Feb
10
10
Kenneth Moore
Snoverkill Safety
Posted by Kenneth Moore on February 10, 2010 in Chemistry is Everywhere, Where is C&EN?
Safety goggles protect the eyes from more than stray chemicals: this hardy worker protects his eyes from the driving wind and snow of today’s Snowpocalypse III, Snoverkill, GroceryStore Thunderdome, Snoverload, whatever you want to call it.
Although ACS offices have been closed all week, C&EN is still operating, and we do need to eat. Venturing into the tempest, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Maureen Rouhi, Associate Editor Linda Wang, and I went to pick up lunch for the seven of us who stayed in hotels in town or braved the commute to get to headquarters and produce the magazine on schedule. On our way back with the victuals, we encountered this fellow shoveling the sidewalk in front of the hotel/restaurant.
C&EN Enjoys Snoverkill
Most people in DC seem to have taken a light-hearted outlook to the past couple Snowpocalypses, unlike the first one in December, when a cop pulled a gun at a snowball fight. This fellow chuckled and was very happy to have his picture taken with Linda. As quoted from a fellow C&ENer who saw this photo, “Linda looks like she’s about to happily bonk the equally happy grinning dude! Reminds me of Japanese TV!”
Elements Abound In D.C.
Jan
28
28
Posted by Kenneth Moore on January 28, 2010 in Chemistry is Everywhere
After reading Beth’s elemental town-name Newscripts last week, I spent a bit of time looking through Nicholas C. Thomas’ article trying to find the closest elmental town to Washington, D.C. Of the ones listed, Barium Springs, N.C., is the closest, at just under 400 miles away. (Although Alloy, W.Va., is a bit closer, it’s not an elemental name, so I’m not counting it.)
I thought this area should have tons of elementally named towns, what with all the science that goes on here. Maybe we can convince some towns to change their names for the International Year of Chemistry 2011? I’m thinking “Radon, District of Columbia” has a nice ring to it (especially as we’re ringing out Radon Action Month). Or maybe “Lead,” to go with all the contamination we have in our soil and water.
Anyhow, not finding any towns in the area currently named after elements, I was surprised to stumble upon some graffiti on the trash can across the street from my apartment building.
Chemistry Graffiti
May I Have A Little Acid In My Salt Water, Please?
Oct
2
2
Posted by Kenneth Moore on October 2, 2009 in Chemistry in the News
“The oceans, despite their appearance, are not inexhaustible, vast, and infinitely forgiving.”
So said Sigourney Weaver of “Alien” fame prior to a press conference in the Capitol on Tuesday. The environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) had just released its video “Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification,” narrated by Weaver. (Click the link to watch the full video.)
Sigourney Weaver discussing ocean acidification prior to the screening of NRDC's film, "Acid Test."
Ocean acidification is one of the big side effects of ever-increasing atmospheric CO2 levels. “There has been a lot of focus on climate change, but a lot of people don’t know about ocean acidification,” I overheard Weaver–who stood only feet away from me in a 20- by 20-foot room full of chairs, people, and cameras–saying prior to the screening of “Acid Test.” The CO2 we pump out doesn’t all just stay in the air; about 20-plus million tons per day of it goes into the water, too, forming carbonic acid, which alters the ocean’s pH and makes living difficult for some marine critters. The acidic ocean’s effects on every marine creature (a lot of which aren’t yet known) can’t yet be exactly determined, but there is still a lot that is known.
“Ocean acidification has a lot of the world’s leading scientists freaked out,” Weaver said. Although the average pH of the world’s oceans has dropped by only about 0.2 pH units since the Industrial Revolution (when we started burning lots of stuff for energy, thus jettisoning CO2 into the atmosphere), that is a bigger change than has occurred since the time of the dinosaurs’ extinction, said Lisa Suatoni, a senior scientist at NRDC who was in the film and was a panel member who answered questions after the video screening. Ocean organisms alive today are not used to handling such rapid (in an evolutionary timescale) environmental change, and we land-bound animals rely heavily on the bounty of the seas to survive. Suatoni emphasized, “You don’t have to live on the coast to have ocean acidification affect your food supply.”
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The How Of Chemistry
Aug
17
17
Posted by Kenneth Moore on August 17, 2009 in 2009 Fall National Meeting, ACS Meetings
Yesterday, I attended the Application of Natural Products in Organic Farming session, sponsored by the AGRO division. I went strictly for personal interest (I wanted to be a farmer when I was a child, and I sort of still do), not necessarily for journalistic reasons.
I caught most of the session, but I started fading after the coffee break. Imagine my surprise, like a rush of adrenaline, when I heard mention of Chromobacterium subtsugae, a biocontrol agent I worked on at USDA during a thesislike project in high school. (I think I’m okay to say that–I had to sign a nondisclosure agreement, of course.) Marja E. Koivunen, the presenter who mentioned this bacterium, is vice president of R&D at Marrone BioInnovations, the company that has licensed this microbe from the lab I interned at.
I had come in on the C. subtsugae project after more than a decade of research had already been done, and another seven years have passed since then. As an intern, you don’t get to see the entire process from lead discovery to commercialization, just the tiny bits you get to work on in the three months before you have to move on and go back to school. It’s the same with my internship at BASF, working on a fungicide (again, nondisclosure). I came in late in the process, worked on it a little bit, and left. I am pretty certain that the product has been released and is currently seeking regulatory approval, but no one confirmed that with me when I asked previously.
It’s amazing, to me, to have been just an intern and see what I had a hand in be released upon the world’s markets. But then I wondered how, exactly, do these products work? What the products do and to whom/what is known, as it must be for EPA approval, but EPA doesn’t necessarily care what exactly the active compounds are or how exactly they do their job: EPA only really cares about toxicity data, according to some of the presenters at the session.
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Chemicals To Save The Garden
Jul
31
31
Posted by Kenneth Moore on July 31, 2009 in Chemistry and Food
With the problems a lot of gardeners across the country have had with the wetter and cooler than normal summer, adding diseased tomatoes on top of that could be the straw that breaks many backs.
Late Blight at Red Fire Farm
Late blight, an infection of tomato and potato plants caused by Phytophthora infestans, gained infamy as the cause of the Irish potato famine. Now, it is rearing its head in one of the worst outbreaks in North America, mostly on the east coast, due to large retailers sourcing possibly infected tomato seedlings from a single nursery, Bonnie Plants, which has since recalled $1 million worth of plants. (C&EN requested comment from Bonnie Plants, and if the company gets back, this post will be updated.)
Such threats to crop production have led to myriad methods by which a grower can determine when to preventatively spray a chemical to protect his or her crops from any number of insects, fungi, or bacteria. For example, a Beaumont Period (during which the temperature is not less than 68 degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity is not less than 75% for 46 of 48 consecutive hours) encourages P. infestans proliferation, and if such a period occurs or is predicted to occur, fungicide application is recommended.
The Climate-Change Café
Apr
24
24
Posted by Kenneth Moore on April 24, 2009 in Chemistry is Everywhere
Yesterday, I went to an ACS-hosted Science Café at the Marian Koshland Science Museum. The theme of the night was Climate Change, a perfect topic to celebrate the day marking the fifth anniversary of the museum’s opening.
Andy Jorgensen, on loan from the University of Toledo for a stint at the National Council for Science & the Environment, presented a quick yet complete 45-minute overview of climate change, which is no small feat! The 40 or 50 audience members ranged from local(ish) high school students in Washington for the National Ocean Sciences Bowl to climate policy enthusiasts to economists, all with various levels of knowledge about climate change.
Jorgensen, clearly enjoying giving his engaging talk, dove into the audience-participation section of the evening, volunteering students from the audience to represent Peru and China. The average person on Earth, according to data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change relayed by Jorgensen, is responsible for 4 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, through use of vehicles, buildings, food choices, manufacturing of consumer products, you name it. The student on the right is holding up four fingers, to represent the population in China, a country whose people each, on average, emit 4 tons of CO2 per year. The student on the left represents Peru, whose populace only accounts for 1 ton of carbon dioxide per person per year.
The U.S.? 20 tons of carbon dioxide per person per year. That’s the equivalent weight of about four adult African elephants, or 1,225,116,904 elephants, just for the U.S. (Only about 2/5 of that number of African elephants exists in the world, however.)
Can you imagine all those elephants hovering in the air over the U.S.? That’s a whole heck of a lot of elephants waiting to plummet back down to Earth!
Science-Pop Rocks
Apr
20
20
Posted by Kenneth Moore on April 20, 2009 in Chemistry is Everywhere
Chemistry and Music; star-crossed lovers? Oh no, never! Here at C&ENtral Science, we love science songs about nanotechnology and the bright future that chemistry can bring.
Reciprocating science’s ardor for music, the music world’s Rolling Stone magazine has ranked chemists and other scientists among those who rock the U.S. as “agents of change.”
I think it’s wonderful that rock ‘n rollers and scientists admire one another. But one wonders… How well do science and synthpoprock get along?
At a Freezepop concert I attended last week, I was excited to find that science is well-received. In fact, one of the songs (apparently a “true” story, as the lead singer won the science fair at her school) is about human cloning (”Science Genius Girl” is the title). It’s one of my new favorites, if only because it mentions Bunsen burners and chemicals (not just “the chemistry between you and me” type of science that so many songs contain).
If you do a search, you will find a lot of fan-made videos, this notable one from a high school film class. It’s well-choreographed and filmed, but I object to the lack of sterile technique that the girl uses while “cloning,” the use of tongs as forceps, and the girl’s disregard for chemical safety (gloves, anyone? She does wear goggles, but her lab coat isn’t buttoned.).
Freezepop’s song “Less Talk More Rokk” is featured in Guitar Hero 2, for those die-hard rockers, but it doesn’t mention chemistry (unless you count the keg of beer).
What’s your favourite pop/rock/etc song about science?
Canadian Science Headed By Creationist?
Mar
18
18
Posted by Kenneth Moore on March 18, 2009 in Uncategorized
Yesterday, the Globe and Mail printed a story about the religious beliefs of the Canadian Minister of Science & Technology, Gary Goodyear. When Goodyear commented to reporter Anne McIlroy that he wasn’t “fussy on this business that we already know everything. … I think we need to recognize that we don’t know” and asked to clarify whether he was talking about a creator, I think the reporter found a better story than she the one she was expecting about Canadian science and the recent federal cuts to basic research funding.
Goodyear refuses to discuss evolution because he is Christian and thinks being asked about his religion is inappropriate. He is also a chiropractor and has taken chemistry, phsyics, and physiology courses during his education.
Goodyear’s response isn’t an outright admission to creationist beliefs, but by citing “religious” reasons for not discussing evolution, he definitely tossed the ball into that arena. To me, evolution really has nothing to do with religion. The idea of a higher power doesn’t have much bearing on the idea that organisms, over time, adapt to their environment via selective pressure etc. Whether a divine force created these organisms is a different question, but evolution in and of itself is pretty much pure science—it can be observed, tested, repeated, and analyzed.
But you, gentle readers, what do you think of Canada’s Science & Technology Minister’s refusal to discuss evolution—on grounds of religious beliefs? Do you think someone who views evolution as a religious issue can successfully head a country’s scientific efforts? How diametrically opposed are the ideas of god and evolution, really?
Some of this is discussed in a recent C&ENtral Science post here.
Science In Halifax
Feb
10
10
Posted by Kenneth Moore on February 10, 2009 in Chemistry is Everywhere, Where is C&EN?
I recently went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, for a vacation to visit my old haunts and get reacquainted with friends. When I think of Halifax, I think of scarves and hats, the Titanic, the Halifax Explosion (the largest recorded explosion prior to the atomic bomb), Alexander Keith’s brewery, and nice, friendly Canadians. A culture of science doesn’t even register as a blip on my radar.
But while walking down Lower Water St. to get a latte near the Halifax Harbour, I passed a building called the BioScience Enterprise Centre. It’s right next to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and the bear claw booth (open only in the summer, unfortunately). Assuming the place was a museum or a tourist destination, I decided to go in and ended up speaking with an administrative assistant, Moscoula Mallis. As it turns out, the center is an incubator for Nova Scotia start-up companies doing R&D and commercialization of their products and services, which range from DNA-based tracking technology to alternative energy consultation to stackable buoys to pharmaceuticals.
The center is managed by InNOVAcorp, which works with the start-ups and provides some funding, mentoring, and an infrastructure (lab/office space) to help the firms through whatever stage of research, development, or commercialization they are in. InNOVAcorp, a provincial corporation under the Nova Scotia Economic Development department, has a mission to promote Nova Scotia as a hub of technology research to engender a culture of science, discovery, and product innovation in the province, Mallis says.
Some companies have been pretty successful, according to Mallis. Ocean Nutrition Canada is now a full-fledged marine nutrition company, providing omega-3s as food additives and nutritional supplements. Even Wyeth (soon to be Pfizer) did some vaccine work at BioScience Enterprise Centre earlier this millenium, Mallis says, although I can’t find any reliable information about this.
It might not be science in my own backyard (not anymore at least), but it just goes to show that science, and chemistry, is everywhere.
Extra Info For Instant Coffee
Sep
25
25
Posted by Kenneth Moore on September 25, 2008 in Chemistry and Food
What’s That Stuff?s are pretty fun to write—you get to look at an everyday item in your pantry, on the road, or in your hair in a completely different light. I just finished my first What’s That Stuff? article, about the history and production of instant coffee. It is freely available here. It does not, however, include any information about the health benefits of coffee.
Although the common idea is that coffee causes dehydration, says Roger Cook, director of the Coffee Science Information Centre, some studies suggest that coffee is an important source of fluid in the diet and that coffee’s caffeine is no more of a diuretic than water is—it increases the frequency of urination, but not the volume of fluid that is expelled over a period of time.
Thousands of studies have also been published proposing that coffee provides alertness, delays degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, and slows down cognitive decline in the elderly. Many studies use fresh-brewed coffee, but don’t rule out instant coffee in offering such health benefits, Cook says. “The physiological effects of coffee are primarily due to the caffeine content and not to the manufacturing or brewing method,” he adds.
In a study looking at sleep-related accidents, researchers compared 30-minute naps, caffeinated coffee, and decaffeinated coffee to see how caffeine affects alertness during nighttime driving (Ann. Internal Med. 2006, 144, 785). The coffee these researchers provided their subjects with was—you guessed it—instant! Nestlé instant coffee packets were used for both the caffeinated (4.25% caffeine) and decaffeinated (0.03% caffeine) coffees. The result? A 30-minute nap at 1 AM or a cup of coffee with 200 mg of caffeine has pretty much the same alertness-boosting effect for nighttime driving, but decaffeinated coffee will leave you swerving in the road.
I wondered, however, if the beneficial effects of caffeine cross over to sodas, teas, and other caffeinated wonders. One study looking at Chinese adults suggests this is true for tea (Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2008, 88, 224), but, personally, I think that sodas are almost like cigarettes, which can also contain caffeine. Malic acid, one of the thousands of compounds used in cigarettes, can help boost immunity and metabolism. But in combination with the multitude of other ingredients, the total health benefit is probably outweighed by the negatives. That goes for what you put in your coffee, too—these studies don’t include added cream or sugar!
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