The News Review:
- Atmospheric chemistry: A forest air of chirality
- Microwave-assisted science
- The Breeze – Top Stories
- Sweet smell of success for biofuel expert
- Nobels oblige
- Nanotechnology: How Green Can It Be?
Atmospheric chemistry: A forest air of chirality
Nature.com – Nature.com (subscription) – Apr 26, 2007
Stephanou Atmospheric chemistry: A forest air of chiralityEuripides G. Stephanou1Top of pageAbstractA sophisticated survey of certain volatile organic compounds in the air over forest ecosystems shows how such work can reveal varied emission patterns of different chiral or mirror-image forms of these compounds. An unseen component of forest ecology is the emission by both plants and animals of a cocktail of volatile organic compounds into the atmosphere. Emissions from plants exceed those from animals by several orders of magnitude and have various purposes such as repelling herbivorous animals or attracting specific insects for pollination. To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right). MRE ARTICLES LIKE THIS These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
Microwave-assisted science
LabTechnologist.com – Apr 26, 2007
Since the first use of microwaves in chemistry was described in 1986 the field has undergone constant and rapid growth with over 4000 publications citing their use to speed up and enable difficult chemical reactions – 700 of these were published in 2006. This growth was exemplified at the 5th International Microwaves in Chemistry Conference held at the UK’s Imperial College last week where the adoption of the technique was shown to have grown from small molecule synthesis applications to high-throughput synthesis laboratories peptide synthesis protein digestion and proteomics. "The whole area of microwaves is moving very quickly and is really transforming the world of science in many different ways – the field started off being described as microwave chemistry but is now being known as microwave enhanced science" said Dr Mike Collins CE of microwave instrument company CEM who sponsored the event. Numerous examples were shown where the use of microwave heating has enabled hard to do reactions or led to increases in efficiency by dramatically shortening reaction times. Dr David Smith from Sanofi Aventis presented a poster showing the use of microwaves to enable the difficult multiple isotopic labelling of an antimalarial agent Ferroquine (SSR97193) currently in Phase I trials… Dr Mark Bagley of the University of Cardiff told LabTechnologist. com that this is because the microwaves superheat the metals to far higher temperatures than the bulk solution. Bagley’s group is currently using microwave and flow-chemistry techniques to enable his group’s research into potential heterocyclic drugs for Werner’s syndrome – a rare premature aging disease where cells go into a state of senescence earlier than they should. The group have had some success in this area but Bagley said that: "aging research takes a long time". UK-based specialty chemical company Reaxa presented results of how the company’s.
The Breeze – Top Stories
JMU The Breeze – Apr 26, 2007
According to the Daily News Record Dr. Palocsay is survived by his wife and two daughters. After receiving his doctorate at the University of Arizona Palocsay taught chemistry at JMU from 1968 to 2000. “Frank was a phenomenal professor because he taught us the process of learning and chemistry” said Austin Pacher a former student and close friend of Palocsay… After receiving his doctorate at the University of Arizona Palocsay taught chemistry at JMU from 1968 to 2000. “Frank was a phenomenal professor because he taught us the process of learning and chemistry” said Austin Pacher a former student and close friend of Palocsay. ”My education then took a turn from biology to chemistry because of his enthusiasm and love of learning. Following his retirement from teaching he remained in Harrisonburg staying active in the JMU Emeritus Association. Palocsay will not only be remembered for his numerous contributions to the classroom and the chemistry department at JMU but also to Tau Kappa Epsilon the fraternity that he helped nurture.
Sweet smell of success for biofuel expert
guardian.co.uk – Apr 26, 2007
Growing worries about the safety issues while teaching students eventually saw her interests turning elsewhere. Minteer is now an assistant professor of chemistry at Saint Louis University in Missouri. At first she worked on creating chemically-selective layers using enzymes for biochemical sensors but then found her research group coming back to fuel cells. “We got interested in sugar-powered fuel cells after developing ethanol fuel cells and realising that energetically it made more sense to use the sugar directly than to turn sugar into ethanol and then use the ethanol” she says. Although using sugar to make electricity sounds surprising it’s actually not that novel. Peter Bruce a chemistry professor at the University of St Andrews says that fuel cells based on glucose have been described before but he reckons that Minteer has found a different approach… “We got interested in sugar-powered fuel cells after developing ethanol fuel cells and realising that energetically it made more sense to use the sugar directly than to turn sugar into ethanol and then use the ethanol” she says. Although using sugar to make electricity sounds surprising it’s actually not that novel. Peter Bruce a chemistry professor at the University of St Andrews says that fuel cells based on glucose have been described before but he reckons that Minteer has found a different approach. “The new thing here seems to be the use of sugar and an enzyme to break it down. These sort of devices are still a long way off replacing lithium batteries. The power density is very low – about 10 to 100 times lower than alternatives” he says. Despite this Minteer claims that her “sugar battery” is the longest-lasting and most powerful of its type to date.
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Nobels oblige
guardian.co.uk – Apr 26, 2007
ne really big standing ovation the biggest they’ve ever had. Three real Nobel prizewinners were there for the ceremony at the Sanders theatre at Harvard University. Dudley Herschbach (chemistry 1986) wore big red comedy glasses. Richard Roberts (physiology or medicine 1986) the Brit who discovered split genes was in Wellington boots. They and William Lipscomb (chemistry 1976) were donning lab coats. Towards the end of the ceremony Herschbach Roberts and Lipscomb rose along with the rest of a packed house of scientists to hail the winner of the Ig Nobel peace prize Daisuke Inoue of Hyogo Japan the man who invented karaoke and – in the plangent words of his awards citation – thereby provided “an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other”. Marc Abrahams master of ceremonies founder of the Ig Nobels editor of the Annals of Improbable Research and Education Guardian columnist said afterwards: “We’ve had standing ovations before but we’ve never seen anything like that… Dudley Herschbach (chemistry 1986) wore big red comedy glasses. Richard Roberts (physiology or medicine 1986) the Brit who discovered split genes was in Wellington boots. They and William Lipscomb (chemistry 1976) were donning lab coats. Towards the end of the ceremony Herschbach Roberts and Lipscomb rose along with the rest of a packed house of scientists to hail the winner of the Ig Nobel peace prize Daisuke Inoue of Hyogo Japan the man who invented karaoke and – in the plangent words of his awards citation – thereby provided “an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other”. Marc Abrahams master of ceremonies founder of the Ig Nobels editor of the Annals of Improbable Research and Education Guardian columnist said afterwards: “We’ve had standing ovations before but we’ve never seen anything like that. ” He was worried it was going to go on all night. The Ig Nobels are the foremost prizes for strange science the awards that make people laugh and then make them think.
School tools
Nanotechnology: How Green Can It Be?
Environment News Service – Apr 26, 2007
Nanotechnology is the ability to measure see manipulate and manufacture things on an atomic or molecular scale usually between one and 100 nanometers. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter – a human hair is 100000 nanometers wide. The report explores potentially beneficial links between nanotechnology and green chemistry and engineering which aim to minimize environmental impacts through resource conservation and waste elimination in processes and products.