Chemical & Engineering News Digital Edition ... - IMM@BUCT

NOVEMBER 24, 2008
EPA SCIENCE
Agency gets advice about
its next research era P.29
HELIUM ION VISION
Novel microscope scans
on the nanoscale P.38
TIPPING POINT
Software takes on life sciences’ data surge P.13
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

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VOLUME 86, NUMBER 47
NOVEMBER 24, 2008
Serving the chemical,
life sciences,
and laboratory worlds
COVER STORY
LAB INFO
MANAGEMENT
SYSTEMS
Use of these software tools
increases as researchers seek
to streamline data collection,
management, and analysis. PAGE 13
QUOTE
OF THE WEEK
“It’s quite sad
what’s happened
to science at
EPA. It’s very
shortsighted.”
GRANGER MORGAN,
HEAD OF CARNEGIE
MELLON UNIVERSITY’S
DEPARTMENT OF
ENGINEERING AND
PUBLIC POLICY AND
FORMER CHAIR OF EPA’S
SCIENCE ADVISORY
BOARD PAGE 29
NEWS OF THE WEEK
7 AUTO INDUSTRY SMASHUP
Slumping demand for new cars hits chemical
makers; BASF shuts 80 plants worldwide.
8 GULF WAR SYNDROME’S CAUSE
Veterans’ neurological symptoms are due to toxic
chemicals, not stress, report says.
8 FUNCTIONALIZING CHEMISTRY
Classic organic reaction applied to silicon wafers
expands the tools for modifying semiconductors.
9 ACCOUNTING FOR CO 2
EPA permits for coal-fired power plants must
consider CO 2 , agency’s appeals board says.
9 INEOS’ DEBT PROBLEM
With demand down, firm seeks to delay payments
on its bank loans.
10 AT-RISK CHEMICAL FACILITIES
Report names 101 sites that would sustain
massive casualties in case of accident or attack.
10 SUPPORTING SYNERGISTIC RESEARCH
New HHMI program will fund research projects,
not principal investigators.
11 NEW FLUXIONAL CATALYSTS
Easily isomerized chiral compounds based on
molybdenum expand scope of alkene metathesis.
11 PFIZER’S STEM CELL RESEARCH
Regenerative medicine unit will combine and
expand current work.
27 ACETONITRILE SHORTAGE
Chemists’ concern for the solvent increases as
supply decreases.
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
28 CONCENTRATES
29 A TRANSITION FOR EPA
Agency has opportunity to plot new course, shift
priorities under Obama Administration.
33 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW
Legislation continues to stall as biotech, pharma,
and high-tech sectors battle over the proper
patent reforms.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
36 CONCENTRATES
38 HELIUM ION MICROSCOPY
Alternative to electron microscopy provides
better image resolution and more information on
sample chemical composition.
40 NANOSCAPES
40
Art and science merge to produce
images of vast metal oxide landscapes
with “shrubs” and “grasses.”
EDUCATION
45 INFORMAL PEDAGOGY
Interest and opportunities to learn
outside of the classroom are on the rise.
THE DEPARTMENTS
3 EDITOR’S PAGE 49 MEETINGS
4 LETTERS
50 AWARDS
42 INSIDE
52 EMPLOYMENT
INSTRUMENTATION 56 NEWSCRIPTS
44 DIGITAL BRIEFS
COVER: With more and more high-throughput bioassay
systems like the one depicted in operation, the volume of life
sciences data is growing exponentially, posing a laboratory
information challenge. Caleb Foster/Shutterstock
THIS WEEK ON
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
45
BUSINESS
19 CONCENTRATES
22 CAPTURING COAL’S MERCURY
As federal regulation looms, firms scramble to
offer ways to limit the neurotoxic compound’s
release from coal-fired power plants.
24 THIRD-QUARTER EARNINGS
Downturn in world economies is starting to
impact major European chemical firms.
CORNELL WINS CHEM-E-CAR
COMPETITION
Watch chemical engineering students
race their alternativefuel
cars.
PLUS: Check out film reviews
you may have missed at
C&EN Reel Science.
AIChE
CENEAR 86 (47) 1–56 • ISSN 0009-2347

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CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING NEWS
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GOVERNMENT & POLICY
Susan R. Morrissey, Assistant Managing Editor
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Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
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EDITORIAL BOARD: John N. Russell Jr. (Chair);
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Madeleine M. Joullié, Leah Solla, Peter J. Stang
Copyright 2008, American Chemical Society
Canadian GST Reg. No. R127571347
Volume 86, Number 47
THREE DAYS AFTER the U.S. elections,
my wife, Jan, and I left the country for a
week of scuba diving on Bonaire, an island
in the Netherlands Antilles off the coast of
Venezuela.
Bonaire is about as far off
the beaten track as one can
get, especially for a news
junkie like me. There are
no newspapers other than
advertising circulars. There’s
television, but Jan and I tend
not to watch broadcast news.
And scuba diving just
lends itself to tuning out the
outside world. It’s a relatively
physically demanding
activity—it’s amazing how
much weight it takes to sink
a human body in a 3-mm-thick wetsuit—so
you go to sleep early and sleep well. There
is also a fair amount of time during the day
to sit back and reflect.
Diving also places you in an entirely
different world, very much in touch with
nature. Being underwater, swimming along
a coral reef, is like taking a walk in a staggeringly
beautiful park that you never knew
existed until you started diving. I know,
we’ve all seen videos of people diving along
reefs and interacting with various sea creatures.
Believe me, it really is not the same as
being in the water with the reef and the fish
and the turtles and rays and moray eels and
octopuses.
Even on remote and pristine Bonaire—
the underwater reef system is a national
preserve—it is clear that human activity
and human avarice are damaging our planet,
both globally and locally. The water temperature
in the Caribbean around Bonaire
was 84 °F, about 2 °F warmer than it should
be in early November. It doesn’t sound like
much, but our guides said the warmer water
temperatures over the past few years were
putting significant stress on the coral. I’ve
been diving only for two years, so the reef
looks pristine to me, but old hands say the
damage is obvious.
On one boat dive, someone who has
been diving at Bonaire for many years
asked to dive a site called “Black Forest.”
Our divemaster said that the site is now
simply called “Forest.” It turns out that
FROM THE EDITOR
Thoughts While Diving
the original name came from the unusually
dense stands of black coral in the deep
and wide crevices of the reef at that site.
Mature black coral looks something like an
8-foot-tall, deep green, almost black, pine
tree. Until recently, these
stands of black coral grew
to near the top of the reef.
But the skeleton of black
coral is prized for making
jewelry, and the stands have
been decimated by poachers
down to about 70 feet, the
practical limit of free-diving.
Perhaps I’m naïve, but I
just don’t understand destroying
a piece of nature
that beautiful for any reason.
The results of the U.S.
election were a topic of conversation among
my fellow divers and something I pondered
a bit during downtime between dives.
Even before the election was held, it was
clear to me that, whether Barack Obama or
John McCain won the presidency, the election
of 2008 marked the end of Reaganism.
Reaganism was the dominant political
philosophy in the U.S. for the 28 years since
Ronald Reagan was elected President in
1980. It can be summed up as follows: Government
is never the solution, it is always
the problem; markets are always better
at solving problems than government is.
Reaganism reached its apotheosis during
the Administration of President George W.
Bush. It reached its end with the government’s
massive and continuing response to
the financial crisis that is still tearing apart
the world’s economic system.
Obama’s victory was a definitive exclamation
point marking the end of Reaganism.
A majority of Americans now clearly
believe that government action is required
to solve many pressing problems—from
chaos in the financial markets to climate
change to the nation’s dysfunctional health
care system—that markets simply cannot
address.
Thanks for reading.
Editor-in-chief
Views expressed on this page are those of the author and not necessarily those of ACS.
RUDY BAUM/C&EN
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 3 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

LETTERS
CHEMISTRY CAREERS
KUDOS TO C&EN for publishing two
reviews of books on careers in chemistry
and science within a month (C&EN, Sept.
29, page 44; Oct. 20, page 64). Although I
haven’t had a chance to see it yet, congratulations
to Emily Monosson for writing
an excellent book, “Motherhood, the Elephant
in the Laboratory: Women Scientists
Speak Out.” And kudos to Geraldine
Richmond for writing an excellent review
emphasizing the need for mentoring for
careers in chemistry, especially “alternative
careers.”
I, and other chemists working in alternative
careers, have stressed the need
for broader based career mentoring,
beginning in high school and progressing
through college, grad school, and beyond.
Both men and women need to be made
aware of how valuable an education in
chemistry is to a wide variety of careers
and professions. All too often, teachers,
professors, and research colleagues give
the impression to students, especially
“promising” ones, that not to go into
academia or laboratory research is akin to
“buying the farm” and dropping out
professionally.
Inspired by Lisa M. Balbes’ book “Nontraditional
Careers for Chemists,” the
Careers Committee of the ACS Division
of Chemical Information has been working
for years on providing resources for
broader based career mentoring for chemists
(www.acscinf.org/, click on “Committees”
then “Careers”). We encourage all
chemists to be aware of the wealth of career
opportunities available to chemists.
Help us spread the word.
Bob Buntrock
Orono, Maine
NOBEL EXPECTATIONS
THE EDITOR of any newsmagazine has
unlimited latitude in choosing the subject
and content of an editorial. As a scholar
and a world citizen, one may have a limited
and compartmentalized viewpoint
on many issues faced by our civilization.
At times, these viewpoints are contradictory
and lack resolution on many fronts.
Among these is the announcement of
awards at the beginning of October each
year under the venerable name Nobel.
The editorial “Nobel Nonsense” evoked
an expectation that was opposed to the
content (C&EN, Oct. 20, page 5). Every
year, many feel ignored in all fields in
which the Nobel Prize is awarded. It is a
grave misunderstanding even among scientists
that the Nobel Prize is awarded to
individuals, and many take it as a personal
affront if they do not win. The Nobel Prize
recognizes the eminence of the achievement
in the subject matter at hand, and
the individual(s) are a conduit to convey
the same.
It is time the news media stop using the
Nobel Prize as a measure of national superiority,
as is blatantly used for Olympic
sports competitions. A dedicated scientist
has no appetite to look at science as a race
toward Stockholm.
Brahama D. Sharma
Pismo Beach, Calif.
DISAPPOINTING NCW COVERAGE
I WAS DISAPPOINTED to again find the
absence of any article about National
Chemistry Week (NCW) in C&EN during
that week. It seems strange that the
largest public outreach effort by ACS
members should be relegated to the delayed
collage of the activities done by local
sections for kids. No effort is apparently
made to produce a cover and lead article
about the science of the topic aimed at
adults.
This is an important time of the year
to focus attention on the many issues
brought up by each year’s topic, both the
superlative chemistry-related successes
and inventions and the problem aspects
for future efforts. This year’s topic about
chemistry and sports offered an excellent
opportunity to highlight the contributions
to materials, surfaces, and performance
while also catching the public eye to discuss
these same issues as they are being
played out in the national consciousness—from
high-performance materials
fundamentally changing some sports to
the analytical and pharmaceutical issues
that make so many headlines.
I believe an article with depth and
breadth on the NCW theme should have
run both in C&EN and on the ACS website
to inform and challenge readers. Those
readers, essentially all adults, are exactly
the audience not served by the traditional
NCW effort that seems to focus entirely
on schools and malls.
If we can mount cover articles about
plastics, paints, pharmaceuticals, statistics,
coatings, polymers, superconductivity,
and the like, it is a tragedy that we don’t
do so for a key issue carefully selected by
members each year and with a more than
12-month lead time.
I hope both C&EN and the ACS website
can address more topical content articles
for adults in relation to future NCWs,
whether during the week or as a series
throughout the year.
Lee Latimer
Oakland, Calif.
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WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 4 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

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LETTERS
RADIO-FREQUENCY DEVICES
SEVERAL READERS have commented
on the unwelcome, surreptitious use of
radio-frequency infrared device (RFID)
tagged badges at conferences (C&EN,
Sept. 15, page 4). RFID devices typically
employ frequencies in the ranges of
125–134 kHz, 13.56 MHz, 400–930 MHz,
2.45 GHz, and 5.8 GHz. The most commonly
used frequencies are around 400
MHz and 900 MHz. The tags can operate
at distances up to 300 feet and therein lies
the Achilles’ heel.
The reader may recall from instruction
in physics class that electrical current
of such high frequency travels along the
surface of a conductor and does not penetrate
the conductor; this phenomenon is
commonly referred to as the “skin effect.”
If the RFID device is enclosed within a
metal container having no opening or gap
larger than one-half wavelength of the
impinging radiation, then the induced
current will remain on the surface of the
container and effectively isolate the RFID
contained therein. Such a container is referred
to as a “Faraday cage.” No grounding
wires or electrical supply is needed.
A Faraday cage to shield identity
badges may be prepared by folding aluminum
foil into the shape of an envelope
with a flap closure. The seal need not
LOGIN CHANGES FOR
C&EN ONLINE
Your ACS Member Number no longer
serves as your username and password.
All ACS members must register on
the ACS website, www.acs.org, prior to
logging in to access C&EN subscriber
content. Users already registered
on acs.org prior to Nov. 15 can now
use their acs.org login credentials on
C&EN.
If you have any further questions
or comments, please contact the ACS
Member & Subscriber Services Department
via e-mail at service@acs.org or
telephone at (800) 333-9511 (U.S. only)
or (614) 447-3776 (outside the U.S.).
be hermetic and the conducting surface
can have holes in it; even metal window
screening or metal plaster lathing can
be used, but aluminum foil seems to be
most convenient. In other words, you can
be somewhat sloppy. It is only necessary
that the foil edges make electrical contact
and any gaps be less than one-half wavelength
of the radiation used.
A common example is the screen
found on the inside of a microwave oven
door which, when combined with the
metal housing of the oven, completes
the cage and shields the room from microwave
radiation. In practice, the badge
bearing an RFID may be placed in the foil
envelope, the flap closed, and out you go.
The rest of the day is yours.
Having mastered the rudiments of
Faraday shielding, one may—by obvious
sequences of shielding or exposing—
appear to arrive multiple times or to never
leave. At technical meetings, one might
also consider handing out aluminum foil
envelopes before your competitor speaks.
Albert G. Anderson
Wilmington, Del.
Br
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TMS
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H 3 CO
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N
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2-623
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I
CH 3
H 3 CO
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Br
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2-618
NH 2
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2-629
H 3 CO
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2-604
N
2-607
N OH
Store chemical information
Define access levels for data handling and reporting
Create template-driven or customized reports
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WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 6 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

news of the week
NOVEMBER 24, 2008 EDITED BY WILLIAM G. SCHULZ & ALICIA J. CHAMBERS
AUTO WOES HIT
CHEMICAL MAKERS
MOTOR CITY CRISIS: Car
production plummets, and
chemical demand follows
CITING A “MASSIVE” DECLINE in global demand
from automakers and other customers,
BASF, the world’s largest chemical firm, says
it is temporarily shutting down 80 plants worldwide.
Other major chemical companies are also feeling the
pinch as the Detroit automakers General Motors, Ford,
and Chrysler seek government help to keep afloat.
Chemical demand has plummeted since October,
BASF Chairman Jürgen Hambrecht says. Textile and
construction customers have cut back orders, but “in
particular, customers in the automotive industry have
canceled orders at short notice.”
The firm is also slashing production at an additional
100 plants worldwide at least through January 2009
and perhaps longer. Together, the cuts affect 20,000
employees, and earnings will slip as BASF prepares for
tough times, Hambrecht says.
BASF’s cuts, representing 25% of the firm’s industrial
capacity, are “unprecedented in recent memory,”
says P. J. Juvekar, a stock
analyst at Citigroup. Chemical
companies such as Dow
Chemical, PPG Industries,
DuPont, Celanese, and Huntsman
Corp. are also likely to
suffer from the auto industry’s
woes, he says. DuPont acknowledges
that it gets 16% of
sales from the auto industry,
and Dow says it gets about
10% of sales from the sector.
T. Kevin Swift, chief
economist at the American
Chemistry Council, values the
chemical content of each light
vehicle made in the U.S. at
$2,664. That content includes
adhesives and sealants, coatings,
fibers, plastic resins, rubber-processing chemicals,
synthetic fluids, and synthetic rubber.
All told, U.S. automakers purchased $34.9 billion in
chemicals in 2007 to build 13.1 million light vehicles.
As the number of vehicles made in the U.S. declines,
chemical sales will fall too, Swift tells C&EN. For the
ISTOCKPHOTO
first 10 months of
this year, General
Motors’ domestic
sales fell 20%, Ford’s
dropped 18%, and
Chrysler’s were
off 26%.
Many chemical
firms have already
felt the auto industry
slowdown. PPG plans
to close an auto paint
facility in Clarkson,
Ontario, by mid-
2009 and eliminate
150 jobs. Francebased
Arkema, which
supplies polymers
to automakers in
Europe, has been hurt by the slowdown and pledges to
keep production capacities in line with demand. Shell
admits to a slowdown in chemical demand from automotive
customers. International Specialty Products
reports a drop in demand for styrene-butadiene rubber
used in tire production.
“The U.S. auto industry needs reform,” says Frederick
M. Peterson, president of consulting outfit Probe
Economics. If one or more of the Detroit automakers
goes out of business, Peterson reasons, the chemical
industry shouldn’t care. What
matters, he says, is the total
number of cars produced—
and more is better.
However, a Dow spokesman
says his firm fears for the
long-term viability of the U.S.
auto industry. “In these unprecedented
times, we believe
it would be unwise to let this
vital part of the U.S. economy
fail,” he says.
Solutia, which gets 5% of
sales from U.S. automakers,
supports a government bailout
of the hard-pressed industry.
Hoses, belts, and plastic housings under a car A spokesman for the company
hood are all chemical industry products.
acknowledges that automakers
need to reform their business
just as Solutia did in its own bankruptcy reorganization,
from which it emerged earlier this year. But getting
private financing is next to impossible in today’s
credit market, he notes, and without government
money, bankruptcy could close down an automaker for
good.—MARC REISCH
DUPONT
A robotic arm
sprays a DuPont
finish.
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 7 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

NEWS OF THE WEEK
Gulf War soldiers
receive inoculations
against possible
chemical weapons
attacks.
PANEL VALIDATES
GULF WAR ILLS
HEALTH: Exposure to pesticides and a
prophylactic drug caused vets’ illness
GULF WAR SYNDROME is real. That’s the conclusion
of a report from the congressionally
mandated Research Advisory Committee on
Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses, which for the first time
declares a causal link between exposure to toxic chemicals
and the neurological symptoms of the
vets who served in the 1990–91 conflict.
The report also states that the symptoms
were not caused by wartime stress, which is
a factor emphasized by the Institute of Medicine
(IOM) in numerous studies it has done
on Gulf War illnesses.
The advisory committee cites two primary
causes for the illnesses: overuse of the drug
pyridostigmine bromide (PB) and exposure to
a variety of pesticides.
PB was administered as a first level of protection
to troops who might be exposed to
NEWSCOM
certain nerve agents. It counters the effects of nerve
agents such as soman by reversibly binding to and temporarily
inactivating acetylcholinesterase, the enzyme
typically targeted by the agents.
Heavy use of pesticides was common during the war
to deal, for example, with flies and fleas, which were a
major problem for troops. Soldiers frequently applied
carbamates, pyrethroids, and organophosphate compounds
to their skin or uniforms, the report notes.
“The report provides a blueprint for the new Administration
to focus resources on improving the health of
Gulf War veterans,” said Committee Chairman James
H. Binns at the presentation of the report on Nov. 17.
Among its recommendations, the committee seeks
additional funds for research on Gulf War illnesses and
asks the Department of Veterans Affairs to instruct
IOM to redo its completed studies because they have
been “skewed and limited.”
Lynn R. Goldman, a professor at Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health, chaired two of
the IOM Gulf War panels and served on another. She
“firmly denies that the IOM studies were skewed or
restricted.” Although she agrees with some of the conclusions
in this study, she says, the claim of causality is
hard to establish. The committee apparently used a different
standard for causality than did IOM, she adds.—
DAVID HANSON
ANDREW V. TEPLYAKOV/
U. DELAWARE
Nitrobenzene
(left) reacts with
a hydrogenterminated
(white)
silicon surface
(yellow) and
eliminates water in
the process.
FUNCTIONALIZING
SILICON
SURFACE CHEMISTRY: Classic organic
reaction modifies semiconductors
BY DEVELOPING A WAY to apply a common
chemical reaction to silicon surfaces, researchers
in Delaware have broadened techniques
available for modifying semiconductors with organic
molecules. The work details a procedure for carrying
out surface-dehydrative condensation reactions using
standard equipment and mild conditions (J. Am. Chem.
Soc., DOI: 10.1021/ja802645t).
An overarching strategy for advancing the emerging
field of molecular electronics calls for marrying
organic chemistry—a discipline with a huge number of
well-studied chemical transformations—with
semiconductors,
the platform on which microelectronics
is built.
Working toward that
goal in recent years, scientists
have devised surface-chemistry
analogs
of classic organic processes,
including Diels-Alder, Grignard-type,
and cycloaddition reactions. The Delaware
team has now extended that list.
Timothy R. Leftwich, Mark R. Madachik, and Andrew
V. Teplyakov have shown that silicon wafers with
hydrogen-terminated surfaces are readily functionalized
via dehydrative cyclocondensation reactions.
Demonstrating that process, the group showed
that nitrobenzene reacts to form a surface-bound
nitrosobenzene adduct. The process combines two
surface hydrogens with an oxygen from the nitro group
to eliminate a molecule of water. Using surface spectroscopy
methods, the team verified that nitrosobenzene
is attached to the surface via one O–Si bond and
one N–Si bond and that the C–N bond and phenyl ring
remain intact.
Teplyakov points out that in contrast to other organic
surface reactions, the new process can be carried
out with standard laboratory equipment and does
not require radical initiators, photochemical steps, or
chemical solutions of modifier compounds, which are
possible sources of contamination.
“This work describes an interesting and potentially
useful addition to the toolbox of reactions for functionalizing
silicon surfaces,” says Kate Queeney, a surface
chemist at Smith College, in Northampton, Mass.
Although the reaction has the drawback of forming adducts
that adsorb to the surface in more than one way,
it provides a way to introduce functional groups that
are not cleanly accessible by other routes, she adds.—
MITCH JACOBY
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 8 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

NEWS OF THE WEEK
COAL PLANT
PERMIT BLOCKED
REGULATION: EPA appeals board
orders agency to consider power
plant’s CO 2 emissions
EPA MUST CONSIDER greenhouse gas emissions
when it issues permits for new coal-fired
power plants, according to a recent legal ruling
by the agency’s Environmental Appeals Board.
Coal-fired power plants today provide one-half of
the nation’s electricity and 30% of the U.S.’s carbon
dioxide emissions. The environmental group Sierra
Club, which brought the appeal, heralded the decision
as a “huge victory” that would stymie construction of
new coal-fired power plants. The decision puts more
heat on Congress and the new Administration to determine
how CO 2 should be regulated.
The appeals board considered an application for a
110-MW coal-fired power plant proposed by the Deseret
Power Electric Cooperative to be built in Utah.
When approving the permit application last year, EPA
did not consider CO 2 emissions, the board noted, and
said it should have.
The Sierra Club argued to the board that a U.S.
Supreme Court decision last year required EPA to
regulate CO 2 as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act
(C&EN, April 9, 2007, page 9). Although the board
did not go that far, it did say EPA, as a minimum, must
consider CO 2 along with other pollutants under the
Clean Air Act and explain why CO 2 should or should
not be controlled. The board then sent the permit decision
back to EPA for reconsideration.
The board also urged EPA to establish an overarching,
national position on CO 2 emissions, particularly
considering the “multiplicity of permit proceedings”
for coal-fired plants. So far, the agency has refused to
address CO 2 emissions,
no matter
the source.
More than 80
permit applications
are pending
for proposed
coal-fired power
plants, Sierra Club
spokeswoman
Virginia Cramer
says. All of these,
she says, could
be affected by the
ruling.
“EPA can issue
a CO 2 regulation,
which we would like to see happen,” Cramer adds, “or
EPA can come up with some new reason for not doing
so, which might be difficult since its previous reasons
have been rejected. Either way we are probably looking
at several months or even a year for that process
to happen.”
Such a move would have broad implications for
all CO 2 emitters, including chemical manufacturers.
For this reason, industry groups filed six briefs supporting
EPA’s position in this case, including one by
the chemical industry’s lobbying arm, the American
Chemistry Council.
In analyzing the ruling, utility organizations focused
on the fact that the board remanded the decision
back to EPA for further consideration. “A ruling
in support of regulation (under the Clean Air Act)
would have turned American industry on its head by
forcing inappropriate and inflexible CO 2 regulation
across the country,” said Rich Alonso, who represents
power plant developers and is a lawyer with Bracewell
& Giuliani.
Meanwhile, President-Elect Barack H. Obama just
last week restated his campaign pledge to support legislation
to reduce CO 2 emissions.—JEFF JOHNSON
EPA permits for
new coal-fired
power plants are
on hold.
SHUTTERSTOCK
PETROCHEMICALS Debt-ridden Ineos arranges waivers of loan covenants
Ineos, the world’s fourth largest chemical
maker, is crashing against the financial-crisis
brick wall. Built by industry
executives who borrowed heavily to fund
a series of acquisitions, Ineos is seeking
to delay payments on its bank loans until
May 2009.
In a report on third-quarter results,
Ineos’ chief financial officer, John
Reece, said the company has seen
“an unprecedented fall in demand due
to destocking and plant closures by
customers.”
Ineos’ lead bankers—Barclays Capital
and Merrill Lynch—have already approved
the loan deferrals and the company’s
other bankers are expected to
follow suit. Ineos has pledged to submit
a new business plan in April 2009. The
firm expects the deferral agreements to
be wrapped up by the end of the year.
The request is a turnaround from
earlier in the month, when in response
to media speculation Ineos said it had
“never breached any of its banking covenants.”
Even now, the firm insists that its
debt of nearly $9.2 billion—roughly four
times its operating earnings over the
past 12 months—is no cause for alarm.
Ineos is not relying solely on covenant
waivers, however. It has implemented
programs to cut some $250 million in
costs, $75 million of which will come this
year. And the company plans to slash
capital spending from $750 million in
2008 to $315 million in 2009.
For 2008, Ineos forecasts operating
earnings of roughly $1.43 billion.—
PATRICIA SHORT
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 9 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

NEWS OF THE WEEK
This chemical
facility near
New York City is
among those that
pose risks to large
populations.
NAMING DANGEROUS
CHEMICAL FACILITIES
PLANT SECURITY: Report lists
sites where accidents, terrorist
attacks could kill millions
LOOKING AT worst-case scenarios, a new report
identifies 101 U.S. chemical manufacturing and
water treatment facilities that would cause massive
casualties in the event of an accident or terrorist
attack. If these facilities used alternative chemicals or
processes, however, 110 million
lives could be saved, according
to the Nov. 19 report by the
Center for American Progress, a
nonprofit organization.
The report, “Chemical Security
101,” names facilities that it
classifies as the nation’s “most
dangerous”—those putting
more than 1 million people at
risk. The report is based on an
analysis of risk management
plans that chemical facilities
submitted to EPA in October.
The report is unique because
CHIP EAST/REUTERS/NEWSCOM
it allows direct access to information about potentially
hazardous chemical facilities that has been hard to come
by in the post-9/11 era. The Department of Homeland
Security has a list of chemical facilities possessing certain
chemicals that put them at high risk for a terrorist
attack. That list, however, is not available to the public.
Chlorine, hydrofluoric acid, and various sulfurcontaining
chemicals are sources for alarm at 300-
plus chemical installations, according to the report.
Accidents or terrorist attacks at these facilities pose a
toxic gas inhalation risk for people in nearby communities,
the report says.
For each listed facility, the report suggests alternative
chemicals and processes that would mitigate safety
concerns and reduce the risk of a terrorist attack. The
report recommends that Congress impel the use of
safer technologies by requiring chemical installations to
assess feasible alternatives and carry liability insurance.
“We are committed to continuously monitoring,
evaluating, and improving potential impacts at all
life-cycle stages of our products,” says a spokesman
at Bayer, which has at least one facility on the list. The
complete list is available at www.americanprogress.
org/issues/2008/11/pdf/chemical_security.pdf.
DHS points out that the report’s list of chemical
facilities does not correlate with those covered under
the department’s antiterrorism program. Amy Kudwa,
a spokeswoman for the department, says DHS used
different criteria and procedures to identify high-risk
facilities.—ROCHELLE BOHATY
GEORGE NIKITIN/AP/© HHMI
CHERYL SENTER/AP/© HHMI
Rees
Zhuang
HHMI SUPPORTS
COLLABORATIONS
RESEARCH FUNDING: Institute
underwrites research projects
for the first time
HOWARD HUGHES Medical Institute has
launched a pilot program to fund collaborative
research projects. The Collaborative Innovation
Awards program marks the first time HHMI has funded
specific projects rather than individual researchers.
HHMI will invest $10 million per year for four years
to fund eight collaborative teams, each led by an HHMI
investigator. Because many of the collaborators are not
HHMI investigators, the new program gives the institute
an opportunity to reach scientists beyond those in
its flagship program.
Collaborators will combine their diverse expertise
to explore areas that are “too big for any one lab,”
says Philip S. Perlman, the senior scientific officer
at HHMI who oversees the program. “This program
promotes a different level of research that depends on
collaborating with experts who round out the skill set
needed to undertake a risky and exciting project.”
One such project is the brain-wiring diagram that
Xiaowei Zhuang, an HHMI investigator at Harvard University,
and her collaborators seek to construct. Her
team includes researchers who have developed innovative
techniques for transgenic research, brain tissue
preparation, high-resolution imaging, and automated
data analysis. They will refine and integrate the techniques
and then use them to map connections between
cells in the brain. “With this kind of exciting, innovative
idea that requires a collaborative effort of five labs and
that does not have a ton of preliminary results, it’s hard
to seek other types of funding,” Zhuang says.
Douglas C. Rees, a structural biologist and HHMI investigator
at California Institute of Technology, heads
another team that plans to develop better ways to solve
three-dimensional structures of membrane proteins.
They will embed the proteins in symmetrical phospholipid-containing
units called membrane protein
polyhedra. “The only way we can tell if it’s actually useful
is if we can solve problems that haven’t been solved
before that people care about,” Rees says. “I don’t have
any illusions that this will be a magic bullet that will
work for everything.”
“We’re not expecting the eight projects will be
equally successful,” Perlman says. “You have to accept
some risk.”—CELIA ARNAUD
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 10 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

NEWS OF THE WEEK
A CATALYST WITH
FLUXIONALITY
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY: New class of
chiral catalysts mediates tricky
olefin metathesis reactions
BY ATTACHING a monodentate aryloxide group
to a molybdenum core, chemists have created a
new class of chiral catalysts for alkene metathesis
reactions (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature07594).
According to the researchers, the new catalysts will
expand the scope of the popular
reaction, in which two
carbon-carbon double bonds
react to form two new carboncarbon
double bonds. Chemists
can use the transformation
in certain molecules that
had previously proved impervious
to olefin metathesis.
“The existing catalysts have
brought us very far, but the list
of olefin metathesis reactions
that we cannot carry out today
is far longer than those that
we can,” says Boston College
chemistry professor Amir H. Hoveyda, who spearheaded
the work with Nobel Laureate Richard R. Schrock of
MIT. For example, Hoveyda explains, olefin metathesis
can be difficult to use on compounds that contain sterically
hindered alkenes and certain functional groups,
such as amines and carbonyls.
The researchers demonstrate the versatility of their
new catalysts en route to the natural product quebrachamine.
While other catalysts give measly or nonexistent
N
H
N
yields, the new catalyst drives the reaction to 84% yield
with 96% enantiomeric excess, even though the intermediate
that undergoes metathesis contains an olefin that’s
difficult to access sterically and a basic nitrogen. That
nitrogen would quickly deactivate most catalysts.
In the new catalysts, an enantiomerically pure, monodentate
aryloxide ligand is linked to a stereogenic molybdenum
center. Although catalyst makers typically favor
rigid molecules, Hoveyda credits the catalysts’ activity to
their fluxionality—their ability to isomerize at the metal
center, which is something they must do twice in the
course of each catalytic cycle. Hoveyda also points out
that the catalysts are both active and long-lived. “The
trick is to make a catalyst that is both fast and stable,” he
says, “like a Ferrari that never breaks down.”
Cl
RO
Ph = phenyl, R = tert-butyldimethylsilyl
N
N
Mo
O
Cl
Ph
ALKENE CONNECTOR
New chiral catalyst drives thorny enantioselective
metathesis reaction en route to quebrachamine.
The research is “a beautiful piece of work,” says
Benjamin G. Davis, a chemistry professor at the University
of Oxford. “Stereoselective olefin metathesis
is something that, although investigated before, has
not quite borne the fruit that one might have expected
until now,” he notes. “The strategic reevaluation here
comes together fantastically to expand both utility and
scope, as well as delivering enhanced selectivity in ringclosing
olefin metathesis.”—BETHANY HALFORD
N
H
N
N
H
N
(+)-Quebrachamine
STEM CELLS Pfizer coordinates its regenerative medicine research efforts
Pfizer is launching Pfizer Regenerative
Medicine, a unit that will combine its
current work in stem cell research into a
single organization based jointly in Cambridge,
England, and Cambridge, Mass. It
will be headed by Pfizer Chief Scientific
Officer Ruth McKernan.
Expected to employ 70 researchers,
the group will straddle Pfizer’s new Biotherapeutics
& Bioinnovation Center
and Pfi zer Global Research & Development.
McKernan will report to both
Corey Goodman, head of BBC, and Rod
MacKen zie, head of worldwide research.
The regenerative medicine unit is intended
to coordinate and expand stem
cell research, including small-molecule
screens of stem cell lines, according to
Goodman. Last year, he says, the company
broadened its research policy to
include embryonic stem cell lines that
qualified for federal funding.
It’s a coincidence that the launch
comes within weeks of the election of
Barack H. Obama as the next president,
Goodman says. When Obama takes office,
he is expected to overturn current federal
funding restrictions on embryonic stem
cell research (C&EN, Nov. 10, page 7).
The federal restrictions on stem cell
research have hampered R&D efforts at
big drug companies partly by limiting the
training of new investigators, according
to industry watchers. “There has been
less research—thus fewer ideas that
would have otherwise gone to industry,”
says Lawrence A. Soler, vice president of
government relations with the Juvenile
Diabetes Research Foundation.
Goodman agrees that the benefits of
increased public funding will accrue for
drug companies. In fact, in the weeks
ahead, Pfizer plans to announce stem cell
research partnerships with academic labs
and small biotech firms.—RICK MULLIN
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 11 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

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COVER STORY
BLOOD COUNT
Researchers at the
Nord-Trøndelag
Health Study are
using Thermo Fisher
software to track
hundreds of new
blood and tissue
samples taken daily.
THERMO FISHER
KEEPING TRACK
LABORATORY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE takes on the data explosion in life sciences
RICK MULLIN, C&EN NORTHEAST NEWS BUREAU
THERE COMES A POINT in life sciences
research when spreadsheets just don’t cut it
anymore. It happened two years ago at the
Nord-Trøndelag Health Study, a 25-year-old
family and personal database of approximately
110,000 people in Norway’s Nord-
Trøndelag County. The project, a resource
for epidemiological, clinical, and preventative
medical research known as HUNT,
launched its third phase, which boosted its
patient population by more than 30% and
tipped it into information overload.
“HUNT 1 and HUNT 2 already created a
lot of data, and at some point it became very
complicated and difficult to work with,”
says Thor Gunnar Steinsli, an information
technology (IT) manager for the project,
which is run by the Norwegian University of
Science & Technology, in Trondheim. The
laboratory had been tracking blood and tissue
samples using basic computer charting
tools such as Microsoft Excel, Steinsli says,
“but with three studies going on, this system
was not capable enough. Not by far.” HUNT,
he says, needed a LIMS—a laboratory information
management system.
LIMS denotes a diverse class of software
used in labs to collect data on experiments
and track samples. Some LIMS products
provide a level of workflow automation as
well as invoice and instrument monitoring.
Overall, LIMS systems enforce standard
laboratory practices by creating a central
repository for samples and data. HUNT
purchased a Nautilus LIMS system from
Thermo Fisher Scientific to manage its collection
and tracking of 800 to 1,000 medical
samples a day, five days a week.
Steinsli explains, however, that a LIMS
system needs to work in conjunction with
existing software and automation. The
Nautilus system needed to integrate with
an RTS Assay Station fractionation instrument
and a Tecan plate scanner. It also
needed to be linked to an Oracle database
for lab sample data and a separate in-house
database for patient information.
The IT and instrumentation landscape
at HUNT is not atypical in the life sciences.
Research IT has traditionally consisted of
a wide range of homegrown or jury-rigged
software programs. But in recent years, labs
have started adopting more comprehensive
commercial products such as LIMS. This
shift has been prompted in part by genomics-based
research, which has exponentially
increased the volume of data that need to be
collected, managed, and analyzed.
The advent of translational research—the
practice of linking drug discovery to human
clinical trials with two-way data communication—has
also sent research organizations in
search of software to facilitate the link. Software
suppliers, in turn, are expanding the capabilities
of their core products and forming
partnerships with other suppliers in order to
cover everything from raw data collection to
in-depth analysis.
According to Ruchi Mallya, a pharmaceutical
technology analyst with the market
research firm Datamonitor, the trend in the
life sciences is toward software integration.
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 13 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

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Building a single IT network, however, is
no easy task, according to Mallya. “Because
of the changes under way in life sciences,
the IT industry serving the sector isn’t fully
developed yet,” she says.
“Much of what is being done
in the laboratory is routine,
however, and software vendors
are popping up left and
right. Some consolidation is
taking place, some vendors
are trying to make it on their
own, and some are partnering
with other vendors.
Others are developing userspecific
systems and then
commercializing them.”
Laboratory research IT
can be viewed as a threetiered
pyramid with an
information gathering and
process management layer
at the bottom, an executive
decision-making tier at the
top, and a more nebulous
“middle management”
layer in between. It is at that
middle level that information
tends to be stored and
analyzed and accessed from
both the top and the bottom.
But it is at the bottom
level—the LIMS level—that
actual research takes place.
Researchers’ needs and
software vendors’ offerings
vary widely at the bottom
Hu
Mfuko
of the pyramid. Thermo Fisher, one of the
largest suppliers, has several LIMS systems
for both the chemical and life sciences
markets. They include Sample Manager,
a generic LIMS; and Watson, Darwin, and
Nautilus, products tailored to more specific
aspects of life sciences research.
According to Seamus Mac Conaonaigh,
Thermo Fisher’s director of technology for
informatics, the trend in software development
has been toward systems that allow
users in specific research sectors to easily
access, format, and route data. “The reason
this is important is that the hardware and
instrumentation in labs is generating absolutely
colossal amounts of data,” he says.
“It is not enough just to get it. You need a
way to make sense of it.”
The standard practice of relying on Internet
services to route data from the LIMS
is inadequate, Mac Conaonaigh maintains.
“That still places the onus on the customer to
figure out how that integration is supposed
to happen,” he says. “We are certainly providing
them with the tools to get at the data, but
what to do with it and the actual business of
writing the software to get the data out and
put it into another system is
still something they have to
do if vendors only provide
them with Web services.”
To that end, Mac Conaonaigh
says Thermo Fisher
consults with customers
on ways of aggregating data
WINDBER RESEARCH INSTITUTE
MULTIPLE MYELOMA RESEARCH CONSORTIUM
through commercial portals
like Microsoft’s SharePoint,
which are becoming ubiquitous
in the life sciences
and which many specialized
software providers are
promoting as a means of
system integration (C&EN,
May 26, page 13). Thermo
Fisher will also introduce
a version of its LIMS software
that is compatible
with Microsoft’s BizTalk
server, a technology for
connecting disparate business
IT networks.
According to Mac Conaonaigh,
the big challenge
in software system design
is gauging scale and scope.
Laboratories and clinics
traditionally have not shared
data, he adds. And just getting
big drug companies and
research institutes to think
about new approaches to configuring IT can
be daunting, particularly if the Food & Drug
Administration regulates them. “This is a
very conservative industry,” Mac Conaonaigh
says.
LIKE IT OR NOT, however, the life sciences
sector is going through big changes, especially
in the laboratory. Ron S. Kasner, vice president
for corporate development with Labvantage,
another major LIMS supplier, says
managers at drug companies and research
institutes recognize a need to implement
operational intelligence networks similar to
the business intelligence networks launched
in manufacturing and financial industries in
the 1990s. The key, Kasner says, is an integration
of data gathering and analysis.
Labvantage has expanded its Sapphire
LIMS in recent years to accommodate new
trends in research. “We’ve added biorepository
management,” Kasner says. “We have
advanced storage and logistics for tracking
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COVER STORY
and package handling, stability and reagent
management, and other R&D applications.”
Such features are offered as part of
a single IT platform that can be configured
to afford flexibility at individual laboratories
but also promote standard practices at
global research organizations.
THE COMPANY’S most recent LIMS adaptation
is software for accessing, reporting,
and analyzing disparate data. For this,
Labvantage has formed a partnership with
InforSense, a supplier of data integration
and predictive analysis software. Under the
agreement, Labvantage will market Infor-
Sense’s software along with its Sapphire
LIMS.
Simon Beaulah, senior marketing manager
for InforSense, sees advantages to both
laboratory managers and bench scientists in
combining LIMS and data analysis software.
“We provide visualization tools through the
Web,” he says. “You can think of it as scientific
business intelligence. It is a matter of
getting the right data to the scientist so that
the scientist can make the right decision.”
Translational research is a major impetus for
adding an analysis dimension to standard
benchtop computing, according to Beaulah.
James DeGreef, vice president of market
strategy with LIMS provider GenoLogics,
says his firm is working on integrating its
LIMS with InforSense software. “LIMS and
analytics working together is a trend now,”
DeGreef says. “It’s a natural fit.” Researchers
are interested in integrating these functions
to advance proteomics and genomics
research, which are key practices among
GenoLogics’ target customers.
Like Labvantage, GenoLogics adds features
to its LIMS software on a regular basis.
But partnership with other software suppliers
has long been a route to linking with
completely different kinds of software and
automation. “A lot of our work is done with
instrumentation providers,” DeGreef says,
citing a partnership with Illumina, a gene sequencing
and genotyping systems supplier.
According to DeGreef, the LIMS market
is trending away from generic software
to products targeted at specific areas of
research. GenoLogics, which has always
targeted the life sciences, offers a basic
system called Omix, as well as a specialized
product for genomics called Geneus and
one for proteomics called Proteus.
Given the need for software customization
and the availability of Web-based tools
to connect software, Biomatrica, a LIMS
supplier launched five years ago, sells its
software as a series of modular applications.
“We are seeing a trend away from big, monolithic
LIMS systems that try to capture all the
data at one time,” Brian Baumann, director
of software products, says. Although largescale
systems might work well in biobanking
applications, Baumann says, drug and biotech
research can be handled more efficiently
by linking modular software components
at the bench to a central database.
Baumann adds that new product development
at Biomatrica also focuses on
ease of use—developing software that can
be maintained by the researcher. “In a lot
of big pharma and
biotechnology companies,
IT departments
don’t support scientific
software,” he
says. “They deal more
with IT infrastructure.
LIMS needs to
be made more intuitive
to the user.” And
LIMS must be easily
integrated with other
laboratory software
and automation, extending
the modular
approach into a multivendor
IT landscape.
Some software
developers have
launched new products
operating at the
middle level of the lab
IT pyramid that are
specifically designed
to link research software
and databases.
BioFortis, for example,
has introduced
software called Lab-
Matrix that vets data
collected by LIMS at
the laboratory level
and routes it where it is needed.
SNAPSHOT
Laboratory
information
management
systems are
taking on the
reams of data
produced by life
sciences research
automation.
“LIMS are involved in gene expression,
imaging, and converting information into
numbers, but not every number needs to be
carried up the pyramid,” Jian Wang, chief
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 16 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

executive officer of
BioFortis, says. “All that
matters is the numbers
that change in a meaningful
way. The rest is
just noise. You need
a layer of abstraction
from the raw information
managed by the
LIMS, a level at which
you can manage multiple
streams of data.”
According to Wang,
BioFortis is exploring
partnerships with other
software firms. “One
of our clients wants
us to pair up with its
LIMS vendor,” he says.
Wang emphasizes that
there is still a high level
of software customization necessary for
laboratory IT. “LIMS is still a hodgepodge,
especially in academic labs,” Wang says. “It’s
even messy at pharmaceutical companies
that operate in a regulated environment.”
BIOMATRICA
WANG AND OTHER VENDORS agree,
however, that the life sciences industry
is generally cleaning up the mess. Frank
Brown, director of business development
for Accelrys, a supplier of modeling,
simulation, and informatics products for
chemistry and life sciences research, sees
a laboratory IT systems convergence that
mirrors the convergence occurring among
research departments under the rubric of
translational research.
“There is a cultural change under way at
pharmaceutical companies,” Brown says.
“They realize the handwriting is on the
wall. A lot of small molecules are coming
off patent, and they need new ways to do
business, new ways to develop compounds
that don’t have huge blockbuster potential
but can still be developed efficiently for
targeted subgroups of the population.”
But the change in operating model will
precede IT systems realignment, Brown
says. “There needs to be a different business
and operations model in which all levels
of the company are working together,
as opposed to a linear or serial process,” he
says. “A dramatic flattening of the entire
organizational structure must be in place
before the software is in place.”
Hai Hu, director of bioinformatics at
Windber Research Institute, in Windber,
Pa., attests to the impact translational
research has had on software development.
Windber, he says, began installing
an InforSense system in 2005 to supplement
its database with analytical capability.
More recently, the firm has begun
replacing an old LIMS system—Windber
had been a pioneer user of software from
Cimarron Software—with a GenoLogics
system to work in conjunction with InforSense
for data tracking and analysis.
The project was prompted by researcher
demand for data management in translational
research, Hu says. Linking LIMS to
the InforSense software is important, he
says, because of the volume of data moving
between the clinic and genomics and proteomics
researchers.
According to Hu, Windber is also harnessing
the ability of combined LIMS and
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 17 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

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analysis software to vet databases for pertinent
information.
The use of LIMS varies widely from one
research organization to the next, however.
Pfizer last month signed a global LIMS supply
agreement with GenoLogics. According
to Giles Day, head of informatics for the
drug firm’s newly launched Biotherapeutics
& Bioinnovation Center, the incentive
for the project is the drastic increase in
data from genomics- and proteomicsbased
research. Software is being installed
first at the company’s Research Technology
Center, in Cambridge, Mass., and at its
Pfizer Global Research & Development lab,
in Sandwich, England.
“Basically it replaces ad hoc site by site
workflow software,”
Day says. “We had a
desperate need for a
way to manage laboratory
information from
omics research. But
across all of Pfizer there
is a similar picture.”
At the Virginia Bioinformatics
Institute
in Blacksburg—an
eight-year-old research
consortium—software
was needed to support a
diverse array of laboratory
investigations in
computational science,
biology, systems biology,
and infectious diseases.
$ Billions
18 ■ Hardware
■ Software
■ Services
According to Michael Czar, VBI’s senior program
manager for synthetic biology, the institute
is using Biomatrica’s SampleWare LIMS
to track large numbers of oligonucleotides,
plasmids, and DNA constructs in laboratories
and to track bacterial cell lines.
The LIMS system replaced Excel spreadsheets
and a Wiki-based system designed
in-house, he says.
Collaboration is also an incentive for IT
integration. The Multiple Myeloma Research
Consortium (MMRC), a project involving 15
research institutes, including Dana Farber
and the Mayo Clinic, installed a Labvantage
LIMS in 2004 to manage a shared tissue bank
in Scottsdale, Ariz. The bank currently holds
1,800 myeloma tumor samples and 1,400
BOOTING UP
U.S. drug and biopharmaceutical
companies are projected to
steadily increase IT spending
12
6
0
2007 08 09
SOURCE: Datamonitor
10
matched peripheral blood samples. The
group has opened 15 clinical trials since 2005
and is on track to start seven in the coming
year, according to Bunmi Mfuko, tissue bank
coordinator. MMRC operates a public portal
hosted at the Broad Institute, which allows
general access to researchers.
MMRC is currently investigating an
extension of its data capture and tracking
LIMS to support investigator-initiated
clinical trials, she adds.
Laboratory software remains a mixed
bag of technologies serving a wide range of
needs—needs that vary among researchers
within the same institution. While
Web services and products like SharePoint
facilitate fairly broad connections between
software products,
there are no true “out
11
12
13
of the box” solutions in
the life sciences sector.
“It’s never as simple
as deploying technology
that is already used
in other industries,”
Thermo Fisher’s Mac
Conaonaigh says. “It
comes down to domain
expertise. In addition
to people like us who
know the technology,
you need to have people
who know the business
who can make the system
work.”
And user resistance
to IT—be it the institution or the individual
researcher—can never be underestimated
in the life sciences. Nor can privacy
issues and competitive concerns over proprietary
data.
MMRC’s Mfuko notes that although the
consortium shares a LIMS for managing its
common tissue bank, its members balked at
installing the InforSense workflow analysis
software, which would allow consortium
members open access to each other’s
databases and would also allow access to
proprietary data via the public portal. The
result is that researchers cannot access patient
information from individual databases
through the LIMS system. “For that,” Mfuko
says, “we rely on Excel spreadsheets.” ■
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 18 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

BUSINESS CONCENTRATES
BAYER IMPLEMENTS
SUMITOMO Cl 2 PROCESS
Bayer MaterialScience will build a chlorine
recovery unit in Shanghai that uses technology
licensed from Sumitomo Chemical. The
recycling plant will work in tandem with a
250,000-metric-ton-per-year toluene diisocyanate
(TDI) plant that Bayer is building at
the site. Using catalytic oxidation, the Sumitomo
process converts hydrogen chloride,
a by-product of making TDI, into chlorine,
which that then is fed back into the TDI
unit as a raw material. Bayer expects its TDI
plant to come on-line in 2010.—JFT
WELLMAN MOVES
ON REORGANIZATION
A bankruptcy court has approved a disclosure
statement by polyester maker Wellman,
paving the way for lien holders to vote
on the company’s Chapter 11 reorganization
plan. Under the plan, these creditors
will receive equity in Wellman. They will
also receive proceeds from the sale of its
Darlington, S.C., polyethylene terephthalate
(PET) and polyester fiber plant. Should
the plan fall through, Wellman will liquidate
its remaining PET facility in Hancock,
Miss. Last month, Wellman sold its Johnsonville,
S.C., polyester recycling plant to
a group led by the private equity firm J. H.
Whitney.—AHT
DSM WILL DIVEST
SIDE-CHAIN BUSINESS
DSM has agreed to sell DSM Deretil, a
maker of antibiotic side chains, to a management
group. DSM says the transaction
will allow its anti-infectives unit “to fully
focus on its core future activity” in generic
antibiotics. Deretil President Lluis Franquesa
says his company will proceed with
a previously announced plan to close part
of its main plant in Villaricos, Spain, and
move production to China. Deretil’s sales
are about $44 million per year.—PLLS
SABIC, EXXON ADVANCE
ELASTOMERS PROJECT
Saudi Basic Industries Corp. and ExxonMobil
Chemical are studying the construction
of elastomers plants at their
Al-Jubail Petrochemical and Saudi Yanbu
M&A JUMPS IN THIRD QUARTER
Large deal announcements such as Dow Chemical’s plan to purchase
Rohm and Haas, BASF’s takeover of Ciba, and Ashland’s agreement to
buy Hercules propelled third-quarter merger and acquisition activity in the
chemical industry, according to a new analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers,
a tax and advisory services firm. PwC says about $32 billion in chemical
deals was announced in the quarter, a jump from the $16 billion announced
in the first half of the year. Michael Clifford, Canadian chemicals leader at
PwC, says the figures show that the chemical industry is still preparing for
future growth, despite the tough state of the economy. More than 80% of
deals announced in the first nine months involved strategic, rather than financial,
investors, reflecting the current tightness of credit markets. In total,
PwC counted 622 deals in the nine-month period, on pace to exceed the
759 deals announced in 2006 and approach the 849 in 2007.—MM
Petrochemical joint ventures, in Jubail and
Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. First proposed in November
2006, the project would cost billions
of dollars. It would produce a total of
more than 400,000 metric tons per year of
carbon black, rubber, and specialty elastomers,
including ethylene-propylene-diene
monomer and butyl rubber.—PLLS
MÉTAUX SPÉCIAUX BEATS
SODIUM DUMPING RAP
The U.S. International Trade Commission
has decided that sodium metal sold in the
U.S. by France’s Métaux Spéciaux SA has not
injured the domestic market (C&EN, Oct.
27, page 20). As a result, the U.S. government
will not impose antidumping duties.
DuPont, the sole U.S. sodium producer, filed
the antidumping complaint in late 2007. Du-
Pont says it is considering an appeal in light
of a previous Department of Commerce
finding that MSSA has sold sodium at 66%
below fair market value. Meanwhile, MSSA’s
unfair trade complaint filed against DuPont
in Europe is moving ahead.—AMT
CODEXIS AND DYADIC
SIGN ENZYMES PACT
Codexis, a Redwood City, Calif.-based biocatalyst
technology developer, has licensed
Dyadic International’s Chrysosporium lucknowense
fungus, or C1, expression system
for the large-scale production of enzymes
for making biofuels and chemical and pharmaceutical
intermediates. Codexis will
make an up-front payment of $10 million
provided that certain performance criteria
WACKER
are satisfied. Based in Jupiter, Fla., Dyadic
produces enzymes and other biomaterials
using proprietary fungal strains.—AMT
WACKER, DOW CORNING
PRODUCE SILICONES
Wacker Chemie and Dow Corning have
started up the first stage of their $1.2 billion
joint-venture silicone project in Zhangjiagang,
China. The new plant makes siloxane
and fumed silica. The two
firms will independently
convert siloxane into downstream
silicone products at
A worker
packages
fumed silica.
plants still under construction at adjacent
locations. The complex is expected to be
fully operational by the end of 2010.—MM
AMRI, SANOFI SETTLE
FEXOFENADINE CASE
Albany Molecular Research Inc. and
Sanofi-Aventis have settled lawsuits
against Barr Pharmaceuticals and Teva
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 19 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

BUSINESS CONCENTRATES
CIVENTICHEM
Pharmaceutical Industries related to generic
versions of fexofenadine HCl, sold
by Sanofi as Allegra. Teva and Barr will
each pay Sanofi about $30 million plus
undisclosed future royalties. AMRI, the
contract chemistry research firm that developed
the route to the molecule, will get
$10 million from Sanofi plus future royalties
on fexofenadine products sold by all
three firms.—MM
CIVENTICHEM ADDS
AN ANALYTICAL LAB
The contract research and manufacturing
firm CiVentiChem has launched CiVenti-
Analytical, a new analytical chemistry lab
at its Cary, N.C., headquarters. CiVenti-
Chem President Bhaskar R. Venepalli says
the firm is ready to solve pharmaceutical
method development, validation, and remediation
challenges. CiVentiChem is also
building a pharmaceutical chemical pilot
plant in Hyderabad, India, to complement
labs already there.—MM
ASTRAZENECA SELLS OFF
BIOMANUFACTURING
PLANT
AstraZeneca has agreed to divest Astra-
Zeneca Biotech Laboratory, a pilot plant
in Södertälje, Sweden, for recombinant
proteins and monoclonal antibodies, to
Recipharm, a contract development and
manufacturing organization. AstraZeneca
will hold “a significant minority stake” in
the new Recipharm subsidiary, which will
supply material for Phase I and II tests of an
AstraZeneca drug. AstraZeneca is consolidating
all its biotech activities within Med-
Immune, which it acquired last year.—PLLS
CHEROKEE EXPANDING
FORMER MERCK PLANT
Cherokee Pharmaceuticals broke ground
last week on a $2 million expansion to its
active pharmaceutical ingredients (API)
plant in Riverside, Pa. Cherokee was acquired
from Merck & Co. by PRWT Services
earlier this year and has the distinction
of being the only minority-owned API
producer in the U.S. The new capacity will
be housed in a three-story building. Construction
is scheduled to be completed by
late 2009, and the firm expects to hire 10 to
20 new employees.—RM
LILLY LINKS WITH
UNITED THERAPEUTICS
United Therapeutics has agreed to pay
Eli Lilly & Co. $150 million for U.S. rights
to sell Lilly’s molecule tadalafil as a treatment
for pulmonary arterial hypertension
(PAH), a rare blood vessel disorder. Lilly
already markets tadalafil to treat erectile
dysfunction under the brand name Cialis,
and it has filed for regulatory approval to
use the drug to treat PAH in North America,
Japan, and Europe. Lilly, meanwhile,
will buy $150 million in United Therapeutics
stock and will manufacture and supply
the drug. United Therapeutics already
markets Remodulin for the treatment of
PAH.—LJ
GENZYME PARTNERS IN
NEW MALARIA EFFORT
Genzyme has joined forces with the International
Center for Genetic Engineering
& Biotechnology to find new treatments
for neglected diseases. ICGEB, a nonprofit
with components in India, South Africa,
and Italy, will not have to pay royalties to
commercialize any drug for neglected diseases
that comes out of the collaboration.
Their first project will pursue new ways
to target two parasites that cause around
65% of the malaria cases in India. Scientists
from each organization will likely spend
time in the other’s labs, in New Delhi and
Waltham, Mass.—LJ
BUSINESS
ROUNDUP
SUNETHANOL has
raised $25 million in a
financing round that includes
BP and Soros Fund
Management. The firm is
also changing its name
to Qteros. Founded on research
by Susan Leschine,
a University of Massachusetts,
Amherst, microbiology
professor, Qteros is
developing a microbe that
converts cellulose into
ethanol.
AIR PRODUCTS &
Chemicals and Alberta
Energy Research Institute
will study a carbon dioxide
capture technology
developed by Air Products
that the partners say
could cut the cost of CO 2
capture by 25%. The
technology involves separating
hydrogen sulfide
and CO 2 from hydrogen in
gasification projects.
BAYER MaterialScience
is forming a joint venture
with Canada-based
Ultimate Holographic
Reproductions to commercialize
high-quality,
true-color holographic
images. Bayer will supply
color-sensitive photopolymers
for the mass replication
of master holograms
produced by UHR.
ARCHEMIX and NitroMed
will merge in an
all-stock transaction that
will leave former Archemix
stockholders owning
about 70% of the combined
company. Archemix
develops synthetically
derived olignucleotides.
The combined company
will have $50 million to
$60 million in cash.
MERCK SERONO will
pay roughly $1.4 million
to Galapagos in exchange
for providing compounds
for the former’s drug
discovery programs. In
a separate agreement,
Galapagos will extend a
previous collaboration
in which it performs medicinal
chemistry services
for an undisclosed Merck
Serono drug discovery
program.
NEUROGEN has raised
$3 million by selling its
chemical library to an unnamed
pharmaceutical
company. The Branford,
Conn., firm, which is developing
small-molecule
drugs for psychiatric and
neurological disorders,
also sold four of its five
buildings for $6 million.
MIDATECH, a British
company specializing
in biocompatible nanoparticles,
has formed
PharMida, a new company
in Basel, Switzerland, supported
by private Swiss
investors. PharMida will focus
on developing clinically
validated gold nanoparticle-drug
combinations.
SOLVIAS, a Swiss contract
chemistry firm, is
working with Canada’s
Patheon to provide integrated
development services
to pharmaceutical
and biotech companies.
The alliance combines
Solvias’ expertise in
solid-state chemistry
and preformulation with
Patheon’s capabilities in
formulation and dosageform
manufacturing.
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BUSINESS
LUMINANT
GETTING RID OF
MERCURY
Anticipating a national rule on mercury removal from coal
flue gas, technology providers JOCKEY FOR POSITION
MARC S. REISCH, C&EN NORTHEAST NEWS BUREAU
ALL FIRED UP
Texas utility
Luminant has a
six-year contract
to buy activated
carbon from
ADA-ES to
control mercury
emissions from
this coal-burning
plant and others
in Texas.
University in St. Louis
is investigating the use
of titanium dioxide
as both a catalyst and
adsorbent to remove
mercury.
A federal rule, when
it comes, will most
likely require the best
available technology to
remove mercury from
flue gas. “How that
will be done is still up in the air,” McIlvaine
says. And so although activated carbon
looks like the best available technology
now, after 2013, a better or cheaper technique
might emerge, he says.
Calgon Carbon is taking a conservative
approach to the activated carbon market.
Bob O’Brien, senior vice president of the
firm, acknowledges that mercury abatement
“looks like a big growth opportunity for us
and the activated carbon industry in North
America,” but he wonders how big the market
will actually be. “Opportunities based on
environmental regulations often start with
talk of huge markets. In the end, though, the
markets are usually smaller than were originally
expected,” O’Brien says.
IN ANCIENT Roman mythology, Mercury
was the fleet-footed messenger of the gods.
But in today’s world, mercury is an unloved
messenger of destruction. A neurotoxic
metal, mercury spews from coal-fired power
plants and infiltrates the environment; it
is especially damaging to fetuses as they are
developing.
Mercury is present in coal in only minute
amounts, but the 1,100 electricity-generating
utilities in the U.S. burn so much coal
that they send 48 tons of mercury up and
out their chimneys each year. To reduce the
public health threat, about 20 eastern states
have either begun or will shortly begin to
regulate mercury emissions from the largest
coal-burning power plants.
By 2013, if a long-anticipated federal rule
imposing such regulations nationwide goes
into place, mercury control will be big business.
Suppliers of abatement chemicals
and catalyst control technologies expect
a market of $500 million a year or more.
Many providers are racing now to position
themselves for this new market.
For the near term, utilities are adopting
activated carbon to control mercury emissions.
Activated carbon is usually made
by heat-treating coal to create a porous
structure. Its largest application, consuming
about 250 million lb per year in the U.S.,
is removing organic contaminants from
drinking water.
When injected into power plant flue gas,
activated carbon adsorbs mercury and then
gets captured in the plant’s waste fly ash.
The technology reduces mercury emissions
by 90% or more, meeting both state
and the anticipated federal targets.
Bob McIlvaine, president of the consulting
firm McIlvaine Co., projects that the
U.S. market for activated carbon in flue
gas treatment will jump from about 10
million lb in 2010 to 350 million lb by 2013.
Demand “could be huge,” he says. Major
activated carbon producers Norit and Calgon
Carbon are adding capacity now, and at
least one new supplier, ADA Environmenal
Solutions (ADA-ES), is building a new plant
to meet the anticipated demand.
But McIlvaine cautions that other solution
providers find the mercury-reduction
market tantalizing. Some selective catalyst-reduction
systems already use urea
and a metal or zeolite catalyst to remove
nitrogen oxides from power plant flue gas.
Makers of these systems are working now
to tweak catalysts to also remove mercury.
Gold or platinum catalysts might do the
trick too. And a professor at Washington
ALREADY THE BUSINESS is slow in
emerging. Because a federal appeals court
invalidated a proposed Environmental
Protection Agency rule earlier this year for
not being strict enough, McIlvaine expects
that a new federal rule is now three years
away. That limits the opportunity in the
meantime to the 20 or so states that have
already forced the issue.
Still, Calgon Carbon is eager to capture
a share of what is undoubtedly a growing
market for activated carbon. The firm has
spent $20 million to ready an activated carbon
line in Catlettsburg, Ky., that has been
idle since 2003. Scheduled to start up early
next year, the line will add 70 million lb per
year to the firm’s existing activated carbon
capacity. “We’ll be in a position to provide
for the power industry’s needs in the next
few years, and we’ll add capacity as necessary,”
O’Brien says.
Likewise, Norit sees significant opportunities
ahead to supply U.S. power producers
and is more upbeat about the potential
size of the market. If a federal rule does
come into place, says Ron Thompson, chief
executive officer of Norit Americas, the
mercury-mitigation market for activated
carbon could be larger than the water treatment
market.
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 22 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

Norit expects an expansion of its existing
Marshall, Texas, plant to come on-line
early in 2009. And it recently entered a
joint venture with coal-mining firm Sherritt
International to build the first of four
30 million-lb-per-year activated carbon
plants in Saskatchewan. Norit and Sherritt
plan to spend $200 million on the plants to
supply coal-fired utilities in both the U.S.
and Canada.
Also anticipating a significant mercuryabatement
market is ADA-ES. The environmental
technology firm is now building
what it says will be the first of two activated
carbon lines in Louisiana’s Red River Parish.
CHECKERBOARD
Corning’s carbon
monolith filters
mercury from flue gas.
In October, ADA-
ES formed a joint
venture with private
equity firm
Energy Capital
Partners to help
fund the activated carbon line. Still, competitors
question the small company’s ability to
complete a 175 million-lb-per-year activated
carbon plant costing $350 million.
OTHER FIRMS also see an opportunity
in the activated carbon market. Specialty
chemicals maker Albemarle recently
bought an environmental technology development
firm, Sorbent Technologies,
for $22.5 million. Sid Nelson, formerly
president of Sorbent and now Albemarle’s
global business director for mercury controls,
says the firm treats activated carbon
with bromine, making it especially effective
in reducing mercury emissions from
subbituminous coal-fired power plants by
90% or more. The firm has a number of patents
and patents pending on its bromine
treatment technology.
And Corning, the glass company, has
developed a sulfur-impregnated activated
carbon filtration brick to get the mercury
out of flue gas. Based on extrusion technology
it developed to make the ceramic core
CORNING
of automobile exhaust catalytic converters,
the honeycomb-like filters capture more
than 90% of the mercury in flue gas, says
Gary S. Calabrese, Corning’s vice president
and director of new business development.
Although activated carbon in various
forms holds the most immediate promise
for mercury reduction, other technologies
are under development. Suppliers of
selective catalyst reduction technology
such as Haldor Topsøe, Johnson Matthey,
and Cormetech, a joint venture between
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Corning,
have done work to improve the oxidation
of mercury for removal in flue gas wet
scrubber systems. Cindy Khalaf, president
of Argillon, a company recently purchased
by Johnson Matthey, says new catalysts under
development not only remove nitrogen
oxides but can remove up to 95% of mercury
if fluorine or bromine, which promotes
oxidation, is also in the flue gas.
Johnson Matthey has also worked with
engineering and design firm URS to test
both gold and palladium catalysts to oxidize
mercury for removal in flue gas scrubbers,
says Wilson Chu, Johnson Matthey’s
marketing manager for stationary source
emission control. The partners recently
demonstrated the potential for such catalysts
at a Lower Colorado River Authority
power plant.
Pratim Biswas, who chairs the department
of energy, environmental, and chemical
engineering at Washington University
in St. Louis, says titanium dioxide shows
promise as an efficient mercury-removal
mechanism. Laboratory and pilot-scale
tests, underwritten in part by the Department
of Energy, show that with ultraviolet
light activation, flue gas injections of titanium
dioxide can adsorb more than 90% of
mercury, he says. Vanadium-treated TiO 2
would work too, without UV light activation,
he adds.
Solucorp, a West Nyack, N.Y., developer
of environment remediation systems, is
working on injecting micronized sulfide
slurry into flue gas wet scrubbers. Noel E.
Spindler, president of Solucorp’s Integrated
Fixation Systems subsidiary, says the firm
is conducting tests to see whether it can
achieve the 90% mercury-removal goal.
For a small company like Solucorp, even
a 1% share of the mercury-reduction market
will provide a tidy profit, Spindler says.
And for the bigger firms, the payoff, especially
for the technologically fleet of foot,
could mean a sizable new source of sales
and income. ■
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 23 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

BUSINESS
EUROPEAN FIRMS
HIT A BRICK WALL
Chemical companies’ THIRD-QUARTER RESULTS
start to reflect impact of financial crisis
PATRICIA L. SHORT, C&EN LONDON
AFTER EUROPEAN chemical company reports
of third-quarter results this year, it’s
clear that “the economic skid marks can no
longer be ignored.”
That was the assessment made by Jürgen
Hambrecht, chairman of BASF, at the
company’s recent press conference to
report on its own third-quarter results.
And during the past few weeks, executives
throughout the industry—from
Hambrecht’s peers at other European
giants to chief executives of the region’s
small specialty firms—concurred with
that assessment.
For example, Matthias L. Wolfgruber,
chief executive officer of Wesel, Germanybased
Altana, says his company “has
noticed the weakening general business
environment,” and he expects the situation
to continue into the
near future. “Over a short
period of time, inventory
effects and a slowdown
in our value chain will, of
course, have a significant
impact,” he says.
“Since October,” notes
Thierry Le Hénaff, CEO of
France’s Arkema, “we observed
a sudden ongoing
slowdown of demand in
some markets, especially
in automotive and construction,
amplified by destocking,
which strongly
limits visibility on the economic
environment in the
fourth quarter of 2008.”
Jonathan Tyler, a director
specializing in the
chemicals industry at investment
bank Houlihan
Lokey, says the industry is
polarized right now. There
are those companies that
are in good shape and are
waiting for opportunistic
acquisitions, and there
are those with higher debt levels that consequently
will be battered by economic
conditions.
This financial crisis is different from
previous ones, Tyler says, because “it is of
a different magnitude.” The true extent of
the crisis “has taken a while for people to
get their heads around, and they perhaps
hadn’t fully seen it coming until several
weeks ago,” he says. Since then, “things
have deteriorated further.”
To bolster that point, Tyler relates talking
with one chemical executive earlier this
month who “said his company’s volumes
were down 10–15%—that’s just in this
quarter. I got the feeling he was braced
for further drops.” He predicts that sales
volumes will be sliced off commodity-style
products in markets around the world.
EUROPEAN CHEMICAL RESULTS
More than half of the companies reported steep drops in
third-quarter profits
SALES EARNINGS a CHANGE FROM 2007 PROFIT MARGIN b
($ MILLIONS) SALES EARNINGS 2008 2007
AkzoNobel $5,642 $221 7.9% -22.7% 3.9% 5.5%
Altana 494 46 0.7 7.3 9.2 8.7
Arkema 2,042 56 5.1 8.1 2.8 2.7
BASF 22,208 1,067 13.0 -37.5 4.8 8.7
Bayer 11,191 390 2.0 -76.4 3.5 15.1
Borealis 2,577 224 9.9 -29.3 8.7 13.5
Ciba 1,384 41 -5.4 -8.0 3.0 3.1
Clariant 1,871 70 -0.8 nm 3.7 -2.4
DSM 3,368 256 9.4 28.2 7.6 6.5
Evonik 5,824 103 17.2 -69.1 1.8 6.7
Kemira 1,098 50 6.9 -33.1 4.5 7.3
Lanxess 2,554 79 2.8 -25.3 3.1 4.2
Linde 4,416 335 2.1 7.2 7.6 7.2
Merck KGaA 2,538 282 7.8 452.8 11.1 2.2
Rhodia 1,723 79 3.1 24.4 4.6 3.8
Solvay 3,500 106 3.6 -67.8 3.0 9.7
Wacker 1,629 240 20.7 41.6 14.8 12.6
TOTAL $74,060 $3,645 7.9% -36.0% 4.9% 8.3%
NOTE: Monetary figures were calculated at Sept. 30 exchange rates of $1.00 U.S. = 0.7102 euros and
1.1189 Swiss francs. a Net earnings. b Net earnings as percentage of sales. nm = not meaningful.
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 24 NOVEMBER 24, 2008
Moreover, those drops in volume could be
accompanied by declines in prices, which
will substantially impact corporate sales
and profitability.
The chemical industry prides itself on
being the sector that enables many others
to run. But as the financial crisis has hit
consumer industries, and demand has begun
to slacken, the attendant slowdown
is rippling back through the chemical
industry.
Evonik Industries, for example, anticipates
that economic growth will continue
slowing around the world and “a recession
seems very probable in North America.”
The worst affected sectors, the German
company confirmed in its third-quarter report,
are automotive and construction.
Altana’s answer is to batten down the
hatches. “We are preparing ourselves
thoroughly for the coming year with a set
of measures to reduce costs and optimize
cash flow,” Wolfgruber says. That’s a
course of action that will be increasingly
common throughout the industry.
“THE WORLD ECONOMY has now clearly
entered a phase of lower growth, particularly
in the mature markets,” according to
AkzoNobel’s third-quarter reporting statement.
“In these challenging markets, only
lean companies succeed.
We have therefore started
a rigorous drive to further
reduce our cost base.”
The Dutch company’s
full-year operating profits,
the statement reads, are
expected to be “close to
the 2007 pro forma level”
that includes the results of
the company’s acquisition
of ICI in January.
Indeed, despite the
headwinds blowing
against them, many of
the companies reporting
third-quarter results held
firm to earlier projections
for full-year profits. For
example, the German firm
Lanxess is so confident
of achieving operational
sales and profit growth for
the year as a whole that
“we are raising our earnings
forecast for 2008,”
Chairman Axel C. Heitmann
says.
Lanxess was formed

This financial crisis “is of a different
magnitude.” Its true extent “has taken a
while for people to get their heads around.”
when Bayer divested its basic chemicals
operations, leaving it with pharmaceuticals,
crop science products, and engineering
polymers and materials. It is polymers and
materials that held down Bayer in the third
quarter because that business area was
“greatly hampered” by raw material and energy
price increases. “Selling-price increases
and cost savings from our restructuring program
only partly offset these effects,” Bayer
Chairman Werner Wenning says.
However, Wenning insists that “despite
the difficult environment we expect in the
fourth quarter, we are confirming our guidance
for 2008 as a whole.”
EXECUTIVES at Evonik are bracing for a
global economic downswing, which they
expect “to have a perceptible effect in the
fourth quarter of 2008,” particularly in the
chemical business. That’s significant for
Evonik because its chemical business—
formerly known as Degussa—makes up
nearly three-quarters of its total sales and
operating profits. Nonetheless, the company
insists that “no change has been made”
to profit projections it made at the year’s
halfway point.
Full-year operating profit margins at
Arkema, Le Hénaff says, “should be close
to our 10% target,” thanks to an ongoing
action plan for significantly reducing
fixed costs and adjusting—if needed—
production capacity. By the
end of this year, he adds,
the cumulative fixed cost
savings should be nearly
$465 million compared with
results in 2005, the first full
year after the company was
spun off from France’s oil
giant Total.
And at compatriot French
firm Rhodia, officials say
they observed “a favorable
inflection point at the end
of the third quarter,” after
Heitmann
a period of “massive” raw
material and energy inflation
and adverse currency fluctuations.
The favorable turn “should gradually
materialize” in Rhodia’s accounts starting in
early 2009, a company statement says.
Other companies have scrapped previous
earnings predictions. Ciba CEO Brendan
Cummins, for example, points to deteriorated
business conditions in the third
quarter, particularly in European and U.S.
markets. The company anticipates that this
slowdown will spill over into Asia. Consequently,
Cummins says, earlier guidance
given for 2008 profitability “is no longer
applicable in the current business climate.”
The company’s pretax profit margin can
be maintained, he predicts, but free cash
flow levels are expected to be lower than
previously anticipated.
And few would argue with a statement
from Borealis, which notes, “The ongoing
financial crisis and volatility of the markets
LANXESS
Wenning
around the globe is affecting real demand
and will impact the petrochemicals industry.”
According to CEO Mark Garrett: “We
believe that significant parts of the world
economy are already in recession. There
are very clear indications of a significant
softening of the polyolefin markets in the
current quarter and beyond. We need to
step up attention to our cost-competitiveness,
particularly in Europe.” ■
BAYER
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 25 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

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BUSINESS
A SOLVENT DRIES UP
ACETONITRILE is in short supply, and chemists are concerned
A SHORTAGE of acetonitrile is leaving
chemists around the U.S. and beyond wondering
how long their supplies will last and
what their options will be if stocks run dry.
There are good reasons why the situation
is making chemists feel vulnerable.
Thousands of them use the polar solvent in
high-performance liquid chromatography.
It is also used in pharmaceutical synthesis
and in the extraction of butadiene from
streams of C 4 hydrocarbons.
BOTTLED UP A scientist
works on a machine
incorporating Agilent’s
HPLC chip, which
consumes acetonitrile.
Laboratory
chemical suppliers
have
been allocating
acetonitrile
to existing
customers or
not selling it at all. “The market is beyond
short,” says Jerry Richard of Purification
Technologies, a Chester, Conn.-based firm
that buys acetonitrile in bulk, purifies it,
and sells it to laboratory chemical suppliers.
“You have people scrambling around
trying to get material. My phone is ringing
off the hook.”
Richard says the heart of the problem is
that acetonitrile goes into applications that
are healthy and growing. But its production
is tied to another chemical, acrylonitrile,
which is in decline.
Acetonitrile is a coproduct of the process
used to make acrylonitrile, a building
block for acrylic fibers and acrylonitrilebutadiene-styrene
(ABS) resins. An
acrylonitrile plant yields 2 to 4 L of acetonitrile
for every 100 L of acrylonitrile
produced. Only one U.S. producer, Ineos,
bothers to extract it for sale to the merchant
market, which it does at plants in
Green Lake, Texas, and Lima, Ohio. Most
acrylonitrile producers incinerate the coproduct
as fuel.
And it is acetonitrile’s status as a minor
coproduct that has led to its present
scarcity. Amin Dhalla, business director
for Ineos Nitriles, says acryl onitrile production
has been ebbing. Demand for ABS
resins, used in cars, electronic housings,
and small appliances, is slumping
around the world because of the
global economic slowdown. The
acrylic fiber market is also on the
decline, losing market share to
polyester fibers. Operating rates
at acrylonitrile plants are less than
60% globally.
AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES
COMPOUNDING the problem,
Ineos has suffered from production
outages over the past year.
For example, its Green Lake plant
was shut down in September in
preparation for Hurricane Ike. Its
Lima plant was down during the summer
because of a lightning strike. Dhalla says
the Texas plant will have more downtime
early next year when the company brings a
20% expansion of its acryl onitrile capacity
onstream.
According to Dhalla, Ineos is having discussions
with customers regarding what it
can supply. “Obviously, we want to run our
plants, but the economics of supply and
demand will determine what happens to
acrylonitrile, and that will determine what
happens to acetonitrile,” he says.
John Radke, director of research essentials
at lab chemical supplier Sigma-Aldrich,
thinks the shortage will last through
the second quarter of next year. He says
his company prepared for the shortage by
building up inventories and should be able
to supply contract customers.
For Sigma-Aldrich and some other lab
chemical suppliers, new customers are a
different story. Radke says Aldrich is looking
for acetonitrile supplies like anyone
else is, and is paying six to eight times
more than it did just in August. “New
customers not under contract with Sigma-
Aldrich will pay the fair market catalog list
price,” he says.
Chemists contacted by C&EN aren’t
panicking yet. Bruce S. Levinson, a staffer
with the Cleveland Clinic, uses about
1 L of acetonitrile per day for HPLC. He
has about 20 L on hand and is awaiting
word on an order he submitted with his
lab chemical supplier for more. “I am not
screaming that I can’t do my work,” he
says.
David R. Liu, a chemistry professor at
Harvard University, says his lab group
planned ahead by stocking up. “I’m aware
of the problem, but so far it hasn’t had
a major impact,” he says. “If we go two
months without being able to get any—that
might be a problem.”
If the acetonitrile shortage doesn’t abate
by early next year, chemists could adapt
to alternative solvents like tetrahydrofuran
or methanol. But Liu says for some
applications, no solvent works quite like
acetonitrile. “Unfortunately, substitution
is not a viable option for some automated
syntheses that are optimized to work in
ace tonitrile,” he says.—ALEX TULLO
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WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 27 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

GOVERNMENT & POLICY CONCENTRATES
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY RISK
ASSESSMENT SOUGHT
The potential risks and broad societal concerns
of the emerging field of synthetic biology
have not been sufficiently addressed,
concludes a new report by Denise Caruso,
executive director and cofounder of the
San Francisco-based nonprofit Hybrid
Vigor Institute, a think tank dedicated to
interdisciplinary and collaborative problem
solving. Caruso describes synthetic biology
as the ability to create new artificial lifeforms
from everyday chemicals or the ability
to manipulate genetic material to make
living organisms operate more efficiently.
In the report she predicts that commercial
applications of synthetic biology are right
around the corner, particularly in medicine,
energy, and environmental remediation.
She highlights the potential benefits of
synthetic organisms but raises concerns
about the potential for bioterrorism or the
accidental release of such organisms into
the environment. “Synthetic biology poses
what may be the most profound challenge
to government oversight of technology in
human history,” she writes. To that end, she
provides recommendations for improved
governance of the technology, including the
need for a comprehensive risk assessment,
emphasizing that synthetic biology should
not be treated as if it were the same technology
as genetic engineering.—BEE
EPA CHANGES RULES
FOR ACADEMIC LABS
Colleges and universities will have greater
flexibility in how they handle hazardous
waste from chemistry and other on-campus
laboratories under an EPA regulation released
on Nov. 18. Academic institutions
generate small
amounts of a variety
of hazardous wastes
at many sites across
their campuses. The
new rule will free
them from prescriptive
EPA regulations
designed for
industrial settings
that produce large
quantities of a small
number of hazardous
wastes at a few
locations. Institutions
of higher
AMANDA YARNELL/C&EN
DHS ISSUES RAIL SECURITY
STANDARDS FOR CHEMICALS
The Department of Homeland Security has issued final regulations aimed
at enhancing the security of rail shipments of hazardous chemicals. The
new rules, designed to reduce the risk of terrorist attacks, require freight
railroads to establish secure handling and handoff procedures for sensitive
materials such as chlorine and anhydrous ammonia. Rail carriers are
also required to designate a security coordinator and immediately report
incidents, potential threats, and significant security concerns to federal
officials. “By striking a sensible balance of security guidelines with certain
regulatory requirements, we’re enabling the rail and chemical industries
to be stronger partners,” DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff says. “The results
are sound security measures without excessively burdening owners
and operators.” Cal Dooley, president of the American Chemistry Council,
which represents 136 major chemical manufacturers, says the new security
regulations “build upon the significant efforts already undertaken by
our member companies to protect chemical shipments and the nation.”
The chemical industry relies on railroads to deliver approximately 170 million
tons of products each year.—GH
learning have sought modification of these
EPA standards for years. The rule applies to
colleges and universities, as well as teaching
hospitals or nonprofit research institutes
that are either owned by or formally
affiliated with colleges and universities.
Academic institutions are still analyzing
the details of the rule, which won’t take effect
until early 2009. “EPA has made some
changes we’ll really like, and they’ve also
made some changes we won’t like as much,”
says Anne C. Gross, vice president for regulatory
affairs at the National Association
of College & University Business Officers,
one of several groups seeking the regulatory
modifications. “But I’m relieved to finally
have something after all these years,” she
says. The rule can be viewed at epa.gov/osw/
hazard/generation/labwaste.—CH
FDA OPENS FIRST
OFFICES IN CHINA
FDA has officially opened three offices in
China to work more closely with Chinese
manufacturers and officials on the quality
and safety of consumer products. The offices
are in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai.
Eight senior FDA officials—inspectors
and technical experts in food, medicines,
and medical devices—have been selected to
work in China initially. “We look forward to
working with the Chinese government and
manufacturers to ensure that FDA standards
for safety and manufacturing quality
are met before products ship to the U.S.,”
FDA Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach
said when announcing the new offices.
FDA has plans to increase its presence in
other nations, including establishing offices
in India, Latin America, Europe, and the
Middle East.—DJH
SCIENCE EXTENDS
HAND TO HOLLYWOOD
The National Academy of Sciences has set
up the Science & Entertainment Exchange
program to connect entertainment industry
professionals with top scientists and
engineers to help the creators of television
shows, films, video games, and other
productions incorporate science into their
work. The exchange can make introductions,
schedule briefings, and arrange consultations
for anyone developing sciencebased
entertainment content, according
to NAS. “Television and film can involve
the public in the latest advances in science,
medicine, and technology,” NAS President
Ralph J. Cicerone told more than 300 people
attending a Nov. 19 Los Angeles symposium
introducing the exchange. Topics at
the symposium were climate change and
energy, astronomy and cosmology, genomics,
artificial intelligence and robotics, rare
and infectious diseases, and the brain and
mind.—DJH
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 28 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

GOVERNMENT & POLICY
ERIC VANCE/EPA
BLUEPRINT FOR
EPA SCIENCE
Transition to OBAMA ADMINISTRATION poses opportunity
for shifts in priorities, direction of agency research
CHERYL HOGUE, C&EN WASHINGTON
THE SCIENCE PROGRAM at the Environmental
Protection Agency is small
compared with the enormous efforts at the
Defense or Energy Departments. The military
and the Department of Energy get billions
each year in federal dollars for science
and technology, while EPA has averaged
a modest $746 million annually between
2002 and 2007.
But because EPA’s science often generates
data that help shape pollution control
regulations, it has a direct impact on people’s
daily lives and industry’s profitability.
For instance, a child with asthma may go
to the emergency room fewer times each
year because new pollution regulations are
making the air cleaner. Or a manufacturing
facility may face unplanned investments
in newer, less-polluting processes because
EPA tightens the limits on toxic emissions.
In addition to providing data that regulators
rely upon, EPA scientists discover
and track emerging environmental problems
and come up with new methods for
analyzing them.
The science program at EPA currently
faces tight budgets and is saddled with
what many in Congress, some staff scientists,
and many environmental groups
see as restrictive policies. These constraints
are forcing the agency to focus on
short-term environmental problems and
limiting its ability to do proactive studies.
And a recent survey by the Union of
Concerned Scientists (UCS) found that
hundreds of EPA scientists experienced
political interference in their work during
the past five years.
Now, an opportunity for new directions
and priorities for science at EPA comes
with the transition from the Administration
of President George W. Bush to that
of President-Elect Barack H. Obama.
There are plenty of ideas for what to
change—or not to change—about this
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 29 NOVEMBER 24, 2008
HANDS-ON Researchers
John Macauley (left)
and Bob Quarles of
EPA’s Gulf Ecology
Division conduct a
validation test of the
agency’s new wetlands
rapid bioassessment
method.
pivotal federal
program.
They range
from keeping
research programs
that were
launched by the
Bush Administration,
such as
one focused on
nanomaterials, to bolstering the EPA research
budget to replacing policies some
see as hampering agency scientists. The
goal of such ideas is a robust science program
that is free of political interference
and provides the agency with critical data.
EPA’s panel of outside advisers, the Science
Advisory Board (SAB), says what’s
needed is more funding and expansion
of basic research to identify future environmental
problems. The current head of
EPA’s Office of Research & Development
(ORD) says it’s important to retain several
critical programs begun by the Bush
Administration that will provide great
benefits over the long haul. And according
to UCS, the Obama Administration needs
to get rid of policies the White House and
EPA adopted during the Bush years that,
UCS argues, hinder scientific freedom and
integrity.
SAB sees EPA’s science efforts as slowly
starving because of a lack of funding. Facing
federal budget cuts, EPA’s research
increasingly has focused on the short-term
needs of the agency’s regulatory programs,
says Granger Morgan, who chaired SAB
from October 2004 until Sept. 30. Morgan
heads Carnegie Mellon University’s department
of engineering and public policy.
THE LACK of investment in science will
leave the agency ill-equipped to address
future environmental problems, SAB told
EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson in a
May 12 letter.
“EPA is underinvesting in research on
a wide range of emerging science needed
to understand and manage current environmental
problems and those that are
likely to be recognized in the future. As a
consequence we run a considerable risk
that we will not be able to address these
The most important thing the Obama
Administration can do to better EPA
science is to increase transparency.

GOVERNMENT & POLICY
problems adequately in the future,” SAB
told Johnson.
“We also run the risk of incurring much
larger future costs because we do not
understand the subtle intricacies of these
risks and hence could blunder into difficulties,
such as inappropriate regulatory responses,
from which it may be much more
expensive to recover than if we understood
what we were facing ahead of time,” the
board added.
“The agency really needs to be ready to
deal with some of those emerging issues,”
Morgan tells C&EN.
DURING THE Bush Administration, EPA
has poured money into new areas of study
such as nanomaterials, which offer both
the promise of new tools for environmental
cleanup and the potential risk of causing
pollution. But money for these latest
efforts, SAB said in its letter, “has generally
come at the expense of other programs,
such as extramural research and research
to monitor the status of the nation’s
ecosystems.”
“It’s quite sad what’s happened
to science at EPA,” Morgan
says. “It’s very shortsighted.
It doesn’t make any sense to
me.”
Meanwhile, George M. Gray,
EPA assistant administrator
for ORD, urges his successor to
continue several research efforts
the agency initiated during
the Bush Administration. These
include the work on nanomaterials,
evaluation of biofuels,
and efforts to put a dollar figure
on the services that ecosystems
provide for people, such as wetlands
filtering polluted water,
he says.
In addition, Gray stresses
that EPA needs to continue
development of computational
toxicology, a field that could
revolutionize the testing of
industrial chemicals for health
and environmental effects. “If
it continues to be supported, it
will really pay off,” Gray says.
Computational toxicology
combines the high-throughput
screening techniques used by
the pharmaceutical industry
with mathematical models. It
promises to provide a method
to screen many chemicals for
ERIC VANCE/EPA
adverse effects quickly, as opposed to traditional
toxicology, which often involves
exposing laboratory animals to a single
substance over weeks or years.
Gray also encourages his successor to
retain a Bush-era ORD initiative called People,
Prosperity & the Planet. This is an annual
contest challenging multidisciplinary
teams of college students to develop sustainable
scientific and technical solutions
to environmental problems.
In addition, Gray urges Obama’s EPA
team to maintain several policy initiatives
by the Bush Administration that
he says are helping EPA science
and research efforts.
One is a controversial
change, unveiled in April, to the
way EPA assesses the health
risks from pollutants. The new
policy lets federal agencies facing
cleanup liability, including
the military and DOE, sway
EPA’s scientific assessments
INQUIRY Derrick
Allen (front,
left) and Thabet
Tolaymat work on
a landfill bioreactor
experiment at EPA’s
National Health
& Environmental
Effects Research
Laboratory in
Cinncinnati.
while keeping their influence hidden from
public scrutiny, according to the Government
Accountability Office (GAO), which
is Congress’ investigative arm (C&EN,
May 5, page 10). But Gray insists that the
new policy “encourages a free and frank
exchange” among agencies.
In advice prepared for the incoming
president’s transition team and released on
Nov. 6, GAO targets this policy as a major
threat to sound science at EPA. The new
Administration, GAO recommends, should
ensure that EPA’s science-based judgments
about chemicals “are not
inappropriately biased by policy
considerations of [the White
House] or other federal agencies
that have a vested interest in the
results.”
Meanwhile, Gray also says
EPA will be well served by the
Bush Administration’s change in
the way the agency reviews the
health-based clean air standard
for six widespread pollutants:
carbon monoxide, lead, groundlevel
ozone, nitrogen oxides,
particulate matter, and sulfur
dioxide.
The Clean Air Act requires
EPA to review and, if necessary,
revise national limits for these
pollutants every five years. But
in the three decades this requirement
has been in effect, EPA has
never met the five-year revision
deadline. As a result, environmental
groups and others have
sued the agency, and a court has
stepped in to set deadlines for
the agency to act.
In late 2006, the Bush EPA
adopted a new process to speed
up review of these standards.
Critics say the new procedure
diminishes the role of agency
scientists and boosts political
influence. But Gray says it will
keep the agency on time in reviewing
the air standards.
UCS, like GAO, has a list of
Bush Administration policies
that it wants Obama’s team to
eliminate or replace. These, according
to UCS, will give a boost
to EPA science without requiring
increases in federal spending.
The most important thing the
Obama Administration can do to
better EPA science is to increase
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 30 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

transparency, says Francesca Grifo, director
of the Scientific Integrity Program at
UCS. She called on Obama’s EPA administrator,
who has not yet been named, to
reissue an agency directive that former
administrator William D. Ruckelshaus sent
more than a quarter of a century ago.
Ruckelshaus served as the agency’s first
administrator during the Nixon Administration
and returned to the agency early
in the Reagan Administration following a
scandal involving misuse of dollars in the
agency’s Superfund program for cleaning
up hazardous waste sites. He offered a
steady hand to a shaken agency after Reagan’s
first EPA chief, Anne M. Burford, was
forced to resign for refusing to turn over
documents to Congress.
As he started his second round as head
of the agency in 1983, Ruckelshaus insisted
that EPA should operate as if it were a fishbowl,
exposed to public view.
“We will attempt to communicate with
everyone from the environmentalists to
those we regulate, and we will do so as
openly as possible,” Ruckelshaus instructed
EPA employees. “I am relying on EPA
employees to use their common sense and
good judgment to conduct themselves with
the openness and integrity which alone can
ensure public trust in the agency.”
EPA administrators under Presidents
George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton issued
similar memos reaffirming Ruckelshaus’
fishbowl principle. Those who served under
the current President Bush have not issued
such a memo, reflecting the Bush Administration’s
practice of tightly controlling
information flowing from federal agencies.
EPA needs a new fishbowl memo, Grifo
says, because the agency is in a “crisis of
credibility” similar to what it faced at the
end of Burford’s tenure. A new memo
would signal to agency scientists and other
staff members that “things have changed,”
she says.
Obama, meanwhile, can quickly shore
up science at EPA by repealing a 2007 Bush
directive requiring the White House Office
of Management & Budget (OMB) to review
all technical guidance documents prepared
by agencies, Grifo says. OMB shouldn’t
have the power to trump an agency’s technical
expertise by “second-guessing and
editing science” guidance documents,
she says. UCS may get this wish fulfilled:
Obama’s transition team has indicated in
recent days that the president-elect may
well overturn that directive shortly after he
takes office.
A more ambitious item is on UCS’s list
as well. Obama should work with Congress
to elevate EPA to being a Cabinet-level
department, Grifo says. The idea has been
Gray
bandied about for two decades, but it never
had a substantial push from the White
House.
One government-wide program impacting
EPA science that Gray encourages the
new president to retain is the Program
Assessment Rating Tool (PART). This
internal government system instituted by
the Bush White House is designed to measure
the performance of various federal
programs. PART has forced EPA’s research
office to link its efforts to measurable
outcomes—such as the number of publications,
reports, or mathematical models—
that are completed in a given fiscal year. “I
hope PART continues to make ORD more
effective and more efficient,” Gray says.
Some, however, question the appropriateness
of applying PART to R&D programs.
A National Research Council panel
that looked at PART said in its report that
the White House is evaluating federal R&D
programs, especially at EPA, on the basis of
information unsuitable for judging effectiveness
(C&EN, Feb. 4, page 20).
PETER CUTTS PHOTOGRAPHY
Grifo
Paying attention to the professional
lives of EPA scientists is also pivotal to
the future of EPA science, all sides agree.
Gray, Grifo, and Morgan each say that EPA
should make sure, even in this tight budget
environment, that its scientists have opportunities
to interact with their professional
colleagues.
Gray endorses EPA scientists’ attendance,
with the agency’s blessing, of professional
meetings, such as those of the
COURTESY OF UCS
Morgan
Society of Toxicology and Society of Environmental
Toxicology & Chemistry.
“The ability of our scientists to be part
of their scientific community, to share
their research, to share their knowledge,
and frankly, at times, to get other people
interested in EPA problems for their research
is something that is really important
to ORD,” Gray says. “Sometimes it’s a little
tricky to protect travel money in a world
of shrinking budgets,” he acknowledges.
Nonetheless, it’s important for EPA to
support its scientists professionally, he
explains.
Within budgetary constraints, EPA
should ensure that its scientists can attend
or present papers and posters at scientific
meetings, Grifo says. To attend a meeting,
agency scientists must submit documents
to agency higher-ups at least 30 days in advance,
she says, regardless of whether they
or the agency is paying for the trip. But this
doesn’t guarantee that they’ll be allowed to
attend. Under current EPA policies, scientists
must wait until a political appointee
KEN ANDREYO/CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
“EPA is underinvesting in research on a wide range
of emerging science needed to understand and
manage current environmental problems.”
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 31 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

“It’s quite sad what’s happened to
science at EPA. It’s very shortsighted.”
gives them the green light. This practice, according
to Grifo, is tantamount to undocumented
political vetting of scientists’ work.
“Let’s not pick and choose the politically
correct piece of information that can
be presented” at scientific meetings, Grifo
says. Instead, the presumption should
be that scientists will be cleared to go to
a meeting once they submit the required
paper work. If they’re denied clearance,
the scientists should get a signed, written
explanation, even if the request is simply to
attend a meeting and not present research
results, she says.
IN ADDITION, Grifo says EPA should
adopt a publication policy that prevents
what she calls “excess review” of papers
that agency scientists wish to submit for
publication. These reviews, she contends,
become tinged with politics because
agency higher-ups can delay publication of
controversial results. But because taxpayer
dollars paid for the research, the results
should be made public, she says.
Grifo’s request for a more open publication
policy appears to have the support of
the incoming president. Before his election,
Obama signaled that his EPA officials
would not constrain agency scientists.
“In an Obama Administration, the principle
of scientific integrity will be an absolute,
and I will never sanction any attempt to subvert
the work of scientists,” Obama wrote
in an Oct. 20 letter to John Gage, national
president of the American Federation of
Government Employees, one of the unions
that represent EPA employees. “I strongly
oppose attempts by the Bush Administration
to thwart publication of EPA researchers’
scientific findings,” Obama wrote.
Grifo urges the president-elect to go
even further to ensure all EPA scientists’
voices get heard. For instance, after EPA
settles on a final regulation for, say, air
or water pollution standards, the agency
should make publicly available the views of
its scientists who dissent with its managers’
policy choice, she suggests. “Americans
are smart enough to understand that
scientists disagree,” she says.
And the agency needs to create a standard
news media policy for EPA scientists,
Grifo says, to protect what she calls
“scientific speech.” This would allow
them to speak publicly as private citizens,
rather than as EPA employees, about their
research and expertise. Also, any news release
from EPA that is substantively based
on the work of an agency scientist should
be reviewed by that scientist before it is
made public, she adds.
Any modifications the Obama Administration
makes to the science programs
at EPA will unfold over the next year or
so, beginning with the president-elect’s
selection for the agency’s administrator.
And because Obama ran on a platform
of change, shifts may well be in store
throughout the government, including
EPA’s science efforts. ■
Biochemistry –
published since 1962
ACS Chemical Biology –
published since 2006
More than
chemistry.
When it comes to
biochemistry and chemical
biology, ACS leads the way.
Contribute, publish, and
review with the journals of the
American Chemical Society.
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 32 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

GOVERNMENT & POLICY
SHUTTERSTOCK
PATENT REFORM
PROSPECTS CLOUDY
CRITICS WORRY changes would reduce
investment, slow pace of innovation
GLENN HESS, C&EN WASHINGTON
PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack H. Obama’s
support for a number of tech-friendly initiatives,
including reform of the decadesold
U.S. patent system, translated into generous
campaign contributions from Silicon
Valley’s technology companies.
The computer and Internet industry
contributed five times as much to Obama’s
presidential campaign than to his Republican
opponent Sen. John McCain’s—$7.3
million compared with $1.4 million—according
to the Center for Responsive Politics,
a group that tracks money in politics.
Overall, computer makers and software
developers donated more than $19 million
to Democratic candidates for federal office
in the just-concluded 2007–08 election
cycle, whereas Republicans received only
about $11 million.
But whether the high-tech sectors’
lopsided support for the newly elected
president and the strengthened Democratic
majorities on Capitol Hill can break
the current legislative deadlock and push
patent reform over the finish line in the upcoming
111th Congress is far from certain,
intellectual property experts say.
“I’m not necessarily convinced that this
is a partisan issue,” says Philip G. Kiko,
former general counsel and chief of staff of
the House Judiciary Committee and currently
an attorney in the Washington, D.C.,
office of law firm Foley & Lardner. “A lot of
Democrats had concerns about how the bill
in the last Congress would affect innovation
and emerging industries,” Kiko says.
“I’m not convinced that just because you
pour a lot of money into one side of the political
aisle that it is going to guarantee an
outcome. I would hope that’s not the case.”
Matthew P. Becker, an attorney in the
Chicago office of Banner & Witcoff, agrees
that the outcome of the election will not
necessarily improve the chances of passing
a patent reform bill in the next Congress.
The effort to overhaul U.S. patent law for
the first time in more than half a century is
a “fairly complex, nonpartisan issue with
strong lobbying groups on each side,” he
notes.
“It’s basically been the high-tech and
finance companies on one side and the
biotech and pharmaceutical industries on
the other. Members of Congress have companies
on one side of the fence or the other
in their states and districts, so the votes
haven’t broken down along party lines,”
Becker points out.
At issue is the Patent Reform Act of
2007 (H.R. 1908, S. 1145), which passed the
House by a vote of 220-175 on Sept. 7, 2007,
but died in the Senate last April when lawmakers
and private-sector lobbyists could
not agree on key provisions. The bill, which
will undoubtedly be revived next year, is
being pushed primarily by high-tech firms
that want to curb the number of costly lawsuits
they face and limit damage awards.
The legislation is designed to improve
the quality of patents issued by the Patent
& Trademark Office (PTO), allow for
more rigorous reexamination of patents
that may have been issued incorrectly, and
change provisions in the existing law that
encourage speculative patent infringement
suits against good-faith innovators and
manufacturers.
The bill would also allow courts to
change the way they assess damages in infringement
cases. Currently, courts generally
consider the value of the entire product
when a small piece of the product infringes
a patent. The legislation would allow, but
not require, courts to base damages only on
the value of the infringing piece.
TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES such as Microsoft
and Apple favor this approach. They
say they have been hit by a flood of frivolous
suits brought by “patent trolls,” people who
take out patents on products, methods, or
ideas so they can sue a company for infringement
if it eventually rolls out a product that
incorporates the patented material. Makers
of computers and other electronics are particularly
vulnerable because their products
often contain hundreds if not thousands of
linked patented components, and any one of
them could spark a legal battle.
According to research by James Bessen
and Michael J. Meurer of Boston University
School of Law, 2,830 patent lawsuits were
filed in U.S. district courts in 2006, up from
1,840 in 1996 and 1,129 in 1986.
“The high-tech world has been the target
of a lot of patent litigation by individual
inventors,” Becker says. “That’s not really a
problem for the pharma, biotech, and chemical
areas. Those companies make a lot of
investments in research and development
of new products, and it takes a lot of money
to patent these products as well. They favor
the current system, which makes it difficult
to invalidate a patent. And because of the
great investment they make, they want to
make sure they will receive substantial damages
if litigation determines that there has
been infringement.”
In fact, biotechnology and pharmaceutical
companies, which depend on
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 33 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

GOVERNMENT & POLICY
“For legislation to go forward, it has to
be a win-win situation for everybody.”
strong patent protections to justify their
investment in the lengthy and expensive
drug development process, argue that the
proposed changes would ultimately reduce
the value of their intellectual property and
thus undermine innovation.
“We must maintain strong protections
for intellectual property—the key to an
innovation economy—while enhancing
patent quality and the objectivity, predictability,
and transparency of the patent
system,” says James C. Greenwood, president
of the 1,200-member Biotechnology
Industry Organization (BIO).
Greenwood points out that most biotech
companies do not yet have products
on the market. “They do, however, have
innovative ideas that are protected by patents,”
he says. “Our members rely on the
strength and predictability of their patents
to generate the massive investment
needed to bring these ideas and technologies
to life.”
Critics of the existing system say PTO
has been overwhelmed by a huge increase
in applications in recent years, particularly
from the information technology sector.
Fiscal 2007 saw 468,330 applications submitted,
compared with 237,045 in fiscal
1997 and 137,173 in fiscal 1987. PTO had
a backlog of nearly 761,000 applications
at the end of fiscal 2007, with applicants
waiting an average of two years and eight
months for a final decision.
FOR PTO to issue a patent, the invention
must be novel, nonobvious, and useful. But
Aparna Mathur, a research fellow in economics
policy at the American Enterprise
Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank,
says the main problem with the patent
system is that the overburdened office has
been issuing too many dubious patents.
Although a “bad” patent can be challenged
through a reexamination proceeding
at PTO, Mathur says, the process has
been criticized for being biased in favor of
the patent owner, and only 10% of reexaminations
result in revocation. Litigation is
more effective, she says, but it’s also much
more expensive.
In an effort to more effectively ensure
that patents are issued for truly innovative
and novel ideas, the reform bill would allow
patents to be challenged after they are
issued through a new “postgrant opposition”
proceeding. Proponents claim this
third method would be more effective at
invalidating low-quality patents and would
also reduce the amount of patent litigation.
But Mathur says an
analysis she coauthored
with economist Robert J.
Shapiro indicates that the
costs of an opposition proceeding
would far outweigh
its benefits. “The demand
for lawyers and paperwork
would drive up costs and
make the opposition proceeding
extremely expensive,”
she says.
Mathur and Shapiro’s
cost-benefit analysis found
that adopting an opposition
system would increase the
private-sector costs of adjudicating
patents by nearly
$16 billion over 10 years.
At the same time, Mathur
adds, a broad and openended
postgrant opposition
system could discourage
innovation by increasing
investor uncertainties about
patent rights. “An opposition
regime could significantly
reduce investment
in R&D and slow the pace of
innovation,” she says. “Unfortunately,
the proposed
reforms would do more
harm than good.”
Kiko
Becker
BIO’s Greenwood says the study confirms
his industry’s view that the Patent
Reform Act of 2007 would make it easier
to challenge patents and harder to enforce
them. Although “a limited postgrant opposition
system may make sense, the costs and
risks of a broad new challenge system are
too high for Congress to ignore,” he says.
Looking ahead, Harold C. Wegner, a
partner at Foley & Lardner and a professor
at George Washington University Law
School, says that without strong leadership
from the Obama Administration, no
realistic opportunity exists for patent reform
in the next Congress. The next PTO
director “must create a middle-ground
patent reform proposal that is acceptable
to both” sides in the debate, Wegner says.
During his presidential campaign,
Obama did call for patent reform as part
of his technology policy platform. But his
plans are vague and primarily consist of
providing PTO with more resources. In
a position paper that addresses a range
of technology issues, the president-elect
pledges to ensure that the nation’s patent
laws protect legitimate rights while not stifling
innovation.
“By improving predictability
and clarity in our
patent system, we will help
FOLEY & LARDNER
BANNER & WITCOFF
foster an environment that
encourages innovation,”
Obama states in the position
paper. “Giving PTO
the resources to improve
patent quality and opening
up the patent process to
citizen review will reduce
the uncertainty and wasteful
litigation that is currently
a significant drag on
innovation.
“With better informational
resources, PTO
could offer patent applicants
who know they have
significant inventions the
option of a rigorous and
public peer review that
would produce a ‘gold plated’
patent much less vulnerable
to court challenge,”
Obama adds. “Where dubious
patents are being asserted,
PTO could conduct
low-cost, timely administrative
proceedings to determine
patent validity.”
Obama’s statements
about the need for patent reform have been
“fairly broad, and of course, the devil is always
in the details,” Kiko remarks. He also
says it’s unknown how important patent
reform will be in the new Administration.
Becker agrees that Obama’s stance on
the issue is unclear. “Certainly, if the President
comes on board and pushes one side
of the issue, then the rest of the Democrats
will probably fall in line to the extent that
they can,” he remarks. “But I suspect that
President-Elect Obama won’t necessarily
take a position because he has a lot of other
issues much higher on his priority list than
patent reform.”
The debate in Congress has focused on
the high-tech-friendly version of the patent
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 34 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

eform legislation, but lawmakers in the
next session will also consider an alternative
plan (S. 3600) that was offered in late
September by Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.). The
legislation, which is favored by the biotech
and pharma sectors, would require litigants
to present precise economic analyses
to determine damages and would limit the
time and scope of postgrant reviews of patent
applications.
Greenwood says the legislation is a
“vast improvement” over previous patent
reform bills considered by Congress.
“In particular,” he notes, “the Kyl legislation
advances the debate on damages in a
positive direction by enhancing consistent
enforcement of the current law on damages
and providing greater predictability
for companies across all industries—but
without manipulating the rules to favor
infringers.”
In addition, Greenwood says, the postgrant
review provisions in the Kyl bill
would provide a “second window” to administratively
challenge a patent, but the
circumstances allowing such a challenge
are considerably narrower than those in
the Patent Reform Act of 2007. “The broad
new administrative challenge system in S.
1145 would create patent uncertainty and
reduce investment interest in biotechnology
innovation,” he contends.
But according to a statement from the
Coalition for Patent Fairness, which represents
companies such as Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard,
and Dell, Kyl’s legislation “will
not fix the nation’s patent system, which is
broken and draining critical resources from
healthy sectors of our economy.”
The coalition, which insists that reform
legislation must include provisions for apportioning
damages in patent lawsuits, says
Kyl’s proposal “stops short of the necessary
changes to address two critical issues: the
flawed system for valuing patents and the
approval of poor-quality patents.”
NOTING THAT all of the players generally
agree that a thorough initial review of
patent applications by PTO benefits the
patent system, Becker sees room for compromise.
“The biotech and pharma groups
would like to put more emphasis on getting
the review done properly while the application
is in the office and then not have the
postgrant procedure for opposing patents.
I think there is some middle ground there
in which the parties could come together,”
he says.
But Becker also notes that the thorniest
issue to resolve is how to calculate damages.
“That was the stumbling block in the
Senate this year, and it will still likely be the
most difficult issue to resolve,” he says.
Part of the problem, Becker adds, is that
“no one knows what the proposed changes
would truly mean. People are accustomed
to what they know, and they can work within
the existing system. The uncertainty of
the future, I think, adds to the complexity.”
Kiko says both sides in the debate have
staked out their positions. “But for this to
go forward, it has to be a win-win situation
for everybody,” he points out. “Neither side
will get everything it wants, but you can’t
have one side convinced that this is going
to hurt them,” he says.
“This is too big of an issue” to just push
through, Kiko adds. “You don’t want to
have an outcome where 10 years later you
regret what you did.” ■
ACS
TM
Chemistry for Life
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k_\JZ`\eZ\

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY CONCENTRATES
PROTEIN LEVELS VARY
WITH FATE OF TREATED
CANCER CELLS
Not much is known about the way different
proteins are produced and move
around in living cells exposed to drugs. But
a research team has now used a proteomics
approach to study such processes in
cancer cells exposed to the chemotherapy
drug camptothecin (Science, DOI: 10.1126/
science.1160165). Researchers could pursue
the strategy to identify proteins associated
with specific cell properties, such as
enhanced drug resistance, and in their efforts
to design more effective medications.
Molecular cell biology graduate students
Ariel A. Cohen, Naama Geva-Zatorsky,
and Eran Eden of Weizmann Institute of
Science, in Rehovot, Israel, and coworkers
used time-lapse fluorescence microscopy
to monitor the levels and locations
of close to 1,000 different fluorescently
tagged proteins in camptothecin-exposed
human cancer cells. They found that
levels of two proteins, the RNA helicase
DDX5 and the replication factor RFC1,
increase in cells that survive and decrease
in those that die. They confirmed DDX5’s
effect on cell fate by showing that RNAinterference-induced
reduction of protein
levels boosted cell death after exposure to
camptothecin.—SB
LIGHT-ACTIVATED BUG KILLERS
A novel class of light-activated antimicrobial agents—hollow capsules
composed of conjugated polyelectrolytes—can efficiently kill drug-resistant,
gram-negative bacteria (ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, DOI: 10.1021/
am800096q). The proliferation of these bacteria is a worldwide concern
and is prompting the design of new agents that could be useful in hospitals
and in homes. Kirk S. Schanze of the University of Florida, David G. Whitten
of the University
of New Mexico,
and colleagues
write that the
photoactive capsules
attract, trap,
and kill bacteria
much like a Roach
Motel takes care
of cockroaches.
The researchers
fabricated
the capsules by
Stained P. aeruginosa appear red while alive (left), but the bacteria
trapped in microcapsules die after exposure to light (right).
applying alternating layers of anionic and cationic phenylene-ethynylene
materials onto manganese carbonate template particles, followed by dissolution
of the template. In lab tests, more than 95% of Cobetia marina
and Pseudomonas aeruginosa died when each of the pathogenic bacteria
was mixed with a suspension of capsules and exposed to white light for
up to one hour. The researchers speculate that the antimicrobial activity
ultimately results from the generation of singlet oxygen and other reactive
oxygen species initiated when the conjugated polyelectrolytes absorb light.
Schanze adds that it should be possible to make coatings or directly modify
surfaces with the capsules.—RAP
ACS APPL. MATER. INTERFACES
ADAPTED FROM J. AM. CHEM. SOC.
CONFINEMENT ALTERS
AMINE CHEMISTRY
H +
CH
O
3
Si Si O
H +
CH 3 Si
Cl
H 2
N
O
H N Au Cl
H + 2
Si
Cl
H 2
N
O
H +
H +
PROTON KEEP-AWAY Confinement
in nanocages leaves amine groups
largely unprotonated even in acidic
solution, as determined by the types of
complexes they form with gold.
H +
Amine groups confined in nanosized cages
exhibit chemical behavior distinct from
their unconfined counterparts, according
to Northwestern University chemical
engineers (J. Am. Chem. Soc., DOI: 10.1021/
ja806179j). Harold H. Kung, Mayfair C.
Kung, Juan D. Henao, and coworkers
prepared porous siloxanes containing
2-nm-diameter cavities in which about
eight aminopropyl groups are tethered to
the interior surfaces. The team proposed
that in near-neutral solutions repulsive
electrostatic interactions in the confined
space would shift the amine groups’ affinity
for protons and limit protonation to
only one of the eight amine groups. In contrast,
about half of the free-floating amine
groups in solution would be protonated.
The researchers tested this hypothesis
by probing the way AuCl 4
–
binds to the
amino groups inside the cavity—the binding
mode to gold depends on the amines’
protonation state. On the basis of spectroscopy
studies, the group concludes that
even in acidic solution the confined amines
form gold complexes that are characteristic
of unprotonated amines. The shift in
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 36 NOVEMBER 24, 2008
proton affinity thus leaves a large fraction
of neutral amines in the cavity available to
mediate base-catalyzed reactions even in
neutral or acidic media, the team points
out.—MJ
UNEARTHING NEW
PROTEASE SUBSTRATES
With the help of mass spectrometry, scientists
have discovered new substrates
and reaction pathways for a biomedically
important protease enzyme (Nat. Chem.
Biol., DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.126). The
method could be used to understand the
biology of proteases that don’t yet have
defined roles. Roughly 2% of the human
genome codes for proteases, which hydrolyze
peptide bonds, but many of their
roles aren’t understood because it’s tough
to identify their substrates. A team led by
Alan Saghatelian of Harvard University
has found new details about dipeptidyl

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY CONCENTRATES
peptidase 4 (DPP4), an enzyme that regulates
a peptide hormone that lowers blood
glucose levels and is the target of several
diabetes drugs. The researchers used
mass spectrometry and enzyme assays
to compare peptide levels in the kidneys
of normal mice, mice lacking DPP4, and
normal mice treated with a DPP4 inhibitor.
In addition to turning up new DPP4
substrates, their results suggest that
DPP4 works together with another class
of enzymes, the aminopeptidases. Although
none of the new DPP4 substrates
has a known biological role yet, they could
serve as biomarkers for monitoring DPP4
activity.—CD
SYNTHETIC REPLICATOR
AMPLIFIES ITSELF
F
N
O
H
A molecule that can catalyze its own formation
can also exploit reactions in a dynamic
combinatorial library to amplify its
formation at the expense of other species,
Scottish researchers report (Angew. Chem.
Int. Ed., DOI: 10.1002/anie.200804223).
Douglas Philp and Jan W. Sadownik at the
University of St. Andrews started with a
pool of four reagents that
react to form unreactive
imines and reactive
N
O
nitrones. The nitrones
HN
undergo irreversible
dipolar cycloaddition
reactions
with a ma-
H
leimide to form two pairs of diastereomeric
cycloadducts, one of which can
catalyze its own formation. This autocatalyzing
replicator becomes the predominant
product. Adding a small amount of the
replicator as a template to the reagent pool
causes it to become the predominant species
even faster. “Chemical synthesis to
date has focused on the creation of single
chemical entities from carefully controlled
reaction mixtures,” Philp says. “We are
trying to turn this around by having a
general-purpose reagent pool that can be
reconfigured as required. We see the application
of this technology in nanoscale
fabrication.”—CHA
O
N
Autocatalyzing replicator
O
CO 2 H
METATHESIS EXPANDS
DIVERSITY SYNTHESIS
A new diversity-oriented synthesis approach
can create natural-product-like
compounds with a uniquely wide range of
basic framework structures, according to
its creators (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., DOI:
10.1002/anie.200804486). Scientists would
like to be able to conveniently synthesize
libraries of small organic molecules with a
broad variety of structures like those found
in natural products—including complex
ring systems, intramolecular hydrogen
bonding, unsaturation, and dense substitution—so
the compounds can be screened
as drug candidates and for other uses.
Previous techniques have made it possible
to produce compound libraries with up to
30 different frameworks per synthesis, but
the new approach yielded 84 frameworks,
reports chemical biology professor Adam
Nelson of the University of Leeds, in England,
who led the team that developed it.
“The key to our approach,” Nelson and coworkers
note, “was the extraordinary scope
of ring-closing metathesis.” It acts like a
scaffold-reprogramming reaction to define
a wide range of frameworks in the final
compounds. “Many of the diverse scaffolds
prepared have scope for easy further diversification,
which may allow the discovery
of novel bioactive small-molecule tools,”
Nelson and his team write.—SB
YARN GETS SMART WITH
NANOTUBE COATING
Monitoring physiological functions could
someday be as easy as slipping on a T-shirt,
thanks to a new method for making smart
fabrics. By coating common cotton thread
with carbon nanotubes, researchers have
developed a simple and inexpensive route
to electronic textiles (Nano Lett., DOI:
10.1021/nl801495p). The team, led by Nicholas
A. Kotov of the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, and Chuanlai Xu of China’s Jiangnan
University, prepared the intelligent
yarn by dipping threads in a polyelectrolyte
solution containing carbon nanotubes and
then letting them dry. The technique could
easily be integrated into existing fabric
processing, the authors note. The nanotube
coating makes the threads conductive
enough to allow a battery connected to the
threads to power a light-emitting diode.
And when the team used the protein-stabilizing
electrolyte poly(sodium 4-styrene
NANO LETT.
sulfonate)
and added the
antibody for
human serum
albumin to the
Yarn coated with carbon
nanotubes conducts
enough electricity to
light up an LED.
solution, a change in the coated threads’
conductivity indicated the presence of
the key blood protein albumin. A garment
made with these threads could have
military applications, such as detecting
how badly a person has been injured in a
blast.—BH
INTERORGAN SIGNALING
COULD HELP DIABETICS
Cross talk between different organs may
provide a new target for scientists developing
therapies to treat type 1 diabetes,
according to a paper in Science (2008, 322,
1250). Working with mice, researchers led
by Hideki Katagiri and Junta Imai of Tohoku
University Graduate School of Medicine,
in Sendai, Japan, found that the liver
of obese individuals sends a directive to the
pancreas to build more insulin-producing
β cells, leading to high amounts of insulin
in the blood stream. This signal is pathological
in obese animals, which can suffer
health problems from too much insulin
buildup. But an insulin-producing directive
could be good for type 1 diabetics for
whom the pancreas does not make enough
insulin. In particular, the Japanese team
pinpointed a protein kinase called ERK in
the liver that when activated induces the
production of pancreatic β cells. When the
team tried activating ERK in mouse models
of type 1 diabetes, “the signaling increased
β cell mass and normalized serum glucose
levels,” the researchers write. “Thus, interorgan
metabolic relay systems may serve as
valuable targets in regenerative treatments
for diabetes.” The search has now begun
for the molecular signals involved in transmitting
the message, Katagiri says.—SE
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 37 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
RACHEL PETKEWICH/C&EN
SAY HELLO TO HELIUM
ION MICROSCOPY
NEW TECHNIQUE catches eye of semiconductor industry
and nanomanufacturing researchers
RACHEL PETKEWICH, C&EN WEST COAST NEWS BUREAU
MICROSCOPE MAKERS constantly strive
to improve images. Sometimes all it takes
is a quick tweak to an existing instrument.
Or it can mean decades of effort to develop
a fundamentally different concept.
“Our mission was to make a new type of
microscope—an alternative to the electron
microscope,” says John A. Notte, previously
with start-up company ALIS Corp.
and now a research and development director
with microscope manufacturer Carl
Zeiss. Instead of using electrons for highmagnification
imaging, Notte says, he and
his colleagues turned to helium ions.
Helium ions have shorter wavelengths
than electrons, so helium ions can form a
more tightly focused beam. For a microscope,
that means better image resolution.
Last year, a team from Zeiss installed
Orion, the first commercially available helium
ion microscope (HeIM), at the National
ORION PLUS
Bin Ming loads
a sample into
a secondgeneration
helium ion
microscope at
NIST.
Institute of Standards & Technology, in
Gaithersburg, Md., as part of a cooperative
R&D agreement. This past summer, Zeiss
replaced it with the first Orion Plus, a second-generation
microscope that includes
several design changes suggested by NIST
researchers, including improvements to the
cooling system for the helium ion source.
Several other research facilities around the
world have purchased the new microscope.
Helium ions “could be the electrons of
the 21st century” for imaging, says David C.
Joy, a microscopy expert at the University
of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge
National Laboratory.
A HeIM operates much like a scanning
electron microscope (SEM) but has unique
capabilities. The new microscope’s helium
ions can produce images with subnanometer
resolution, which is up to four times
better than that of an SEM. The helium-derived
images have higher
surface contrast and better
depth of field, so more
of the image is in focus
than in SEM-derived
images. Most notably,
HeIMs can also create
images with Rutherford
backscattered ions
(RBIs), which in this case are high-energy
helium ions that rebound off a sample, to
give information on chemical composition
that a standard SEM cannot.
The semiconductor and nanomanufacturing
industries are quite interested
in these advances because, for example, a
HeIM can clearly image the edge of a microchip
or the grooves in a CD, whereas edges
“bloom” or appear fuzzy in SEM images.
The ability to accurately measure features
on the edge of a material or use RBIs to
determine the chemical composition of a
defect in a semiconductor chip could help
improve commercial production processes.
MOST MICROSCOPY EXPERTS agree
that HeIMs will not replace SEMs. Rather,
the two techniques will complement each
other. Scanning electron microscopy “is
and will remain the standard imaging tool,
as it is a well-established and cost-effective
inspection method,” says Diederik Maas, a
senior scientist who develops microscopes
at the Netherlands Organization for Applied
Scientific Research (TNO) Nanolab,
in Delft, which has a second-generation
HeIM. (Three high-resolution SEMs can be
purchased for roughly $2 million, the cost
of a single HeIM.) But quite a number of
applications are challenging or impossible
for an SEM, and that is where the HeIM
could help and may even create a new niche
within microscopy, Maas adds.
Helium ion microscopy is related to
field-ion, or field-emission, microscopy,
a technology developed in 1955 to look at
individual atoms on a cryogenically cooled
tungsten tip in an ultra-high vacuum
system with small amounts of helium gas
in it. In the 1980s, scientists followed up
by commercializing a focused-ion-beam
microscope with a gallium ion source that
could analyze a wider range of samples.
Quite a number of applications are challenging or impossible
for an SEM, and that is where the HeIM could help and
may even create a new niche within microscopy.
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 38 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

However, the problem with using this
heavy ion for imaging is that it often sputters
away the sample before an image can
be captured.
The HeIM is similar to the gallium
focused-ion-beam microscope. But in the
HeIM, a distinctive pyramid-shaped ion
source allows helium ions to form a more
tightly focused beam, leading to higher
resolution images. In addition, helium
ions are lighter than gallium ions and don’t
cause samples to deteriorate as quickly.
Notte and ALIS colleagues Bill Ward
and Nick Economou developed the helium
gas ion source, which is the HeIM’s distinguishing
component. Zeiss acquired ALIS
and then developed the HeIM, which is
designed to collect images via two modes:
secondary-electron mode and RBI mode. In
an SEM, electrons are fired from an electron
emission source, which uses a combination
of heat and electric fields to emit electrons.
The electrons collide with the sample and
release secondary electrons that eventually
reach the detector, which generates signals
that are synthesized into the image. In a
HeIM, helium ions hit the sample, which
releases secondary electrons and RBIs. Different
detectors monitor the electrons and
RBIs, whose signals lead to separate images.
Helium ion beams have higher mass
and much shorter wavelength than electron
beams. Helium ions therefore interact
much more strongly with materials
than do electrons and produce about 100
times more secondary electrons, Joy says.
This means that more information goes
to the detector, providing highly detailed
images.
Secondary-electron images provide useful
information about a sample’s surface,
but researchers studying nanoscale materials
are particularly excited about getting information
on chemical composition from
RBI images.
FEW ANALYTICAL TOOLS have the
unique ability to image with RBIs, and
those images convey qualitative information
about a material’s elemental content,
says David C. Bell, manager of imaging and
analysis at Harvard University’s Center for
Nanoscale Systems.
IN FOCUS Image of gold-coated tin spheres obtained with a HeIM (right)
has better depth of field, meaning more of the picture is clearly focused,
than an SEM image (left) of the same spheres.
For example, Notte and colleagues have
shown how tin and lead components of
solder may be visually indistinguishable
in a secondary-electron image but appear
as patches of dark and light, respectively,
in an RBI image. Additionally, the number
of RBIs generated is proportional to
the atomic numbers of elements in the
sample, which can help identify the composition
of an unknown material or defect
on a microchip.
Scientists at Zeiss, NIST, and other
research institutions with the new microscopes
are working to understand
HeIM imaging mechanisms, fine-tune the
HeIM’s capabilities, and test chemistryrelated
applications.
John Allgair, a metrology program
manager for Sematech, a nonprofit semiconductor
industry group, says microelectronic
chip makers now rely on automated
SEMs to monitor their manufacturing processes.
But he notes that there is growing
industrial interest in HeIMs because they
have better resolution for imaging surfaces
and can do much-needed chemical analysis
of extraneous small particles and other
defects that can form during wafer and microchip
fabrication.
One potential drawback of the HeIM
is that a beam of helium ions may damage
samples more than a beam of electrons
would. Therefore, it’s important to determine
whether HeIM-induced damage can
be tolerated in final products, Allgair says.
Nanomaterial researchers say the HeIM
is useful for investigating various
kinds of materials. Michael T.
Postek, chief of NIST’s Precision
Engineering Division, says scientists
in NIST’s materials, manufacturing,
and chemistry laboratories
have used the HeIM to examine
the properties of cellulosic nanocrystals
and carbon nanotubes.
And at Harvard, Bell says, several
research groups have used both
secondary-electron and RBI modes
on the university’s first-generation
HeIM to examine the chemistry
of nanowires and other nanoscale
materials.
TNO’s Maas describes plans at
his institution to use the microscope
to inspect nanofabricated
structures and as a means of nanofabrication.
And groups at the National
University of Singapore have
used a second-generation HeIM to
image dry biological samples with
secondary electrons and have used RBIs to
image monolayers of graphene, says Daniel
S. Pickard, an assistant professor of electrical
engineering who works on imaging
instruments at the university. He says both
kinds of samples have been difficult to image
with an SEM because of their extreme
fragility.
And with the help of scientists from
several institutions, Zeiss’s team is making
further improvements to the company’s
HeIM systems. New capabilities available
next year will include the option to carry
out energy spectroscopy of backscattered
helium ions, which will give researchers
more information on chemical composition.
“The HeIM’s performance and
capabilities are changing from month-tomonth—literally,”
Notte says. ■
NIST (BOTH)
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 39 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

SAMPLES, ZHENGWEI PAN; IMAGES, MICHAEL OLIVERI/JACKSON FINE ART (ALL)
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
POSTCARDS FROM
INNERSPACE
An artist scans a nanoscientist’s samples
for FRAMABLE LANDSCAPES
IVAN AMATO, C&EN WASHINGTON
ZINC OXIDE GLEN and fascinating. He
Inside a tube
even uses the term
furnace at 500– “NanoArt” in reference
to, in his words,
600 ºC, shrublike
forms take shape on
a grass of zinc oxide “a new art discipline
that has grown atop in the intersection
a zinc foil.
of art, science, and
technology.”
Which is why Pan quickly embraced
the idea of working with Oliveri when a
colleague in the physics department, Yiping
Zhao, first introduced the two of them
about two years ago.
A mainstay of Pan’s work is to heat
metal or metal oxide powders, among
them zinc and gallium oxides, in a lowpressure
environment in which the powders
evaporate or decompose into vapor.
The components of the vapor then accrete
into a variety of compositions and forms,
depending on the underlying substrate,
the presence of catalytic surfaces, the
substrate’s wetting characteristics, the
temperature profile, and the composition
of gas that Pan vents into the tube furnace
where most of this materials-making
takes place. In many cases, a metal sub-
IN THE RIGHT HANDS, say, in those of
artist Michael Oliveri, a scanning electron
microscope (SEM) of roasted ceramic films
can pull off miracles of sorts: The invisibly
tiny dimensions of the micro- and nanorealms
become Ansel Adams-like images,
with arresting landscapes that simultaneously
come off as familiar and otherworldly.
ROADSIDE ATTRACTION Highly aligned
zinc oxide nanorods grow and pack into an
inorganic prairie, dotted with more complex
vegetal forms that assemble inside a tube
furnace from a zinc oxide vapor.
Oliveri, whose first degree is in electronics,
is a professor of art and digital
media at the University of Georgia, where
the field has been renamed “Art X.” He has
struck up a cross-campus collaboration
with materials scientist Zhengwei Pan,
and together, they make an alloy of art and
science.
Pan, known for his skills at making nanobelts,
nanowires, and other structures made
of inorganic materials, has long appreciated
the power of images to convey to wide audiences
at least some of what makes leadingedge
science and technology so exciting
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 40 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

NANOAPOCALYPSE NOW In the presence of a little oxygen, the melted top layer of a zinc foil in a tube furnace at 500–600 ºC oxidizes and
grows into a dense thicket of nanorods between 50 and 150 nm in diameter. In some locations, the reactants build up from the overlying
vapor into twisted geometries, in this case yielding what could be a postapocalyptic nanoscape.
strate such as a zinc foil adds to the microtopography
when it partially melts before
becoming subtly textured with a layer of
oxide nanoparticles deposited from the
vapor. These nanoparticles then serve as
seeds for the growth of nanorods from the
components in the vapor.
When Pan uses his lab’s SEM to look at
the results, it’s primarily to collect data and
to document the nanoscale structures and
textures that different materials and reaction
conditions yield. After all, these could
become the stuff of next-generation transistors,
sensors, or light-emitting devices.
Oliveri, whom Pan taught to use the
SEM, brings into the collaboration a different
intention. “I take their samples, the
stuff they are cooking and making, and I
travel across it, like a tourist, like a landscape
artist traveling across the Southwest,”
he says.
When Oliveri finds an SEM view to die
for, which might only occupy an area that
is a speck to a speck, he takes about 40
sequential images that he later digitally
School of Art gallery. The event again
proved to Pan how well pictures communicate
and serve as vehicles of public
education.
Five hundred people came to the reception,
Pan says with great satisfaction.
“They would look at an image first and
their response was, ‘Wow, what is this?’ ”
he recounts. “And then they would ask us
many, many questions.” The images are
destined for a more sustained public viewing
too: An Atlanta-based real estate development
company has purchased the set of
images, which it will hang in a new 50-story
skyscraper in the north Atlanta district of
Buckhead.
INORGANIC THICKET Atop an alumina substrate in a furnace at 900–1,000 ºC, powders
of graphite and germanium and zinc oxides transform into a buoyant landscape. The
graphite reduces the oxides to their metals, zinc and germanium, the latter of which
form spheres (up to 5 μm in diameter) that then serve as catalytic sites for the growth of
zinc oxide nanowires (100–200 nm thick), which end up between the substrate and the
germanium caps.
stitches together into high-resolution,
large-format panoramas covering sample
swaths that span up to a few hundred
micrometers. This past spring, he and
Pan hung a half-dozen, 3- by 9-foot panoramic
oxide-scapes in a show, called Innerspace,
at the university’s Lamar Dodd
“THE PUBLIC thought they were fantastic,”
Rhona Hoffman observes, referring
to the two large Oliveri prints she hung in
her eponymous gallery in Chicago. She is
especially fascinated by the way nanotechnology—which
she describes as “this world
we can’t see but know is there”—is riddled
with features reminiscent “of water, sky,
and land.”
Anna Walker Skillman, owner of Jackson
Fine Art gallery in Atlanta, also observed
that visitors were drawn to the large-format
images that she recently hung. “They
are not sure what they are looking at,” she
notes, “but then when they learn about it, it
becomes more fascinating and even more
mysterious.”
In that respect, these gallery visitors
aren’t so different from scientists like Pan,
Oliveri contends. “I think so much of scientific
research is aesthetically based,” he
says, noting that he has heard Pan blurt out
“ooh” while working at the SEM. As much as
by data and theories, Oliveri says, “scientists
are driven by aesthetics.” ■
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 41 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
inside instrumentation
TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS NEWS FOR THE LABORATORY WORLD
COLLABORATORS WORK
ON SOLID-STATE LASER
Institute of Photonics researchers
at the University of Strathclyde,
in Scotland, are working to
create a diamond-based Raman
laser. By using diamond as a solid-state
laser material, they hope
to design small, compact lasers
that can operate at currently
unavailable wavelengths with
greater power-handling capabilities.
Materials producer Element
Six is supplying single-crystal
diamond made via chemical
vapor deposition. Element Six is
a joint venture between diamond
supplier De Beers and Belgium’s
Umicore, a materials and metals
producer. The U.K.’s Engineering
& Physical Sciences Research
Council is supporting the threeand-a-half
year project through a
grant of nearly $1 million.
ASYLUM LAUNCHES
NEW MICROSCOPE
Asylum Research has announced
the Cypher atomic
force microscope for analysis
of small samples. The company
claims that Cypher is the world’s
highest resolution AFM. The
microscope uses a closed-loop
system with sensors in all three
spatial dimensions to achieve
atomic resolution. Other features
include automatic laser
alignment, interchangeable light
source modules with laser spot
sizes as small as 3 μm, and cantilevers
smaller than 10 μm. The
system’s integrated enclosure
provides acoustic and vibration
isolation and thermal control.
SMITHS DETECTION
ADDS DIAGNOSTICS
Smiths Detection’s newly
formed diagnostics business is
developing a clinical system for
hospital labs and point-of-care
settings. Its Bio-Seeq system will
enable nonspecialists to rapidly
screen for pathogens such as
Clostridium difficile and methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus
aureus. The company has a similar
portable veterinary system,
which uses disposable sample
preparation units, for detecting
foot-and-mouth disease. Both
systems use a Linear-After-The-
Exponential (LATE) PCR method
licensed from Brandeis University
to amplify and analyze genetic
material. Smiths is seeking partners
to codevelop tests to run on
the Bio-Seeq system.
PERKINELMER DEBUTS
RAMAN MICROSCOPE
PerkinElmer has introduced
the RamanMicro 300, a Raman
microscope designed to obtain
data from small samples or
small areas of large samples.
Linking the new microscope to
the RamanStation 400 creates
a system that is suitable for routine
analyses, as well as remote
sampling and Raman imaging.
PerkinElmer is targeting a broad
range of applications with the
microscope, including pharmaceuticals,
polymers, material
conservation, forensic analysis,
and explosives analysis.
LOW-COST NANOSCALE
MEASUREMENTS
A new method allows scientists
to obtain nanoscale images with
an inexpensive optical setup
that consists of only a researchgrade
optical microscope, a
camera, and a moveable stage.
NANOIMAGING
This TSOM image of a
60-nm gold particle is
generated by combining
multiple out-of-focus
images of the particle at
different focal positions.
The vertical axis shows the
through-focus distance, so
the nanoparticle appears
both above (blue) and
below (red) the focal plane
of the microscope.
NIST
Ravikiran Attota and coworkers
at NIST developed through-focus
scanning optical microscopy
(TSOM), in which a series of
out-of-focus images taken at different
focal positions is analyzed
with a computer algorithm to obtain
a single image (Optics Lett.
2008, 33, 1990). The researchers
use the method to identify
differences between nanoscale
objects, such as lines on integrated
circuits or nanoparticles.
The technique has potential applications
in nanomanufacturing,
semiconductor process control,
and biotechnology.
AGILENT AND BIOTROVE
EXPAND AGREEMENT
Agilent Technologies and Bio-
Trove have expanded their existing
co-marketing agreement to
integrate technologies in their
mass spectrometry (MS) offerings
to the drug discovery
marketplace. BioTrove will add
its RapidFire automated sample
preparation system, as well as
software, to Agilent’s triplequadrupole
and time-of-flight
MS instruments. The RapidFire
system uses robotics and microfluidic
handling to introduce
samples at a rate of six to eight
seconds per sample.
THERMO FISHER
OPENS SWISS LAB
Thermo Fisher Scientific has
opened a new facility in Reinach,
Switzerland, to support pharmaceutical
and chemical companies
in the region. The 12,000-sq-ft
facility houses analytical instrumentation
operations and consolidates
the Flux Instruments
and Spectronex product lines
that the company acquired from
SwissAnalytic Group in early
2007. Also included is a demonstration
lab where customers
can familiarize themselves with
Thermo Fisher’s instruments and
obtain product support.
CELIA H. ARNAUD and ANN
M. THAYER write Inside
Instrumentation. Contact them
via e-mail to instrumentation@
acs.org.
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 42 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

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ASSOCIATE EDITORS:
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
digital briefs
NEW SOFTWARE AND WEBSITES FOR THE CHEMICAL ENTERPRISE
DATABASE
PSILO is a database system that
provides a central repository for
protein-drug-complex and macromolecule
structural data and
computational models. Crystallographers
and computational
modelers can use PSILO’s Webbased
interface to search and
download structures from public
sources, such as the Protein Data
Bank (PDB), or to store proprietary
structures. The software
safeguards such proprietary data
and allows collaborative edits to
and annotation of in-house structures
by multiple users. PSILO
integrates into Web browser
search bars and enables users
to track favorite searches and hit
lists. In addition, the system is
capable of graphically comparing
structure files, displaying
electron densities for structures
(shown), and illustrating activesite
protein-ligand interactions.
PSILO can be customized to work
with nonstandard PDB files but
requires users to already have
either Oracle or MySQL database
management programs installed.
Chemical Computing Group,
www.chemcomp.com
The Wiley Registry 8th Edition/NIST
2008 Mass Spectral
Library, a
combination
of two trusted
collections in
mass spectrometry,
was recently
released by
John Wiley
& Sons. The
updated
database
now features an electron ionization
mass spec library with
more than 560,000 spectra, a
structure library
with more than
348,000 searchable
structures,
and more than
2 million chemical
names and
synonyms. The
complete NIST
software suite—including
MS Search,
MS Interpreter
v2.0, and AMDIS—
comes with every
Wiley registry/
NIST 2008 library
license. Users can
search the collection
for smallmolecule
organics,
pharmaceuticals,
illegal drugs, poisons,
steroids, chemical warfare
agents, and environmental pollutants.
The database software
is compatible with instruments
manufactured by most mass
spec instrumentation companies,
including Agilent, Bruker,
JEOL, Leco, PerkinElmer, ThermoFisher
Scientific, Varian, and
Waters. John Wiley & Sons,
www.wiley.com/go/databases
SOFTWARE
ActivityBase v7.2 is a drug
discovery data management
system that can be used by
scientists to
capture, analyze,
and store experimental
data from
high-throughput
screening, secondary
screening,
or compound
profiling and
complex in vitro
assays. The software
can be used
in conjunction with plate-based
and non-plate-based assays,
including RNAi assays, ELISA,
TaqMan assays, and MS/HPLC.
Users can process data collected
from a few plates to hundreds
of plates, which can generate
hundreds of thousands of data
points. ActivityBase allows visualization
of data in
two and three dimensions,
enabling identification
of trends in
results and potential
experimental errors.
Chemists using
the software can
register, search for,
and display chemical
information with
associated biological
data. Advanced
structure searching
includes substructure,
superstructure,
exact match, and similarity, and
an advanced stereochemistry
representation system is also
available. The ActivityBase suite
is integrated with Microsoft
Excel and now includes the
Excel Designer, a user-friendly
front-end tool for building and
editing data analysis templates
quickly. IDBS, www.idbs.com/
ActivityBase
ARChem (Automated Retrosynthetic
Chemistry) Route Designer
is a new software tool that aids
synthetic chemists in planning
organic synthesis. The software
employs reaction databases
such as CrossFire and Accelrys’
Methods of Organic Synthesis
(MOS), starting material catalogs
such as those from Aldrich
and Lancaster, and optional user
input to aid in viable synthetic
route design. With chemical
perception algorithms, ARChem
identifies reaction cores and generalizes
reaction rules to make
a retrosynthetic “solution tree”
for a user’s target molecule. The
tree can be navigated, and every
step along the chosen route is
illustrated with examples from
the literature. ARChem’s exhaustive
analysis is controlled by
algorithms and rules that prevent
combinatorial explosion. In addition,
users can adjust the search
depth and scope by targeting
and protecting bonds. ARChem
has a Web-based user interface
and can be integrated with electronic
notebooks in the lab. Sim-
BioSys, www.simbiosys. ca
LAUREN K. WOLF writes Digital
Briefs. Information about new or
revised electronic products can be
sent to d-briefs@acs.org.
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 44 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

EDUCATION
EXPLORATORIUM
THE LURE OF
INFORMAL EDUCATION
Science learning takes many forms OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
and may spark long-term interest
RACHEL PETKEWICH, C&EN WEST COAST NEWS BUREAU
THE WONDERS OF SCIENCE can inspire
curiosity anywhere. Think cruise ships,
museums, theater stages, and the Internet.
Activities at these and other nonschool
environments can engage the uninterested—the
children and adults who think that
science has nothing to do with them or that
they could never understand it, let alone
become scientists.
Informal opportunities to get people
excited about science are more important
than ever, according to science educators.
Public K–12 classroom-based science education
continues to be hampered by lack
of funding and mandates to “teach to the
test,” a practice that runs the risk of turning
students off to science. Informal programs
can supplement formal education by stimulating
curiosity and making science relevant
and accessible. Moreover, enthusiasm for
science can help create scientifically literate
citizens and may motivate students to become
the scientists and engineers who will
tackle society’s future challenges.
Informal science education is on the
rise, as evidenced by the increased numbers
of after-school programs and science
center activities, as well as TV and radio
programming. Whether these programs
directly inspire scientific careers is hard to
evaluate, but funding is available for scientists
and educators to get involved.
Informal learning can be defined as voluntary,
self-directed learning and is really
the basis for lifelong learning, says David A.
Ucko, deputy director of the National Science
Foundation’s Division of Research on
Learning in Formal & Informal Settings.
Educators can say for sure that scientists
working at all levels are key role models
who can reinforce to the public that science
happens outside of school and matters
to everyday life. Chemists have devised
creative ways to participate in informal
learning, ranging from doing demonstrations
for the American Chemical Society’s
annual National Chemistry Week (C&EN,
Dec. 17, 2007, page 36) to creating weekend
workshops, performing chemistry-based
theater, and installing science exhibits.
One of these chemists is Ilan Chabay,
who holds a doctorate in chemical physics.
He was so bothered by the lack of scientists’
participation during the 1980s boom
of new science centers that he left his laser
research job at the National Institute of
SCIENCE IN PLAY
Visitors to science
centers and
museums such as
the Exploratorium
get a chance to
try hands-on
activities.
Standards & Technology,
in Gaithersburg,
Md., to start a science
exhibit company.
Over two decades, he
built more than 200
science-based, handson
learning experiences
for science centers
and other informal settings, including
fast-food restaurants, doctor’s offices, and
theme parks, in 16 countries.
“People spend a remarkable amount of
time, compared to even sports events, in
informal learning environments, such as
science museums, all over the world,” says
Chabay, who is currently a professor in public
learning and understanding of science at
Chalmers University of Technology and the
University of Gothenburg, both in Sweden.
FOR EXAMPLE, Chi-Ting Huang’s two
daughters, ages five and eight, say they
would rather go with her when she volunteers
at the Museum of Science, in Boston,
than to their own Saturday soccer games.
During the week, Huang researches
fusion protein molecules that influence
bone, muscle, and blood vessel growth at
Acceleron Pharma, in Cambridge, Mass.
The Ph.D. biochemist says that volunteering
at the museum on the weekends
serves two purposes: She can transfer her
passion for science to the public and help
herself learn about much broader areas
of science—from human physiology to
archaeology—than her narrowly focused
research allows.
Huang regularly helps museum visitors
explore exhibits. Last year, she also developed
and taught a special two-hour weekend
session for girls on cosmetic chemistry
at the museum. For those who think makeup
is frivolous, the class’s various hands-on
activities helped the participants see how
much chemistry actually goes in the products,
Huang says.
To examine the components of lipstick,
the participants used paper chromatography.
Then they made their own lip gloss.
Huang says that helping them understand
the purpose of each ingredient in their
formulation is more valuable than simply
mixing them together. She received so
much positive feedback from the girls and
their parents that she plans to do the session
again.
Like Huang, science exhibit professionals
know that putting science into a real-life
context is much more appealing to museum
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 45 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

EDUCATION
Informal opportunities to get people
excited about science are more
important than ever.
visitors than simply spouting details about
a scientific discipline. For example, why do
bubbles expand over a bed of dry ice? Seeing
the bubbles grabs—and holds—visitors’
attention much better than just presenting
facts about Le Chatelier’s principle,
semipermeable membranes, and density,
says Julie Yu, a staff scientist at the Exploratorium,
San Francisco’s hands-on museum
of science, art, and human perception. Yu is
referring to an exhibit there called Bubble
Suspension, where visitors can blow soap
bubbles into a tank containing dry ice.
“The bubble initially hovers because the
air the visitor breathes into the bubble is
less dense than carbon dioxide,” Yu says.
As the carbon dioxide from the dry ice diffuses
into the bubble, the bubble expands.
When the bubble’s density surpasses that
of its surroundings, the bubble sinks to the
bottom of the tank.
A former middle school science teacher,
Yu recently completed a doctorate in
chemical engineering at the University of
California, Berkeley. She started at the Exploratorium
as a Discovery Corps Fellow, a
nontraditional postdoctoral program run
by NSF’s Division of Chemistry. Last year,
the Exploratorium hired her to fill a void
in chemistry expertise in its Teacher Institute,
where teachers can learn how to use
hands-on exhibits in their classes.
Yu and Charles Carlson agree that
chemistry regularly turns out to be more
challenging to portray in a display than biology,
physics, or an interdisciplinary topic
such as forensic science. Carlson has been
building chemistry and biology exhibits at
the Exploratorium since 1972.
Science centers and museums have a
tough time maintaining interactive chemistry
displays for two reasons, according
to Carlson: stigma and limited reagents.
Many people who didn’t like high school
chemistry shy away from an exhibit bearing
the word “chemistry,” he says. And science
centers often resort to chemistry demonstrations
on a stage at a particular time
rather than stand-alone, hands-on exhibits
to limit costs incurred from using reagents
and managing waste disposal, he adds.
TO COVER the expenses of creating and
operating informal science programs,
museum groups, educators, and scientists
usually have to obtain grants. NSF, through
its Informal Science Education (ISE) program,
awards the majority of funding for
these programs in the U.S., including most
projects mentioned in this article. In addition,
philanthropic organizations such as
the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation
support chemistry-focused projects.
Some endeavors, such as Marvelous
Molecules, have received funding from both
organizations. Established in the late 1990s,
this large, permanent, hands-on exhibit is
devoted to “exploring the shared chemistry
of living things” and is still on display at the
New York Hall of Science, in Corona. More
recently, NSF and the Dreyfus Foundation
contributed money for “Forgotten Genius,”
the award-winning PBS documentary about
chemist Percy L. Julian (C&EN, Nov. 26,
2007, page 52).
NSF’s support of informal science education
dates back to 1959, when an ISE precursor
program called Public Understanding of
Science began, says Ucko, a Ph.D. chemist
who taught at primarily undergraduate institutions
and directed two science centers
before arriving at NSF. He adds that ISE is
the primary NSF program that supports expanding
the scientific literacy of the general
public. The budget for informal science has
grown from several million dollars in the
early 1980s to $64 million in fiscal 2008.
Proposal reviewers at NSF look for innovative
projects that, in addition to helping
people learn about different aspects
of science and technology, advance the
OUTREACH
Get Involved With Informal Education Through ACS
Mamoun M. Bader has lectured
to university students
and given scientific talks to
large audiences at conferences
for years. What the
associate professor of chemistry
at Pennsylvania State
University, Hazelton, found
much more challenging was
trying to explain molecules
to his son’s second-grade
class. But he also found that
experience much more
rewarding.
He’s not alone. Volunteers
say they get a lot of personal
satisfaction out of sharing
their expertise with the public
and helping to demystify
science, says Mary Kirchhoff,
director of the Education
Division at the American
Chemical Society, which publishes
C&EN.
Professional scientific societies,
including ACS, offer
assistance to members like
Bader who want to get involved
with informal chemistry
education activities. ACS
has several programs to help
chemical scientists bring the
excitement of chemistry to
the public via ACS local sections,
student affiliate chapters,
and divisions.
The ACS Office of Community
Activities coordinates
two annual events. Held each
fall, National Chemistry Week
is ACS’s largest annual public
outreach event for communicating
the importance
of chemistry to everyday
life. And every spring, chemists
can help emphasize the
positive role that chemistry
plays in the world by getting
involved with Chemists Celebrate
Earth Day.
Kids & Chemistry, a yearround
program that helps
bring science experiences
to elementary and middle
school children, is run by the
Education Division (C&EN,
May 5, page 52). Through
the program, “members are
helping kids learn and love
science,” says Patricia Galvan,
an education specialist
at ACS. She adds that two
new kits to plan activities
for kids—including safety
checklists and tips on how
to explain science to young
audiences—are now available
from ACS via the Web, and
more will come in 2009.
For more information on
all of these programs, go to
www.acs.org/education.
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 46 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

state of the art across the field of informal
education, Ucko says. “Because we are very
interested in learning from and building
on prior work,” he adds, ISE now requires
all grantees to post project evaluations on
informalscience.org.
Setting up informal science education
projects is like doing scientific research, in
terms of learning from previous work and
forming collaborations, Ucko says. That
is because projects often involve partnerships
between scientists and informal educators
who have expertise working with the
general public. He strongly urges scientists
considering how to develop an informal
science project to team up with people who
know the target audience and how to translate
scientific concepts in a way that will
engage that audience.
For example, scientists collaborated
with the Materials Research Society and
exhibit pros at the Ontario Science Centre,
in Toronto, to create Strange Matter, a
series of hands-on experiences intended
to introduce the public to the beauty and
science behind materials. The exhibit will
travel around North America through 2010.
ANOTHER RESOURCE for collaboration
is the Nanoscale Informal Science
Education Network. Known as NISE Net,
it enables scientists who wish to explain
nanotechnology to the public to get help
from museum professionals. It includes
more than 100 partner groups. The lead
institutions are the Museum of Science, the
Exploratorium, and the Science Museum of
Minnesota, in St. Paul.
Participants in NISE Net have created
exhibits and demonstrations, as well as
Web, print, and broadcast pieces for media
outlets. Ucko notes that these kinds of
integrated projects are a trend in informal
science education grant applications.
NISE Net is the recipient of NSF’s largest
single award to a museum group, a $20 million,
five-year grant that started in 2005.
The pool of money is a lot smaller at
the Dreyfus Foundation. The foundation
provides informal science funding through
its Special Grant Program in the Chemical
Sciences.
This “seed program is essentially an
open call to the chemistry community to
propose novel ways to advance the field of
chemistry,” says Adam J. Lore, operations
manager for the foundation.
Funding for the foundation’s special
grant program now exceeds $1 million annually.
Lore adds that the Dreyfus Foundation
has given more emphasis to informal
education over the past five years because
of positive results. For example, he says,
chemistry is the second most popular topic
on Science Buddies, a resource website for
student science projects. The Kenneth Lafferty
Hess Family Charitable Foundation of
San Francisco started
the site in 2001 to
promote hands-on
science and received
a Dreyfus Foundation
grant in 2006.
In 2005, the site had
850,000 hits, and
projections for 2008
exceed 8 million,
Lore adds.
Among the 2008
recipients of Dreyfus
grants, one group
will help produce a
television program
to air on PBS in 2010
about science and art,
including forensic
chemistry to identify
fraudulent works and
restorative chemistry
to fix paintings damaged
by Hurricane
Katrina. Another
grant will fund “Science
Studio,” a
weekly radio program
in development at the
University of Texas,
El Paso, which will
include interviews of
notable chemists.
INK ANALYSIS A
Junior Girl Scout
shows off her
chromatography
skills as she solves
“The Case of the
Unsigned Letter.”
Methods that informally bring bits of
science to the masses—such as radio and
TV programs, as well as Web-based media,
including podcasts and YouTube videos—
are gaining popularity, especially with
younger audiences. For example, podcasts
about chemistry that are aimed at the
general public and created by professional
chemistry societies and publishing groups
are downloaded thousands of times, which
is a lot in the podcasting world (C&EN,
Oct. 20, page 61).
Scientists see great benefit in podcasts
and YouTube postings for a general audience.
Chemist Martyn Poliakoff of the University
of Nottingham, in England, for example,
told C&EN that the YouTube videos
he made with colleagues about the elements
enable him to reach audiences that outnumber
all of the students he has lectured to in
his career (C&EN, Sept. 15, page 42).
But do the people who watch those
video clips actually get any educational
benefit?
Education experts say the wide audience
for Web-based resources makes assessment
difficult. Chabay and Ucko agree that
a high number of
downloads for the
Web-based media
clearly indicates
interest. However,
they add, informal
science educators
should strive for
more detailed evaluation
methods to see
whether a project
is worth repeating
and what educators
can learn from
it. Guidelines are
available from the
NSF-sponsored
Center for Advancement
of Informal
Science Education at
insci.org/docs/eval_
framework.pdf.
In part because
informal science
learning operates across so many venues,
the National Research Council’s Board
on Science Education convened a panel
of multidisciplinary experts for a nearly
three-year-long study to examine the scope
and effects of informal science. Their report
is expected by the end of this year.
Some venues do rigorous evaluation. At
the Exploratorium, for example, staff researchers
observe visitors as they manipulate
exhibits, ask them questions, and then
use that data in designing future exhibits.
Surveys are another tool to monitor the
audience’s engagement. Sheryl A. Tucker,
a chemistry professor at the University of
Missouri, has used surveys to continually
improve a Saturday workshop she started
in 1998. The idea for the workshop came
when she noticed that Boy Scouts had a
merit badge for chemistry but Girl Scouts
did not. She teamed up with the nearby Girl
Scouts-Heart of Missouri Council to develop
a program that has linked chemists with
more than 2,500 girls over the past decade.
Twice a year, 200 Junior Girl Scouts
(ages 10 to 12) earn their badges by participating
in one of two six-hour weekend
workshops called the Magic of Chemistry.
One workshop is timed to coincide with
COURTESY OF SHERYL TUCKER
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 47 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

EDUCATION
Short Courses
from the American
Chemical Society
December 1-5, 2008
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Courses in Chemical
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National Chemistry Week; the other is
scheduled during National Girl Scout
Week. They are based on one of three storylines,
which rotate annually among “The
Case of the Unsigned Letter,” which involves
forensics; “Fun with Polymers”; and
“Chemistry of Color.”
Tucker says these narratives, along with
hands-on activities, trained volunteers,
and professional scientists, help the girls
see chemistry’s relevance to daily life. She
knows this because at the end of the workshops
participants answer questionnaires
about what they learned and how the experience
influenced their interest in science.
After examining 10 years of data, Tucker
and her colleagues draw a few conclusions
(Science 2008, 319,
1621). They note that the
girls had great enthusiasm
about learning more science
but add that tracking girls
as they get older is hard.
“These results cannot tell us
whether girls who participate
in Magic of Chemistry
maintain an interest in science,”
they write, although
anecdotal evidence, such
as the large number of girls
who sign up again or volunteer
to help when they are
old enough, is promising.
SCIENCE THEATER
With audience
participation,
Babiarz (left) and
Kerby perform
the “Dance of the
Water Molecule.”
TO EVALUATE in real time,
the people who run Fusion
Science Theater incorporate
audience surveys right into
their performance. The
program draws from the
playwright’s bag of tricks—theme, character,
and dramatic question—to emphasize
discovery and downplay the “whiz-bang”
aspect common to many staged chemistry
demonstrations, the creators say. Before,
during, and after the show, the children and
parents in the audience answer questions.
Their responses help the developers know
what the audience has learned and modify
future performances accordingly.
The program’s creators are Holly Walter
Kerby, an instructor in chemistry, creative
writing, and drama at Madison Area Technical
College, in Wisconsin; Christopher
Babiarz, an environmental chemist at the
University of Wisconsin, Madison; and
their colleagues in association with the
Madison Children’s Museum and the local
Mercury Players Theatre.
Two years ago, the group completed its
first show, “The Amazing Chemical Circus.”
It features a ringmaster hosting three acts
that explore the chemistry of combustion,
color, and polymers. Last year, the group
created a shorter, mobile show called “The
Boiling Point.” In 30 minutes, a chemical
educator and an actor use chemical demonstrations
and theater techniques, including
audience participation, for a segment called
“The Dance of the Water Molecule,” to
teach the concept of vaporization.
Both shows receive positive comments
from children and parents, and the final
surveys show that they learn about chemistry
too.
Kerby and her colleagues are presently
working on scripts, resources, and workshops
to train members of Students
Participating in Chemical Education
(SPICE) from the University of
Wisconsin, Madison. She says the
students in SPICE plan to perform
“The Boiling Point” at venues including
area schools, libraries, and Boys &
Girls Clubs of America.
Chabay hopes that scientists and students
participating in SPICE and other university
outreach programs will continue to bring
science to the public as they move forward
in their careers. “We need scientists who are
willing to engage with the public in many
different ways,” he says, from giving public
lectures to sitting down with a teacher to
develop curriculum, talking to six people in a
café, or volunteering at a science museum.
The setting doesn’t seem to matter
much when it comes to getting people
excited about science. Chabay recently
got an e-mail from a high school chemistry
and physics teacher who was vacationing
aboard a cruise ship. She had been thrilled
to see an exhibit called Spinning Magnets,
which relates magnetism and electricity.
The exhibit was one Chabay had installed
on the ship in 1996. ■
COURTESY OF HOLLY WALTER KERBY
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 48 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

MEETINGS
TRADEWINDS BEACH RESORTS
19TH WINTER FLUORINE
CONFERENCE
THE 19TH BIENNIAL Winter Fluorine
Conference, sponsored by the ACS Division
of Fluorine Chemistry, will be held at the
TradeWinds Island Grand Resort in St. Pete
Beach, Fla., on Jan. 11–16, 2009. The conference,
which has the theme “Fabulous Future
with Fluorine,” will feature invited plenary
and oral presentations as well as contributed
papers and posters by fluorine chemists
from around the world. The conference
TECHNICAL PROGRAM AT A GLANCE
SUNDAY, JAN. 11
7:00–9:00 PM Welcome
Social & Sci-Mix Poster
Session I
MONDAY, JAN. 12
7:50–9:50 AM Organic
Synthetic Methods I
10:10 AM–noon Fluorous
Methods
1:30–3:20 PM Fluorine
Chemistry
Mechanisms
3:40 –6:00 PM Fluorine in
Inorganic Chemistry I
7:30– 9:00 PM Fluorine in
Medicines I
TUESDAY, JAN. 13
8:00– 9:50 AM Fluorine in
Biology
10:10 AM–noon Organic
Synthetic Methods II
1:30 –3:10 PM Fluorine in
Energy
3:40–6:00 PM Fluorine in
Inorganic Chemistry II
7:30–9:10 PM Fluorine in
PET Imaging
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 14
8:00–10:00 AM Conference
Breakfast &
Poster Session II
10:00 AM–noon Industrial
Fluorine Chemistry
will highlight different aspects of modern
fluorine chemistry, such as fluoroorganic
synthetic methods, inorganic and theoretical
fluorine chemistry, fluorine in biological
chemistry, industrial fluorine chemistry, and
fluorine in polymers and energy research.
In addition, a special symposium entitled
“Fluorine in Medicines” will consist of presentations
from pharmaceutical industry
research labs on the importance of fluorine
THURSDAY, JAN. 15
8:00–10:00 AM Organic
Synthetic Methods III
10:10 AM–noon Organic
Synthetic Methods IV
1:30–3:10 PM Fluoropolymers
& Materials
3:30–5:30 PM Fluorine in
Inorganic Chemistry III
6:30–9:30 PM Conference
Reception, Banquet &
2009 Award Address
FRIDAY, JAN. 16
8:00–9:50 AM Organic
Synthetic Methods V
10:10–11:40 AM Organic
Synthetic Methods VI
11:30 AM Concluding
Remarks
RELAXING The
lush waterway at
the Island Grand
Beach Resort
offers peaceful
views between
symposia.
in pharmaceuticals.
This six-day international
interdisciplinary
forum will also feature
the award address by
Henry H. Selig, professor
emeritus at Hebrew
University, in Jerusalem,
the recipient of the 2009 ACS Award
for Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry.
The deadline for registration is Dec. 11.
Participants are encouraged to register
prior to this date because on-site fees will be
slightly higher. Registration fees are Fluorine
Division Member, $350; nonmember,
$400; student, $190; press, $200; guest with
social event tickets, $200; guest without
tickets, $55. On-site registration hours are
Sunday, 5–8 PM; Monday and Tuesday,
7 AM–5:30 PM; Wednesday, 7:30–10:30
AM; Thursday, 7 AM–5:30 PM; and Friday,
7:30–10 AM.
The deadline for housing is also Dec. 11.
A block of rooms has been reserved at the
TradeWinds Island Grand Beach Resort.
Rates range from $99 to $195 (plus tax of
about 11%).
ACS has secured discounted transportation
rates for the 19th Winter Fluorine
Conference. For airline arrangements, call
American Airlines at (800) 433-1790 and
refer to Discount Code A4319AL to receive
5% off first-class and lowest applicable
published domestic fares.
Automobile rental discounts have also
been arranged. Contact Avis at (800) 331-
1600 or online at avis.com; refer to AWD
Code B120799. Or contact Hertz at (800)
654-2240 or online at hertz.com and refer
to ID Code CV# 02UZ0008.
A number of travel fellowships will be
available to undergraduate, graduate, and
postdoctoral students actively participating
(presenting a paper or poster) in the conference.
For more information on applying
for these fellowships, contact conference
manager Vernar Beatty at v_beatty@ acs.org.
Two of the top student posters will receive a
cash award of $500 each.
For additional information on the scientific
content of the conference, please contact
P. V. Ramachandran, conference chair
and associate professor of chemistry at
Purdue University, at chandran@ purdue.
edu. For all other information, please contact
Beatty.
For additional information regarding
the 19th Winter Fluorine Conference, go
online to membership.acs.org/f/fluo/19wfc/
index19wfc.htm. ■
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 49 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

AWARDS
SMISSMAN AWARD TO
BRUCE MARYANOFF;
SIX INDUCTED INTO
MEDI HALL OF FAME
Maryanoff
Miller
Abou-Gharbia
Neumeyer
Counsell
BRUCE E. MARYANOFF, a distinguished
research fellow and team leader at Johnson
& Johnson Pharmaceutical Research &
Development, is the recipient of the 2009
Edward E. Smissman Award, which is sponsored
by Bristol-Myers Squibb. The award
is given by the ACS Division of Medicinal
Chemistry (MEDI) to a living scientist
whose research, teaching, or service has
had a substantial impact on the intellectual
and theoretical development of the field
of medicinal chemistry. Maryanoff will
receive the award during the 2009 ACS
spring national meeting in Salt Lake City.
Maryanoff, an expert in drug design and
drug discovery, is credited with the invention
of Topamax (topiramate) for the treatment
of epilepsy and migraine headaches.
He has also made seminal contributions to
the understanding of the stereochemistry
and mechanism of the Wittig olefination
reaction.
Maryanoff was inducted into the 2008
Division of Medicinal Chemistry Hall of
Fame, which was established by MEDI in
2006 to recognize outstanding contributions
to medicinal chemistry.
The other 2008 inductees are Magid
Abou-Gharbia, professor of medicinal
chemistry and director of Temple University’s
Center for Drug Discovery Research;
Raymond E. Counsell, professor emeritus
of pharmacology and medicinal chemistry
at the University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor; Duane D. Miller, Van Vleet Endowed
Chair of the department of pharmaceutical
sciences and associate dean of graduate
study and research in the College of Pharmacy
at the University of Tennessee Health
Science Center; John L. Neumeyer, distinguished
emeritus professor at Harvard
Medical School and director of the medicinal
chemistry program at the Alcohol
& Drug Abuse Research Center of McLean
Hospital; and Edward E. Smissman, the
late University Distinguished Professor at
the University of Kansas.
JOAN VALENTINE
RECEIVES SEABORG
MEDAL
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,
Los Angeles, presented the 2008 Glenn
T. Seaborg Medal to
UCLA chemistry professor
Joan Selverstone
Valentine at a
symposium on Nov. 1.
After receiving her
Ph.D. in chemistry
from Princeton University
in 1971, Valentine
began her career at
Rutgers University, where she determined
how to use crown ethers to stabilize the superoxide
anion, O – 2 in solution (J. Am. Chem.
Soc. 1975, 97, 224).
In 1980, Valentine moved to UCLA,
where she has since focused her research
on the study of superoxide
dismutase (SOD) enzymes,
which protect cells from oxidative
damage by O – 2 . Much
of her research has worked
toward understanding the
properties and biological
functions of copper-zinc SOD
(CuZnSOD), including the
role of mutant CuZnSOD enzymes
in familial amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis, also known
as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
At the award symposium,
which was marked by much
laughter and collegiality, Valentine
discussed her recent
work on the effects of eliminating
SOD enzymes in yeast.
When the gene for CuZnSOD
is absent, yeast are highly oxidatively
stressed and increase
Smissman
their need for iron, although the form and
function of the extra iron is unknown. Adding
manganese to such cells can “rescue”
them, perhaps indicating that manganese
can work as a fundamental, nonenzymatic
antioxidant in yeast and possibly also higher
organisms (C&EN, April 7, page 50).
Valentine was the first woman to receive
a Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton University
and the first female faculty member in
the UCLA chemistry department. She has
served as the editor-in-chief of the journal
Accounts of Chemical Research since 1994.
Valentine is the second woman to receive
the Seaborg Medal. “She is a remarkable
scientist and a fantastic mentor,” said
UCLA associate professor of biochemistry
Guillaume Chanfreau when he introduced
her talk at the symposium.
“She has been for all the people in the
department an enormous source of inspiration
and a wonderful colleague,” added
Roberto Peccei, UCLA vice chancellor for
research and professor of physics, when he
presented the medal at the award dinner.—
JYLLIAN KEMSLEY
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
FOR PATTERSON-
CRANE AWARD
THE ACS DAYTON and Columbus Sections
are seeking nominations for the 2009
Patterson-Crane Award. The award, given
every two years, consists of a $2,000 honorarium
and a personalized commendation
and will be presented in spring 2009 during
an awards dinner in Dayton, Ohio. The
award is given in honor of Austin M. Patterson
and E. J. Crane, previous editors of
Chemical Abstracts.
The Patterson-Crane Award acknowledges
outstanding contributions to the
field of chemical information, including
the design, development, production, or
management of chemical information
systems or services; electronic access and
retrieval of chemical information; critically
evaluated data compilations; information
technology applications in chemistry; or
other significant chemical documentation.
Nominations should include a discussion
of the nominee’s contributions to
the field and an evaluation of his or her
accomplishments. Materials supporting
the nomination should include a biography
and bibliography of publications and presentations
relevant to the award. Seconding
letters are required.
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 50 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

Nominations must be received by Jan.
31, 2009, and should be sent to Ray Dudek,
Chair of the Patterson-Crane Award Committee,
Department of Chemistry, Wittenberg
University, P.O. Box 720, Springfield,
OH 45501. For more information,
e-mail: rdudek@wittenberg.edu, or visit
daytonacs. org.
EDELSTEIN AWARD
SEEKS NOMINATIONS
THE ACS DIVISION of the History of
Chemistry is soliciting nominations for
the 2009 Sidney M. Edelstein Award for
Outstanding Achievement in the History of
Chemistry.
The recipient of the Edelstein Award
is presented with an engraved plaque and
$3,500, usually at a symposium at the fall
national meeting of ACS, which in 2009 will
be held in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 16–20.
The award is international in scope, and
nominations are welcome from anywhere in
the world.
A complete nomination consists of a
curriculum vitae, including biographical
data, educational background, awards,
honors, a list of publications, and other
service to the profession; a letter of
nomination summarizing the nominee’s
achievements in the field of the history of
chemistry and citing unique contributions
that merit a major award; and at least two
seconding letters. Copies of no more than
three publications may also be included.
Only complete nominations will be considered
for the award.
All nominations must be received by
Dec. 31 and should be submitted in triplicate
to Anthony S. Travis, Chair of the
Edelstein Award Committee for 2009,
Edelstein Center, Safra Campus, Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, Givat Ram, Jerusalem
91904, Israel. E-mail travis@cc.huji.
ac.il for more information.
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
FOR THE 2009
AKZONOBEL AWARD
THE POLYMER EDUCATION Committee
of the ACS Divisions of Polymer Chemistry
and of Polymeric Materials: Science &
Engineering is seeking nominations for the
2009 AkzoNobel Award for Outstanding
Graduate Research in Polymer Chemistry.
The award recognizes an individual who
has completed an outstanding Ph.D. thesis
at a U.S. or Canadian university within the
three-year period prior to Jan. 1, 2009.
Nominations must be made by the thesis
supervisor or others familiar with the
nominee’s work and must include the nominee’s
biography, a synopsis of the work,
and a letter of recommendation from the
thesis adviser. Relevant publications based
on the thesis work may be submitted; supporting
documents and testimonials may
also be included.
Send five copies of the nomination,
postmarked by Jan. 31, 2009, to Guy C.
Berry, Department of Chemistry, Carnegie
Mellon University, 4400 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh,
PA 15213. For more information,
e-mail gcberry@andrew.cmu.edu.
The winner will receive a $2,000 prize, a
plaque, and travel expenses to present their
research at the ACS fall national meeting.
DR. PAUL JANSSEN
AWARD SEEKS
APPLICANTS
NOMINATIONS ARE BEING accepted
for the 2009 Dr. Paul Janssen Award for
Biomedical Research. Founded by Johnson
& Johnson in 2004, the award honors passionate
and creative scientists in basic or
clinical research whose scientific achievements
have made, or have strong potential
to make, a measurable impact on human
health. Nominations are being accepted
online at pauljanssenaward.com. The
deadline is Dec. 15. The award includes a
$100,000 cash prize.
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
FOR SPECTROSCOPY
AWARD
NOMINATIONS ARE BEING accepted for
the 2009 Gold Medal Award of the New
York Section of the Society for Applied
Spectroscopy. The award recognizes outstanding
contributions to the field of applied
spectroscopy and will be presented at
an award symposium at the 2009 Eastern
Analytical Symposium in Somerset, N.J.
A nominating letter describing the nominee’s
specific accomplishments should be
submitted along with a biographical sketch
by Dec. 31. Send all materials to Deborah
Peru, Colgate Palmolive Co., 909 River Rd.,
Piscataway N.J., 08833, or by e-mail to debbie_peru@colpal.com.
For more information,
call (732) 878- 7295, or e-mail debbie_
peru@colpal.com.
KLAUS DITRICH AWARDED
THE SIEGFRIED MEDAL
KLAUS DITRICH of BASF is the recipient
of the 2008 Siegfried Medal, which is
awarded every other year by Siegfried Ltd.
of Zofingen, Switzerland, in cooperation
with the Organic Chemistry Institute of
the University of Zurich.
The award recognizes the achievements
of Ditrich’s research team in the development
of technically practicable production
processes for optically active amines, alcohols,
and carboxylic acids. In particular,
Ditrich was involved in the development
of an industrial manufacturing process for
optically active amines.
Ditrich received a gold medal, a bronze
replica, and an honorarium of 10,000 Swiss
francs (about $8,780) on Sept. 4 at the Siegfried
Symposium in Zurich.
AKRON SECTION AWARD
GOES TO SHARON
HAMMES-SCHIFFER
SHARON HAMMES-SCHIFFER, Eberly
Professor of Biotechnology and professor of
chemistry at Pennsylvania State University,
is the recipient of the 30th annual Akron
Section Award of ACS.
The award recognizes
young industrial or
academic scientists
who show great promise
in their professional
careers and to promote
their interaction with
section members. The
award consists of a
$1,000 honorarium and a plaque.
Hammes-Schiffer’s research interests
include theoretical and computational investigation
of chemically and biologically
important processes; proton, hydride, and
proton-coupled electron-transfer reactions;
mixed quantum/classical molecular dynamics
simulations; development of theoretical
and computational methods; and applications
to reactions in solution and proteins.
LINDA WANG compiles this section.
Announcements of awards may be sent to
l_wang@acs.org.
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 51 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Serving the Chemical, Life Sciences, and Laboratory Worlds
Advertising Rate Information
CLASSIFICATIONS
Positions open and academic positions.
Situations wanted—members, nonmembers,
student and national affiliates, retired
members.
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date. No ex ten sions. Cancellations must be
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date (except legal holidays.)
SITUATIONS WANTED
“Situations Wanted” advertisements
placed by ACS members and affiliates are
accepted at $6.60 a line per insertion, no
minimum charge. State ACS membership
status and email to m_ mccloskey@acs.org.
The advertisements will be classified by the
chemical field designated by the members.
If not designated, placement will be determined
by the first word of text submitted.
EMPLOYER AD PLACEMENT
NON-DISPLAY LINE ADS are $65 net
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approximately 50 characters and spaces,
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32 characters, bold caps, and spaces; all
in 7-point type. For an additional $150,
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DISPLAY ADS: For rates and information
call Matt McCloskey at (610) 964-8061 or go
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TO SUBMIT A CLASSIFIED AD: Email
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QUALITY JOBS, QUALITY CHEMISTS
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by either a purchase order number or a
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Purchase orders must allow for some degree
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CONDITIONS: In printing these advertisements
ACS assumes no obligations as to
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responsibility of employers, nor shall ACS
obtain information concerning positions
advertised or those seeking employment.
Replies to announcements should carry
copies of supporting documents, not original
documents. Every reasonable effort
will be made to prevent forwarding of advertising
circulars. Employers who require
applications on company forms should send
duplicate copies. ACS considers all users of
this section obligated to acknowledge all
replies to their advertisements.
IMPORTANT NOTICES
■ Employment in countries other than your
own may be restricted by government visa
and other policies. Moreover, you should
investigate thoroughly the generally accepted
employment practices, the cultural
conditions, and the exact provisions of the
specific position being considered. Members
may wish to contact the ACS Office of
International Activities for information it
might have about employment conditions
and cultural practices in other countries.
■ Various state and national laws against
discrimination, including the Federal Civil
Rights Act of 1964, prohibit discrimination
in employment because of race, color,
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handicap, sexual orientation, or any reason
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qualification.
■ These help-wanted and situations-wanted
advertisements are for readers’ convenience
and are not to be construed as instruments
leading to unlawful discrimination.
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 52 NOVEMBER 24, 2008
POSITIONS OPEN
CHEMISTS NEEDED. You must be a US citizen and
able to obtain a secret security clearance. Job entails
synthesis, handling, safety testing, and analytical measurements
associated with explosives, to include novel
and improvised, using all relevant techniques. Experience
in synthesizing, handling, and testing explosives is
preferred. Positions open: 2 PhD, 2 Bachelor’s or Master’s
Degrees. Please submit resume to Ms. Thomas
via e-mail at Mary.Thomas.ctr@ TYNDALL.AF.MIL.
DIRECTOR OF QUALITY ASSURANCE
J-STAR Research is a leading Process Research company
providing custom chemistry services leading to
optimum synthetic routes for API preparation. We currently
have a need to fill a Director of Quality Assurance
Position. This position will be responsible for overseeing
and maintaining our Quality Assurance Program
for activities related to cGMP Manufacturing and
Quality Control. Areas of direct responsibility include
but are not limited to: the SOP generation and maintenance
program, cGMP training program, documentation,
change control, review and final product release,
annual system reviews, internal and external inspection
programs, Customer Audits, Regulatory Agency
Audits, Customer Inquiries, investigations and corrective
actions related to our programs for OOS and deviations.
The position will be responsible for the Quality
Management System involving chemical manufacture
or procurement of raw materials, pharmaceutical
starting materials, intermediates, and API’s. The ideal
candidate will have prior experience in a cGMP setting,
running a Quality unit in an R&D setting involving production
of the initial batches of material destined for
Toxicology Studies of Phase I Clinical Trials. J-STAR is
an Equal Opportunity Employer located in central New
Jersey and offers a competitive salary with a comprehensive
benefits package including medical benefits,
dental benefits, life insurance, disability, a 401K plan
with a company match, and a flexible spending account.
Interested candidates should forward their resumes
to dhardy@jstar-research.com.
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
FACULTY POSITIONS IN CHEMISTRY
THE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE (TSRI),
La Jolla, CA
As part of a new research initiative at TSRI, we are
seeking outstanding applicants for multiple tenuretrack
faculty positions at Assistant Professor level.
Applicants who use chemical tools to study biological
phenomena at the molecular, cellular or organism
level will be considered. Applicants should conduct innovative,
basic research that has the potential to contribute
to translational medical research, and have
demonstrated potential to be a leader in their field.
Applicants should send electronic versions of their
CV, a brief statement of research interests, and three
letters of recommendation by January 1, 2009, to:
facultyjobs@scripps.edu, Attention: ADI Chemistry,
TSRI Faculty Search Committee, c/o Marisol Chacon,
The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 N Torrey
Pines Rd., ICND222, La Jolla, CA 92037.
ASST./ASSOC. PROF., OTTO H. YORK DEPT. OF
CHEMICAL, BIOLOGICAL & PHARMACEUTICAL
ENGINEERING
The Otto York Dept. of Chemical, Biological & Pharmaceutical
Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology
(NJIT) invites applications for a tenure-track
faculty position at the Assistant or higher level, with research
expertise in the general area of chemical engineering.
Although there are no restrictions on specific
research area for candidates, preference will be given
to research interests that will complement & strengthen
NJIT’s participation in NSF Engineering Research
Center on Structured Organic Particulate Systems,
which focuses on developing a model-predictive integrated
framework for systematically designing materials,
structures & processes used to manufacture
the next generation of active substance delivery systems
for pharmaceutical, food & agro-chemical industries.
Applicants should have an earned PhD in Chemical
Engineering or related disciplines & demonstrated
record of cross-disciplinary research. The successful
candidate is expected to teach undergraduate & graduate
courses & develop a world-class research program
funded by federal & industrial sources. Apply at
https://njit.jobs, using posting #0600351 & include a
CV, names of four references, a statement of research
& teaching interests. Position will remain open until
filled. Candidates from under-represented minority
groups are encouraged to apply. EOE/AA.

Nanoco Technologies needs the following people
o Synthetic materials chemist
o Colloidal chemist
o Production engineer
o Bio chemist
o Surface chemist
o Polymer scientist
Nanoco Technologies is a leading nanotechnology company
developing and producing quantum dots. Based in Manchester, UK
and established in 2001, Nanoco has grown rapidly by working in
close collaboration with leading quantum dot application developers
around the world.
This is an outstanding opportunity to be part of a dynamic
environment where your contribution will earn full recognition and
reward. We are proud to promote an open culture, encouraging
people to be themselves and giving their ideas a chance to flourish.
It takes everyone at MIT to be MIT.
Faculty Position
Department of Chemical Engineering
The MIT Department of Chemical Engineering seeks candidates
for a tenure-track faculty position to begin July 2009 or thereafter.
Appointment would be at the assistant or untenured associate
professor level. In special cases, a senior faculty appointment may
be possible. Faculty duties include teaching at the graduate and
undergraduate levels, research, and supervision of student research.
We will consider candidates with backgrounds and interests in chemical
engineering or a related field. Candidates should hold a Ph.D. in
chemical engineering or a related field by the beginning of the
appointment period. The candidate should have demonstrated
excellence in original research.
The jobs are all based at Nanoco's main corporate laboratory located
in Manchester, United Kingdom.
All candidates should be educated to degree level with a Ph.D.
preferred and have at least 3 years relevant industrial experience.
For the full job descriptions for each role, please visit our website. If
you feel that you are qualified and ready for the challenge then
submit a resume and covering letter to:
Human Resources,
Nanoco Technologies Ltd,
46 Grafton Street, Manchester, M13 9NT
Email: hr@nanocotechnologies.com
Tel: +44 161 603 7911
Faculty Position — Open Rank
Antibiotic Research
www.nanocotechnologies.com
The Department of Chemistry and the Institute for Genomic Biology at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign seek applications for an open rank
NIK]T\aXW[Q\QWVQV\PMÅMTLWN IV\QJQW\QKZM[MIZKP

ACADEMIC POSITIONS
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
ENERGY ENGINEERING FACULTY POSITIONS
KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Kansas State University seeks exceptional candidates
for three Energy Engineering positions (one Full
Professor and two tenure-track Assistant Professors).
The positions are expected to be in the Department of
Chemical Engineering and associated with the Center
for Sustainable Energy; however, appointments in other
departments can be negotiated. REQUIREMENTS:
PhD in Chemical Engineering or other energy-related
disciplines in science and engineering. We seek applicants
with specialization in the thermochemical conversion
and catalytic processes, separations, and
related biomass-derived energy fields. Additionally,
applicants for the professor position should have credentials
suitable for appointment as a full Professor
in one or more of the Departments within the College.
These credentials must include a successful record of
scholarship, innovation, and/or entrepreneurship. DU-
TIES: Lead vigorous research programs, teach, and
advise students at both the undergraduate and graduate
levels. CONTACT: A single PDF file containing a curriculum
vitae, statements of research and teaching interest,
and names and addresses (including emails)
of three professional references should be submitted
to: CSE-search@ksu.edu. Nominations and inquiries
should be addressed to: Mary Rezac, Professor and
Head, Department of Chemical Engineering, Kansas
State University, Manhattan, KS 66506-5102.
Rezac@ksu.edu; 785-532-5584. Review will begin on
January 5, 2009, and continue until the positions are
filled. Kansas State University is pro-active in exploring
opportunities for the employment of spouses, both
inside and outside the University. Background checks
are required. KSU actively seeks diversity among its employees
and is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action
Employer.
BIOCHEMIST: A tenure-track assistant professor position
in biochemistry is available beginning August
2009. A Ph.D. in Chemistry or closely related field is
required. The successful candidate will be expected
to develop a strong, externally funded research program
in biochemistry with both undergraduate and
graduate students (M.S.). Candidates with specialties
such as biophysical or bioorganic chemistry are
also encouraged to apply. Western Kentucky University
has an Applied Research and Technology Program
(ARTP) with centers such as the Materials Characterization
Center, the Institute for Combustion Science
and Environmental Technology, and Biotechnology
Center. Extensive instrumentation capabilities exist
through these and other centers. Submit a letter of
application, curriculum vitae, unofficial transcripts,
three letters of recommendation, and statements of
teaching philosophy and research goals to: Biochemistry
Search Committee, Department of Chemistry,
Western Kentucky University, 1906 College Heights
Blvd., Bowling Green, KY 42101. Additional information
can be obtained at the homepages of the Department
of Chemistry (http://www.wku.edu/ chemistry)
or ARTP (http://www.wku.edu/artp). Review of applications
will begin January 5, 2009. Women and minorities
are encouraged to apply. Affirmative Action/Equal
Opportunity Employer.
NANOTECHNOLOGY POSTDOCS in graphene and
nanomaterials R&D. Immediate openings exist and require
a PhD in chemistry, physics, materials or closely
related field, including engineering. The successful
applicants will perform independent research as well
as lead undergraduate students working on our patent
pending nanomaterials development, separation,
characterization, transparent electrode, and PV device
fabrication efforts at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville
in the Department of Chemistry and
Engineering Physics and a new nanotechnology R&D
center. To apply, please send a letter of interest, CV, a
summary statement of research experience, unofficial
transcripts, and two current letters of recommendation
to Professor James Hamilton: hamiltoj@ uwplatt.
edu. Full position description at www.uwplatt.edu/
nano. Application review begins 11/20/08 and continues
until positions are filled.
ASST PROF OF CHEMISTRY Arkansas Tech University
seeks Inorganic Ph.D. chemist for tenure-track
position to begin in August 2009 in ACS-certified program.
Teach 12 credit hr/sem. undergraduate chemistry
courses & laboratories as directed in addition to
other assigned duties. Develop research program that
incorporates undergraduate students and meshes
with faculty and facilities. Deadline Dec. 5, 2008, or
until filled. Application details at http://pls.atu.edu/
physci/. AA/EOE.
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH POSITION FOR CHEMI-
CAL ENGINEER AND ORGANIC/ANALYTICAL CHEM-
IST, available immediately. Duties include operation of
batch reactors and bench scale continuous flow pilot
plant to demonstrate catalyst life and economic studies
of the hydrolysis and hydrogenation of biomass
carbohydrates into a polyols platform. Both positions
may also be considered for part-time teaching assignments.
Send vita with reference list to: robinsonm@
utb.edu or FAX to 432-552-2236. Noll Prof. Mike
Robinson, Dept. of Chemistry, Univ. of Texas of the
Permian Basin, 4901 E. University Blvd., Odessa, TX
79762-8301. EEO/AA Employer.
ANALYTICAL CHEMIST - Ouachita Baptist University
Fall 2009 tenure-track position. PhD in analytical
chemistry and a strong commitment to undergraduate
teaching and research at a liberal arts institution.
Salary and rank are commensurate with experience.
Must support the mission of the institution. Review
begins January 12 and continues until the position
is filled. Send CV, teaching philosophy, undergraduate
research plans, and transcripts. Arrange for three
reference letters to be sent to Marty Perry, Chair,
Chemistry, Box 3711, Arkadelphia, AR 71998. (870)
245-5217. perrym@obu.edu. www.obu.edu/natsci.
Women and minority candidates are encouraged to
apply.
THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN COLLEGES DE-
PARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY invites applications for
two fall 2009 tenure-track positions: The position at
the UW-Sheboygan campus has an emphasis in organic
chemistry. The position at UW-Washington County
campus has a biochemistry emphasis. See http://
www.uwc.edu/jobs/faculty/ for full position descriptions
& application instructions. Letter of interest,
teaching philosophy, professional goals, vita, transcripts,
and three letters of recommendation must be
received by January 2, 2009. For further information,
contact Anthony Millevolte, Chair, Department of
Chemistry: anthony.millevolte@uwc.edu. UW-Barron
County, 1800 College Dr., Rice Lake, WI 54868.
EOE/AA.
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL
ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
invites applications for faculty positions. All areas
of Civil and Environmental Engineering will be considered
but special consideration will be given for candidates
with primary research interest in the following
areas: Sustainable water systems and infrastructure,
Sustainable building design, Sustainable infrastructure
construction, and Sustainable geo-environmental
engineered systems. Required qualifications include a
Ph.D. and a strong background relevant to Civil or Environmental
Engineering. Competitive candidates will
also have a distinguished academic record, exceptional
potential for creative research, and a commitment
to both undergraduate and graduate instruction. For
more senior applicants, an outstanding reputation in
the field of specialty is a primary requirement. Please
see http://www.ohr.wisc.edu/pvl/pv_060620.html
for the complete position description. Please submit
application letter, CV, a teaching statement, a statement
of proposed research, and a funding plan electronically
to: ceefacultysearch@engr.wisc.edu. Apply
by December 31, 2008, to insure consideration. UW-
Madison is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action
Employer. We promote excellence through diversity
and encourage all qualified individuals to apply.
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
The Department of Chemistry at Princeton University
invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor
position in theoretical physical chemistry. Candidates
should have a strong commitment to research
and to teaching at the undergraduate and graduate
levels, and are expected to have completed the Ph.D. in
chemistry or a related field at the time of appointment.
Applicants should submit a description of research interests,
curriculum vitae, a list of publications, and 3
letters of recommendation by December 19, 2008,
to: Ms. Linda Peoples, Assistant to the Chair, Dept.
of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
08544-1009. Princeton University is an Equal Opportunity
Employer and complies with applicable EEO and
affirmative action regulations. For general application
information and information about self-identification,
please see http://web.princeton.edu/sites/dof/
ApplicantsInfo.htm. You may apply online at http://
jobs.princeton.edu.
CHEMISTRY TEACHING FACULTY POSITION AT
WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY
The C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry at
West Virginia University invites applications for a
Teaching Assistant Professor or Instructor position,
beginning August 2009. The successful applicant will
participate in teaching and development of the general
chemistry program. The position is a nine-month appointment
and includes full benefits. There is potential
for summer teaching at additional compensation.
Teaching Assistant Professors at WVU are eligible for
promotion; however, promotion to senior ranks is not a
requirement for institutional commitment and career
stability in a Teaching Faculty appointment. Appointments
are renewable term appointments with provision
for up to three-year renewable terms for successful
teaching faculty. There is no maximum number of
terms. Applicants must have a doctoral or master’s
degree in chemistry or chemical education; a doctoral
degree is required for appointment as Teaching Assistant
Professor. Applicants must be committed to active
learning and a student-centered orientation, have
an interest in course development, have excellent
communication and interpersonal skills, and be willing
to use instructional and web-based technologies.
Teaching experience (lectures in a course over the duration
of an entire semester or term) is highly desirable.
Offer of employment is contingent upon ability to
provide satisfactory documentation at time of application
verifying eligibility to work for West Virginia University
in the above-mentioned position. Applicants
must submit a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, description
of teaching philosophy, and arrange for three
letters of recommendation to be sent to the search
committee. Include teaching evaluations as available.
All materials must be mailed to: Teaching Professor
Search Committee, C. Eugene Bennett Department
of Chemistry, PO Box 6045, West Virginia University,
Morgantown, WV 26506-6045. Recommendation
letters must address the applicant’s teaching capability.
Review of completed applications will continue until
the position is filled, with priority given to applications
received by January 15, 2009. WVU is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative
Action Employer. Women and protected
class individuals are encouraged to apply.
CANADA RESEARCH CHAIR TIER 2 IN ENVIRON-
MENTAL CHEMISTRY. The department of Chemistry
at Université de Sherbrooke invites applications
for a full-time tenure-track faculty position (posting at
www.USherbrooke.ca/srh). We seek candidates with
expertise in analytical, physical or inorganic chemistry,
preferably with experience or ongoing activities in
environment-related issues. Send a cover letter, curriculum
vitae, and two letters of recommendation to
M. le Doyen, Faculté des sciences, Offre d’emploi
no 00204, Université de Sherbrooke, 2500 boul.
Université, Sherbrooke, CANADA J1K 2R1 or at
doyensci@USherbrooke.ca. Applications will be reviewed
from January 16, 2009, until the position is
filled.
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY : The Artie McFerrin Department
of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University
( http://che.tamu.edu/ ) invites applications for
two tenure-track faculty positions at the Assistant or
Associate Professor rank. Specific areas of interest
include, but are not limited to, bioenergy, alternative
fuels, and materials science & engineering. The successful
applicant is expected to develop and maintain
a research program leading to national and international
recognition and to teach at the undergraduate
and graduate levels. The Department is housed in a
new $38 million, 205,000 square foot facility, has 28
full-time faculty and 140 graduate students, and has
over $20 million in endowments. Candidates applying
for this position must have a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering
or in a closely-related field. Applications with
curriculum vita, including research and teaching interests,
a statement of research plans, copies of selected
publications, and names of three references should be
sent to Professor Michael Pishko, Artie Mcferrin Department
of Chemical Engineering , 3122 TAMU , Texas
A&M University , College Station , TX 77843-3122 .
Applications will be considered until the positions are
filled. Texas A&M University is an Equal Opportunity/
Affirmative Action Employer committed to diversity.
Candidates from under-represented groups are strongly
encouraged to apply.
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 54 NOVEMBER 24, 2008

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PHD CHEMIST, Experience in F18 Radiochemistry
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FIBROWATT
newscripts
WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THAT TURKEY WASTE
Thanksgiving week is here. So let’s
take a moment to talk turkey. Last
year, 272 million turkeys were raised
in the U.S., according to U.S. Department
of Agriculture statistics. With those birds
comes a lot of turkey poop.
Most turkey manure ends up as fertilizer,
but as the demand for non-fossil-fuel energy
grows, more people are looking to turn
the smelly waste into energy. The thought
of burning TURKEY LITTER to make electricity
on a large scale was unheard of in
the U.S. until Pennsylvania-based Fibrowatt
was founded in 2000. The company claims
its management team “built the
world’s first three poultry-litterfueled
power plants in the U.K. in
the 1990s.”
Poop scooper: Some of the waste
from the millions of turkeys consumed
this week will be converted into
renewable energy.
Last year in Minnesota, 48 million
turkeys were raised—the most in any U.S.
state—and Fibrowatt opened what it says is
“the first poultry-litter-fueled power plant
in the U.S.” The Minnesota plant, Fibrominn,
is located in rural Benson, a town of 3,386
people, according to the 2000 census.
Besides the new biomass plant, the only
other thing going on in town is ethanol production,
some of it at the Shaker’s Vodka
distillery.
The process of converting turkey poop
to fuel is simple: Burn turkey litter to boil
water to make steam, which drives a turbine
that generates electricity. Fibrowatt’s
process uses combustion temperatures
above 1,500 ºF and high-pressure steam at
850 ºF. The company claims the process is
carbon neutral, meaning that the amount
of carbon released is equal to the amount
sequestered or offset.
Although the technology gives turkey
farmers an alternative way to dispose of
their waste, some people think the idea
stinks. A campaign called FibroWATCH
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 56 NOVEMBER 24, 2008
SHUTTERSTOCK
aims to stop Fibrowatt and what it calls
poultry-litter incineration. Not only does
the process smell, the group says, but it is
not economical. Without incentives from
the state, the Fibrominn plant probably
would not have been built.
The group is also concerned about air
pollution, particularly hydrochloric and
sulfuric acid emissions, as well as heavy
metals such as arsenic in the ash.
Fibrominn reportedly does a good job
of keeping the stench inside the plant and
says it meets Minnesota’s air pollution
requirements. It sits on 77 acres and uses
more than 500,000 tons of poul-
try litter annually, most of which
is supplied by Minnesota
turkey farmers. It generates
55 MW, enough for about
40,000 homes.
Fibrowatt now has its eye
on the second largest turkey
state—North Carolina—which
raised 39 million turkeys in
2007. The company is also actively
working on projects in Arkansas, Georgia,
Maryland, and Mississippi, and it has plans
for projects in Alabama and Texas.
Acompany called Changing World
Technologies (CWT) made headlines
in 2003 for its apparently
miracle-making thermo-depolymerization
technology that turns waste from a Butterball
turkey processing plant in Carthage,
Mo., into oil. The company now admits that
the process is much more expensive than
originally thought.
Even so, according to CWT’s latest press
release, its “Renewable Environmental
Solutions subsidiary can convert approximately
250 tons/day of turkey offal and
fats into approximately 20,000 gallons of
a RENEWABLE DIESEL FUEL oil and valuable
fertilizer products.”
Few details are available about CWT’s
technology. The company claims its “thermal
conversion process mimics the earth’s
natural geothermal process by using water,
heat, and pressure to transform organic
and inorganic wastes into oils, gases,
carbons, metals, and ash. Even heavy metals
are transformed into harmless oxides.”
Skeptics say it sounds too good to be true.
BRITT ERICKSON wrote this week’s column.
Please send comments and suggestions to
newscripts@acs.org.

Registration Now Open!
New for 2009
• Green Chemistry Pavilion
• Biotechnology Day
• REACH Breakfast Briefing (Presented by SOCMA)
Where the reaction is.
The world’s cutting-edge chemistry under one roofl
As the premier networking event for the chemical industry in the United States, InformexUSA is designed to
showcase the chemistry capabilities of high-value, high-quality businesses in the chemical manufacturing
industry. Companies that invest in R&D, quality systems, applications development, and more.
InformexUSA draws suppliers with a broad range of specialties. What they have in common is their cuttingedge
chemistry. With a mix of casual networking events and educational roundtables, it’s a great place to
build networks and shop for new ideas.
If you are looking to use chemistry to manufacture products in these markets, InformexUSA is where you
should be:
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Featuring the Second Annual Informex Gala Dinner with
Guest Keynote Speaker Madeleine Albright
January 27-30, 2009: San Francisco, CA
Visit www.informexusa.com for details.
Please use this code when registering: CEN1108.

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