April 6, 2008

Gator In A Pill

Posted by Lisa Jarvis on April 6, 2008 in 2008 Spring National Meeting, ACS Meetings

Walk into any souvenir shop here in New Orleans, and you’re likely to find Alligator in a Can. Researchers at local universities hope that one day you can then head over to the local pharmacy to pick up Alligator in a Pill. Gators, being the aggressive reptiles that they are, tend to get an awful lot of gashes out in the swamp. Yet their adaptive immune system allows them to quickly produce proteins to combat nasty infections they may pick up. Mark Merchant, a biochemist at McNeese State University, and Kermit Murray and Lancia Darville, from Louisiana State University, are trying to sift through the proteins found in alligator blood to see if any of them could make useful antibiotics. Merchant is something like the Steve Irwin of the sciences; he’s the one responsible for plunging a syringe into the alligators’ necks to extract a blood sample. Most of the samples come from gators on his farm in Lake Charles, La., but his colleagues say he’s been known to hop on a boat in the middle of the night to wrestle a gator in the wild.

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Is Corona For Posers?

Posted by Lisa Jarvis on April 6, 2008 in 2008 Spring National Meeting, ACS Meetings

This afternoon’s session sponsored by the Younger Chemists Committee about the chemistry of alcohol (the second in a series the organizers like to think of as “Insert your vice here”) was standing-room only. It seems a lot of chemists are doing some experimentation outside the lab: When asked, roughly 10% of the audience said they brewed their own beer.

Before going through a rather comprehensive look at chemistry of the beer-brewing process, Ferris State University professor and homebrewer Mark Thomson told the audience, “I don’t think there’s any bad commercial beer out there. There are just some I wouldn’t choose to drink, even if you choose to buy them for me.”

I’m guessing one such beer might be Corona, which UNC-Chapel Hill professor Malcolm Forbes called out in his talk about skunky beer. Forbes’s specialty is photochemistry, and he’s used electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy to study the mechanics of how and why beer gets that sulfurous smell. I won’t go into the gritty details, but one interesting tidbit I came away with was that the “lightstruck flavor” (i.e. that skunky taste caused when UV light shines through your bottle for too long) is caused by 3-methylbut-2-ene-1-thiol. Ironically, this compound has nothing to do with what makes actual skunks stinky. Rather, it’s something found in cat urine. “When you hear somebody complain, ‘The beer in this place tastes like cat piss,’ they’re not that far off,” Forbes said.

Another tidbit? Why is it that everyone puts a lime in their Corona? Apparently Corona, despite its clear glass bottle, doesn’t contain any of the “advanced hop products” some companies use to slow down the radical formation that leads to a bad beer. The company’s got a good marketing scheme going on; that lime is a pretty essential flavor mask. For any doubters, Forbes recommends opening up a bottle and taking a whiff.

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Hidden In Plain Sight, Again

Posted by Ivan Amato on April 6, 2008 in 2008 Spring National Meeting, ACS Meetings, Chemistry is Everywhere

You never have to go far to find signs of chemistry. Here are three signs of the chemical enterprise that turned up in very different situations.

On Friday, at one of those official society events that take place before the hordes of members show up, some lunch planner had found sugar packets with the chemical formula for sucrose, table sugar, printed on one side.

 

The following morning, while checking out some of the art galleries in the warehouse district, I walked into the Ariodante Gallery on Julia Street. Featured there was the artist Abe Gleason’s “Electrolyte” series. In each piece, he combines found pieces of glass, iron plumbing and other fixtures, and light. The name of the series may merely play homonymously on the chemical term, but it indicates that this chemical terminology is part of the collective conscious.

(more…)

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Top 5 For Sunday

Posted by Lisa Jarvis on April 6, 2008 in 2008 Spring National Meeting

A few things we’re excited to see and do today…

1. Hear the who’s who in energy research discuss NanoPower. (8:30–11:25am, Convention Center, Room 231/232)

2. The chemistry of alcohol. Need we say more? (1:30–4:15pm, Convention Center, Julia)

3. Redefining the kilogram. We’re hoping this means we will weigh less. (3:30–5:15pm, Convention Center, Blaine Kern C)

4. Learn about how alligator blood is being analyzed for valuable proteins. (7–9pm, Convention Center, Hall A)

5. Check out the albino alligator at the Audubon Zoo. (6500 Magazine Street)

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Back In Blog–ACS Day 1

Posted by Carmen Drahl on April 6, 2008 in 2008 Spring National Meeting, ACS Meetings

I’m about as excited as anyone at C&EN about the birth of our permanent blog. It’s like returning to my roots, since I didn’t so much as work for the school newspaper before they let me show up and start writing about interesting science.

I have yet to step into the convention center, but science-wise, I haven’t been disappointed. As I’m sure was the case for most National Meeting attendees, most of my small plane was occupied by conference-goers.

“She Blinded Me With Science” reader Sam Gerritz recognized me as I was cramming my carryon into the overhead bin. We chatted about various things at the chemistry-biology interface. He’s cochairing a Wednesday morning session in the Medicinal Chemistry Division about strategies for turning hits from a biochemical assay into a bona fide lead compound that a pharmaceutical company can unleash its chemistry talent on. I’m covering the Medicinal Division (as well as the Biological Division) for C&EN, so you may hear about sessions in those areas from me over the next few days.

I sat next to Juan Noveron from the University of Texas, El Paso. His general chemistry courses include student-led workshops and demos. One demo in particular stuck with me–take a (closed) fish tank, popped popcorn, and a giant fan, and you have a life-size approximation of molecules bouncing around in solution. Noveron’s students use this demo to learn about units of concentration. Working with advanced students helps freshmen get chemistry concepts, Noveron says. And they get to eat the popcorn afterward.

One last observation–New Orleans is humid. Seriously humid. I have chemical proof–the layer of condensation that has been a permanent fixture on my shoes since getting here. I’m no photographer, so the image below is the best I could do. Hope to see some of you around the convention center!

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