Category Archives: Chemistry

BRIGHTON TWP. Residents looking to safely dispose of potentially dangerous chemicals will have an opportunity to recycle these items next weekend.

Beaver County and the Pennsylvania Resources Council plan to host a recycling drive at the Bradys Run Park Recycling Center for the safe disposal of household chemicals on Oct. 8. Visitors are asked to pay a $20 fee to recycle up to 10 gallons or 50 pounds of these chemicals and electronic devices.

Materials being collected at the recycling center include:

According to event organizers, additional fees may occur for the disposal of oversized loads at the discretion of staff members on site. Visitors recycling fire extinguishers will also need to pay an additional $12 charge per device and those wishing to recycle liquid mercury will need to pay an additional $15 per pound of the material.

Visitors are asked to place all of the chemicals and items in their trunks or the bed of a truck to assist in the donation process.

All forms of payment will be accepted at the event. Advance registration is required to participate in the recycling drive. Visitors can register online at prc.org/CollectionEvents or by calling 412-488-7490.

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PRC to host household chemical recycling drive in Bradys Run Park next weekend - The Times

The lure of exploring endless possibilities and the challenge of solving puzzles is what drew Bonnie Buss to the field of chemistry. That combination is something she hopes will also inspire and excite her students, both in the classroom and the lab, as she steps into her new role as assistant professor in UNCs Chemistry and Biochemistry department this fall.

We have the periodic table thats relatively limited in the number of elements, but you can combine them and do things with them in an infinite number of ways, Buss said. Its actually pretty easy to get into a lab and make something that nobody else has ever made, to be an inventor. Then theres the puzzle side of it. You have all of these pieces of information, and you have to figure out how to solve a problem or determine what questions you can ask. Chemistry is not just about being smart, its about solving puzzles.

Buss, who earned her bachelors in Chemistry from the University of Arkansas and a Ph.D. in Materials Chemistry from Colorado State University, has spent much of her career in the lab, most recently engaged in post-doctoral research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Her research is focused on sustainability, applying her skills and knowledge to solving the very real-world puzzle of how to reduce plastic waste and pollution.

The idea of sustainability is a pretty big focus in the academic chemistry community, Buss said. Theres a lot of government funding in this area and policy and motivation to solve these kinds of problems from all sorts of angles. My special take on this issue is being able to use light to either make plastics in a very sustainable way or to break down the plastics we already have into useful materials.

According to Buss, while not completely unique, the research shes doing does have the potential to stand out in the field.

Relative to some academic groups, theres definitely some economic motivation behind the research Im doing, Buss said. Were trying to develop things that make high value products. So, if we do come across a really solid approach, its something that people will have an economic incentive to adopt. There are a lot of ways to do everything out there, but if its really expensive, nobodys going to do it.

Buss is hoping to share her research with students and is actively recruiting both undergraduate and graduate students into her lab for hands-on research in photochemistry, plastics and sustainability. Its something she thinks will appeal to all experience levels and disciplines, and she encourages interested students to contact her.

The research well do here is really fun since were using light to do all of the chemistry, everything is very colorful, Buss continued.

Its a kind of research where we still use very fundamental ideas in chemistry, like talking about catalysts, things that can drive chemical reactions. But well use these in a very real world and applied approach, adds Buss. This research is something thats perfect for this environment, especially within the context of getting students excited and driving them to pursue careers in science, hopefully.

Michael Mosher, interim department chair, professor of Chemistry and manager of UNCs Brewing Laboratory Science Program, is excited to welcome Buss to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and speaks highly of her research efforts to advance the science of polymer and plastic sustainability.

The results of her studies will be of paramount importance to the students in our program as they explore potential careers in chemistry, Mosher said.

While Buss is excited about her work in the lab, shes equally excited about the classroom and looks forward to working with students closely as an instructor and a research advisor.

Having people to teach and mentor - thats what drew me back to academia, the idea that I can work with students, help guide them, and set them up for success whatever their future may be. I chose UNC in particular because of the emphasis on doing right by the student. Its the combination of the teaching culture and the relatively smaller class sizes, while still getting the big university feel. I think its a pretty special place in that regard.

Buss will be teaching general chemistry and organic chemistry this year She is one of seven new faculty members in UNCs College of Natural and Health Sciences this fall. She is joined by Charles Lenell, Audiology and Speech Language Sciences; Lindsay Green, Nursing-Family/Emergency Nurse Practitioner; Teresa Buckner, Nutrition and Dietetics; Dannon Cox, Public Health-Community Health Education; Aryn Taylor, Rehabilitation Counseling and Sciences and Human Services; and Koo Yul Kim, Kinesiology-Sport Administration.

written by Deanna Herbert

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New Chemistry Professor Sharing the Science of Solving Real World Problems - UNCO News Central

With only two weeks left until the 2022 chemistry Nobel prize is announced, Web of Science provider Clarivate has published its citation laureates researchers whose work ranks among the 0.01% of most highly cited publications.

Zhenan Bao from Stanford University, US, was selected for her work on flexible electronics and electronic skin, organic and polymeric electronic materials that have made applications in soft robotics, prosthetics, artificial intelligence and health monitoring possible.

Clarivate also singled out US-based scientists Bonnie Bassler at Princeton University and Peter Greenberg at the University of Washington for their discovery of quorum sensing, an intercellular chemical communications system that allows bacteria to detect and respond to cell population through gene regulation. Bassler was one of the recipients of a 2022 Wolf prize in chemistry, alongside bioorthogonal chemistry pioneer Carolyn Bertozzi and Benjamin Cravatt, who developed activity-based protein profiling. Winners of a Wolf prize have often gone on to become Nobel laureates.

Finally, Daniel Nocera from Harvard University, US, was selected for his research into proton-coupled electron transfer. The mechanism is important for many biochemical processes including photosynthesis, nitrogen fixation and oxygen reduction. Its study could eventually lead to artificial photosynthetic systems.

Now in its 20th year, Clarivates analysis has been surprisingly accurate, with 64 citation laureates having gone on to receive Nobel prizes, including 10 chemistry citation laureates. Among them are the 2020 winners Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, and one of the 2019 laureates, John Goodenough. All three of them were citation laureates in 2015.

Chemistry Views poll, which has so far received around 350 votes, predicts this years prize will go to a biochemist. Protein folding in particular seemed to be on peoples mind with multiple votes for the biochemical pioneers Franz-Ulrich Hartl and Arthur Horwich. AlphaFold developer John Jumper was one of the most suggested people, alongside Bertozzi and mtealorganic framework pioneer Omar Yaghi. Nucleic acid researcher Shankar Balasubramanian, Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, discoverer of atom transfer radical polymerisation, and Demis Hassabis, co-founder and chief executive of DeepMind, which developed AlphaFold, were among the other individuals whose names popped up multiple times.

Just like last year, bioorthogonal chemistry/click chemistry is, with almost 42% of the votes, leading the Twitter poll run by Stuart Cantrill, editorial director for Natures physics and chemistry journals. A prize for this field, tweeted Cathleen Crudden, is way overdue. However, she agreed with Florence Williams and others that one person deserving of the honour is Katalin Karik who developed the mRNA technology that many Covid vaccines are based on.

The 2022 chemistry Nobel prize will be announced on Wednesday 5 October. Chemistry World will be tracking all the developments that day before and after the prize is announced at 10.45am BST.

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Flexible electronics and quorum sensing among predictions for chemistry Nobel prize - Chemistry World

ST. PAUL, Minn. Five weeks after being traded to the Wild last season, Marc-Andre Fleury drove to the teams practice facility just to make sure it actually existed.

The guys keep telling me about the practice arena and how great it is, and I think its a lie, Fleury joked at the time.

It was a moment of levity before the playoffs, but it also was a reminder of just how little the Wild practiced after Fleurys arrival. With the most condensed schedule in the NHL down the stretch, they were ravaged by injuries players were battling through.

In grand total last season, Fleury practiced with the Wild twice: once on the road and once the day before the teams playoff series began against the St. Louis Blues.

Fleury went 9-2 with the Wild in the regular season, but its no secret he has a very different style in net than the quieter Cam Talbot. And it sure felt like the Wilds blueliners had trouble in the playoffs determining where Fleury would place rebounds, when he would come out of his crease to play the puck and where hed place it.

Fleurys hope and the Wilds hope is that after a full training camp, the Wilds blue line will be more at ease playing in front of the veteran goaltender.

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Wild training camp: Fleury working on chemistry with D, plus Rossi and Steel first impressions, more - The Athletic

An X-ray of theDancing Horseearthenware sculpture, which dates to608 to 907 C.E. during China's Tang dynasty Cincinnati Art Museum / Gift of Carl and Eleanor Strauss, 1997.53

A curator and a chemist together uncovered the secrets of an ancient Chinese horse sculpture at the Cincinnati Art Museum. When the curator questioned whether a decorative tassel on the horses forehead was original to the artwork, the museum brought in a team of scientists to help analyze the piece.

The earthenware horse sculpture dates to somewhere between 608 and 907 C.E., during Chinas Tang dynasty. During the rule of Emperor Xuanzong in the 8th century, horses became a symbol of prosperity across the country, writes IFLSciences Katie Spalding.

Emperor Xuanzong owned more than 40,000 horses, as Hou-mei Sung, a curator of East Asian art at the Cincinnati Art Museum, says in a press release. The horses were trained to dance, or follow the beat of a drum, and sculptures of them were made to bury with royals when they died, Sung says.

This particular horse sculpture has been at the Cincinnati museum since 1997. It stands 26.5 inches tall and appears to be mid-dance, with one hoof held aloft. Attached to its body are ten cone-shaped decorative tassels, which have the same reddish color as the horses tail and mane.

But one of those tassels was in an unusual positionon the horses forehead, just below its mane. Sung says in the press release that shes seen many dancing horse sculptures, but none of the others have had a forehead tassel.

I believed it was a mistake. The tassel wasnt in the right position, she says in the release. These pieces are so old. They often go through many repairs.

To determine the origin and authenticity of the tassel, the museum allowed University of Cincinnati chemist Pietro Strobbia and other researchers to take a closer look. Many museums have a conservator but not necessarily scientific facilities needed to do this kind of examination, Strobbia says in the press release. The forehead tassel looks original, but the museum asked us to determine what materials it was made from.

The researchers used a drill to collect 11 tiny samples of powder from different parts of the horse, each weighing just a few milligrams, writes the Washington Posts Erin Blakemore. One techniquefor studying thesamples was X-ray powder diffraction, in which scientists measured how the powder bent an X-ray beam, revealing the composition of the sample. The researchers also used Raman spectroscopy, which measured how a laser beam scattered when it hit the powder, according to the Post.

The analysis revealed thatSungs assumption appeared to be correct: The tassel was made of plaster, not earthenware, and thus was likely not original to the piece. It had been added to the sculpture using animal glue. Two other tassels on the body of the horse were also not original, according to IFLScience.

The researchers published their findings in August in the journal Heritage Science. Based on the research, the museum decided to remove the forehead adornment, per the Post.

The findings also suggested that the sculpture had undergone multiple restoration efforts. Three other tassels showed evidence of repair, and X-rays revealed breaks inside the statue, with dowel rods placed around the neck, legs and tail to hold it together.

It was restored at least twice in its lifetime, Kelly Rectenwald, a co-author of the paper and the associate objects conservator at the Cincinnati Art Museum, says in the press release. Finding anything new about an artwork is really interesting.

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Chemistry Reveals the History of an Ancient Dancing Horse Sculpture - Smithsonian Magazine

Twenty thousand men died on the battlefield at Waterloo, and most were buried close to where they fell. Their bodies were piled into mass graves; hastily covered with a layer of earth before the June heat made the task any more unbearable than it already was. But in the 200 years that have since passed, archaeologists have recovered only a single skeleton from this patch of Belgian ground. The rest of the remains have gone. There is no mystery, though; we know where they went. They were taken to England; ground to a fine powder; distributed to farmers and spread across their fields. There was something, those farmers knew, that was missing from their soil. And that something could be replenished with a sprinkling of bone dust.

Found in every living cell, phosphorus is essential for almost every one of lifes biochemical processes. It is found in the phospholipid bilayers that give cells their structure; it is the P in the ATP that powers lifes chemical reactions, and it is part of the nucleic acids that pass that life from one generation to the next. For such an important element though, it is surprisingly scarce in the environment: it is the least abundant of all elements, relative to the amount required for life. And unlike the other elements found in DNA, ATP and phospholipids carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen it does not circulate in the environment. Once it has been removed from a location, it is gone. A single crop of wheat can remove 7kg of phosphorus from a hectare of land. With an adult human skeleton containing approximately 700g of phosphorus, and without even considering the ethics, dead bodies could never provide farmers with a reliable, long-term supply.

One degree south of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean, though, an island only six miles in circumference, hundreds of miles from the tiny islands that are its nearest neighbours and 10 days sailing from the ports of Australia, offered a solution. When Australian prospector Albert Ellis arrived at Banaba in May 1900, he found an island of 450 inhabitants, dotted with coconut palms and bright green foliage, ringed with a rampart of limestone cliffs and encircled by a reef awash with breaking surf. And he found phosphorus. Alongside the islands limestone were deep deposits of grey-brown rock rich in phosphate. Deposits that had formed as sediment on the ocean floor, that had been thrust above the waves, and that were larger and more concentrated than any Ellis had ever seen before.

Within three months, the first phosphate had been exported from the island, and such was the need of the worlds farmers that this isolated speck of earth was transformed. Hundreds of imported labourers hacked at great deposits of phosphate rock and trains hauled carts from quarries to the waters edge, while steamers offshore awaited their cargo. Over 80 years, two mining companies the Pacific Phosphate Company and the British Phosphate Commission pulled Banaba apart. They exported the fabric of the island, funnelling it through soils, plants and grazing animals into the global food chain. They exported 22 million tonnes of land before the phosphate was exhausted, stripping 92% of the islands surface, and removing the entire indigenous population when there was nowhere left for them to grow food. They left behind an uninhabited industrial wasteland, littered with mining debris and abandoned machinery.

Phosphate rock, mined elsewhere, remains the worlds primary source of phosphorus. But it will not last forever. The natural phosphorus cycle occurs on geological timescales, and if humans want to retain access to this element and modern agriculture dictates that we must then we will need a new, anthropogenic cycle. We will need a circular economy in which waste phosphorus is recovered, recycled and reused. The biggest stream of phosphorus waste is sewage, and water treatment plants already employ chemical and biological processes to remove phosphorus, but those processes typically result in phosphorus compounds that cannot easily be reused: emphasis will need to shift towards recovering phosphorus in bioavailable forms. And with byproducts from the animal industry, including bone meal, forming another major source of phosphorus waste, we will also need to learn from the skeleton recycling circular economy of the 19th century .

There are things, too, that we must learn from Banaba. It is today one of the 33 islands that comprise the nation of Kiribati. With a maximum elevation of 87m, it is the only one that rises more than a few metres above sea level. Climate change models suggest that, in time, Banaba may be the only part of the country that remains above the waves. It will be a permanent monument to rapacious extraction; a nations tombstone declaiming the need for sustainable practices.

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The island that weve eaten | Opinion - Chemistry World