Jul
3
3
Catch you next year, Lindau
Posted by Sarah Everts on July 3, 2009 in Uncategorized
Lindau conference delegates spent their last day on the the pretty island of Mainau, which has lots of flowers and a castle. We got there on this weird bullet-like ferry that had some goofy balloon molecules for decoration inside. Anybody want to guess what molecules they were trying to represent?
The ferry
Weird balloon molecule decoration
What were they trying to emulate?
OK, this balloon's inspiration is obvious...
And here's that castle...
Sustainable Panels
Jul
3
3
Posted by Sarah Everts on July 3, 2009 in Uncategorized
I have a friend who says that humans have only really achieved sustainability in the sustainability panels we put together. I wouldn’t go that far, but I have been to quite a few…
Today, we all nearly expired sitting out in the noon sun for nearly two hours, listening to the Lindau conference’s panel about climate change and sustainability, which featured some of the usual suspects in these debates (such as the IPCC’s Rajendra Pachauri and the controversial writer Bjørn Lomborg). Also present: other Nobel Laureates (Molina, Schrock), climate scientist Thomas Stocker and a rep from the German government, lover of solar technology. The Economist’s science editor Geoff Carr moderated.
The sweltering discussion took place on an island called Mainau. (It’s got a castle. Stay tuned for photos of the strange bullet-like ferry we took from Lindau to Mainau, and the boat’s decorative balloon molecules.)
So panel members mostly stuck to their typical mantras: Pachauri: the world is growing unsustainably and we need to do something about climate change. Lomborg: climate change is an issue, but we have other more pressing world problems than climate change to solve, such as world health. Molina: The planet is facing irreversible threats; we have to invest in new renewable energy technologies and cut consumption. Cornelia Quennet-Thielen (from the German Ministry for Education and Science): One million new jobs in the solar energy sectors means renewable energy can help the economy. Schrock: There are many renewable energy problems that chemistry can solve.
To be honest, I was mostly interested in finding out what the delegates would say about the upcoming United Nations conference in Copenhagen this December, which will aim to develop a workable global agreement to fight climate change… since the Kyoto Protocol has not been what one might call a stellar success. Lomborg played pessimist, “We will get together in Copenhagen and make promises, but will we keep them?,” while Pachauri was excessively optimistic. He said an agreement in Copenhagen would be found and enforced, arguing that public awareness was “light years” ahead of where it was during the Kyoto negotiations. “The world has changed,” Pachauri said, adding that this public awareness means governments would get voted out if they don’t ratify or enforce whatever comes of Copenhagen. He mentioned this increase of awareness is a key to changing our consumptive lifestyle. I’m really not convinced about the last point, and it’s one I’ve heard before on such panels.
Although I am choosing to be optimistic about Copenhagen, and I’m even willing to hope that this increasing awareness about climate science may inspire the public to vote in sustainably-bent politicians. But knowledge doesn’t change human behavior, when we humans enjoy doing what we are doing.
Consider personal health, a subject arguably closer to the human heart than the environment. Nutritionists have been telling us for years that eating right and exercising makes for a longer life. I’d wager that more people believe that the nutritionists are correct about eating right than they believe scientists about climate change. But being educated sure hasn’t stopped the obesity epidemic. We love our twinkies and we love our cars, and left to our own devices we’d probably not curb our enjoyment of either, or at least not enough to stop both impending catastrophes. Education is not superfluous, but what we need are good polices, and ones that are enforced.
Incidentally, both the panel moderator Carr and nobelist Roger Tsien, who was sitting in the audience, asked the panelists to point out specific renewable energy needs, since there were hundreds of budding young scientists in the audience who might put their brains to the problem(s). But the only person to list off specifics was Pachauri, who called for the development of small turbines to use as biomass gasifiers. He also asked for a way to convert agricultural cellulose waste into usable fuels. Everyone else ducked the question by saying that basic research was important. (Sure it is, but that wasn’t the answer to the question!)
Being Fluorescent
Jul
2
2
Posted by Sarah Everts on July 2, 2009 in Where is C&EN?
There was a Green Fluorescent Protein extravaganza at the Lindau meeting this morning, with back-to-back talks by the three 2008 chemistry Nobel Prize winners. We heard about Shimomura’s side project to isolate the protein from jellyfish, how Chalfie made it brighten up the life of worms and Tsien’s tinkering to make the protein fluoresce into a rainbow of pretty colors.
Afterwards, lots of people were talking about Tsien’s “on-stage self-psychoanalysis,” as one guy from Germany put it. Tsien gave a down-to-earth synopsis of his search for a scientific research area that would “suit my neuroses” and encouraged delegates to do the same. Some of Tsien’s mental health considerations: He feels really uncomfortable with competition. He’s the youngest of three brothers and according to sibling psychology prefers to eke out his own niche. Then there’s his penchant for bright colors. And finally, he feels that biology offers the “most interesting grand questions in all of science currently doable by individuals.” (Big physics questions relying on expensive gadgets that you have to share among lots of people.) So deciding to apply his chemistry know-how to biology, he went looking for his own niche relatively free of competition, with, uh, obviously good results.
Anyway, besides the self-psychoanalysis, Tsien also hasn’t hesitated to get political. At a press conference Wednesday, a Chinese journalist asked him what sort of advice he would give to help young Chinese people become successful. Tsien first noted that Chinese people are hard workers and have made important discoveries. “The problem right now,” he said, “is intellectual freedom.” Tsien added that it’s important that young people have the freedom to challenge what “big shot professors or politicians tell them.”
In addition to an eclectic assortment of international media, there are also some celebrity bloggers here, such as Coturnix and PZ Myers. Royalty has also made a cameo: Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn showed up for a couple of days. (Sirindhorn should not be confused with her sister Princess Chulabhorn, who has a PhD in chemistry and her own research institute.)
Hanging Out With Nobel Laureates
Jul
1
1
Posted by Sarah Everts on July 1, 2009 in Where is C&EN?
Gerhard Ertl chats with a delegate
I’m on a seriously quaint but very humid island called Lindau in Germany’s Lake Constance this week, surrounded by more than 20 Nobel laureates, and nearly 600 young researchers who are lucky (and smart) enough to have nabbed a chance to mingle with these science celebrities. No advisors at the Lindau conference, just students and postdocs from 67 countries, from as far afield as Chile or Pakistan. (Harry Kroto told me he feels like the equivalent of a scientific rock star here…)
Besides talks and panel discussions by the laureates, students get to chitchat with their heroes in small groups. A Swedish count started the Lindau meetings in 1951 and each year the conference focus toggles through the different prize themes—last year the focus was on physics, this year it’s chemistry. His daughter Countess Bettina runs the show now, sporting a fetching hat.
Algae-To-Fuel: The Tough Part
Jun
30
30
Posted by Carmen Drahl on June 30, 2009 in Chemistry in the News, Ripped From the Pages
The New York Times (and its Green Inc. blog) are covering Dow Chemical and startup company Algenol Biofuels‘ newly announced plan to build a pilot plant for converting carbon dioxide into ethanol. (You’ll hear more about this story in C&EN soon).
As you might be able to guess from Algenol’s name, the idea is to use specially-engineered algae to make the ethanol, which would be used as fuel or as a feedstock for plastics.
Both of the stories are business stories, so I don’t expect them to have a great deal of information about the science behind this announcement. But it’s important to emphasize a potential stumbling block for this technology-getting the ethanol the algae makes into a usable form.
(more…)
Things I Didn’t Expect To Find In The Arctic
Jun
26
26
Posted by Lisa Jarvis on June 26, 2009 in Where is C&EN?
I’m still up at Toolik Field Station, NSF’s long-term research site in northern Alaska, and wanted to make a few comments about life at the station. Here are just a few things I didn’t expect I’d see this far north in the world:
1. A musical interlude.
There was a serious jam session/sing-a-long last night in the overflow dining tent. I hear it’s a standing gig, and if you don’t know how to play an instrument, you’re encouraged to pick one up and learn. There were some usual suspects—guitar, banjo, harmonica, violin—and some less expected additions—a full drum kit, mandolin, and a saw. Earlier in the day, I had noticed some mysterious markings on the floor of the tent. Turns out, they are song chords. Crowd favorites? Dylan (“Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”), Talking Heads (“Psycho Killer”), and Beatles (“Hide Your Love Away”).
2. Mosquitos.
Before I left for Alaska, I told friends I needed to track down Deet and a mosquito net. Many were perplexed: there are mosquitos in the arctic? Sure are. Each person has their own personal swarm. It reminds me of the dirt cloud perpetually surrounding Pigpen. Breck Bowden, a scientist who has been coming up here for two decades, commented at breakfast yesterday that the mosquitos this summer are the worst he’s seen since 1997. Constant itching isn’t the only problem; the pests can get into instrumentation in the field and seriously throw off measurements. We witnessed their meddling ways when we went out to measure carbon exchange in a particularly mosquito-rich area of heath. For a small taste of what it’s like, another reporter on the trip posted video of what happens when you put nine journalists in a bug-filled van.
June In Paris
Jun
26
26
Posted by Sarah Everts on June 26, 2009 in Where is C&EN?
Lovely Paris is where the journal Tetrahedron Letters is currently celebrating its 50th birthday, by means of a conference near the city’s famous catacombs. About 1000 chemists are in town, attracted by a seriously solid line-up of speakers, and, well, Paris in June.
Anyway, a back-in-the-day anecdote by E. J. Corey made it perfectly clear why he had the conference’s first speaker slot. In late 1958, much before his Nobel Prize, he was still a young prof at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Corey says he noticed an announcement that a journal called Tetrahedron Letters would be started. With a theoretical paper in hand that needed a home, Corey figured he’d try out the new journal. Lo and behold, his paper was accepted. A surprise came in 1959 when he got a complimentary copy of the inaugural edition of the new journal. Corey told the audience that when he flipped it open, he found his paper not only in the first issue, but on the first page. I just took a quick peek online and found the title: “A theory for the stereospecific polymerization of propylene oxide by ferric chloride,” should anyone be curious.
Not to miss out on the nostalgia, Nobel Prize winner Jean-Marie Lehn also mentioned his link to the journal. Lehn says that two papers published in Tetrahedron Letters in 1969 were some of the first in the area of supramolecular chemistry. But he warned the audience that we might want to brush up on our French, because that’s the language he published them in.
Innovation: We Know It When We See It
Jun
25
25
Posted by Melody Voith on June 25, 2009 in Where is C&EN?
Quick – think of an innovative product.
Good. Now think of an innovative service.
What popped into your head? I thought of the iPod and Netflix.
On Tuesday I sat in on a summit called The State of Innovation: Moving Beyond Boardroom and Lab, hosted by Seed Magazine and the Council on Competitiveness. The participants included Chad Holliday, former CEO of DuPont, biologist and writer E.O. Wilson, and digerati leader and investor Esther Dyson, among many other luminaries.
Wilson delighted the summit attendees with his insight on why being innovative is so darned hard. “We have Star Wars vision, Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and God-like technologies,” he said.
Extreme Chemistry: Arctic Edition
Jun
23
23
Posted by Lisa Jarvis on June 23, 2009 in Chemistry is Everywhere, Where is C&EN?
Greetings from (nearly) the top of the world! I’m sitting in a tent full of science journalists at the Toolik Field Station, NSF’s long-term ecological research in northern Alaska. In the summer months, there are upwards of 120 scientists and support staff on site doing a range of research related to climate change. 
The writers are here as guests of the Marine Biological Laboratory, which sponsors an annual science journalism program. The idea of the program is give journalists a glimpse of the research going on here not just by talking to folks in the field, but by also getting our hands dirty. Actually, hands, clothes, gear—it’s all dirty. We’ve been tromping through the tundra, wading into streams, sliding on aufeis, all in the name of science.
Yesterday, we hiked through the tundra to see a thermokarst, a gulley formed when an ice wedge melts beneath the thick layer of permafrost, causing the soil to erode. We took samples of the water and soil, then came back to the chemistry lab (tight quarters in a trailer), and analyzed them for nutrient content. The fear is that there’s so much organic matter trapped in the permafrost that this kind of rapid melting will only accelerate climate change. In the next week or so, we’ll be heading out to several locations in and around camp to get a flavor of the wide range of research happening here.
It all may sound rather straightforward, but consider this: in a given day, the temperature can fluctuate from below freezing to above 70ºF. Getting to the sampling site may require a several-mile hike carrying a ton of equipment, possibly even a drop-off by a helicopter. Once arrived at the sampling site, it could mean wading waist-deep into the water while combating a swarm of mosquitos. And did I mention that showers are only allowed twice a week here?
So I throw it out to you, readers. Is there any pressing area of climate change research you’d like to learn about? Any questions about the camp (or life at the camp) itself? I’m here for another week and a half, so fire away.
New Element, Old News?
Jun
23
23
Posted by Carmen Drahl on June 23, 2009 in Chemistry in the News
It’s perhaps telling of how some of the media sees chemistry- several outlets were abuzz at the news that IUPAC has recognized a new chemical element. As for the chemistry-specific blogosphere and news outlets? By comparison, tumbleweeds. Not even Mitch weighed in.
Now, it’s not like we missed out on the story. When there was actual chemistry news to report, actual scientific advances, plenty of chemistry communicators were out there, covering the discovery of 112 back in 1996, and the finding that it behaves like mercury.
The recent coverage appears to have stemmed from a press release from the GSI Center for Heavy Ion Research, in Darmstadt, Germany (where 112 was discovered) announcing IUPAC’s recognition of 112, which took more than a decade since the element’s discovery.
I’m glad that 112 is finally official, but this is a bureaucratic advance, not a scientific one. I guess it’s a fun news story, in that it gets people talking about what the element’s name will be. Maybe I shouldn’t complain- at least this story gets chemistry into the news. I suppose it just underscores the different purposes different publications and online sources have as outlets for information/analysis.
What is pretty interesting, as The Great Beyond noted, is that with 112, discoverer Sigurd Hofmann and his colleagues at GSI will get to name a sixth element. According to this Wikipedia site, it seems like only Berkeley’s team of scientists (which included eminent nuclear chemists Glenn Seaborg and Albert Ghiorso, among others) has had the opportunity to name more. I wonder whether naming fatigue sets in at some point.
Image: Lead foil-equipped target wheel. Scientists “fired” Zn ions at this target to produce element 112. Credit: A. Zschau, GSI
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