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Farewell To An Old Friend
Over the transom today — to borrow a phrase from the aforementioned old friend — came some sad news. Kenneth M. Reese, who wrote C&EN’s Newscripts column for 36 years, passed away on March 3 at the age of 85.
Ken had a long history with C&EN, first joining the Chicago office in 1954. He eventually found his way to ACS headquarters in Washington, D.C. in 1962, when he assumed the role of the magazine’s managing editor. In 1967, Ken retired from the weekly editor’s grind to take the best job at C&EN — Newscripts Editor.
Although his wasn’t the first byline to accompany the Newscripts column, it’s fair to say that Ken took C&EN’s odd little back page and made it into one of the magazine’s most read. Even five years after Reese’s retirement, readers still tell us that Newscripts is the first page they flip to — the highest compliment one could pay columnist. The loyal following undoubtedly comes from Ken’s wry humor, easy rapport with readers, and genius at picking subject matter.
As one of the gang of writers who has helped put the column together since Ken’s retirement in 2004, I’d personally like to thank him for setting Newscripts’ editorial policy. “The editorial policy, if any,” he wrote on the occasion of the column’s 50th anniversary in 1993, “favors the chemical over the nonchemical, the scientific over the nonscientific, the grotesque over the normal.” From this Ken managed to assemble a brilliant body of work, documenting everything from soapmaking inmates to spontaneous human combustion to Komodo dragon acupuncture.
Personally, I’m still in awe of the breadth items he cobbled together for his recurring feature from the Department of Obscure Information: About 1 g of ozone will neutralize the odor of a liter of hog manure slurry; Japan saw the arrival of flush toilets in the late 1980s; red and yellow onions, but not white ones, contain quercetin. I can only assume that Ken gathered such information without the aid of the Internet, since he always submitted his columns as neatly typed pages (presumably tapped out on the typewriter in his iconic picture) which were then reentered into an electronic file by a copyeditor.
Have you got a favorite Newscripts column? A memory of Ken you’d like to share? Please put it in the comments. I’m sure Ken would want us to remember him with a good laugh.
Chemistry Newsbytes
After studying 503 pieces of his own belly button fluff, chemist Georg Steinhauser (the fellow who analyzed the wearing away of his wedding band) has discovered why our navels make good lint traps. Telegraph
An easy way to ensure that pricey organic milk isn’t just conventional milk that’s been relabeled. NY Times
Derek Lowe breaks down the recent OPRD smackdown. In the Pipeline
Could rotton eggs be the next Viagra? Wired Science
Brits announce program to retrain out-of-work scientists to be science teachers. Guardian
Chemical engineer tackles big problems while eschewing profits. His first project: Making the antimalarial artemisenin. His next: Biofuels. Newsweek
Biotech mogul unearths 13,000-year-old weapons cache in his backyard. LA Times
Greener gardeners turn from plastic pots to pots made from cow pies. NY Times
Chemistry Newsbytes
Beam me up Scottie! Teleportation works…for ions. NY Times
NSF has some issues with NSFW web surfing. Politico (hat tip to Chemistry Blog for the story and the acronym joke).
Brits: Be on the lookout for old bulbs. The Royal Society of Chemistry is offering a $750 reward for Britain’s oldest working lightbulb. Guardian
Those peanut butter crackers were pretty tasty…until you found out they were recalled. What to do now? Slate
Random (and kinda gross) armpit research shows men smell like cheese and women smell like onions. New Scientist
The UK’s Institution of Chemical Engineers has compiled 10 safe “flash bang” demonstrations to spark high schoolers’ interest in science. Guardian
It’s OK for guys to play the cello again, but the guitar may still be problematic. (This isn’t a chemistry newsbyte, but it turned up in my science RSS feeds, and I just had to share.) LA Times
Michael McDowell Would Like To Thank Materials Science
The story of race car driver Michael McDowell’s spectacular crash at the Texas Motor Speedway last year kicks off this week’s cover story on materials science and NASCAR. Check out this video of the accident to see just how amazing it was that McDowell was able to walk away from the wreck.
Chemistry Newsbytes
The Royal Society of Chemistry writes a new ending for the 1969 heist film, “The Italian Job.” Modesto Bee
Chemistry Nobel Laureate Peter Agre talks about aquaporins, running for senator in Minnesota, and what his mom said when she found out he won the Nobel Prize. NY Times
Why do cold cellos sound lousy? Slate
Cambodian villagers are learning about water safety by watching karaoke videos. NPR
Galileo’s DNA will be tested to probe his failing eyesight. Seems like it might be a little late for that. Guardian
Artemisinin may be losing its antimalarial potency. NY Times
Dung beetles tire of the same old, um, stuff. Decide to munch on millipedes instead. ScienceNOW
Chemistry Newsbytes
Slate is calling an end to the War on Science. But when only 18% of Americans know a scientist, CNN axes its entire scitech desk, and scientific role models identified in surveys include Al Gore and Bill Gates, you have to wonder–did we lose the war? Slate
The science, or lack thereof, behind wine-enhancing devices. NY Times
Media makes a mess of methane on Mars. Discover
Astronauts making a long haul into space may find silkworms on the menu. Yum? ScienceNow
Pheromones shmeromones. NPR
Chemotherapy may be most effective in the morning. LA Times
Check out an excerpt from Steven Johnson’s new book about Joseph Priestly, “The Invention of Air.” NPR
An interesting piece loosely speculates that an Obama Administration might help keep more women in science, with some interesting factoids: 70% of tenured male science faculty are married with kids compared with only 44% of their tenured female colleagues; women earn only 20% of the bachelor’s degrees in physics but 50% of the bachelor’s degrees in that other math-heavy major–mathematics. Also, chemistry is called “not quite plush toy material.” NY Times
Chemistry Newsbytes
Attention journal editors: When picking a Chinese classical text for the cover of your China special issue, be sure the image isn’t a flyer for a Macau brothel advertising “Hot Housewives in Action!” The Independent
No cash to decorate your Christmas tree? If you’ve got a gas grill, a vacuum, some sand, and a little laundry detergent, you can make your own glass ornaments. Popular Science
Enterprising British chemist rakes in $15 million dollars making moonshine…but also will spend more than nine years in jail. Telegraph
Ladies Leaving the Lab: RSC study finds that 72% of first year female chemistry Ph.D. students want a career in academia, but by the time they’ve reached their third year, 37% are off the academic track. Guardian
Forget shaken versus stirred. Try your next martini with sublimation. NPR
Will nanophobia kill the new wave of sunscreens? NY Times
Doctorates on the Dance Floor
Aaron Esser-Kahn’s lab at the University of California, Berkeley looks like a good place to get down. The University of California, Berkeley graduate student was one of 36 scientists to enter the 2009 Dance Your Ph.D. contest.
Esser-Kahn’s hip-hop interpretation of his thesis on “Protein Cross-linked Hydrogels” didn’t win, but it certainly gets C&ENtral’s science’s vote for best dance with an ice bucket.Winners are after the jump, along with some of our favorite chemistry-related grooves and one marine biology graduate student who was totally robbed. You can see all 36 entries here.
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