The News Review:
- Syngenta and the Royal Society of Chemistry launch African science…
- Home ffice bans suspect from AS levels
- New Record Set for Shortest Chemical Bond between Two Metals
- Comments on ‘UK gov bans ‘terror’ suspect from science class’
- Portable power: Features abound thanks to new battery chemistries.(li…
Syngenta and the Royal Society of Chemistry launch African science…
chemie.de – Nov 22, 2007
The Network which will eventually span the whole continent is being established initially in Kenya. Its purpose is to connect African chemists more effectively and to enable them to achieve greater levels of innovation and scientific development.
Home ffice bans suspect from AS levels
Times nline – Nov 22, 2007
They allow the Home ffice to impose curfews and travel bans and to restrict certain activity such as internet access mobile phone use and education. AE is one of 14 people subject to a control order. Scientists said that the chemistry and human biology AS levels did not teach much that would be of value to a terrorist. Colin sborne head of education at the Royal Society of Chemistry said: “There’s very little in the chemistry course that would help a terrorist act. ”Neil Roscoe head of education and training at the Institute of Biology said that the human biology course does teach basic theories of disease transmission but that it includes no details that would help someone to spread pathogens deliberately. It does however contain a module on neuro-toxins that describes their structure in some detail. “If the Government wants to be cautious there are aspects that could be considered as aiding the cause” Dr Roscoe said.
New Record Set for Shortest Chemical Bond between Two Metals
Azom.com – Nov 22, 2007
Theopold and Kevin Kreisel who graduated with his doctorate from UD in August and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin made the finding working with research associate Glenn Yap and postdoctoral fellow lga Dmitrenko both from UD and Clark Landis a colleague from the University of Wisconsin. The research was reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Theopold has been researching the chemistry of chromium for a long time. The metal is an important industrial catalyst for making plastics such as polyethylene. “We discovered this interesting looking molecule and realized that it had an extremely short distance between the metal atoms” Theopold said. Using an analytical technique called X-ray diffraction the scientists were able to look directly at the atomic structure of the new molecule and measure the distance between the chromium atoms. A rule-of-thumb in chemistry Theopold said is that bond length and bond strength go together so it’s likely that the metal-metal bond is a strong one although Theopold said no one knows for sure… “We discovered this interesting looking molecule and realized that it had an extremely short distance between the metal atoms” Theopold said. Using an analytical technique called X-ray diffraction the scientists were able to look directly at the atomic structure of the new molecule and measure the distance between the chromium atoms. A rule-of-thumb in chemistry Theopold said is that bond length and bond strength go together so it’s likely that the metal-metal bond is a strong one although Theopold said no one knows for sure. “This molecule is probably not practically useful. We’re not going to get a patent here or cure cancer” Theopold noted. “Records define the range in which things can exist. It’s just an interesting molecule from a fundamental scientific standpoint.
Comments on ‘UK gov bans ‘terror’ suspect from science class’
Register – Nov 22, 2007
But since I know a few I wouldn’t be surprised if that guy had taken the course to improve his English rather than his science. @michael: ignorance is strength 1984. Hence the PH icon she’s the strongest of all!Ludicrous By Anonymous Coward Posted Thursday 22nd November 2007 16:47 GMTAt the end of the day the education system in the UK (certainly up to A-Level) is more about qualification than education. If he has a reasonable grasp of English and wants to be educated I imagine he could pickup an A-level (or degree-level) text book and teach himself.
Portable power: Features abound thanks to new battery chemistries.(li…
Free with registration – EDN – AccessMyLibrary.com – Nov 22, 2007
Standard lithium-ion batteries use a cobalt oxide for the cathode. There are several permutations of this cobalt alloy such as nickel-manganese cobalt but the key ingredient is cobalt which makes for the highest energy storage in the battery. Unfortunately it also goes hand in hand with a volatile chemistry. Lithium-cobalt chemistries are highly combustible and cell puncture or drawing too much current can trigger thermal runaway or even a fire. Although uncommon lithium-ion-cell failures were the cause for the massive recall of products from Dell Apple and others. Battery manufacturers recognize how-ever that applications other than consumer devices such as laptops and.