Category Archives: Chemistry

Priestley Medal winner Peter J. Stang. Credit: University of Utah

SALT LAKE CITY, July 23 (UPI) -- A University of Utah organic chemist recently given a National Medal of Science by President Obama has won chemistry's highest honor, the school says.

Organic chemist Peter J. Stang has won the American Chemical Society's 2013 Priestley Medal, said to be the highest honor from the world's largest scientific group, a university release reported.

The medal, considered a lifetime achievement award for chemists, was given in recognition of Stang's "cutting-edge research that has had far-reaching implications for many areas of science, including drug development and more efficient ways to produce gasoline and home heating oil."

The 164,000-member ACS announced the honor July 20.

"It is humbling to be listed among the distinguished previous recipients," said Stang, a Utah professor of chemistry whose family fled Hungary when he was a teenager after the Communist takeover in 1956.

The Priestley Medal, first awarded in 1922, is named for British chemist Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), whose discovery of oxygen in 1774 explained why and how things burn, and proved air was made of a mixture of gases.

Stang, who became a naturalized citizen in 1962, has served as editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society since 2002.

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Chemistry award goes to Univ. of Utah prof

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/jmmgkb/the_chemistry_of_h) has announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new book "The Chemistry of Hydroxylamines, Oximes and Hydroxamic Acids. Patai's Chemistry of Functional Groups" to their offering.

Focusing on an important class of compounds in organic synthesis, this text features contributions by leading experts, and delivers the quality expected from the Patai Series.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Some intrinsic features of hydroxylamines, oximes and hydroxamic acids: Integration of theory and experiment

2. Structural analysis of hydroxylamines, oximes and hydroxamic acids: Trends and patterns

3. The organic thermochemistry of hydroxylamines, oximes, hydroxamic acids and their derivatives

4. NMR spectra of hydroxylamines, oximes and hydroxamic acids

5. Synthesis of hydroxylamines

6. Synthesis of oximes and hydroxamic acids

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Research and Markets: The Chemistry of Hydroxylamines, Oximes and Hydroxamic Acids. Patai's Chemistry of Functional ...

Public release date: 22-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 202-872-6042 American Chemical Society

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2012 Peter J. Stang, Ph.D., distinguished professor of chemistry at the University of Utah and editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), has been named winner of the 2013 Priestley Medal by the American Chemical Society (ACS). It is the highest honor bestowed by the world's largest scientific society.

The award recognizes Stang's cutting-edge research that has had far-reaching implications for many areas of science, including drug development and more efficient ways to produce gasoline and home heating oil. The annual award includes a gold medallion designed to commemorate the work of Joseph Priestley, who lived from 1733 to 1804, and is best remembered for his 1774 discovery of the gas that would later be named "oxygen."

"Stang is a pre-eminent organic chemist with an international reputation and seminal, creative contributions to a broad spectrum of chemistry," said Gabor Somorjai, Ph.D., of the University of California, Berkeley. Somorjai nominated Stang for this award.

Last year, Stang won a National Medal of Science, which is the highest U.S. honor for a scientist or engineer. He received the award from President Barack Obama in a White House ceremony, where he was honored "for his creative contributions to the development of organic supramolecular chemistry and for his outstanding and unique record of public service."

Stang has pioneered the field of supramolecular chemistry, which is the study of how molecules come together and build new substances with complex 2-D and 3-D architectures. The molecules could have uses as drug-delivery vehicles and as key players in making oil refining faster and more efficient.

"It's like a Lego set with individual building units," said Stang. "You can make complicated structures and systems."

Stang has been editor of JACS, the ACS flagship journal, since 2002. As editor, Stang revitalized and enhanced JACS, culminating in an increase in citations and its Impact Factor. The most-cited journal in chemistry, JACS has received 408,307 total citations and has an Impact Factor of 9.907, as reported in the 2011 Journal Citation Reports by Thomson Reuters. JACS is one of more than 40 ACS peer-reviewed journals.

"For many years, Stang has been a force to be reckoned with in the ACS," said Harry B. Gray, Ph.D., who is at the California Institute of Technology. "He brought new ideas to make sure our flagship journal continues to attract the most important work in chemistry. He has done a fabulous job, and chemistry is better for it."

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American Chemical Society's highest honor goes to pioneer of 'Lego-like' molecules

Nobody likes having their holiday or picnic ruined by insect bites, but these are minor irritations compared to some of the diseases the biting blighters can pass on. Phil Robinson looks at the chemistry behind the widely used insect repellent DEET in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.

                  

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This is a guest post from one of our judges for the Chemistry World Science Communication Competition

Communicating science, like any kind of journalism, typically has a formula. There are good reasons for this. Readers need to be able to get to the news very quickly, often in the first sentence and usually at least in the first paragraph. They also need to be told what is really new – not generalities such as ‘Researchers have developed an amazing new material/drug/device’, but what really distinguishes the new work from what has gone before – and most of all, why they should care. In attempting to get this right, I always try to repeat to myself the mantra that I learnt from the veteran science writer Tim Radford: ‘No one has to read this stuff.’ The trick is to make them want to read: not with false promises, hype, or sensationalism, but with smart, concise, and perhaps witty writing.

OK, so much for the formula. Rules are, of course, there to be broken – but only if you have a very good reason to do so. A rigid adherence to tradition can be the death of good writing. I don’t advocate gimmicks for their own sake, but there are doubtless more valid ways to grab a reader’s attention than with a first sentence that basically tells the whole story. You might want to use the first paragraph to describe a compelling first-hand scene or encounter, or to pose a tantalising question. To my mind, the winners of this competition might simply do a great job with the standard ‘news story’ template, or might surprise us with a totally new approach. Don’t feel obliged to do either – just think about what will make the piece work.

Be wary of words that strain for effect. Readers won’t necessarily believe that what you’re describing is ‘amazing’, ‘revolutionary’ or ‘gob-smacking’ just because you say it is. Words like this have to earn their place, and usually there are better alternatives anyway. When the writing is good, it doesn’t need to be pumped up with adjectives on steroids; in fact, they usually detract. At the same time, be wary of falling into science-speak. It’s easy enough to avoid obvious jargon, harder to steer clear of scientists’ habitual turns of phrase, such as the passive voice or comments such as ‘The crystal structure showed that…’. When things get a bit technical, it’s often best not to try to explain everything – the trick may be to persuade the reader that they know, rather than reminding them of what they don’t.

Of course, there’s no substitute for a good story. These aren’t easy to find, so take your time. It could be something surprising, or important, or fun, or perhaps even shocking or disturbing. Whatever the case, you have to be clear what the story is, which means being able to express it in a sentence. You might not use that sentence, but you have to be able to write it. Now have fun!

Philip Ball is a science writer based in London, UK

Find out about the Chemistry World Science Communication Competition and submit your entry here.

                  

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This is a satellite view of the Zagros mountain belt in western Iran. The range forms part of the most extensive belt of water-soluble gypsum on Earth, stretching from Oman to Pakistan, and well into Western India. Scientists suggest that the dissolution of ancient salt deposits caused drastic changes in seawater chemistry, which may have triggered long-term global cooling. Credit: US Geological Survey/Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science

Humans get most of the blame for climate change, with little attention paid to the contribution of other natural forces. Now, scientists from the University of Toronto and the University of California Santa Cruz are shedding light on one potential cause of the cooling trend of the past 45 million years that has everything to do with the chemistry of the world's oceans.

"Seawater chemistry is characterized by long phases of stability, which are interrupted by short intervals of rapid change," says Professor Ulrich Wortmann in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Toronto, lead author of a study to be published in Science this week. "We've established a new framework that helps us better interpret evolutionary trends and climate change over long periods of time. The study focuses on the past 130 million years, but similar interactions have likely occurred through the past 500 million years."

Wortmann and co-author Adina Paytan of the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California Santa Cruz point to the collision between India and Eurasia approximately 50 million years ago as one example of an interval of rapid change. This collision enhanced dissolution of the most extensive belt of water-soluble gypsum on Earth, stretching from Oman to Pakistan, and well into Western India remnants of which are well exposed in the Zagros mountains.

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This is the Zagros mountain belt in western Iran as seen from the space shuttle Atlantis. The range forms part of the most extensive belt of water-soluble gypsum on Earth, stretching from Oman to Pakistan, and well into Western India. Scientists suggest that the dissolution of ancient salt deposits caused drastic changes in seawater chemistry, which may have triggered long-term global cooling. Credit: Photo courtesy of NASA

"When India and Eurasia collided, it caused dissolution of ancient salt deposits which resulted in drastic changes in seawater chemistry," Paytan continues. "This may have led to the demise of the Eocene epoch the warmest period of the modern-day Cenozoic era and the transition from a greenhouse to icehouse climate, culminating in the beginning of the rapid expansion of the Antarctic ice sheet."

The researchers combined data of past seawater sulfur composition, assembled by Paytan in 2004, with Wortmann's recent discovery of the strong link between marine sulfate concentrations and carbon and phosphorus cycling. They were able to explain the seawater sulfate isotope record as a result of massive changes to the accumulation and weathering of gyspum the mineral form of hydrated calcium sulfate.

"While it has been known for a long time that gyspum deposits can be formed and destroyed rapidly, the effect of these processes on seawater chemistry has been overlooked," says Wortmann. "The idea represents a paradigm shift in our understanding of how ocean chemistry changes over time and how these changes are linked to climate."

More information: "Rapid Variability of Seawater Chemistry over the Past 130 Million Years," Science, 2012.

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Researchers connect seawater chemistry with climate change, evolution