Category Archives: Chemistry

— Interns wanted

We are looking for a student member to join us this summer for a science writing internship.  The selected candidate will gain experience as a science journalist on both Chemistry World and Education in Chemistry and will receive a hands-on introduction to the complete editorial process from picking what news to report, through writing and editing, right up to final web and print publication.

This eight-week position is supported by the Marriott Bequest Trust with a bursary of £1750. Applicants should have an interest in science communication, demonstrate an enthusiasm for writing and are also (probably) coming towards the end of a chemical science undergraduate degree or postgraduate course. Visit the RSC recruitment pages to find out more and/or apply.

Past interns Josh Howgego and Akshat Rathi have recently confirmed they’ll be heading for The Times Higher and The Economist for some work experience this summer so it really is a once in a life time opportunity. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Bibiana Campos-Seijo

PS: The deadline is 25 May

                  

Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?feed=rss2

April: Rockets

Scenes from the Rockets' games in April. Click SHOW CAPTION for more information.

Rockets guard Goran Dragic heads to the basket past Lakers guard Ramon Sessions (7). (Harry How / Getty Images)

Lakers forward Josh McRoberts throws down a dunk. (Harry How / Getty Images)

Los Angeles' Metta World Peace (15) scores on a layup in front of Courtney Lee. (Harry How / Getty Images)

Rockets forward Luis Scola (4), of Argentina, and Los Angeles Lakers forward Pau Gasol (16) fight for a loose ball in the first half. (Gus Ruelas / Associated Press)

Kobe Bryant reacts as he is fouled in front of Goran Dragic. (Harry How / Getty Images)

Paul Gasol scores on a dunk in front of Courtney Lee. (Harry How / Getty Images)

Kobe Bryant scores in front of Courtney Lee (5) and Goran Dragic (3). (Harry How / Getty Images)

Andrew Bynum reacts to a foul call. (Harry How / Getty Images)

See the article here:
With latest road victory, the change in Rockets is clear: Better basketball through chemistry

Enzymatic reactions are cleaner, produce fewer byproducts and use less energy, she explained. But attempts to replicate natural enzymes for industrial applications are limited by our incomplete knowledge of these proteins.

Ondrechen and Penny J. Beuning, an assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology, have received a three-year, $565,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a better understanding of enzyme activity.

If you want to design proteins to catalyze a particular reaction, its good to understand how they work, said Ondrechen.

Enzymes, she explained, are made up of a string of amino acids coded by the gene sequence. Each amino acid has a different role in the protein: Some are structurally important while others are required for the enzymes catalytic properties.

There are cavities on the surface of a protein where a molecule can come in and sit down, Ondrechen said. The enzyme does a reaction on it and the product goes away.

The current body of research on enzyme activity mostly focuses on the amino acids in that cavity, which come into direct contact with the reactive molecule. But over the years, some research has suggested that amino acids far away from the active site also play a role in catalysis.

Ondrechens team, using a method she developed 10 years ago, will be able to predict which remote amino acids will impact reactivity. Beunings team will test these predictions experimentally.

My lab is really interested in specificity of enzymes, Beuning said. We look enzymes and figure out how they recognize their substrates.

To do this, her team takes a protein engineering approach in which they manipulate the enzymes composition and observe how it affects its function.

Beunings experimental data can be used to train the computational method to make even better predictions about which amino acids are important to catalysis.

Link:
Form and function in enzyme activity

By J.P. Hoornstra, Staff Writer

By J.P. Hoornstra Staff Writer

GLENDALE, Ariz. - The locker stalls stood in various stages of emptiness at Camelback Ranch.

The pingpong table, the water cooler of the Dodgers' clubhouse, was eerily quiet when the team broke camp Sunday.

"It's like the last day of school," Tony Gwynn Jr. said.

To Gwynn, the takeaway from his second camp with the Dodgers was how quickly the players jelled at the beginning.

"That's the big thing that differs from last year to this year," he said. "Last year, there were guys coming in off an off-year, trying to bounce back.

"This year there's a little of that, but not as much."

According to a few players, the chemistry also worked in part because only a couple roster spots were up for grabs. Roles clearly were defined from the beginning and, with one exception, stayed the same until the end.

The one exception was Jerry Sands, who entered camp as the front-runner for the final position player's job. He was demoted to the minor-league camp after batting .158 with no home runs, and the job still is up for grabs.

Go here to see the original:
DODGERS NOTEBOOK: Players passed chemistry test

Mena Suvari and Chis Klein have talked about what makes the American Reunion cast so special.

The two actors, who have played the ex-couple Heather and Oz in the comedy franchise, shared that American Reunion still has the same chemistry among the cast as seen in the 1999 film American Pie.

PA Images / Matt Sayles/AP

"At the end of American Reunion, there's a lot of photos from the first and second American Pie films in there," Suvari explained to Collider. "When you do look at those, it becomes a reality that it has been that long, but there's so much of this essence that it hasn't been.

"It feels like no time has passed at all. We have so much chemistry with one another that it's so natural. It's the same vibe."

American Reunion, the fourth instalment of the original series, brings back the cast - Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Klein, Suvari, Tara Reid, Seann William Scott, Thomas Ian Nicholas and Eddie Kaye Thomas - for their high school reunion at East Great Falls.

"We have such a beautiful time, making these movies," Klein said. "The chemistry that you see, as audience members, in these movies is palpable and you can't create that. That is something that either exists in films or doesn't.

"You've watched enough movies where the chemistry isn't there, but in these, it is. We believe in these characters and we can follow these characters. To be a part of something like that, for 13 years now, and to revisit that, it's a really, really cool thing. We're having a lot of fun."

American Reunion opens on April 6 in the US and May 2 in the UK.

Watch the trailer for American Reunion below:

Read more from the original source:
Mena Suvari, Chris Klein: 'American Reunion cast chemistry is natural'

Happy Birthday Robert Bunsen!

Just a quick post to note that it’s Robert Bunsen’s birthday today. He’d be 201 years old if he were alive. If you’d like to learn a bit more about the burner named after this German chemist why not check out our Classic Kit entry on the Bunsen burner. If you want to learn a bit more about the man, rather than the burner, then we’ve got a whole feature on Robert Bunsen, who ought to be remembered for far more than this humble piece of lab equipment.

Part of what made Bunsen such a great chemist was his diverse interests and during his lifetime he was called upon to investigate volcanoes and geysers and the gases exiting blast furnaces (by today’s standards he was a bit cavalier with his safety and had to be rescued on one occasion when he was overcome by fumes and blew himself up on another occasion). He was a man driven by an insatiable curiosity and made contributions to electrochemistry, toxicology and spectroscopy, but perhaps his greatest passion was teaching. So let’s light a candle for him today.

Patrick Walter

                  

Source:
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