Chemistry World Blog

— 4_cs

In this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast, Cambridge University’s Peter Wothers shares with us his love for caesium

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— mind-blowing science

This morning, I decided to get a fix of synthetic organic chemistry, after Jorge Cham’s talk last night left me feeling a little nostalgic about my time as a graduate student.

It always makes me chuckle when I hear someone say something like ‘as long as we keep it cold and are reasonably careful, there’s no real danger of this compound exploding’ – the very fact that they’re pointing it out (unless you’re in a session devoted to explosives) makes you think that somewhere down the line someone had an interesting day in the lab when a (hopefully) small amount went bang. (Ed. be responsible in the lab folks – no explosions please!)

The gargantuan effort that goes into developing new syntheses and reaction methods just goes to underline just how limited our understainding of chemistry really is sometimes – but that’s what makes it so exciting! (more…)

— CW this week

23 August 2010: Have something to say about an article you’ve read on Chemistry World this week? Leave your comments below…

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— Singin’ in the rain

Well, it’s still raining in Boston. So far I’ve managed to avoid splashing through the puddles and dancing with my umbrella, but you never quite know when the urge will strike.

At least it’s a good motivator to soak up some more chemistry in the technical sessions. Today I opted for something a little different in the morning – a session on open-source drug discovery. The talks were kicked off by Samir Brahmachari, director general of the Indian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and chief mentor of OSDD – an open-source drug discovery project led by CSIR.

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Well, here I am at the 240th National meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston, US. According to the promotional material on the ACS website, this is what Boston looks like:

— boston bay

However, as it’s been raining most of the day since I got inside the convention centre, my view is a little more like this:

— rainy

The ACS is probably the biggest chemistry conference in the world, which means there’s plenty of interesting stuff going down here. So I can ignore the rain (apart from as I flit between the umpteen hotels over which the meeting spreads) and take in the shower of chemical goodies.

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While the pharmaceutical industry is teetering on the edge of a patent cliff that looks set to erode over $60 billion (£39 billion) off the industry’s annual sales, the once overlooked vaccine market looks set to help make up for some of those losses.

According to a new report by healthcare market research publisher Kalorama Information, the vaccine market is predicted to increase by almost 10 per cent per year during the next 5 years. The authors of the report, Vaccines 2010: World Market Analysis, Key Players, and Critical Trends in a Fast-Changing Industry, state that the paediatric market will continue to outpace the adult market due to the rapid uptake of pneumococcal and ‘combination’ DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis) vaccines.

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— bayer

It seems that carbon nanotubes are making waves everywhere these days, and in collaboration with kayak manufacturer Re-Turn, Bayer MaterialScience could soon be making waves in the ocean.

By coating the outer skin of kayaks and canoes with carbon nanotubes, the hull becomes much more resilient to abrasion and damage from UV light. (more…)

— 4_bk

In this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast, UCLA’s Eric Scerri introduces berkelium and explains how when first made it tested the chemical knowledge of postal services worldwide

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— CW this week

16 August 2010: Have something to say about an article you’ve read on Chemistry World this week? Leave your comments below…

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With the economic crisis slowly and shakily retreating, consumption is starting to increase again with Germany’s gross domestic product (GDP) growing by 2.2 per cent in the three months to the end of June – its fastest quarter-on-quarter growth in more than 20 years.

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And while that’s good news for many, increased consumption can only lead to more pollution – something the members of the upcoming Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs)  are sure to be unhappy about. However, on 26 August 2010 the convention will be celebrating the addition of nine chemicals to the annexes of the convention which should lead to the reduction or elimination of their use.

The chemicals in question are: alpha hexachlorocyclohexane; beta hexachlorocyclohexane; chlordecone; hexabromobiphenyl; hexabromodiphenyl ether and heptabromodiphenyl ether (commercial octabromodiphenyl ether); lindane; pentachlorobenzene; perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, its salts and perfluorooactane sulfonyl fluoride; and tetrabromodiphenyl ether and pentabromodiphenyl ether.

As part of the ceremony, a video link with the Sea Dragon, a monitoring boat anchored in Brazil, will be established so they can report on the extent of drifting plastic pollution and POP levels found in deepwater fish in the South Atlantic Ocean. (more…)