Category Archives: Chemistry

Studentsin Mary Ann Mazzolas chemistry class at Proctor High School in Utica are among 10,000 high school students in the United States who are experiencing their own March Madness as they participate in local Chemistry Olympiad competitions the first step toward securing a spot on the U.S. Chemistry Olympiad team.

Later this summer, the team will go up against chemistry students from 70 other nations at the 44th International Chemistry Olympiad outside Washington, D.C.

Next month, Mazzolas top two chemistry students will go on to take the U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad national exam with the top two students from all other participating high schools in the country.

Selection for the national exam is based on scores in the local competition and teacher recommendations. The top 20 students from the national competition are then invited to a two-week intensive study camp held in June at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

At the camps conclusion, the final four students are chosen to represent the United States at the International Chemistry Olympiad, where they compete with the worlds most talented high school students for gold, silver and bronze medals.

The local examinations consist of 60 multiple-choice questions representing a fairly wide range of difficulty, usually completed in 110 minutes. The three-part, 4.5-hour national exam includes multiple-choice questions, problem solving and a lab.

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Proctor chemistry students participate in March Madness

LOS ANGELES -- It's a tale as old as time: A tough, type A lawyer hires a surfer-dude contractor to remodel her kitchen. OK, the type A lawyer and surfer-dude characters aren't that classic, but the story of two very different people finding a connection has been around forever.

NBC is banking that a new spin on this old plot will create enough sparks to make the new comedy "Bent" a hit. It will be up to Amanda Peet, the lawyer, and David Walton, the surfer, to generate those sparks.

"I think chemistry, in real life, it's hard to put words around it. You either have it with someone or you don't," Walton says. He thinks viewers will see -- and be attracted to -- the chemistry between he and Peet.

Both actors credit executive producer Tad Quill with writing a script that has enough sexual tension and sexual suspense to make it easy to create the needed sexual electricity.

"It's not something that I think about or that I set out to accomplish. It's just play the scene," Peet says of the connection she has to her co-star.

She has played those kind of scenes in TV and film projects before, from "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" to "The Whole Nine Yards." The key to making the audience believe there is some type of connection is believable casting.

Peet and Quill knew immediately Walton was the guy for "Bent."

"When Tad and I were looking for a co-star, we definitely wanted to find something that would make the show really sexy. We wanted to create a real kind of lifestyle rift between these two people. And when David Walton came in, it was obvious that he was our guy. And, frankly, from the bottom of my heart, I am shocked that I get to be with him and not Reese Witherspoon or Jennifer Lopez or some movie star right now because he's just a really crazy genius combination of being really funny and really gorgeous and kind of a dork," Peet says. "I feel very lucky that we found him."

Walton is a veteran of situation comedies, having starred in "Perfect Couples," "100 Questions" and "Cracking Up."

Quill, who worked as a producer on "Scrubs," "Spin City," "Good Morning, Miami" and "Samantha Who?," wants "Bent" to have the same romantic comedy elements of those shows while being just a little different.

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Old storyline, new chemistry and comedy in 'Bent'

KOLKATA, India--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

CHEMGEN Pharma International, solely owned by Dr. Kali Pradip Chaudhuri, a Contract Research Organization serving the global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with innovative chemistry expertise, announced the appointment of Dr. Debasis Das as the company's General Manager of Business Development. Dr. Das will be heading the business development department with focus on driving economic growth including acceleration of sales and marketing initiatives to expand the company's footprint in the global market.

With extensive experience in both the pharmaceutical industry and academia, Dr. Das brings to Chemgen Pharma expertise in the fields of medicinal chemistry, synthetic organic chemistry, custom synthesis and custom manufacturing. Dr. Das' knowledge gained from supporting a wide range of projects around the world and his overall capabilities to help create innovative solutions to meet customers' expectations will be a great asset to Chemgen Pharma.

Before joining Chemgen Pharma, Dr. Das returned to India from Shanghai after his four years of service at Wuxi AppTec Co. Ltd. where he served as Associate Director in the medicinal chemistry department. Prior to WuXi, Dr. Das held various positions in contract research organizations and pharmaceutical companies in India including Dr. Reddys Research Foundation, Chembiotek Research International and Jubilant Chemsys. His impressive experience includes management, mentoring and training a large number of Ph.D. and M.Sc. scientists and chemists, overseeing research and development, managing integrated drug discovery and collaboration projects with partners from the USA and Europe.

Dr. Das holds a Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from Jadavpur University and was engaged in a post doctoral research at Duke University with international publications. Dr. Das is also involved with the University colleges as a guest faculty and teaching postgraduate students on the topics of Bioactive organic compounds, Antibiotics and Aromaticity.

About CHEMGEN Pharma International

CHEMGEN Pharma International is a Contract Research Organization serving the global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with innovative chemistry expertise, reliable and flexible resources. Since its inception in 2004, Chemgen Pharma has built a state-of-the-art infrastructure with highly experienced and committed team members to deliver superior quality services and competitive pricing to its customers worldwide - enabling them to operate efficiently and profitably.

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CHEMGEN Pharma International, a Dr. Kali Pradip Chaudhuri Company, Appoints Dr. Debasis Das as General Manager of ...

LOS ANGELES -- As executive producer of the new NBC comedy"Bent," Tad Quill is responsible for everything from writing the first episode to making sure the caterer doesn't poison anyone. But his most important role may be the most underappreciated one: playing matchmaker.

Good sitcoms -- and this is one of them -- need snappy dialogue, a compelling premise and engaging characters. But the most critical ingredient is chemistry between the lead actors, especially when the story hinges on a will-they-or-won't-they relationship.

Amanda Peet plays Alex, a recent divorcee who hires a gambling addict, Pete (David Walton), to remodel her house. You've seen this setup before -- she's cautious, he's wild; she's responsible, he's unreliable -- but it more than holds up because the two banter like a modern-day Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.

You're 99.9 percent sure they'll end up in each other's arms, but watching them do the long, slow dance to get there is still a treat.

Peet, who was attached to the project from the start, read with about 20 actors and Quill saw more than 50 guys before casting Walton, who starred in the short-lived sitcoms"Perfect Couples"and "100 Questions."

"You know when it's right instantaneously," Quill says. "It's one thing to have actors saying a joke that's kind of funny, but when two people who really know what they're doing come together, you can be laughing out loud."

Walton isn't sure what makes this partnership work so well.

"Chemistry, like in real life, is hard to put words around," he says.

It helps to work with Peet, who has previously sizzled with Bruce Willis and John Cusack. She specializes in tough, intelligent characters who slowly reveal their vulnerabilities, fears and a desperate need for something more intimate than a handshake.

"It's not something I think about or set out to accomplish," Peet, whose last series, Aaron Sorkin's "Live From the Sunset Strip," also called for romantic electricity, says. "Tad's script has a lot of sexual tension and sexual suspense. You just play that."

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Chemistry sets 'Bent' afire

Submitted by Sabregold1999

Apple Succumbs To Battery Chemistry

In light of the news that Apple is issuing a dividend with the stock flirting with all-time highs, it might be a good time to assess where Apple is with its two products, the Iphone and the Ipad. There is no arguing with the success of these products, but that is not the real story that needs addressing. The real story for Apple is battery chemistry and much like the automakers it fails.

Apple, like a lot of gadget makers needs new iterations to generate a buzz. If the newest product lacks significant improvements the growth model suffers. For Apple any and all great innovations on the hardware side will be limited, simply because battery chemistry, unlike Moores law, moves at a snails pace. Here is some evidence to show you the proof.

Lets examine the latest offering from the IPad3. Apple was able to increase the size of the battery in its device by about 70%. It did this by engineering a more efficient internal set-up. It did NOT increase the energy density of the individual lithium ion cells. Why was all of this done? They did it for two reasons.

4G eats batteries and that new screen hogs power. So, without engineering a better set-up, the IPad 3 would have been much larger, instead of only slightly larger.

Why is this important? If you examine a laptop, theres a reason why the battery is as large as it is relative to the device. The laptop uses significant power and lithium ion batteries are only capable of packing so much energy density into a defined space. Design engineers at Apple and Samsung know perfectly well, that asking your phone or tablet to replace that of your laptop comes with one big problem that no one has solved; namely, battery chemistry.

For a company like Apple, it truly is constrained on what it can do moving forward with the Ipad and the Iphone franchises. Computing power comes at a price in small packages and with the latest revelation that energy densities did not improve, an investor might conclude that the next iterations will have to contain extraordinary software rather than hardware developments.

Oh and it is for this reason that this author believes Apple is tackling the TV market next. Stay tuned.

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Guest Post: Apple Succumbs To Battery Chemistry?

The five most interesting stories, rumors and notes in the NBA: 1. Chemistry test: Paging Lionel Hollins. Professor Hollins, please report to the chemistry lab.

The Memphis Grizzlies are having a very nice season, overcoming the loss of forward Zach Randolph to put themselves in position to finish with a upper-division Western Conference playoff seed. At 25-18, they are a half game behind the Clippers for the No. 4 spot.

On Friday, Randolph returned after missing 37 games with a knee injury. In two games since returning, Randolph is averaging 14 points and nine rebounds in 24.5 minutes off the bench.

But do the Grizzlies need one more piece? Apparently they think so, and on Monday, they brought in veteran guard Gilbert Arenas for a physical and will sign him if he passes, the Commercial Appeal's Ronald Tillery reports.

This should be interesting. Arenas, 30, has played 10 NBA seasons. During three of them -- 2004-05, '05-06 and '06-07 -- he was among the league's best offensive players, averaging 25.5, 29.3 and 28.4 points.

But knee injuries and off-court issues -- especially his conviction on a gun charge and subsequent suspension in 2010 -- changed things. Before this season, Orlando -- which obtained him via a trade last season -- waived him under the league's amnesty clause.

Arenas is one of six players who were amnestied this season, and none have bounced back to really make their old teams regret it. If Arenas plays, he would be one of three amnestied players currently active in the NBA, joining the Kings' Travis Outlaw (waived by Nets) and Knicks' Baron Davis (waived by Cavaliers).

The Clippers' Chauncey Billups (waived by Knicks) is out for the season with a torn Achilles' tendon, Charlie Bell (waived by Warriors) is playing in Italy, and, as we all know, Brandon Roy has retired.

If the record of amnestied players hints that Arenas won't be an All-Star for Memphis, can he be an effective backup point guard, as Davis has become for the Knicks? That's the role the Grizzlies need filled -- a backup behind established starter Mike Conley. They don't necessarily need a gunner off the bench, a role filled by O.J. Mayo, who ranks third on the team in shot attempts.

The signing of Arenas shows that the Grizzlies are looking to contend now, and there might be a good reason. There are rumblings in Memphis about a possible ownership change. Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle who was a finalist to buy the Golden State Warriors and also made an attempt to buy the New Orleans Hornets, is apparently making a run at the Grizzlies.

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NBA High-5: Grizzlies flirt with chemistry experiment by courting Gilbert Arenas