Mar
10
10
Jyllian Kemsley
Another season starting for Breaking Bad
Posted by Jyllian Kemsley on March 10, 2010 in Uncategorized
Hey, Breaking Bad fans–season three starts on March 21! (Coincidence or not that that’s also opening day of the spring ACS meeting?)
To get you in the mood, David Bianculli of the public radio show Fresh Air interviewed Breaking Bad director Vince Gilligan on Tuesday. And here’s a teaser from AMC:
For those who haven’t watched past seasons, it looks like AMC is once again doing a marathon of previous shows over the weekend leading up to the season premiere.
They Might Be Giants of Science
Jan
22
22
Posted by Jyllian Kemsley on January 22, 2010 in Uncategorized
Time has a nice video up with interview footage of They Might Be Giants talking about their new album, Here Comes Science. My kids love the album–their current favorite song is The Ballad of Davy Crockett–and if TMBG schedules a family show for SF, we’ll be there!
Now on the Sheri Sangji Case: The L.A. District Attorney’s Office
Jan
13
13
Posted by Jyllian Kemsley on January 13, 2010 in Safety
Sangji's hood after the fire. Credit: UCLA
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) last week sent its findings in the investigation of the death of University of California, Los Angeles, chemistry researcher Sheri Sangji to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The DA’s office will now review the case and decide whether to file charges against the university or any of its employees.
Sangji, a research assistant in the lab of chemistry professor Patrick Harran, died a year ago after being badly burned in a laboratory fire. Cal/OSHA investigated the incident and subsequently fined UCLA $31,875 for laboratory safety violations related to Sangji’s death.
As is standard practice in the case of a workplace death, Cal/OSHA’s Bureau of Investigations reviewed the case to determine whether there was sufficient evidence of criminal violations of the California Labor Code to warrant referring the case to the DA’s office.
Friday Safety Bytes
Oct
30
30
Posted by Jyllian Kemsley on October 30, 2009 in Safety
I spent some time this morning updating my list of lab safety incidents so far this year. Although the list is undoubtedly not comprehensive, it would appear that September and October were not good months for lab safety. I’d be curious to know if there’s always a spike in the fall as new students arrive on campuses.
The ACS Division of Chemical Health & Safety has added presentations from the NorthEast Regional Meetings, held in Hartford, Conn., this month to its technical archives. Included are presentations on:
- Chemical Safety Levels as part of risk assessment by Ralph Stuart of the University of Vermont,
- Transferring Air-Sensitive Reagents by Mark Potyen of Sigma Aldrich,
- When the Chemistry Department and EHS Journey Down the Same Road Together by N. Gail Hall of Boston College, and
- Update on Prudent Practices in the Laboratory by Peter Reinhardt of Yale University.
DCHAS also has presentations up from the ACS National Meeting in August.
Last but not least, a terrific video from the University of California, Berkeley, team the Sounds of Science, this time on lab safety. One complaint is that the song lyrics say “Goggles are a must,” but the singer dons glasses. Safety experts say go for the goggles.
Video Tutorial for Handling Reactive Reagents
Oct
15
15
Posted by Jyllian Kemsley on October 15, 2009 in Safety
Haim Weizman, a chemistry professor at the University of California, San Diego, has put together three instructional videos that demonstrate techniques for working with pyrophoric or other air-reactive materials, including both liquids and metals. Head on over to his site and take a look.
Feel free to discuss in the comments if you disagree with the practices shown in the videos.
A New Kind Of Pillbox
Sep
25
25
Posted by Jyllian Kemsley on September 25, 2009 in Where is C&EN?
One presentation at the U.S. Pharmacopeia meeting that particularly caught my attention on Tuesday was given by David Hale, a technical information specialist at the National Library of Medicine. He’s been working on a project called Pillbox, which involves building a database of high-resolution images of pharmaceutical tablets and capsules combined with FDA-approved labeling information and making it all publicly available on the Internet. NLM released the site to the public today.
An Update on Metals Testing in Drugs
Sep
24
24
Posted by Jyllian Kemsley on September 24, 2009 in Uncategorized
Greetings from Toronto, where I’m attending the annual scientific meeting of the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP), the pharmaceutical standards-setting organization in the U.S. USP publishes the book “United States Pharmacopeia-National Formulary” (USP-NF), which sets packaging, storage, labeling, testing, and acceptance standards for drug ingredients and products.
After last year’s meeting, I wrote about USP’s effort to update the current test for metals in pharmaceuticals–a 100-year-old metal sulfide precipitation method–to a modern, instrument-based approach, as well as to set toxicologically-based limits for metals in pharmaceutical products. USP was aiming to have the draft chapter written and out for comment this summer, with the final chapter published in January, 2010.
I sat down this afternoon with Anthony De Stefano, USP’s vice president for general chapters, to get an update on how the process is going.
On Scientists Versus Toothiologists
Sep
15
15
Posted by Jyllian Kemsley on September 15, 2009 in Uncategorized
A hat tip to Cosmic Variance for this gem of a monologue, roughly centered on the divide between science-based medicine and homeopathy, by comic Dara Ó Briain. Ó Briain reportedly studied mathematics and physics as an undergraduate.
Cal/OSHA Investigates UCLA, Again
Aug
27
27
Posted by Jyllian Kemsley on August 27, 2009 in Chemistry in the News, Education, Safety
(Post updated at end.)
The University of California, Los Angeles, is still under the microscope of state regulators. California Division of Occupational Safety & Health (Cal/OSHA) officials paid the school’s chemistry & biochemistry department a surprise visit on Tuesday, Aug. 26.
Cal/OSHA spokesperson Erika Monterroza says that the inspection marked the opening of a new investigation into laboratory health & safety at the university, although she refused to comment on the details of the investigation while it is ongoing, including what prompted it. California law gives Cal/OSHA six months to complete investigations, although the agency usually takes 3-4 months, Monterroza says.
(more…)
Kindergarten And Crystallography
Aug
24
24
Posted by Jyllian Kemsley on August 24, 2009 in Chemistry is Everywhere, Education
As my daughter starts kindergarten this week, I thought I’d share an interesting bit of history that I learned recently: Kindergarten’s origins are entwined with crystallography.
Fröbel
Friedrich Fröbel (1782-1852) is the man credited with inventing kindergarten. Two things stand out about Fröbel’s career path: First, he became a teacher at the Frankfurt Model School in 1805 and spent the ensuing five years being indoctrinated in Johann Pestalozzi’s philosophy that learning is better based on observation and hands-on experience rather than in lectures and recitations.
Then, after a stint in the Prussian army, Fröbel spent two years cataloging crystals for Christian Samuel Weiss, learning an early crystal classification system based on the axial intercepts of developed facets. About Fröbel’s experience there, biographer D. J. Snider wrote:
(more…)
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