Oct
9
9
Steve Ritter
The Chemistry Nobel … And A Video To Celebrate It
Posted by Steve Ritter on October 9, 2008 in Uncategorized
From the University of Nottingham team of chemists that brought you the Periodic Table of Videos, now a video that provides a layman’s description of the technology behind this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Nottingham chemistry professor Martyn Poliakoff finds out that the prize was awarded for the discovery of green fluorescent protein and its development as a biomarker, and then he takes a few minutes to give a brief off-the-cuff description of the science behind the discovery.
Centennial Celebration Of Chlorination
Sep
30
30
Posted by Steve Ritter on September 30, 2008 in Uncategorized
On Sept. 26, 1908, Jersey City, N.J., began operating the first permanent drinking water chlorination plant in the U.S. (shown). That historical tidbit is being celebrated by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) as another example of the benefit of chemistry in improving people’s lives.
Within a decade after the Jersey City facility went live, more than a thousand U.S. cities adopted chlorination technology; by the 1940s, 85% of U.S. water-treatment systems were disinfecting water with chlorine. Today, 90% of U.S. public water systems rely on chlorine in one form or another for purification, and as a result the U.S. enjoys one of the safest drinking-water supplies in the world.
Big Al’s Tribute
Apr
7
7
Posted by Steve Ritter on April 7, 2008 in 2008 Spring National Meeting
Feb. 20, 2007, is a date that some inorganic chemists might say will live forever in infamy. That was the day when F. Albert Cotton, an inorganic chemistry professor at Texas A&M University, passed away. Cotton was, simply put, the most influential inorganic chemist to ever have lived.
I qualify that accolade by noting my professors and every other inorganic chemist I have ever come across have said the same thing. And I say it while remembering how I spent the better part of my undergraduate and graduate training toting around, reading, memorizing, and referencing Cotton’s seminal textbook, “Advanced Inorganic Chemistry,” which he coauthored with his own professor, Geoffrey Wilkinson at Harvard University.
The inorganic community was shaken after Cotton died, not only because we lost an icon but also because the circumstances of his death were unusual. Although 76, Cotton was a man still full of vigor. I remember the last time I saw him. It was the ACS spring national meeting in Atlanta in 2006, and he was giving a talk using an overhead projector. Professor Cotton may have been the last person to ever give a talk at an ACS meeting that way.
Cotton reportedly suffered a severe injury in a fall at his home, and he passed away some four months later. Some say he might have been murdered, but a police investigation could only conclude that his death was “suspicious.” That’s all water under the bridge now.
Once they were over the initial shock, the natural instinct of Cotton’s current and former students, postdocs, and colleagues from a career that spanned 50 years was to hold the biggest and most exciting ACS symposium possible in his honor. That symposium is taking place this week in New Orleans. It includes 47 talks in seven sessions held over four days, with the speaker list being a veritable who’s who of inorganic chemists. (more…)
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