Fenway Park and the Green Monster. Credit: Boston Visitors & Convention Bureau

The Boston event was held at Jerry Remy’s Sports Bar & Grill adjacent to the historic ballpark. Remy is the popular announcer for the Red Sox. The tutorial featured two leading food chemists: Sara J. Risch, founder of the food-consulting firm Science by Design, and Shirley Corriher, a cookbook author whose latest work is “Bakewise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking.” Risch and Corriher previously teamed up at the ACS meeting in Washington, D.C., to talk about the art of barbeque and at the meeting in San Francisco to talk about the sour in sourdough bread.

First up to bat in Boston, Risch gave a short warning about food safety in ballparks, given that a recent survey of ballparks found that most food-service vendors had poor health and safety ratings. Ballpark food service staffs tend to be minimum-wage workers or volunteers without training, Risch said. If the owners and managers of food kiosks aren’t diligent, there can be some public health issues with spoiled food—food could be undercooked, not properly refrigerated, or kept at an unsafe temperature for too long after it has been prepared.

For example, Risch says she would probably avoid sushi, oysters, or any raw foods in a ballpark—you can find just about anything on a ballpark menu these days, from iced coffee to hummus to veggie dogs. Fried foods are pretty safe, she noted, because they have been cooked at a high temperature, although the extra fat is a tradeoff. But you only live once.

Risch continued with the chemistry and physics of popcorn. These properties are fairly simple: the starch inside the kernels explodes when the water moisture reaches a critical temperature. Popcorn growers and marketers want high volume when the corn is popped, she said, but that comes at the expense of loss of flavor—the larger the popped corn, the less flavor it has.

She also pointed out that so far there’s no commercial genetically modified popcorn made to enhance properties, such as the shape of the popped corn, although that might be set to change. Speaking of shape, you have probably noticed there are two types: mushroom, which is like a smooth round ball, and butterfly, which is more open. The shapes are inherent in the variety of popcorn, with some hybrids having nearly all of one type or the other. The mushroom type is best for coating with caramel—as in the ballpark favorite Cracker Jack—or with chocolate or other flavors. Butterfly has more volume and is preferred for filling boxes or bags at the stadium or movie theater.

Risch told Newscripts that most stadium or movie theater popcorn won’t have a problem with diacetyl, the potentially toxic compound that shows up in microwave popcorn. The compound is generated when the flavoring is heated to a high temperature.

Next up to bat, Corriher gave a short lecture on hot dogs. Whether Fenway Franks or Dodger Dogs, ballpark hot dogs or any hot dogs for that matter are all made in about the same way, Corriher noted. “There is an incredible amount of chemistry in a hot dog,” she said.

Mmmm ... briny. Credit: Kayem

Franks, like the ones made by Kayem, the company that supplies Fenway Park, are all beef and water, with a little salt and flavoring thrown in for controlling acidity and keeping bacteria at bay, she explained. They start out as cuts of meat that are ground up, with a pinch of sugar along with ascorbic acid, sodium lactate, sodium acetate, sodium sulfate added as brining enhancers. Brining helps keep the dog moist and plump—unbrined hotdogs lose 30% of their moisture, whereas brined dogs lose only 15%, Corriher noted.

The brine works its way into the muscle fiber of the meat to denature the protein myosin, a fact Corriher demonstrated by waving her arms to show how a protein unravels. The floppy protein, water, and fat, all within the confines of the muscle fibers, combine to form an emulsion, she added. The meat is then ground with ice to form fine particles of the emulsion, injected into a casing, cooked slowly, and then smoked to add flavor. As the last step, the casings are removed before the dogs are packaged.

As Corriher munched on a Fenway Frank, Risch came on in relief to finish off the presentation with a short lecture on beer, explaining how beer is made as a fermented extract of roasted barley with hop flavoring. She commented on the differences between different types of beer–different types of yeast are used for making ales and lagers—and about foam and alcohol content.

After a beer and a Fenway Frank at Jerry Remy’s, the gaggle of reporters walked next door into the ballpark in a light rain, hoping to get the game in. The weather cleared by the time the national anthem stopped echoing around the stadium, and the Red Sox went on to beat the Mariners 6-3.

For the Boston meeting, the titles for the symposia in the Division of Computers in Chemistry (COMP) stand out as being a little different. For example: Novel Is So Passé, Just Say New Methods; Colloids: Gels, Sols, and Emulsions. You Know … Goo; and Materials, Polymers and Nanostuff. Newscripts decided to find out who was behind them.

The COMP titles are part of the wit and wisdom of computational biochemist Emilio X. Esposito, who operates consulting firm exeResearch, in East Lansing, Mich. I caught up with Esposito just as he was coming out of a marathon ACS Meetings & Expositions committee planning meeting.

Esposito, one of the division’s meeting organizers, says the catchy titles started out as his effort to better organize the COMP sessions, primarily to break symposia into smaller sessions that were more focused on a single topic. He started adding a little levity by including pop culture references and some word play in order to make the titles more informative and interesting.

For example, in Boston he used: We were Promised Jet Packs. They Found Out About These on the Way, as the title for a session made up of talks on methodology reviews–where the computational science was, were it is going, and what happened instead. He likens the theme to the old cartoon show The Jetsons, where the future George Jetson lives in a world of jet packs, flying cars, robot maids, and sundry automated gadgets and gizmos. “The future always promises us something, perhaps more than can be delivered, but along the way we discover much more and get sidetracked,” Esposito says. “We have jet packs now, but they aren’t exactly what we expected.”

For another session, he used: Peter McWilliams said: Life is Not a Struggle. It’s a Wiggle. This title was just cool, Esposito says, something he came across while looking for a reference to wiggle on the Internet. In molecular dynamics modeling, molecules seem to wiggle during simulations on the computer screen, Esposito says. He was trying to enhance that image. Esposito isn’t sure what the quote means, but it comes from the author Peter McWilliams.

Insane in the Membrane is a title for a session covering the modeling of membrane behavior. The title is a nod to the rap song of the same title a few years ago by the group Cypress Hill, Esposito explains, in which said membrane refers to the brain.

Few symposium titles at the meeting come close to those zingers, although The Chemistry of Beer & Brewing sponsored by the Younger Chemists’ Committee has a certain appeal. Esposito doesn’t think any ACS by-laws are being broken with the quirky titles. But then again he didn’t bother to check.

Esposito Credit: Courtesy of Emilio Esposito

Some divisions don’t have anything to worry about in that regard. Take the Division of Inorganic Chemistry, with these classic titles: General Inorganic Chemistry, Coordination Chemistry, Nanoscience, and Inorganic Chemistry. Perhaps Medicinal Chemistry’s General Oral Session should win a prize there. The prize for the most popular symposium title at ACS meetings goes to General Posters, which several divisions use. Bland, but functional.

To be honest, not all of COMP’s titles are so exciting. There’s one simply titled Proteins, and another called Poster Session–not even General Posters, just Poster Session. Perhaps the booby prize, and certainly the prize for the most convoluted, goes the Division of Organic Chemistry’s Heterocycles and Aromatics, Metal-Mediated Reactions & Syntheses, Molecular Recognition & Self-Assembly and Physical Organic Chemistry: Calculations, Mechanisms, Photochemistry & High Energy Species. Yes, that’s all one title. It turns out it was a poster session. I didn’t go.

There are only so many elements, though, so Poliakoff and friends expanded the video series to include seasonal chemical videos such as ones about the Chinese New Year and Christmas, as well as videos describing the chemistry behind viagra, the Shroud of Turin, and the Nobel Prizes, among other miscellaneous items. The team also has created a set of videos called The Sixty Symbols that provide an explanation of “the letters and squiggles” used by physicists and astronomers in their scientific writings.

One of the latest videos produced by the Nottingham crew is different–it’s an online tribute. Poliakoff takes time out to eulogize Tony Judt, an acclaimed British historian and Poliakoff’s close lifelong friend who recently died. The video is less about chemistry and more about the joy of living and the joy of discovery, which are intangible elements you won’t find on the periodic table.

Northeastern's "Aluminator"

The Chem-E-Car competition, first held in 1999, is a fun and practical way for chemical engineering students to apply their knowledge of ChemE principles while helping build interest and expertise in alternative fuels. Each year students design and build a car, then just before the competition begins they are handed the specifications for the race. In this year’s event, students were challenged to transport 250 mL of water 77 feet. Each team gets two chances to tweak its car’s power system to meet the race specs, with the team’s final score being its best attempt at meeting the established distance. Northeastern University came the closest to the finish line and received the top prize of $2,000.

Finishing second and taking home $1,000 was the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, using a decomposition reaction of hydrogen peroxide and potassium iodide. Third place and $500 went to Louisiana State University with its car powered by the acid-base reaction of citric acid with sodium carbonate.

Start thinking about next year.

Puerto Rico's "Coki Turbo"

LSU's "Swamp Thing"

This week the 19th International Symposium on Fluorine Chemistry and the 3rd International Symposium on Fluorous Technologies are taking place jointly at Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Imagine taking a premier collection of scientific presentations and holding them in a vacation setting, and that is what we have here.
Some 300 of the world’s leading fluorine chemists are in attendance, representing 24 different countries. Besides great chemistry, what drew these scientists to the conference is the backdrop of the Grand Teton Mountain Range. The mountains are a constant presence, mesmerizing. People flock to the front of the lodge and just stand in the Rocky Mountain sunshine and rarified air and stare. It doesn’t matter if you have stared at the Tetons before; you can’t help coming back for more.
Then there is the threat of wildlife at any moment—grizzly and black bears, moose, elk, pronghorn antelope, and wolves. Even on the first night of the conference a brown bat got into the lodge and swooped over people’s heads. Of course big animal sightings are rare and most people settle for watching squirrels and song birds. Then they look up at the Tetons again.

Besides that, the conference organizers outdid themselves with arrangements for the accommodations, food and drink, and extracurricular programming. There have been Native American musicians: Calvin Standing Bear (flute, vocals) and James Torres (keyboard), who make up the group Red Tail Chasing Hawks, performed during conference sessions, including their popular song Fly, Eagle, Fly. And there have been displays of eagles and other birds of prey by the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program, which aids injured birds.

Another event was a western barbeque with a horse whispering demonstration. Made popular by a book and movie, horse whispering is a kindler, gentler way to break in horses for riding. It is a spiritual approach, as a cowboy demonstrated by taking a three-year old horse that had never been ridden before and in about 90 minutes was able to saddle and ride the horse. Initial skeptics went away in awe.

There are also rafting trips on the Snake River, dinner cruises on Jackson Lake, bus tours of nearby Yellowstone National Park, and more. Did I mention this is a set of chemistry conferences?

Pittcon attendees like me who crawl up one aisle of instruments and down another hit a zone after awhile–the Pittcon shuffle, we’ll call it. One booth after another becomes a blur, you lose the ability to decide if you want to stop to check out something or just keep shuffling, one foot after the other over thin carpet, thick carpet, faux wood flooring, concrete–it doesn’t matter. Not even bowls of candy or a cute tchotchke fazes you after awhile. By the way, my favorite trinkets this year: CEM’s crazy Dave beany hat and calendar, and Shimadzu’s Mr. Roboto 1 GB memory stick.

If one could generalize and say there were any noticeable trends this year, it was that there appeared to be fewer new products unveiled. That doesn’t bode well for the economy, if it is true that technological innovation is a driver of future economic growth.

One trend that seems to be continuing is the simplification of the human-instrument interface. Years ago one used to approach an instrument; spend some time setting it up, developing methods, or even writing your own software; then strap yourself in before pushing the go button. Nowadays, most companies aim to make operating an instrument as simple as possible: push a single button, run a preloaded method, and have the instrument wirelessly download the result to your laptop. No thinking is actually required. That takes turnkey operation to a new level.

While that is progress in the sense that researchers are free to spend less time fussing with the instrument and more time making progress on their research, it would seem that fewer people–in particular students and lab technicians–could one day not have a clue how the technique or the instrument works. I haven’t yet decided if that is a good thing or a bad thing, since my eyes are still glazed over from spending four days on the expo floor. Until next year …

I’d say my favorite so far comes from Shimadzu, which has an earthquake sensor on its new AA-7000 series atomic absorption spectrophotometers (one shown). An earthquake sensor, you are thinking; what the heck? Actually, it makes a lot of sense.

Atomic absorption spectroscopy involves aspirating a liquid sample containing a metal analyte of interest into a flame, where the sample is atomized and then a light beam passing through the flame to a detector provides the means of identifying and quantifying the metal in the sample.

Shimadzu is a Japanese-based company, and Japan is a land of earthquakes and tsunamis (the Shimadzu Scientific Instruments division is based in Columbia , Md., however).

So what would happen to an open flame fueled by a flammable gas during an actual earthquake? Well, potentially the same thing as a ruptured gas main during an earthquake–a big fireball. So the new AA-7000 series, besides being a top-quality set of AA instruments, is reportedly the first to have a sensor that automatically shuts off the flame and gas supply when it feels a little rumble, hopefully keeping flames at bay and not burning down the house.

You would think that some gee-whiz new instrument would have attracted my attention on the first day of the show, but instead I became fascinated with Dura Flock nitrile gloves (shown).

Disposable gloves are indispensible in the lab for protecting the hands against chemicals–although they aren’t foolproof. Gloves that are comfortable and allow you to have a good feel for what you are doing are hard to come by.

Now, MicroFlex, the self-proclaimed “most trusted name in gloves,” has come out with the innovative new Dura Flock glove that is unique for being the first “flock-lined” disposible glove–the gloves have a fine layer of cotton on the inside to absorb moisture to keep hands dry (powder doesn’t always work) and improve grip. Flock-lined gloves aren’t new, but these are cost-worthy enough to be disposible. And trying them on, they feel pretty good.

A product like Dura Flock gloves normally wouldn’t make it into C&EN, but this is an interesting bit of the Pittcon sideshow that bears mentioning. Besides, as part of the marketing program, which plays on rocking in the lab with the gloves and rock-and-roll music, Microflex staff set up Guitar Hero for attendees to take a break and play as they visit the company’s booth on the Pittcon expo floor, with or without Dura Flocks protecting their hands.