Jul
29
29
July 2008
Chemistry Newsbytes
Posted by Bethany Halford and Lisa Jarvis on July 29, 2008 in Chemistry is Everywhere
Clarifying the nature of glass. NY Times
Does your chicken taste funky? It could be the chlorine. Slate
All you ever wanted to know about the science of soot. Houston Chronicle
The next electronics toy: an iPod-sized microscope. New Scientist
X-ray fluorescence shows that lovely “new car smell” is becoming less toxic. CNet
A back-of-the-envelope calculation on what it takes to make a can of Raid explode. Slate
Illegal song downloads are so 2001. Now the kids are pirating McMurray’s O-Chem text. NY Times
ACS In Alaska
Jul
28
28
Posted by Rachel Pepling on July 28, 2008 in Chemistry is Everywhere, The Editor's Blog
While on vacation in Alaska, Rudy discovered that it is, indeed, a small world after all. Read about his experience in this week’s editorial.
A few years ago, Assistant Managing Editor Susan Morrissey ran into a vacationing Elias Zerhouni, director of NIH, at Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. Which chemists have you run into unexpectedly while on vacation? Any other national park encounters?
Chemistry Newsbytes
Jul
25
25
Posted by Lisa Jarvis on July 25, 2008 in Chemistry is Everywhere
The “mystery science eater” takes on some of molecular gastronomy’s tricks. Time Out NY
Does water have a memory of what it has contained? BBC
An aerosol mass spec helps scientists study carbon in the clouds. e! Science News
Some smart answers to some incredibly stupid questions for female grad students and profs. FemaleScienceProfessor
A variety of flavor molecules in mom’s milk could lead to more adventurous palates. New Scientist
Bruce Willis, we’re looking at you. Top 10 scientifically inaccurate movies. Yahoo
Our Genes Look Great Together
Jul
23
23
Posted by Lisa Jarvis on July 23, 2008 in Chemistry is Everywhere, Uncategorized
The evolution of dating has made, depending on your viewpoint, either a giant technological leap or a bizarre move backward. While online dating sites try to help singles find their companions based on chemistry, in the abstract sense, Swiss start-up company GenePartner wants to match you based on Chemistry, in the literal sense. The basis for finding your special someone? According to their website:
“Prof. Dr. Wedekind recruited female volunteers to smell T-shirts worn by men for three consecutive days and rate them for attractiveness. He then analyzed the particular part of DNA that codes for HLA (human leukocyte antigen) molecules and found that women preferred T-shirts from men whose HLA molecules were most different from their own. Sensing and classifying the HLA genes is something our bodies do automatically and subconsciously.”
The company claims to have found patterns of HLA genes that “attract,” by comparing the genes of couples in working relationships, as well as singles.
Amazingly, this isn’t just for singles. The company wants to test how compatible existing couples are. Hmm. Is this all leading to a new form of break-up? “Sorry baby, it’s not you, it’s your genes.”
Improbable TV
Jul
23
23
Posted by Rachel Pepling on July 23, 2008 in Chemistry is Everywhere
The folks over at Improbable Research (of Annals of Improbable Research and Ig Nobels fame) have found one more way to make people laugh and then think. Improbable TV is a web-based series of short videos that highlight bits from the magazine, Ig Nobel lectures, and various other sources. Each episode (posted on YouTube) is about three minutes long and contains a mishmash of bits that may or may not be related (so far not), and that’s kind of part of the fun. Have a look at the first episode:
New episodes should appear about every two weeks. Next up: “Cuticles, and two reactions.”
Conference Surveillance
Jul
22
22
Posted by Sarah Everts on July 22, 2008 in Where is C&EN?
In addition to Spanish tapas and cocktails served at the ESOF conference mixer Monday night in Barcelona, I was also served something less appetizing: the news that for the past five days, unbeknown to me, a radio frequency infrared device (RFID) hidden in my name tag had been reporting my conference attendance habits to organizers. Ditto for the more than 3,500 other participants.
A radio reporter from Southern Germany showed me the RFID hidden in between the front and back sides of my name tag; he had also just discovered the strip in his own badge.
So that was the explanation for the twin pillars at the doorway of every session room and the main building’s entrance: They were the RFID readers. Despite my otherwise enjoyable time at the conference, I suddenly felt a bit irked.
A Halal Feast At The Chemistry Olympiad
Jul
22
22
Posted by Linda Wang on July 22, 2008 in Where is C&EN?
Around midnight on the last night of the International Chemistry Olympiad, a wonderful aroma was wafting through the halls of the dorm where the students and I were staying.
I suspected that something was cooking, so I followed the scent. (Don’t ask me what I was doing still up at midnight.)
I found Ayesha Ahmed of Pakistan in the communal kitchen stirring a pot of chicken.
Chemistry Newsbytes
Jul
22
22
Posted by Lisa Jarvis on July 22, 2008 in Chemistry is Everywhere
Spectroscopy could render the dreaded dentist’s drill obsolete. First Science
On the rocks with a twist? Adding lime to seawater could cut atomospheric carbon dioxide. PhysOrg
An abundance of girls: CDC finds that higher PCB levels have led to lower birth rates of boys. NYTimes
Just how reliable is DNA evidence? Perhaps not as reliable as you think. LA Times
Is the ease of the Web actually narrowing scientific knowledge? Economist
Monster mapping: following dinosaur footprints with lasers. New Scientist
A lapsed chemical engineer contemplates campfire chemistry. Each Little Mystery
Home Sweet Home
Jul
22
22
Posted by Sarah Everts on July 22, 2008 in Where is C&EN?
You’ve got to hand it to the Spanish. When it comes to architecture and design, they’ve got panache. (Think Antoni Gaudi. ) But my new favorite example of Spanish flair is a supercomputing center located in a Barcelona’s Torre Girona chapel, which I toured on an afternoon break from the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) conference, currently taking place in the Catalonian capital.
In 2004, when the federal and local governments decided to fund the supercomputing center at the Technical University of Catalonia, no other buildings owned by the university had the right interior dimensions to accommodate 10,240 processors and their associated cooling units. Apart from using the chapel, the only other option was to construct a new building.
“We were pretty lucky it worked out this way,” said Oriol Riu, a computer scientist and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center tour guide. Riu told me the chapel had been a nun’s college up until the 1970s, after which it was used intermittently as an auditorium, exam room, and classroom.
The supercomputing center was once the most powerful in Europe, but now it’s in 8th place on the continent and in 26th place worldwide.
Still, you can’t beat location. And the center does have the juice of 20,000 personal computers, which researchers use to model everything from climate to aeronautics. But keeping the computers cool in the Mediterranean heat has one heck of a price tag: Riu said the annual energy cost to keep the supercomputer running is about 1 million euros per year, with air conditioning being a healthy portion of that cost.
A Book A Week
Jul
21
21
Posted by Rachel Pepling on July 21, 2008 in The Editor's Blog
Check out Managing Editor Ivan Amato’s editorial for a glimpse of what it takes to produce a weekly chemistry magazine without the help of publishing elves. (OK, so maybe we have one or two elves stashed in a desk somewhere for emergencies.)
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