Chemistry World Blog

What is it that makes a man a man? Well, chemically, it’s testosterone isn’t it? But this compound doesn’t just separate the men from the boys – it’s helped unscrupulous athletes of both sexes stand out from the field too. Simon Cotton tells a steroid’s story in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.

Dow Corning completes SEED complex – FDA approves Voraxaze – and fracking under fire on both sides of the Atlantic (more…)

15 January 2012: Have something to say about an article you’ve read on Chemistry World this week? Leave your comments below…

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A $34bn LNG project in Australia – BASF commits $50m to Li–S battery technology – And US makes emissions data available (more…)

UPDATE: Due to the high demand we’ve experienced for this product we have extended the free trial period until the end of May. The username and password provided below will still be operational but members and e-members can now also use their personal login details to gain access.  

Did you get a new tablet for Christmas? Was Father Christmas so incredibly generous in these times of austerity that you are now the proud owner of a brand new iPad? Whether you were lucky enough to get one of the said gadgets or already had one, don’t miss out and make sure the new Chemistry World app is in your list to download.

We have just launched the iPad and Android apps for Chemistry World and these are now available completely free of charge on the App Store and Android Market, respectively, until 1 April. Indeed, until that date anyone interested in reading Chemistry World via an app will be able to download it following one of the links above (whichever is relevant for your device) and then access the content using the following login details:

Username – freetrial

Password – rscchemworld

Once logged in you will be able to view not only the latest issue of Chemistry World but also all the back issues going back to January 2011.

After 1 April, content will be once again restricted to members and e-members who will be able to gain access using their personal login details. So get downloading!  And, of course, let us know what you think. Please send any feedback to chemistryworld@rsc.org

Bibiana Campos-Seijo

NOTE: For those of you who own Android devices but can’t access Android Market, here is a link that allows the direct download of the Chemistry World app: www.chemistryworld.org/cwapp

The other day I got out of the office and went to poke around the London Centre for Nanotechnology‘s labs at Imperial College London. It’s always great to meet people and put faces to names, but it’s also sometimes really helpful to actually see the equipment that’s used. It’s all very well to read about pulsed laser deposition, for example, but it’s another thing entirely to nose around the HUGE piece of kit that is actually used to do it. Sometimes it seems like you need even bigger equipment as you start working at smaller scales. (more…)

This week’s Chemistry in its element podcast is a must for all chocolate lovers as Brian Clegg gives us a taste of theobromine: the food of the gods that’s bad news for dogs.

A string of big pharma deals covering hepatitis C, cancer and natural products – And GSK Synflorix ruling in Argentina (more…)

— Red strawberry

Ground breaking packaging news has reached CW Towers, British retailer Marks & Spencer is launching new packaging to extend the life of strawberries. The store, whose food adverts have become much copied in recent years, say their new packaging will extend the life of fruit stored in the fridge by up to two days. So these are not just any berries, these are M&S berries, but why? (more…)

Developments in the case of Sheharbano (Sheri) Sangji’s death at UCLA in 2009 have been dominating the chemistry news for the last week or so. With the University of California and Sangji’s supervisor Patrick Harran facing criminal charges relating to their management of their health and safety obligations.

The detailed twists and turns of the case have been doggedly covered by Jyllian Kemsley over at Chemical & Engineering News, and debate online over where responsibility lies and what the problems were has been voracious.

Sangji’s is the most serious of a series of high-profile incidents, including explosions at the University of Liverpool, UK, and one at Texas Tech University, US, where a student lost three fingers and perforated an eye among a list of other injuries. This prompted the US Chemical Safety Board to investigate the incident and their report paints a stark picture of safety at TTU (which by all accounts has improved significantly since). The case study also includes anecdotal evidence from 120 other incidents, suggesting a more widespread issue.

Here at Chemistry World, we wanted to examine what it takes to make laboratory environments safer, and what differences there are between the US and the UK and elsewhere.  You can read my story here, but we wanted to take the opportunity to ask you, our readers, what you think:

What is the safety culture like in your institution, or others you’ve worked in?

Has anything changed since these incidents? Do you think it will?

Having spent a few years in a synthetic chemistry lab myself, as well as stints in industry, I’ve come across my fair share of minor incidents, both at my own bench and at colleagues’. I also saw the difference between attitudes to safety at two UK universities. Personally, I hope that our laboratories can become safer places to work, but there are not going to be any quick fixes. We all need to take responsibility for safety – after all, understanding safety comes down to understanding chemistry. If you know the risks involved with what you’re doing, you can take steps to manage them, just like when you drive a car or cross a road.

One of the clearest messages that came back to me from talking to several health and safety professionals in researching my story was that no one wants to stop anyone doing research. If it’s done right, health and safety management should enable researchers to do the work they need to, but in an appropriate environment. So again, let us know what you think – does this happen where you are?

Phillip Broadwith