ability to do this is absolutely necessary for any manned space exploration beyond low-Earth orbit."

Indeed, current models were in agreement with radiation dose rates measured by CRaTER, which together demonstrates the accuracy of the Earth-Moon-Mars Radiation Environment Module (EMMREM) being developed at UNH. EMMREM integrates a variety of models describing radiation effects in the Earth-moon-Mars and interplanetary space environments and has now been validated to show its suitability for real-time space weather prediction.

Additional co-authors on the UNH CRaTER team include Thomas Baker, Michael Golightly, Andrew Jordan, Colin Joyce, Sonya Smith, and Jody Wilson. Other co-authors are from the Aerospace Corporation, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Boston University, NASA Headquarters, Scientific Data Processing, University of Tennessee, Southwest Research Institute.

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Cosmic rays alter chemistry of lunar ice, may create building blocks of life

Goal.com All-Access: Teemu Tainio says team chemistry is key to Red Bulls' success

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Known for having a hardworking and relentless nature on the football pitch, New York Red Bulls midfielder Teemu Tainio is also praised for his team-first mentality.

Wanting the Red Bulls to improve from an inconsistent 2011, Tainio believes the biggest improvement that the team can make this season is off the pitch. The former Finland international believes team camaraderie can enhance New York's performance and he would like to see the players find different ways to bond.

"Maybe that's what we need to change for this year. Last year we didn't do too much together," Tainio explained to Goal.com. "Maybe this year, we'll try to go to more dinners and get together more often than last year. It always helps to build the team. "

During the preseason, Tainio noticed that with players gathering for dinners and off-the-field activities, morale was better than last season and players worked harder on the field.

Even the team's Designated Players joined in on the good times. The 32-year-old Tainio is a former Tottenham Hotspur player and leave it to a former Arsenal legend, Thierry Henry, to rub in the rivalry between the two men.

"We talk about it all the time," Tainio said. "A few weeks ago there was an Arsenal at Spurs game and we really didn't talk to each other on gameday but in a good [competitive] way. We talk about a lot of players in Europe that we've played with and know."

While the New York Red Bulls are still a work in progress, Tainio is grateful to be playing for the side. Injuries almost ended the career of player who starred for top-division clubs in Europe such as Auxierre, Sunderland and Spurs. He admits that he came close to retiring after an injury knocked him out of playing for his last European club.

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When Tainio received the offer by the Red Bulls, he decided to give his playing career one more chance.

"I had a chance to come here and I thought I'd give it one more shot and last year was good for me. I played 28 games," he added.

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Goal.com All-Access: Teemu Tainio says team chemistry is key to Red Bulls' success

Brain chemistry creates need for in-patient treatment

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The brain chemistry of addiction is one reason its so important to offer in-patient treatment for people who seek help from chemical dependency, according to the Western Montana Mental Health Center.

The brain works on a reward system, and it becomes conditioned to substances such as opiates and alcohol, said Tammera Nauts, a licensed clinical social worker and licensed addictions counselor with the Mental Health Center. The substances end up doing for the brain what it used to do for itself, and the chemicals in the brain of an addicted person change.

A lot of addiction is the drive to avoid withdrawal, the discomfort of withdrawal, Nauts said.

So she said in-patient around the clock care is critical for people trying to break their chemical dependency. The brain is wired to seek reward, and medical professionals can help patients find other behaviors to satisfy their cravings. Not without sustained intervention is the cycle broken, she said.

Alcoholism is a disease; genetics contribute 40 percent to 50 percent of the time, and exposure contributes 50 percent to 60 percent of the time, according to the Mental Health Center.

The Missoula Recovery Center will treat people who have addiction and those who have addiction along with a mental illness.

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Brain chemistry creates need for in-patient treatment

Sherwood Rowland dies aged 84

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F. Sherwood Rowland

— Sherwood Rowland, died 10 March. © Steve Zylius / University Communications

The sad news has reached us that atmospheric chemist Sherwood Rowland died on Saturday 10 March, aged 84, from complications related to Parkinson’s disease. Best known for his discovery, along with post-doc Mario Molina, that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) destroy ozone nearly 40 years ago, Rowland campaigned for a ban on the use of  the widely used and lucrative CFCs.

In 1987, some years after the original discovery of the the action of CFCs, and following evidence of their work above the Antarctic to cause a hole in the ozone layer, CFCs were finally banned from sale. ‘His publicising the adverse effects of release of CFCs in the 1970s did not endear him to industry, but eventually led to his Nobel Prize, which he shared with Mario Molina and Paul Crutzen,’ said RSC President David Phillips in a statement today. ‘In the early stages of his research on CFCs, he and his students used to travel the world taking air samples – I have some photographs of him doing just that in the grounds of the Vatican in Rome in 1982 where he and I were taking part in a Discussion Meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.’

Rowland did not rest after his work on CFCs and as well as research he campaigned against other harmful air pollutants. In 2009 Rowland joined with other Nobel Prize winners to urge US President Barack Obama to increase funding for energy research and development. ‘The most important molecule involved in global warming is carbon dioxide,’ Rowland told Chemistry World at the time. ‘What we are looking for is energy solutions that are advanced and that can last for centuries or more, and chemists will need to be working on these things for an extended period of time.’

Frank Sherwood Rowland, known as Sherry, was born on June 28, 1927 in Delaware, Ohio. After gaining his PhD at the University of Chicago with physical chemist Willard Libby, Rowland originally worked as a nuclear chemist and was a founding faculty member of the University of California, Irvine campus, which was to be his home from 1964. ‘He was a major force in atmospheric chemistry, and, along with his family, he will be greatly missed by all of his colleagues too,’ Phillips said.

Rowland is survived by his wife Joan, daughter Ingrid, son Jeffrey and two grandchildren.

Laura Howes

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Plugging snails into the Matrix

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plugging snails into the matrix

Plugging snails into the Matrix © ACS

In the 1999 film The Matrix, a race of sentient machines gets its power by harvesting bioelectricity from farms of plugged in human beings.

While that’s (as far as I know) not yet been realised, a group at Ben-Gurion University in Israel has managed to plug into a snail as a power source.

The team implanted a biofuel cell into a living land snail. The cell is made from carbon nanotube ‘paper’ modified with enzymes that process sugar. As the snail eats, some of the glucose in its food ends up in the fuel cell and generates electricity.

There’s no danger of the machines overthrowing their human masters just yet, though – the maximum power from the snail cell was 7.45µW, so it would take quite a lot of snails to power even a small robot. That said, the aim of these devices is not really to create a new source of renewable power by enslaving armies of snails – more to power tiny implanted medical devices that deliver drugs or monitor diseases.

I just hope they don’t join forces with the cockroaches with fuel cell-powered implants to control their movements.

Phillip Broadwith

Ref: L Halámková et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2012, DOI: 10.1021/ja211714w

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Bench to boardroom and the pipette competition

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Last week I attended the Bench to Boardroom event organised by OneNucleus at the Newmarket Racecourse. Under the slogan discover-learn-connect, there were opportunities during the day to explore these themes. We certainly learnt a lot from Prof Sir Christopher Evans, whose keynote speech (the first of the day) ’From bench to billions’ inspired and incited debate, something I have now learnt to expect from him. Described by many as the founding father of the Cambridge biotech cluster, he talked about many things (we’ll be publishing the interview I had with him within the next couple of weeks so keep an eye on the homepage), among them what makes a business successful. The essential ingredients in his view are: a good product, excellent people, an exciting business plan, money (plenty of it!), hard work and luck. It doesn’t look like rocket science but I guess the trick is getting all the elements of the equation right.

— Fisher Scientific run a "fast pipette" competition at Bench to Boardroom

There was a also an opportunity to discover that my pipetting skills are still up to scratch when I came second (a position I shared with the gentleman in the picture) in the Fisher pipette competition that Fisher Scientific were running from their stand on the exhibition floor. The challenge was to fill six tubes of different volumes with different amounts of liquid, i.e. two 50ml tubes required 15ml each, two 15ml tubes required 5ml each, etc. I managed to do it in 1 minute 29 and you can just about manage to make out the text in the leader board shown in the picture (in case someone wants proof!), which is quite a feat if we take into consideration that I haven’t done any real chemistry since 2004. Also, in my defence (I should have been first really, after all I was representing the RSC plus there was a bottle of bubbly for the winner), when I did the test I had just arrived and my hands were freezing. In any case, I’m revelling in my success and my prize of Smarties!

The second keynote speaker was Alison Campbell, who told us: ‘There are two Is in innovation’, the second one being for investment, which she referred to as ‘intelligent capital’. Interestingly, she also emphasised the importance of choosing the right people to set up business with. ‘You need a partner, but the right one’, she said, and you have to value the time your partner invests, after all ‘the greatest type of investment is investment of their time’.

There were opportunities to  network during the workshops that were run throughout the day (Deloitte looked at the patent box and Global Regulatory Services covered the NHS, to name just a couple) or on the exhibition floor, which was covered with a range of suppliers, including equipment suppliers, providers of technical services, etc.

To finish it all we were treated to a live show by Dr Hal, who brought chemistry to life with experiments like the exploding ostrich egg, manufacturing liquid oxygen and chemiluminescence. A good time was had by all!

Bibiana Campos Seijo

successful
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The computer knows its chemistry

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Medicines are more and more often being developed by computer. This means chemists increasingly try out first of all on the screen something they afterwards replicate in actual practice in the laboratory. The computer acts as their playground and simulator, e.g. to find an active ingredient that binds perfectly to the specific structure of one of the bodys own proteins so it can suppress its activity, for example.

Whereas in the past chemists carried out such a computer-aided active ingredient search mainly by combing through data bases containing a limited number of candidate molecules to find which of them was most suitable, ETH Zurich researchers led by Gisbert Schneider, Professor at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, are now going one step further: they have developed a program that has memorised important rules of organic chemistry and can use it to build new active ingredient molecules from first principles. The researchers call it de-novo design.

Molecules never seen before

This has immensely expanded the possibilities for scientists searching for active ingredients. Practically all imaginable molecules are now available to the researchers as virtual candidate active ingredients. Schneider says, It gives us access to molecules that no chemist has ever synthesised or seen before.

Schneiders computer program can assemble molecules virtually on the modular principle and can compare them with existing molecules and calculate how well they fulfil the conditions defined by the researchers. The program can also modify molecules, thus gradually improving them in a process that resembles evolution, until finally the program delivers to the user the information about an optimised candidate active ingredient. To enable it to do this, the software knows a series of basic chemical modules and almost 60 of the most important reaction steps in organic chemistry. Schneider says, They are intentionally nowhere near all the reactions that exist. We have taught the program only the ones that are widely used by chemists and which in their experience also promise success.

The synthesis route is also taken into account

Schneider sees a big advantage in this, since comparable computer programs developed in the past 25 years sometimes produced random molecules irrespective of whether they were synthesizable at a reasonable cost. Because Schneiders program takes into account not only the finished molecule but also the route by which it could be synthesized in actual practice, it leads to active ingredients that really can also be prepared easily by laboratory synthesis.

The software has also passed its first practical test. Via the conventional computer-assisted method searching in a molecule data base - Schneiders work group found an active ingredient molecule that inhibits one of the bodys own enzymes involved in cell division. Thanks to the new software, they succeeded in finding another active ingredient with a structure completely different to the existing one. It has the same activity, but the advantage that it has not yet been patented. The aim is that one day they will be able to use this active ingredient in cancer therapy.

Also attractive for the industry

The search for active ingredients that have not yet been patented will then be an important area for the use of Schneiders software in the future as well. It is also important to find successor substances for medicines whose patent protection has expired.

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The computer knows its chemistry

Steve Heilig: Better Living Through Chemistry: A Reluctant Scientific and Environmental Hero Moves On

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When I was a kid in Southern California, I had a pal up the street whose dad taught chemistry at the local university. That's all I really knew about the man, other than that he was very tall (6'5"!). He was always welcoming at their home when we did stop in after skateboarding, but by the time we were adolescents he was becoming quite famous. Little did we -- or he -- know he would make history. For as it turned out, one evening around then he came home after work and, when his wife, Joan, asked how his research was going, replied "It's going very well. It just means, I think, the end of the world." It also earned him a Nobel Prize.

Professor F. Sherwood ("Sherry") Rowland died this week at 84.

The research he was referring to was his pioneering work showing that human use of aerosol compounds known as chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, present in spray cans and refrigerators of all kinds, was damaging to atmospheric ozone, which blocks the sun's ultraviolet rays -- and thus helped to allow life on earth to develop. His team's research had profound implications for the planet in a number of important ways, but most important, it showed we needed to do something sweeping and soon about an environmental threat.

Rowland's work, with his colleague and fellow 1995 chemistry Nobelist Mario Molina, thus also threatened some profits in the chemical industry. The scenario that unfolded was not unique -- attacks by the industry, both overt and stealth, and an unfortunate sort of shunning by some colleagues who did not want to be threatened by association. The aerosol industry even accused Rowland and Molina of "being K.G.B. agents out to destroy capitalism" -- McCarthyism lived (or rather, lives) on! Similar attacks on scientists predated Rowland -- such as the pioneering pesticide researcher and author Rachel Carson, and many who worked on showing the harms of tobacco. Rowland seems to have shrugged it off and continued his meticulous work. And of course, even before the Nobel, his colleagues came to recognize they had a true star in their midst.

Besides being a stellar scientist, Rowland was an eloquent writer, and in his Nobelist essay, he recalled his awakening to activism: "Mario and I realized that this was not just a scientific question, challenging and interesting to us, but a potentially grave environmental problem." His resultant advocacy for a ban on CFCs is a model of how good science can drive policy for the benefit of all. From their landmark 1974 paper on this topic -- "the initial reaction was absolutely nothing", he recalled -- to the 1987 international Montreal Protocol which stopped production and stockpiling of CFCs was only about 15 years -- a short span in such scenarios, where scientific and politicized controversy can delay real action for decades.

Rowland once reflected, with respect to his work and in the context of atmospheric and climate issues in general, "Is it enough for a scientist simply to publish a paper? Isn't it a responsibility of scientists, if you believe that you have found something that can affect the environment, isn't it your responsibility to actually do something about it, enough so that action actually takes place?... If not us, who? If not now, when?"

Dr. Molina this week told the New York Times that he and Dr. Rowland "were not sure we were going to be successful" in pushing for a ban on CFC's. "But we started something that was a very important precedent: people can make decisions and solve global problems."

Which, given the array of threats facing our species and planet -- climate change, overpopulation, chemical pollution, nuclear proliferation, the decline of science literacy and education, to name a few -- might be the most important lesson of our time. In the video interview below, Rowland said he was not optimistic about humans doing the right thing on climate change, but that he never gave up hope.

I have one fond memory of Rowland's sly humor. A few of the neighborhood teens were sitting in his kitchen; I had recently read about the dangers of pesticides on food and thought it would be good to ask a famous chemist about it (and maybe show off something I had read, too). "Are fruits and vegetables safe to eat now?" I asked. "Is there anything we can do to get pesticides off food?" Rowland looked at me with a shocked expression and said "You eat fruits and vegetables? What a novel idea!" -- and shot a scolding look at his son, sitting nearby. He then added, "Yes, wash them off the best you can. We're still trying to figure out how to keep them off the food in the first place."

Rowland was a scientific and environmental hero. But as the Times notes, he demurred from that label -- he just thought he was doing what he had to do, given what he'd learned. Everyone alive can thank him for that.

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Steve Heilig: Better Living Through Chemistry: A Reluctant Scientific and Environmental Hero Moves On

Discovering the End of the World

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The work and life of F. Sherwood Rowland, a chemist at the University of California, Irvine who died this weekend, should provide ample inspiration for those now grappling with the debate over climate change.

Rowland is best known for figuring out, along with his then post-doc Mario Molina, in the early 1970s how chlorofluorcarbons (CFCs), industrial chemicals widely used in, among things, air conditioners and aerosol sprays, were destroying the protective atmospheric ozone layer. (Rowland, Molina and Paul Crutzen of the Max Planck Institute, shared the 1995 Nobel prize in chemistry for the work.) Rowland also did pioneering work in other areas involving the monitoring and chemistry of trace gases, including research on the rise of methane in the atmosphere. But perhaps his greatest achievement was his demonstration that seemingly simple chemical reactions could play out over a massive scale and have planet-wide effects.

As I wrote in a 2007 Review on the 20thanniversary of the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty that effectively phased out the use of CFCs, Rowland helped to change our fundamental understanding of atmospheric chemistry:

Until the early 1970s, it could be said that, like politics, all chemistry was local. That changed in dramatic fashion with a series of discoveries concerning the global effects of a family of chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs

The researchers found that the CFCs wafted up through the lower atmosphere intact, too stable to react with the swirling brew of chemicals around them. But once they reached the mid-stratosphere, above most of the protective layer of ozone, the intense solar radiation broke the CFC molecules apart, releasing chlorine. Two simple reactions gave Rowland and Molina concern: Cl + O3= ClO + O2, and ClO + O = Cl + O2. That is, chlorine (Cl) reacted with ozone (O3), generating chlorine monoxide (ClO), which in turn reacted with an oxygen atom to release another chlorine; the net result was that the chlorine was destroying ozone without depleting itself. "When we found the chain reactions" occurring in the ozone layer, remembered Rowland this fall, the fate of CFCs "suddenly went from a scientific curiosity to an environmental worry."

Rowland loved to tell a story about his discovery. When his wife asked him how his work was going, he answered, well, it is going very wellexcept it looks like it might be the end of the world. It is a funny story, but it is also one that gets at a profound insight: increasing our understanding of chemistry is a great achievement, but we better be prepared to abide by what the science tells us.

It took more than a decade for Rowland to convince the worldand most notably the chemical industrythat his insight into the chemistry was correct. Though the United States banned the use of CFCS in spray-can applications in 1978, the chemicals remained a mainstay of refrigeration until the finding of an ozone hole above the Antarctic prompted the passage of the Montreal Protocol.

Controlling emissions of greenhouse gases and understanding the complexities of climate change will, no doubt, be more complex and expensive that it was to address the impact of CFCs on the ozone layer. But Rowlands tireless faith in advocating for policies based on the science needs to be remembered. For years he was aggressively challenged, particularly by those in the chemical industry. The idea that inert chemicals released by a spray can, could, somehow, have global effects on the atmosphere was ridiculed. Then, finally faced with the overwhelming evidence of the damage that CFCs were doing, the chemical companies found new chemicals to replace CFCs and began racing to build production capacity of the alternatives. Almost overnight, it seemed, the industry began embracing the lucrative business opportunities possible in replacing chlorofluorocarbons. As is almost inevitably the case, the science had won out.

I recall in the late 1980s hoping to interview Rowland at an American Chemical Society meeting.By then, he was already one of the world best known chemists. But for hours, as I waited impatiently, he sat in the front row of the dingy conference room, listening to endless presentations by young researchers on their latest findings. His interest never seemed to wane, despite the seemingly endless talks and slides showing the latest results of ongoing experiments. His message was clear to everyone in the room; understanding the minute details of chemistry matters.

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Discovering the End of the World

SHSU forensic chemistry student gets national prize

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HUNTSVILLE Sam Houston State University forensic chemistry senior Brittany Winner, from Kingsville, is not only a winner in name, but also in deed as the recipient of the 2012 Society of Toxicology Pfizer Undergraduate Student Travel Award.

Pfizer selects five outstanding undergraduates in the nation each year who are presenting research at the organizations annual meeting to receive travel support and free registration for the meeting. This years conference is March 11-15 in San Francisco.

Awardees are selected based on the quality of a submitted poster abstract, personal statement, and an advisers supporting recommendation. The purpose of the award is to foster an interest in graduate studies in the field of toxicology.

Winner will have an opportunity to showcase her work along with a number of other students interested in toxicological research during the week. Winner researches the properties of cyanide and methods to encapsulate it in order to create an antidote against its deadly effects.

Her interest in toxicology and cyanide arose from a mentorship with Ilona Petrikovics, professor of chemistry and Sam Houston States expert on the studies of cyanide.

She talked about her work with cyanide in class, and I found it really interesting so I asked if I could be involved, said Winner. Petrikovicss research on cyanide is an ongoing project funded by the U.S. Governments Department of Defense. The study focuses on methods to dissipate its effects on the general population in case of cyanide use in bio-terrorism and/or poisoning.

During the mentorship, the relationship between Winner and Petrikovics developed into a strong partnership.

We had weekly lab meetings that lasted about an hour. Outside the lab Id also just drop by and wed talk. We talked about the research and other aspects of life, Winner said.

At the conference, Winner will be presented with a plaque for her accomplishments during an awards ceremony. The conference also provides a range of opportunities for companies to view and come into contact with different types of research and scholars.

Its a great place for networking, Winner said.

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SHSU forensic chemistry student gets national prize

The Greening of Chemistry

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Newswise Cleaner! Faster! Cheaper! is a rallying cry for chemists working to limit the impact of their work on the environment.

Their efforts reflect the 12 guiding principles developed by chemists Paul Anastas and John Warner, who founded the green chemistry movement in the mid-1990s. Among the rules: Its better to prevent waste production than to clean it up afterward. But if there must be waste, it should be nontoxic or minimally poisonousas should the chemical products themselves. Chemical reactions should be energy efficient, for example by running at room temperature instead of being heated up. And ideally chemists should use renewable resources.

Chemistry may not be as obviously green as planting a tree, but researchers are working to make it better for the planet, one reaction at a time. Here are a few examples of how chemists funded by the National Institutes of Health are going green by improving the chemical processes used to make medicines, plastics and other products.

Water, Water Everywhere

If two chemicals are going to react, they usually need a liquid in which to do so. Often, thats a toxic solvent. When the reaction is over, the chemists have to dump the solvent or try to recycle it. A greener alternative is to start with a safer solventwater.

Bruce Lipshutz at the University of California, Santa Barbara, designed minuscule, bubble-like particles (nanoparticles) that shelter the reactions while surrounded by water. The chemicals go inside the particles, where they find the perfect environment to react together, and the product comes out. Because the reactions are so highly concentrated, they can happen at room temperature. Scientists dont have to kick-start the reactions using heat, saving time and energy.

Call in the Microbes

Another way to make reactions water-based, instead of solvent-based, is to recruit microbes to help reactions along. Scientists engineer microbes to make useful molecules, typically enzymes whose job is to carry out chemical reactions in water-based solutions. Chemists can use the microbes or the enzymes alone to speed up chemical reactions in a water solution.

For example, Jay Keasling at the University of California, Berkeley, is designing microbes to manufacture certain molecules. Several years ago, he inserted more than a dozen genes into Escherichia coli and yeast that enabled the organisms to churn out an antimalarial drug that is otherwise expensive to produce. Hes exploring a similar technique to generate HIV/AIDS drugs and environmentally friendly biofuels that might replace fossil-based fuels such as gasoline.

Shorter Syntheses

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The Greening of Chemistry

Juicers, Trippers, and Crocodiles: The Dangerous World of Underground Chemistry | DISCOVER

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Nobody dreams of growing up and landing a low-paying job in New Jersey making chemicals used in shampoos and hair gels. And on those long, tedious days back in 1991 when a 24-year-old lab technician named Patrick Arnold stood alone in a room stirring thickening agents into smelly vats of goo, there was plenty of time to reflect on the twists of fate that had condemned him to work in a place where nothing interesting ever happened, in a job that was just going nowhere.

It took months to find the way out, but the path was there in front of him all along. Arnold was an avid weight lifter, cursed with an average build that had long ago stopped cooperating with his efforts to get bigger. Even so, every night after work he would head to one of several gyms where he pumped iron and talked shop with other muscleheads. The conversation would often turn to anabolic steroids. Arnold had majored in chemistry at the University of New Haven, and those weight-room discussions got him thinking.

One afternoon after starting the days reactions at work, Arnold marched down the hall to the chemistry library on his floor and looked up the molecular structures of the steroids mentioned in his muscle magazines. Anabolic steroids, which are essentially synthetic testosterone, had only just been declared controlled substances, so there was still an awful lot of information available about them.

It wasnt long before it hit him: I hate my job, Im sitting here, Ive got a labI can try making some of these things myself. No one will even know what the hell Im doing. Arnold added the steroid precursors he would need to the regular list of laboratory chemicals he ordered through the company, and nobody was the wiser.

Progress was slow at first. Often he would set out to make a product that he knew should form a crystalline structure, only to end up with a sticky oil stuck to a flask. To Arnold that residue was like a flashing caution sign, an indication that potentially toxic impurities and leftover reactants had failed to separate from the brew. But over time he became expert at using solvents to wash the impurities and reactants away, and his compounds increasingly came to form translucent, icelike crystals that indicated a high level of purity...

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Juicers, Trippers, and Crocodiles: The Dangerous World of Underground Chemistry | DISCOVER

Did Life on Earth Come From Mars?

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Early Earth may have had too much water for life to take hold. Conditions for life may have been better on Mars, which had dry spots. Cycles of water and drying may have been needed to give the molecular building blocks for life a chemical toehold.

Given the same raw materials, Mars would have been a better host for life to arise than Earth, which some scientists believe was too flooded for the chemistry of life to gain a toehold.

Without at least occasional dry land, the chemistry needed to get life started doesnt work very well because the molecules to support genetics, such as RNA, are chemically unstable in many ways, particularly in water.

PHOTOS: Weirdest Mars Craters

That raises a problem, because life, at least as we know it today, seems to require water.

"How is it possible that the chemicals that we now have supporting modern life, which is so unstable in water, could have arisen in water?" biochemist Steven Benner, head of the Foundation For Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainsville, Fla., told Discovery News.

The answer could be that life evolved in places that occasionally dried out.

"You can get RNA and its building blocks to be stable in an Earth-like environment, provided you put them into some environment that is deficient in water," Benner said, pointing to a place like Death Valley, where there is intermittent rainfall to provide organic compounds from the atmosphere as well as cycles of dryness.

"If you get building blocks for RNA, you get genetics and you're off to the races. You've got life," Benner said.

But there's a catch.

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Did Life on Earth Come From Mars?

Lakers gamble chemistry in Derek Fisher trade

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) Derek Fisher and Kobe Bryant joined the Los Angeles Lakers together in 1996. They've been in the same backcourt for most of the ensuing 16 seasons, winning five NBA titles during their intertwined careers.

Fisher's departure Thursday for Houston and Ramon Sessions' arrival from Cleveland made the Lakers younger and faster at point guard, their weakest position.

The Lakers don't yet know if the trades made the NBA's sixth-best team any better - and they still don't know whether the moves made Bryant angry.

General manager Mitch Kupchak said he didn't speak to Bryant before or after trading Fisher to the Rockets, and Bryant canceled a scheduled interview on the Lakers' flagship radio station when news of Fisher's departure broke. Kupchak also didn't speak directly to Fisher, intimating the 37-year-old NBA players' union leader took the news hard.

''It's hard to put into words what he's meant to this organization, on the court and off the court,'' Kupchak said Thursday at the Lakers' training complex. ''It's one of the hardest parts of the job that a general manager has, separating the emotions of a relationship you've had. ... We think Ramon will make an immediate impact. Despite Derek's presence, we felt that we needed more speed and more quickness in the backcourt.''

But the Lakers lost more than an aging point guard whose skills and athleticism have eroded considerably in the past few years. Fisher and Bryant were the Lakers' unquestioned locker room leaders, with Fisher's cerebral calm contrasting nicely with the fiery intensity of the NBA's leading scorer.

Kupchak and Lakers executive Jim Buss slept on the trades before making them Thursday. Kupchak felt the Lakers couldn't justify keeping three point guards - Sessions, Steve Blake and Fisher - on the roster making significant salaries, so Fisher had to go after starting their first 43 games this season.

''I'm concerned, yeah,'' Kupchak said. ''As each day goes on, it will get easier and easier, but you can't underestimate Derek's contribution from a chemistry standpoint. You can't say this team is going to wake up tomorrow and play as if he was never here.''

Kupchak is breaking up part of a team that isn't exactly broken, notwithstanding a few awful performances on the road. The Pacific Division-leading Lakers (27-16) have gone 7-2 in a brutal 15-day stretch since the All-Star break, and they've won 18 of their last 19 home games since Christmas heading into Friday's visit from Minnesota.

Kupchak acknowledges concern about dismantling part of the roster that reached three straight NBA finals from 2008-10, winning two titles, yet he is determined to make the Lakers younger. He also didn't hesitate to upend the Lakers' chemistry earlier this year when he shipped angry forward Lamar Odom to the Dallas Mavericks after a trade to land Chris Paul was blocked by the NBA.

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Lakers gamble chemistry in Derek Fisher trade