Category Archives: Chemistry

Avid cyclists Kayla and Mike Kaiserhave been married for 10 years and share a passion for health and public service, which inspired their nonprofit organization, BikeCar101. As professors at California State University, Northridge in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, the pair promote travel by train and bicycle to increase environmental sustainability and public health.The couple has been commuting to campus via Metrolink and bikes since 2013. Over the past few years, the Kaisers have seen a growing interest in public transit and healthier commutes among CSUNstudents, professors and others in the workforce, they said. According tometro.nets active mode of transportation page, they state that, Active transportation improves public health by providing more opportunities for physical activity and safe places to walk, bike or travel by other human-powered means improves access to transit and provides more travel choices. We were on the same [Metrolink] line with other professionals, and wed start bringing our bikes on there, Mike said.They saw us bringing our bikes [to campus to ride together], and they started to bring theirs. He also pointed out that students are the biggest advocates for sustainability and alternative modes of transportation. Ultimately, students have the greatest voice in change with … Continue reading →

HAMBURG In a meeting that ran longer than either side had planned, U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin discussed alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. election on Friday but agreed to focus on better ties rather than litigating the past. Trump, a Republican who called it an "honor" to meet with the Russian president, drew swift criticism from Democrats at home, who accused him of dismissing U.S. intelligence and giving Putin's denial, reiterated on Friday, of Russian interference too much weight. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters at a summit of leaders of the Group of 20 major economies in Hamburg that Trump had "positive chemistry" with Putin during the meeting, which lasted some two hours and 15 minutes. He opened their discussion by pressing Putin about "the concerns of the American people regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election" and had a robust exchange, Tillerson said. The Russian president has denied any meddling in the U.S. democratic process last year and Moscow has asked for proof that it took place. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Trump accepted Putin's assertions that the allegations, backed by U.S. intelligence agencies, were false. Tillerson said they both sought to move … Continue reading →

Geoffrey Boocock spent his Time4Chem last year creatively designing arithmetical magic squares in celebration of our 175th anniversary after attending a Science in Art event held at Burlington House. My idea for some scientific art took the form of a birthday card for the Royal Society of Chemistrys 175th anniversary, especially when I found that there are magic squares for a total of 175, with component numbers that could represent chemical elements via their atomic numbers. In the 5x5 square shown all the rows and columns, as well as the two major diagonals, add up to 175. However, as the 175th anniversary year was already substantially spent, I investigated the possibility of a 176 magic square. I found that there is a usable, simple magic square, possible a unique one, for a summation to 176. In Geoffrey's magic square each row, column, diagonal, and colour-defined set add up to 176. Picture: Geoffrey Boocock See the original post here: Where chemistry meets maths meets art - Royal Society of Chemistry … Continue reading →

WATCH LIVE One person was injured Thursday afternoon during an adverse chemical reaction in a chemistry lab at the University of Maryland College Park. The victim sustained injuries to the facial area, and was decontaminated and taken to a hospital for treatment, Prince George's Fire spokesman Mark Brady posted on Twitter. Prince George's Fire is investigating the reaction, which Brady described as small, at the university's chemistry building. A Prince George's Fire hazmat team is on the scene at 8501 Regents Drive, assisting UMd. Physical Plant and Chemistry officials with evaluation and cleanup, Brady said. The chemistry building was evacuated shortly after the incident, and Regents Drive between Field House Drive and Stadium Drive was closed to traffic, according to the UMd. Police Department. The building and street have since reopened. Published at 3:11 PM EDT on Jul 6, 2017 | Updated at 4:29 PM EDT on Jul 6, 2017 Continue reading here: 1 Injured in Chemical Reaction at University of Maryland Chemistry ... - NBC4 Washington … Continue reading →

Senior conservator of paintings Ann Hoenigswald works to fill in elements of Paul Czanne's Riverbank c. 1895 in the National Gallery of Art's Paintings Conservation Lab in Washington, D.C. Liam James Doyle/NPR hide caption Senior conservator of paintings Ann Hoenigswald works to fill in elements of Paul Czanne's Riverbank c. 1895 in the National Gallery of Art's Paintings Conservation Lab in Washington, D.C. Behind the scenes at major art museums, conservators are hard at work, keeping masterpieces looking their best. Their methods are meticulous and sometimes surprising. The painting conservation studio at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is filled with priceless works sitting on row after row of tall wooden easels, or lying on big, white-topped worktables. Associate conservator of paintings Joanna Dunn uses a microscope to examine Jacopo Tintoretto's Summer, c. 1555. Liam James Doyle/NPR hide caption Associate conservator of paintings Joanna Dunn uses a microscope to examine Jacopo Tintoretto's Summer, c. 1555. The studio is where I first met Senior Conservator Ann Hoenigswald years ago as she was fixing the sky on one of Claude Monet's impressions of the Rouen Cathedral in France. Bits of paint had flaked off over time, and Hoenigswald was carefully … Continue reading →

June 26, 2017 by Kristen French Upsala Glacier, Argentina, where scientists collected glacial dust samples. When glaciers move across bedrock, they scrape against it (see glacial grooves in the foreground), and grind it into smaller particles, which may then get blown out to sea, fertilizing phytoplankton. Credit: Michael Kaplan/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory For many years, scientists have speculated that seeding the ocean with iron might help to stave off climate change. Iron in seawater promotes the growth of phytoplankton, which in turn devours carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Iron basically allows the ocean to soak up carbon. But only dissolved iron, not the undissolved particle forms, was thought to stimulate phytoplankton growth, despite iron's low solubility in seawater and the abundance of particulate iron in the ocean. Further, the quantity of iron rather than its chemical signature was thought to determine the rate of phytoplankton growth. Now an interdisciplinary team of scientists led by Elizabeth M. Shoenfelt and Benjamin Bostick of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has discovered that particulate iron does stimulate phytoplankton growth, and that the chemical form that particulate iron takes is critical to ocean photosynthesisnot just the quantity of iron available. The team found that … Continue reading →

When the New York Giants signed veteran wide receiver Brandon Marshall earlier this offseason, they knew exactly what they were getting a hard working, high IQ player willing to do whatever it takes to win. Marshall has lived up to that reputation in his short time with the Giants, going above and beyond to not only learn their offensive system and coach up the young players, but to build chemistry with quarterback Eli Manning. He sent me a text yesterday and said, Hey, can we get on FaceTime and keep going over some of these signals? I dont want to forget everything that Ive learned in the past two months,' Manning said via NJ Advanced Media. Thats what its all about having a guy who has a passion and a desire to get better, to keep learning the game of football, to keep having something to prove and were both in that same boat going into Year 12, Year 14. Always want to get better and make improvements and build a championship team, so thats what were working on. Marshall admits theres still more than a few loose ends to tie up as he adjusts to the teams timing-based offense, … Continue reading →

G. Wayne Miller Journal Staff Writer gwaynemiller PROVIDENCE, R.I. City native Melanie S. Sanford, a prominent scholar now at the University of Michigan, has been named one of three researchers to receive a $250,000 Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists. Starting with a pool of 308 nominees the most promising scientific researchers aged 42 years and younger nominated by Americas top academic and research institutions a distinguished jury first narrowed their selections to 30 finalists, and then to three outstanding laureates, one each from the disciplines of Life Sciences, Chemistry, and Physical Sciences & Engineering, the Blavatnik Family Foundation and New York Academy of Sciences said. Sanford, 42, is this years Blavatnik national laureate in chemistry. Feng Zhang, of MIT and Harvard, is the national laureate in life sciences. Stanford's Yi Cui, is the national laureate in physical sciences and engineering. A graduate of Classical High School, Sanford earned her bachelors degree from Yale University and a doctoral degree from the California Institute of Technology. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University and is a MacArthur genius grant recipient. One might think of organic chemist Dr. Melanie Sanford as an architect and a builder, the Blavatnik foundation and the … Continue reading →

Credit: DC Comics "It's complicated." Batgirl writer Hope Larson admits that the relationship between Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon isn't the easiest to re-ignite. But in the upcoming "Summer of Lies" storyline, the writer will be exploring what happened in the couple's "Rebirth" past and whether their "insane chemistry" can help the couple come together to defeat a new villain and maybe more. The Batgirl title saw Barbara just finishing up a disastrous relationship with Ethan Cobblepot (yes, that family). And in this week's Batgirl #11 and July's #12, the hero will be immersed in one-shot adventures. But starting in Batgirl #13 in August, "Summer of Lies" brings Barbara together with Dick to deal with events from their past that have "come back to haunt them," Larson said. Newsarama talked to Larson to find out more about the path Barbara has taken so far in the Batgirl series and what readers can expect from her reunion with Dick. Newsarama: Hope, how do you think Batgirl has grown since you took over her book? And what has she learned? Hope Larson: Batgirl has developed new ways of manipulating and suspending her eidetic memory, which is useful. And I'd say she's grown … Continue reading →

Clean Chemistry, a Boulder-based chemical technology company, has spent five years developing a way to clean frack water in the oil fields that it believes will slash costs enough to make re-using water affordable, a key challenge in an industry that uses thousands of gallons of the precious resource daily. Water is a key ingredient in oil and gas production and there is growing pressure to reuse it. But it's an expensive proposition, so expensive that most Colorado companies simply inject used frack water into the ground, a practice some consider dangerous and potentially damaging to groundwater resources. Clean Chemistry CEO Damon Waters hopes to change that. "Our chemistry is enabling reuse in the oil field, instead of sourcing water out of a river to frack a well and then disposing of the waste water way down in the geology, never to be seen again." Clean Chemistry is among a handful of companies nationwide working on technologies to make fracking less environmentally damaging. This month it announced three new patents on compounds that purify industrial water. PeroxyMAX is part of a new family of chemicals known as Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) that work by oxidizing harmful contaminants without leaving toxic … Continue reading →