The Nobel’s great, but take a look at this!
Bob Lefkowitz proudly displays his Nobel Prize medal (and diploma on the desk) at his Duke University Medical Center office, 20 December 2012. Photo: David Kroll
As I alluded to earlier on this index page, I was fortunate to score the cover story the January 9th issue of the Research Triangle’s alternative weekly paper, INDY Week. Therein, I told the story of Robert J. Lefkowitz, MD, the biochemist and cardiologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012 with his former cardiology fellow, Brian K. Kobilka, MD, of Stanford University.
In this first edition of pixels that didn’t make it to the final article, I want to follow on the moments after I took this photo after interviewing Bob for the article. He was kind enough to bring in his original Nobel medal and diploma for me to see and photograph (he’s currently having a replica made of the medal so that he doesn’t have to carry around the real one.).
Lefkowitz IndyWeek Outtakes
The 9 January 2013 edition of the Research Triangle area’s alternative weekly newspaper, INDY Week. Photo: D.L. Anderson/INDY Week. Click on the photo to go the online article.
I was fortunate to be able to tell the story of Duke University biochemist and cardiologist Dr. Robert J. Lefkowitz in the 9 January 2013 issue of the Research Triangle’s award-winning alt-weekly, INDY Week.
Even with editor Lisa Sorg graciously offering 3,000+ words for the story on one of the 2012 Nobel laureates in chemistry, some terrific bits of my interviews with Bob and major players in his story didn’t make it into the final version.
Over the next few days, I’ll post some of these gems. This page will index the running list of those posts.
The Nobel’s Great, But Take a Look at This! – Lefkowitz reveals where Duke men’s basketball sits in his list of priorities
The Official Christmas Video of Terra Sigillata
Harkening back to my Polish roots, I hereby declare Bob Dylan’s remake of Mitch Miller’s “Must Be Santa” (1960) as our official Christmas song. Written by Bill Fredericks and Hal Moore, Dylan’s take derives from the polka adaptation Brave Combo of Denton, Texas (here’s their version for comparison).
With your help, it might hit 2 million views by Christmas Day. As of the time of this post, it was at 1,997,052.
Best wishes to all of our readers for health and happiness no matter what holiday you celebrate this season!
“These pernicious anti-scientific trends”
I sauntered over to Duke University this morning to sit in an auditorium and watch the Nobel medal award ceremony via nobelprize.org with some fellow researchers and writers like Anton Zuiker and Eric Ferreri.
Hellooooo, Stockholm! The view this morning from Duke University’s Schiciano Auditorium. Yes, I could’ve watched on my computer anywhere but it felt right to be on the Duke campus. Credit: David Kroll/CENtral Science
As I’ve written ad nauseum, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to watch the goings-on with half of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012 with Duke’s Dr. Bob Lefkowitz. Lefkowitz shared the prize for the chemistry behind G-protein coupled receptors with his former fellow, Stanford’s Dr. Brian Kobilka.
Criminal Poisoning Arrest at a Hometown Chemical Company
Here’s a brief on a sad story I came across while trolling for news at home via northjersey.com.
A former employee at a Carlstadt chemical plant allegedly attempted to poison a coworker’s coffee with an antifreeze ingredient and sprayed acid on her coat, Carlstadt Police said.
[. . .]
A supervisor had allegedly observed a video of DeJesus putting methanol, commonly used in antifreeze, into a coworker’s coffee, Carlstadt Det. John Cleary said. The chemist was also accused of spraying [t]richloroacetic acid, which is used to chemically peel skin, on the same employee’s coat, purse and workspace. These substances were part of the company’s inventory, authorities said.
I think I understand why she’s a former employee.
The accused listed her address in my hometown of 11,000, Wallington, just on the other side of the tracks (literally) from her employer, Sonar Products.
The writer, Meghan Grant of the South Bergenite newspaper, seemed to underestimate the risk of drinking methanol. She cited liver and kidney injury without noting that formic acid and formaldehyde metabolites could cause blindness in the victim.
I left a note for Grant to keep us apprised on the status of the victim.
Source:
Grant, Meghan. Carlstadt chemist accused of poisoning coworker. South Bergenite, 15 November 2012.
“Food That Doesn’t Contain Any Chemicals” – Guardian Science
Win these, if you can. Credit: Royal Society via Guardian Science
[See addendum at end of post]
The Guardian?
Say it ain’t so!
Ever wonder why the public has an irrational fear of anything labeled, “chemical”?
Well. . .
The book section of Guardian Science has been running a contest since 19th November to win six books shortlisted for the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books 2012.
The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker
The Information by James Gleick
My Beautiful Genome by Lone Frank
Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene
The Viral Storm by Nathan Wolfe
Lofty books, though I must admit to not having gotten to any yet (I’m currently stuck on Sid Mukherjee’s Pulitzer prize-winning tome, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer).
To enter the contest, one need only answer four “science” questions (and, sadly, be a UK resident.).
Let’s take a lookie-see at one of those questions:
Umm. . . Credit: Guardian Science book section (Click image for source)
Video: Why Do Leaves Change Color?
Rob Nelson is an independent science education filmmaker now living in Charlotte, NC, with his equally talented wife, Haley, and their son. Together with his partner in Sweden, Jonas Stenstrom, Rob runs a company called Untamed Science.
I first met Rob through my new position at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences when he made a video introducing all of our new research laboratory directors.
In the video posted here, he addresses the biology and chemistry (!) of leaves changing color in the fall together with my boss, Meg “Canopy Meg” Lowman, Director of the Museum’s Nature Research Center. It’s a catchy introduction to the chemistry behind color change. Enjoy!
Okay, Who’s Huffing Vicks VapoRub?
From the back end of this blog. What are you people doing out there? Credit: DJ Kroll
One of the fun things about having a blog is the traffic analytics feature on the dashboard of WordPress (although I really miss the features of SiteMeter that don’t run on WordPress because it doesn’t accept JavaScript. But I digress.)
Besides the addictive nature of looking at one’s traffic numbers, I always find it interesting to look at the search terms that bring people to our humble little corner of CENtral Science. I became hooked on this way back when I started the original version of Terra Sig on Blogger: in February 2006, I had an unusual spike in traffic originating from the UK via the search term “terra sigillata.” So, I posted this and learned this.
Usually, search term hits tell me that something has come up in the news. But, alas, I cannot find anything recent that would account for Vicks VapoRub to elicit much searching. Perhaps telling is that all 27 searches came via a misspelled search for “vicks vapor rub.”
North Carolina historical marker in Greensboro. Credit: DJ Kroll
(By the way, the search term brought folks here to read this post I wrote on Vicks VapoRub after a 2011 PR snafu with journalists like Ivan Oransky at Reuters Health. I ended up writing a bit more about the North Carolina pharmacy history that brought the world this lovely concoction.)
I do know that misguided youth will huff volatile chemicals for the acute high one might get. Vicks is most commonly used to enhance the experience of MDMA (ecstasy) – I’ve seen kids at raves wearing N95 facemasks inside which they have smeared the VapoRub.
So, what’s with you people wanting to know about Vicks VapoRub?
Thoughts on the “Doctoral Glut Dilemma” Webinar
As I wrote last Thursday, ACS Webinars featured an hour-long discussion on the perceived overabundance of PhD-level chemists and potential solutions to employment challenges. The site should have the entire discussion archived within a week.
I participated in the session and ended up posting my thoughts at the new Forbes.com home of my other blog, Take As Directed. I’m hoping to get comments from a wider group of readers over there who might have impact on hiring of chemistry PhDs.
One of the major points that struck me was the view by Harvard economist, Dr. Richard Freeman, that the chemistry job market might bounce back more quickly than the biosciences. But he views this comeback to occur slowly over the next three to four years.
Freeman attributes chemistry’s upper hand to two factors. First, US doctoral chemistry programs have had a fairly constant PhD supply rate over the last 40 years of approximately 2,000/year. In contrast, the biosciences have exploded from about 3,000 PhDs/year in the 1970s to 15,000 during 2010.
Second, Freeman states that chemistry is far less dependent on federal research funding since 50% to 75% of chemistry PhDs ultimately go on to work in industry. As such, he expects the recovering economy to help chemists far more than those in the biological and biomedical sciences.
I’d love to hear your feedback now or after the webinar is posted later this week. In the meantime, check out my thoughts over at Forbes.com.
Addendum: I’ve since learned that chemistry bloggers Chemjobber and See Arr Oh have posted a podcast discussing this ACS webinar.
Today: Solutions to the “Doctoral Glut Dilemma”
Don’t say ACS have their heads in the sand. A webinar this afternoon will face head-on the reality of training to be a doctoral-level chemist in today’s job market.
Is higher education producing more doctoral scientists than the market can absorb? With the attendance rates at graduate schools increasing, has the private sector’s growth been able to keep up and will there be enough options for tomorrow’s PhDs? Join our two experts Richard Freeman and Paula Stephan as they share their viewpoints on the state of higher education, the economy and how industry and academia can better prepare current and future graduates.
I’m not privy to any other advance information than what’s on the ACS Webinars™ website but others I’ve viewed have been top-quality.
I obviously encourage viewing by current doctoral trainees in chemistry and postdocs. Giving yourself a competitive edge in this market is information anyone can use.
But I particularly urge undergrads currently interviewing for chemistry doctoral programs to tune in. One of the four primary discussion topics will be assessing graduate programs for their ultimate employment record of their trainees.
Take advantage of what your professional society is offering.
Details:
Doctoral Glut Dilemma: Are There Solutions?
Date: Thursday November 8, 2012 (TODAY!)
Time: 2:00-3:00 pm ET
Fee: Free
From The CENtral Science Blogs
Grand CENtral
May 17th, 2013This Week on CENtral Science: #Rarediseases, 80s Nostalgia, #Chemclub, and more
By Carmen DrahlNewscripts
May 16th, 2013Amusing News Aliquots
By Bethany HalfordThe Haystack
May 13th, 2013Biotech, Pharma, & VCs Offer Rare Disease Patient Groups Some Advice
By Lisa JarvisThe Safety Zone
May 9th, 2013Patrick Harran arraigned on four felony counts, #SheriSangji case to be continued in June
By Jyllian KemsleyCleantech Chemistry
May 6th, 2013No Magic In China's Solar Industry
By Melody BomgardnerTerra Sigillata
Apr 23rd, 2013The Cinnamon Challenge: On Being Charged with #Chemophobia
By David KrollJust Another Electron Pusher
Apr 18th, 2013#ChemMovieCarnival – The Absent-Minded Professor
By Glen ErnstArtful Science
Apr 5th, 2013A brief hiatus: Onwards to Uzbekistan
By Sarah EvertsFine Line
Mar 11th, 2013Waldorf Time Again
By Rick Mullin
Recent Comments