Category Archives: Chemistry

This week’s Chemistry in its element podcast comes straight from the heart to take your breath away. Brian Clegg takes us through the chemistry of haemoglobin – the compound that puts the red in blood red.

                  

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It’s Valentine’s Day and here at the Chemistry World cabana, we want to make sure our readers have the best one yet. No doubt many of you will be spending the evening with a special someone and to make sure the conversation flows, you may share a glass or two of that most romantic of tipples – champagne. And what better accompaniment could there be to such a perfect evening than some champagne science trivia? Clearly none.

Now, as a veteran of a date, with a girl, I can say with some authority that nothing relieves the paralysing tension and awkwardness of a first date (or for that matter the wearisome banality and contemptuous familiarity of the umpteenth) like some well-selected items of trivia. No; nothing. It’s easy: if you haven’t got anything interesting to say, a useless fact or two is sure to give you a highbrow mien. Using nothing more than the rudiments of reading, you can borrow intelligence and assume intellect through the passive regurgitation of words and phrases. Just like Vernon Kay.

And, of course, science trivia is the best of all.

So to it. We’ll be using Gerard Liger-Belair’s paper published today in the European Physical Journal ST, but you’re welcome to choose your own. Liger-Belair has compiled close to 100 pages on the topic of champagne bubbles (this is very nearly trivia in itself) and we’ve summarised some of the best bits below.

As a starter, last week, Patrick took us through Liger-Belair’s work on the appropriate champagne glassware and so you may wish to begin your trivia torrent with the myth of the coupe’s mammarian mimicry. Though men should be aware that this is a somewhat high-tariff manoeuvre and must be executed whilst maintaining constant eye-contact (assuming a typical finite simple group of order two enjoying gender dichotomy).

Thankfully, Liger-Belair’s bubble work provides plenty of safer option for the less adventurous trivia buff. Bubbles not only lend champagne an effervescent sparkle, they are also critical to the flavour and experience. As they rise, champagne bubbles carry volatile organic compounds to the liquid’s surface, and drag surfactant molecules along as they go. When they reach the surface and burst, they create a concentrated aerosol of sensory molecules, known as the ‘nose’. And once in the mouth, the bubbles continue to form and collapse and the CO₂ they release provides carbonic acid to excite nociceptors (involved in sensing pain), both of which contribute to champagne’s mouthfeel (a somewhat discomfiting compound word, though consider if you will handsmell, or eyeflavour and offer a prayer of thanks for their continued absence from the lexicon).

Your average 750ml bottle of champagne contains around 9g (5l) of dissolved CO₂, which roughly equates to some 10⁸ bubbles. Anyone who has held a glass of champagne will know that the bubbles rise in graceful columns from specific sites within the liquid. What you may not know is that these nucleation sites are not scratches or defects of the glass but are typically cellulose fibres adhering to the walls of the glass, deposited from the air or the cloth used to dry it. The gas bubbles already trapped within these fibres provide the perfect place for gaseous CO₂ to form. These cellulose fibres will occasionally detach from the glass wall and journey through the liquid, creating the trains of bubbles suspended within the liquid, charmingly referred to as ‘fliers’.

Liger-Belair also obtained some quite beautiful high-speed shots of bubbles forming and collapsing at the surface of champagne. So following these nuggets you may wish to use the hexagonal symmetry of the bubbled surface to lead into a discourse on tessellation with particular reference to examples from the natural world. Alternatively, the collapsing bubble and its ensuing jet of liquid provide ample opportunity to venture into fluid physics. In my experience, your dating partner will be so overawed at this display of information that they will say little to nothing for the remainder of the evening, leaving you free to talk at length.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

                  

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— Graphene

Congratulations are in order for Karl Coleman the Chemistry World Entrepreneur of the year 2011. Not for winning our prize (which is great, of course, but we announced that back in July 2011 so it is old news really…) but for securing a significant amount of funding for his spin-off company Durham Graphene Science (DGS).

Coleman who is a reader in the chemistry department at Durham University, UK, and who received last year’s accolade for ‘his development of new intellectual property for the production of graphene ans its commercial exploitation’,  has just received the news that North East Technology fund, IP Group and Northstar Ventures have committed £1.2 million worth of investment money to DGS.

The company, which was founded less than 2 years ago in August 2010, is a spin out of Durham University and was created by Coleman  to commercialise the manufacture of graphene flakes using chemical vapour deposition. For those who may be interested, you can read all about it in the feature we wrote in September. My question for Dr Coleman is: how much closer does this bring us to be making graphene by the kilo?

Bibiana Campos-Seijo

                  

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Protons. Neutrons. Cyclotron. Electrons. These were only a few words in 302 questions asked of 16 sixth- through eighth-grade students from two counties who participated in the eighth annual, You Be the Chemist Challenge this week at Seneca Grade School. Eight middle schools from Oglesby, Mazon, Minooka, Seneca, Morris and Coal City participated. By the time the regional competitions are over, about 12,000 students from 19 states will have participated.

Before the contest, Mark Biel, executive director of the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois, presented a check on behalf of Air Products and Chemicals to teacher Glen Flodstrom (Washington Junior High, Oglesby). His students have won many of the state's previous competitions.

The national competition will be Monday, June 25, at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. State winners will have the opportunity to visit the Franklin Institute and the National Constitution Center, an interactive history museum.

Fran Ogden, science teacher at Seneca High School, was the question reader for the evening. Accumulated each year by teams of scientists, graduate students and others who work through the national contest organizers (Chemical Educational Foundation), the questions are saved in question banks and not used again for five years.

"The banks get bigger and bigger each year as it gets harder to stump the students who come to this contest," the event's facilitator, Patricia Neff, said.

Five judges took turns asking the students questions. Once a question was asked, they had 15 seconds to raise their hands before holding up a multiple choice answer. There were 10 questions in each round.

Barium, one of the answers, provided some humor to the evening. "What do you do with a dead body?" Byrne asked the students and audience. "You Bar-i-um."

"This is a very big deal," Mazon-Verona-Kinsman science teacher Darcy Welsh said. "This event is a great way to recognize kids. The chemical industry is very big in Illinois and it's one of the major employers, so this is a very good way to generate interest in our kids."

First place was worth $500; second place, $250; and third place, $100. All contestants took home a $25 gift certificate and a bag of donated items from Aux Sable Liquids, Exelon-Dresden, Flint Hills Resources and Akzonobel.

"I hire a bus to take all the contestants and their fans to the state competition," Event Coordinator Patricia Neff said. "We'll be touring the UOP Research Complex (a petrochemical technology firm with headquarters in Des Plaines). They will probably visit their electron microscope room, glass blowing and knock labs. This is a great way for students to see research in progress."

Seneca Grade School South Campus Principal Shane Severson was proud of all the students.

"We are honored to host this event every year and always glad to help out Pat (Neff) and all of the event sponsors," he said. "We look forward to hosting future competitions that promote kids using their brains.

"Meet the Chemist is a wonderful way to promote academics. We're just very proud of all the efforts all the students made in this competition. We're looking forward to the school's students moving on to the April 3 state competition."

Second place regional competition and first place La Salle County: Lyle Marshall, Seneca Grade School, eighth grade.
First place regional competition and first place Grundy County: Conrad Goffinet, Minooka Junior High, eighth grade.
Third Place regional competition and second place La Salle County: Aaron Kamke, Waltham Elementary School, eighth grade.
Second Place Grundy County: Jared Roth, Saratoga Middle School, seventh grade.
Third Place Grundy County: Nick Micetich, Coal City Middle School, eighth grade.
Third Place La Salle County: Jakob Selquist, Parkside Junior High, eighth grade.
Alternate for Grundy County: Joey Rivera, Coal City Middle School, eighth grade.
Alternate for La Salle County: Grant Granby, Seneca Elementary, eighth grade.

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Chemistry challenge 'a wonderful way to promote academics'

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - China's leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping on Friday swiped away fears that his country's economic growth could stumble, and turned to courting American companies and states hungry for a slice of that growth on the final day of his U.S. visit.

Vice President Xi and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden suggested that Xi's five-day trip, with its mixture of diplomacy and folksy public displays, could pave the way for steadier ties between the world's two biggest economies.

Xi (pronounced like "shee") told a business forum in Los Angeles that China will continue to promote greater domestic demand and turn more to the United States as a source of imports and site for investment.

Despite recent economic slowing and persistent price pressures, Xi told the gathered business executives that China's economic momentum would not falter as some economists warn.

"China's economy will maintain stable growth," he said "There will be no so-called hard landing."

Xi is almost sure to succeed Hu Jintao as Chinese president in just over a year, and the final day of his tour of the United States featured commercial deals and reassuring talk intended to blunt American ire about the trade gap between the countries.

"We will further increase imports from other countries in the light of our economic and social development and consumer demand. We will actively expand imports from the United States," Xi later told a midday meeting in the city.

Biden, who accompanied Xi to Los Angeles, praised the Chinese leader-in-waiting's efforts to reach out to often wary Americans, but reminded him that rancor over trade imbalances and barriers had not evaporated in all the sunny goodwill.

"This is a little unusual for any foreign leader, particularly a Chinese leader, to want to expose himself as much to the American public," Biden told reporters, referring to Xi.

"The Vice President has been straightforward in the changes he'd like to see, and I have been equally as straightforward in the changes that we'd like to see in our trade and economic relationship," Biden told the midday reception for Xi.

"The crux of our discussion is that competition can only benefit everyone if the rules are fair and followed."

GETTING READY FOR THE NEXT DECADE

Xi is poised to become China's next leader after a decade in which it has grown to become the world's second-largest economy, while the United States has endured the deepest recession since the Great Depression.

He will most likely succeed Hu Jintao as Communist Party chief in late 2012 and as president in early 2013, and Xi's visit to the United States was intended to get both sides more familiar with each other for the decade Xi could be in power.

In that time, China's economic size and military capabilities are likely to grow closer to U.S. levels.

Washington and Beijing have often jostled over economic, political and foreign policy disputes from human rights to Taiwan and most recently Syria.

The U.S. trade deficit with China expanded to a record $295.5 billion in 2011 and many U.S. lawmakers complain China's yuan currency is significantly undervalued, giving its companies an unfair advantage.

The Obama administration has also accused Beijing of distorting trade flows by ignoring intellectual property theft, putting up barriers to foreign investors and creating rules that favor China's state-owned behemoths.

Xi's stop in Los Angeles was choreographed to blunt those complaints and make China's case that its rapid growth presents the U.S. economy with opportunities, not threats.

Scores of executives from major U.S. and Chinese companies, from Intel to Microsoft, lined up to sign deals after Xi's address at the economic forum on Friday.

They included "Kung Fu Panda" studio Dreamworks Animation's venture to make films from Shanghai, and Chinese telecom giant Huawei's pledge to award $6 billion in contracts over three years to Qualcomm Inc, Broadcom Corp and Avago.

The Chinese trade delegation this week also signed deals to buy a record 13.4 million tonnes of U.S. soybeans, valued at $6.7 billion.

Xi said that he felt from his visit that "mainstream American opinion" supports stronger ties. "I can now say that my visit has been fully successful," he said.

"We've established a personal friendship and a healthy working relationship," he said of himself and Biden.

"MISSION IMPOSSIBLE" FAN

More than the current, publicly stiff Chinese President Hu Jintao, Xi has made an effort to put a friendlier public face on his government during his U.S. visit, including revisiting the small town of Muscatine in Iowa where he visited in 1985 and stayed two nights with a family.

The 58-year-old former Shanghai party secretary found time for less weighty matters, including a visit to the International Studies Learning School in South Gate -- an urban Los Angeles enclave of mainly Hispanics -- where some classes learn Chinese.

At the school, Xi recalled his first visit to Muscatine, and said: "They gave me the same impression that, like Chinese people, they are warm-hearted, friendly, honest and hard-working. Twenty-seven years have passed, but that remains my impression, and it has become a deeper one."

Xi also offered a glimpse of his personal life, telling the students he enjoyed swimming and watching sports, including American basketball, baseball and gridiron football.

Once again showing his familiarity with Hollywood fare, Xi said it was difficult to find time to relax. "It's like the name of that American movie -- 'Mission Impossible'."

After their visit to the school, Biden told reporters the talks with Xi had been very forthright, and was also intensely curious about the workings of the American political system.

"This is a guy who wants to feel it and taste it, and he's prepared to show another side of Chinese leadership," said Biden. He suggested the personal ties forged with Xi could make it easier for the two governments to manage conflict.

"He is intensely interested in understanding why we think the way we do, what our positions are, and the need to actually broaden this kind of understanding," said Biden.

Xi was due to watch part of an LA Lakers basketball game before he left for the next two countries of his current international tour, Ireland and then Turkey.

(Additional reporting by Paul Eckert in Washington; editing by Todd Eastham and Sanjeev Miglani)

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China's Xi sells U.S. trade elixir, personal chemistry

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/f490ba/future_french_clin) has announced the addition of the "Future French Clinical Chemistry and Immunodiagnostics Markets: Growth Opportunities and Business Expansion Strategies" report to their offering.

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of the French clinical chemistry and immunodiagnostics markets, including:

Major issues pertaining to the French clinical chemistry and immunodiagnostic laboratory practice, as well as key economic, regulatory, demographic, social and technological trends with significant market impact during the next ten years. Five- and ten-year volume and sales forecasts for over 100 clinical chemistry, TDM, endocrine, cancer, immunoprotein and abused drug assays performed in French hospitals and commercial laboratories, including controls, calibrators and consumables. Five- and ten-year volume forecasts for serum, whole blood, plasma, CFS, urine and other specimens. Five- and ten-year reagent and instrument sales forecasts. Review of current instrumentation technologies, and a feature comparison of 50 high-, medium-, and low-volume/POC analyzers. Sales and market shares of leading reagent and instrument suppliers. Review of current and emerging technologies and their potential market applications. Product development opportunities for clinical chemistry and immunodiagnostic instruments and consumables. Profiles of 25 current and emerging suppliers, including their sales, market shares, product portfolios, marketing tactics, technological know-how, new products in R&D, collaborative arrangements and business strategies. Market penetration strategies, entry barriers and risks.

The report contains 542 pages and 104 tables.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/f490ba/future_french_clin

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Research and Markets: Future French Clinical Chemistry and Immunodiagnostics Markets: Growth Opportunities and ...