Lisa Jarvis

The Real Excitement At BIO

Posted by Lisa Jarvis on June 19, 2008 in Where is C&EN?

Walking the convention floor this afternoon, I heard a roar rise from somewhere on the floor, seemingly from the direction of the German pavillion. The cause of the commotion? A scientific breakthrough? An exciting deal announcement? Not even close. It seems Germany had been prescient enough to have a huge plasma-screen TV at their booth, and a crowd had gathered to watch Germany play Portugal in the Euro quarter-final.

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Highs And Lows Of BIO

Posted by Lisa Jarvis on June 19, 2008 in Where is C&EN?

When you attend a conference as big as BIO—more than 20,000 people have converged on San Diego—the chance of seeing some pretty heavy-hitting speakers is high. Unfortunately, the chance that a heavy-hitting speaker will be a speck in the distance is also high. The line for yesterday’s keynote luncheon, which featured the odd combination of J. Craig Venter (of human genome fame) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (of gubernatorial—or, depending who you ask, “I’ll be back”—fame), was already about a mile long an hour before the doors to the ballroom at the San Diego convention center were scheduled to open. I ended up in the “overflow” room, where I watched their speeches on a gigantic screen (and found myself oddly clapping along with everyone else at the end of Venter’s talk, even though he was several city blocks away). So it felt particularly special when, just a few hours later, I found myself at a media event hosted by Amgen, where I sat just 5 feet away as Elizabeth Edwards gave her perspective on innovation and the drug industry. It’s well known that Edwards is dealing with a recurrence of breast cancer, and she’s been a regular contributor to the national debate about health care.

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The BIO Circus In Full Swing

Posted by Lisa Jarvis on June 17, 2008 in Where is C&EN?

Greetings from sunny San Diego, site of this year’s annual meeting of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. I will try to post a few dispatches from the conference because I find that it hosts a truly unique intersection of multiple industries (drugs, agriculture, and energy), academia, and government. It’s also something of a circus. Every state wants to attract that next big biotech firm to boost its economic development and is hoping to promote the biotech “cluster” that already exists in its area. As such, the conference is flush with cocktail parties, giveaways, and myriad forms of reverie as state representatives try to woo attendees. This translates into the best swag I’ve seen at any conference around, not to mention an abundance of spending that makes me wonder how taxpayers in, say, Iowa, would feel about the excess.

The exhibit floor opened at 3 PM today, and as I walked to a meeting at a company’s booth at 3:30 PM, people were already walking around with armfuls of goodies. We’re not talking pens and buttons or raffles for an iPod shuffle. We’re talking basketballs and Crocs and the chance to win mountain bikes and trips to Europe. It’s pretty insane. If you’ve been to a meeting with better “prizes,” let us know in the comments!

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Xeroxing Fido

Posted by Lisa Jarvis on June 17, 2008 in Uncategorized

I thought I’d share an example of some of the bizarre pitches that end up in a reporter’s inbox (particularly a reporter who covers the biotech industry). Here’s an excerpt from a press release I received today.

“In celebration of BioArts International successfully cloning the beloved family pet of CEO Lou Hawthorne, they have launched the first ever global online auction to clone five dogs. The auction will beheld July 5th through July 9th, with a high bidder notified on each day. First day bidding will begin at $100,000 with the initial price increasing on each successive day. BioArts International and the Best Friends Again program have also established the Golden Clone Giveaway, whereby one lucky person will receive a FREE cloning of his or her dog. By June 24th, contestants must complete an entry form, including a 500-word essay in English, explaining why they feel their dog deserves to be cloned.”

I’m not sure what to say about it, other than–really? I do love dogs (and animals of all sort for that matter), but I’m fairly perplexed as to why this is the best use of today’s technology. Shouldn’t we, I don’t know, figure out some better cancer treatments first or try to come up with biomarkers for drugs in development? Also, I know people are attached to their pets (that’s my Dad’s new puppy Nevada, above; who couldn’t love her?), but aren’t an awful lot of animals in shelters in need of homes? Anyway, if you’re interested, you can register here.

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Chemistry Newsbytes

Posted by Lisa Jarvis on May 23, 2008 in Chemistry is Everywhere, Uncategorized

Just in time for Memorial Day cookouts: Heparin and hot dogs. WSJ

Where have all the chemistry sets gone? SciGuy

Just how many of your kids’ science teachers are creationists? Kind of a lot. New Scientist

Abbott tries to attract students to medical sciences through a scholarship contest on Facebook. Wired

Frugality in the lab: a waste of time or a veritable challenge? Chemistry Blog

Chemistry in the kitchen: a hydrocolloid recipe collection. Khymos

Ten ways to fuel the future: cutting-edge clean energy solutions. Forbes

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Science In The Attic

Posted by Lisa Jarvis on May 19, 2008 in Chemistry is Everywhere, Uncategorized

Ah, early animal testing. The illustration to the right is from La Chimica in Famiglia, an Italian book written in 1886 by Gustavo Milan, who aimed to teach chemistry to girls. The setup is that a wealthy chemist is introducing his granddaughter Faustina to chemistry by relating it to her daily tasks. This particular slide demonstrates nitrogen’s inability to sustain life. No worries, PETA, the bird is saved at the last minute. But the book is an interesting example of how science was being geared toward the fairer sex in centuries past. The page was thoughtfully passed on to me by Paul Bernasconi, a chemist at BASF and a longtime C&EN reader. I met Bernasconi at a recent dinner at a conference in Cambridge (Massachusetts, not the U.K.), and we got on the topic of old science books. He mentioned he had been accumulating old, often rare books on science and had some particularly interesting items on women and chemistry. He was kind enough to send me some pages from his collection.

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Slainte! To The Science Of Scotch!

Posted by Lisa Jarvis on May 7, 2008 in Chemistry and Food

Scotch isn’t really my thing, but I was excited nonetheless to learn a bit about the science of the drink last night at the New York Academy of Sciences. Simon Brooking, master ambassador for Laphroaig and Ardmore, two of Scotland’s premier single malt whiskeys, gave a rollicking talk that covered everything from the history of the drink to how it’s distilled to a primer on tasting and enjoying the drink (a hint: let it hit the middle of your tongue, not the tip). There were bagpipes and kilts and several kinds of Scotch to sample. Brooking even sang a few songs.

Our own Beth Halford did a thorough job explaining the process of distilling whiskey, so I won’t go into the gritty details. But I did come away with a few interesting facts worth sharing:

*The Scots use copper stills when making their magic elixir, and Brooking says the style and the flavor of Scotch is linked to the shape of the still and the angle of the line neck. Smaller, squat stills tend to produce a heavier, oilier-flavored drink, whereas taller stills impart a sweeter flavor. When I asked Brooking to clarify why the shape of the still mattered so much, he said “we’re not sure exactly what is happening,” chalking up the process to the magic and mystery of Scotch. Hmm. Not exactly the scientific breakdown I was hoping for. He did explain that different parts of the still wear thin sooner than others because of the heat generated while the whiskey is refluxing, which could influence the final product. I did a little digging, and it seems the copper reacts with sulfur compounds that would otherwise give the whiskey an unpleasant taste. I’m sure there’s more to it, chemically speaking, and would guess surface area also plays a role. Perhaps one of our readers could provide some more clarity?

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One Hundred Years Ago …

Posted by Lisa Jarvis on May 5, 2008 in The Editor's Blog

This week, Rudy’s editorial digs into the causes of a major transition that occurred at ACS in 1908. It turns out, the ACS Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Division, the Organic, Physical, and Agricultural & Food Chemistry Divisions, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers are all celebrating their 100th anniversaries this year. Rudy decided to investigate what exactly happened a century ago. He writes:

“So what was special about 1908? It turns out that there was a lot of ferment in the chemistry enterprise in the first decade of the 20th century, and it was reflected in the activities and structure of ACS. What I find interesting are the parallels between then and now.”

Tension between ACS members who were industrial chemists and those working in academe and government labs, worry that new journals would dilute the content of JACS, and a debate over the merits of creating more-specialized subdivisions within the organization topped members’ concerns. Sound familiar? Do these issues remain at the forefront 100 years later? Sound off in the comments!

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Where Have All the Periodic Tables Gone?

Posted by Lisa Jarvis on April 25, 2008 in Chemistry is Everywhere

On a stroll through a flea market in my neighborhood last weekend, I happened upon a tiny treasure in a bin of old books. “Wonders of Science: A Pictorial Story of Science and Invention,” is a guide through the “wonderland of science” that was the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in the 1930s. There were two rather precious chemistry gems in the mix: Lilliputian Laboratory, a miniature reproduction of a modern chemical laboratory, and The Building Blocks of the Earth, a gigantic spiraling periodic table with actual samples of the elements (pictures of both after the jump). Now, the charm of the Lilliputian Laboratory lay primarily in its, well, Lilliputian-ness; It pretty much looks like a diorama I might have made in the fourth grade. The Building Blocks of the Earth, on the other hand, is truly something special. It raises several questions:

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Tiny Bubbles At The NYAS

Posted by Lisa Jarvis on April 23, 2008 in Chemistry and Food, Uncategorized

Ah, champagne. The sparkly, bubbly, goodness is my favorite summertime drink. It’s not so bad for toasting special occasions, either. Or as an aperitif before a large meal. Or mixed with orange juice at brunch. Okay, let’s be honest, I would pretty much drink it at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, if it was acceptable (and I was in a different tax bracket).

Needless to say, I was pretty excited to see that the New York Academy of Sciences was bringing Gérard Liger-Belair, a professor of chemical physics at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, to New York City to talk about the science of champagne. Liger-Belair has spent the past 10 years studying those tiny, wonderful champagne bubbles. Using high-speed photography, microscopy, and lasers, he’s managed to pin down all you’d ever want to know about how every bubble in your glass is born, grows, and bursts.

Some fun facts from Liger-Belair’s talk:

*Effervescence is promoted by cellulose fibers stuck to the wall of your glass. Yes, dust is the source of that sparkly goodness.

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