More on the Nobel

Ok, so the Nobel prize in chemistry has been awarded for 2009. Now that we have had some time to decide whether this was a good or not-so-good choice, let us consider the following question: Does a Nobel in chemistry mean anything these days? Is it relevant ?

To answer this, I direct you to a nice article in, of all places, Analyticl Chemistry.

Enjoy.

Ribosomes Win! … What!?!?

Yet again, the chemistry Nobel honors work that…well…I guess relies on chemistry. Figuring out how the ribosome works is a pretty nice feat… I was kinda hoping for a little bit more of a synthetic bent. I guess the chances of any synthethic stuff winning the Nobel from here on out are pretty remote.

Oh well.

Just goes to show that the definition of “chemistry” is pretty broad indeed.

C&E News 9/28 (thanks Rudy!)

Hi everybody! I have finally found something to write about!

In his latest piece of prosey goodness, Rudy Baum hits upon a couple of topics that I simply love. The first is the fact that C&E News issue for the week of 9/28/09 is the annual Pharm Issue! WooHoo! It is not like C&E News has major pharma stories in every other issue… nope. I like to think of C&E News as the pharma industry weekly rag with a little commodity and environmental stuff thrown in to keep membership up. But hey, I am bitter since I was flatly told I could never (NEVER!!!) work for Merck because I did not do a 20+ linear asymmetric total synthesis during my PhD.

Ok, so this is the annual pharma issue. I’ll get over it. What will be a little harder to get over is the continual stroking of the pharma and health industry’s efforts to develop a vaccine for the *gasp* H1N1 flu. No one has yet to explain to me why we need a vaccine for the flu – seasonal or swine. Sure, it sucks to get the flu. But most people survive. If you happen to be at risk for dying from the flu, get the vaccine. But for the rest of us, stop shoving flu-shit down our throats.

Instead of trying to develop a quick fix for this, how about the following:

1. Learn to eat right and excersize.
2. Get lots of sleep.
3. Work less so you have less fatigue and are healthier.
4. Stay the fuck home if you are sick.
5. Dont’ preach handwashing like a douchbag… it might not work for the flu (H1N1).

Why is it that whenever there is a perceived public heath threat… we rush out and spend zillions of dollars to fix it… God forbid we get a little sick. How much money is being spent on fixing (i.e. developing drugs for) obesity? STOP EATING FAST FOOD! If you are worried about your kids getting sick, then don’t plop them in overcrowded day care/school environments. If you send a sick kid to school, you be fined $1000/day. Period. If you go to work with the flu, you get docked a months pay.

We’ll learn eventually. Maybe.

mCPBA – Ha!

I was eating lunch the other day (a nice microwaved delicacy, straight from the food labs of Kraft) and decided I would peruse one of my favorite chemistry books, Mundy’s Named Reactions and Reagents in Organic Synthesis.

Overall, I really like this book. I have yet to find a bound source of named reactions that has more reactions a reagents than this reasonably priced tome. Even the fabled book by Li is a little weak in comparison, in my opnion. However, I was dismayed to read the following in the notes section of the Prilezhaev reaction:

The simplest, formic, peracetic and perbenzoic acid, are not so much in contemporary use. The workhorse of peroxy acids is m-chloroperoxybenzoic acid (mCPBA).

This is just wrong! In industry, the work horse in peracetic acid. It is a solution and the byproduct is acetic acid, which is rather easy to dispose of. In contrast, m-chlorobenzoic acid is a pain in the ass, as it is a solid. So while the academic world loves mCPBA, the industrial world tends to love peracetic acid. For those who have never tried it, you should, it works just as well as mCPBA.

Now Where Will I Get My Cerium?

World faces hi-tech crunch as China eyes ban on rare metal exports

Beijing is drawing up plans to prohibit or restrict exports of rare earth metals that are produced only in China and play a vital role in cutting edge technology, from hybrid cars and catalytic converters, to superconductors, and precision-guided weapons.

==========

Hmmm…. looks like in this age of high technology, global politics and 24 hours of news, it still comes down to who has what and where.

Do we really need a flu shot?

I have to be honest with both my readers: I am a little wary about this so-called H1N1 vaccine that is being developed. The government and the CDC hope to have it ready by mid-fall. I just get the feeling that this is a quick rush job, like cash for clunkers was. I understand that H1N1 is a bad flu that will make us all chirp and squeal as we slowly die (at least that is what the news is saying, between the lines!) and turn in to zombies.

I dunno, I have always been a little queasy about the whole flu shot thing. I am not one for “convenience” drugs. The flu kills people, sure…and that is probably bad.

This is a little moral issue I have…

Do we need a vaccine for everyone? Haven’t previous incarnations of the flu shot been like 40% effective? What is the point?

I am Tired of the Climate Change Nonsense!

There has been quite a stir recently regarding C&EN editor Rudy Baum’s comments on the whole climate change thing (here and links within). On one hand, you have those scientists who believe that humans are causing changes to the global environment through our irresponsible emission of green house gasses. On the other hand, there are those scientists who feel that the conclusions reached thus far are not reflective of reality due to the fact that said conclusions rely heavily on computer simulations. Then there are those folks (like me) who fall somewhere in the middle. Sure we emit a lot of gasses that certainly don’t help dissipate excess heat, but emit enough to change the global climate? Hard to swallow my friend.

Frankly, I am a little tired of the whole “If you don’t believe the data you are not a scientist” versus “There is no possible way 50 years of coal and oil burning has harmed the massive atmosphere! It is all bullshit! SHOW US THE DATA!!!” Science is all about debate. So why don’t both sides show all their cards and have a healthy debate. I am sorry, but the IPCC (that international body of supposedly smart people) is too politically connected for me to buy into all their reports. I am looking for the academic scientific community to come together, hug, and have a nice big clean debate. Otherwise, it is just a bunch of weenies with their panties riding up their butts, whining that the other side is being stupid.

There is a bigger issue here (yes, bigger than panties riding up a geek’s butt). What people fail to realize, or acknowledge openly, is that it does not matter (except to Nobel Gore) whether we “caused” global warming or not. No, it does not matter one bit. What matters is the fact that our society is one that is based on non-renewable consumption. Whether this results in global warming or not is irrelevant. The fact is, we consume resources and are not replenishing them.

Take fuels from fossil origin as an example. We are burning them faster than they are being replenished. This is just poor planning on our part. Electronics are another example. Our need for tvs, ipods, laptops etc… is increasing the demand for things like Co, Pd, Ti, Li, etc… these things don’t grow on trees ya know.

So really, does it matter who caused the climate to change a degree or two? Really? Does it matter? Why not figure out how to give humanity all the electrons it needs with out resorting to combustion? Hows about figuring out how to extract and recycle metals from all the electronics we throw away? Oh, and do it cleanly so that pregnant Chinese women are not breathing aqua regia fumes whiles they are dissolving the Cu from discarded HP-RPN calculators!

Will you in Idiots just Shut the Hell Up!

I was listening to my local AM news station today at lunch enjoying the audio clips of various town hall meetings that have been occurring recently across this great land. That major topic of discussion at said meetings is the Obama Health Plan. What amuses me most are the idiots who stand up to “confront their congressman”. As if these dropouts have anything interesting to say. What ends up coming out of their cake holes is a bunch of propaganda that has very little to do with reality. Why? Because none of them have actually read the bill. They instead listen to the idiots of Fox News etc….

Here is the thing: Health care is either 1) a right for all US citizens to enjoy or 2) a privilege.

If it is a right, then we all need to chip in to fund health care for all of us. If it is a privilege, then only those who can pay for insurance will have it. Pretty soon, insurance will be so expensive that only the top tier earners will be able to have it.

Then we shall revisit this debate.  

But really, if you are not informed, shut the F*CK up. You are giving the rest of the world fodder to mock us (like there is not enough of that already!).

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-august-10-2009/healther-skelter

You studied with who?

I’ll be honest, I don’t read a lot of other blogs. Some of the blogs out there in chem-blog land are written in a style style that is so hard to read that it makes my brain hurt. The authors try, for some reason to construct sentences using the biggest words possible. Maybe they need to sound smart. I dunno. I don’t have the time to sit there and try to wade my way through complicated text. I like text I can read easily. I am not a super-duper smart person.

I had given up reading the chemblog for a while. The swearing and the “satire” and the questionable comments on race just was not doing it for me. Then my RSS aggrigator showed me his post on pedigrees. I had to read for this is one of those dirty little secrets that professors never own up to. Pedigree is everything. Without one, you are nothing.

If you want a job as an academic, in an R1 school (one with a PhD program), you had better spend some time with a big dog at one of the big schools (Harvard, MIT, Scripps, UCB… you get the idea). If you do not have a PhD and a postdoc and another postdoc from big schools and big people, don’t bother applying. The competition is too great. Even at the shit schools! Lots of people dream of being laid back profs with research programs and grants and undergrad helpers and wandering to the coffee shop in their Birkenstocks to talk about the latest ACIEE paper from Baran. But here is the thing: THERE ARE NOT THAT MANY OPENINGS! The top schools pump out way more people per year than there are academic jobs for (even with some going to…gasp… industry).

So frankly, if you think you want to be a prof, start getting the pedigree. If you are already in a postdoc, want to be a prof and do not have a pedigree, start looking at undergrad only schools.

Oh, if you want to be a med chemist in big, bad pharma, total syn or it’s nothing.

Farewell my Cynical Friend

Today I was shocked and dismayed that a good blogging friend of mine, Milo, has finally (hopefully) ended his blogging days.  Milomuses.com is no more.

I started reading his stuff in 2003, when he started interfacialscience. 6 years and 4 (5?) domains later, he has finally left the building. I shall miss his angry, cynical and insightful musings.