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March 15, 2010
11:27
‘CENtral Science’
» ‎ C&ENtral Science
C&EN launched “C&ENtral Science,” the magazine’s permanent blog, in March 2008, in time for the spring ACS national meeting in New Orleans. A number of C&EN staff members attending the meeting posted blog entries on everything from symposia they had attended to tchotchkes being given out by exhibitors at the meeting exposition. A smattering of readers followed us on the blog.

We created “C&ENtral Science” with a bit of trepidation. There was concern about diverting staff resources from covering hard news of the chemistry enterprise toward what some viewed as ephemera. There were questions about setting priorities. People pointed out that successful blogs often had a snarky tone that we thought was inappropriate for C&EN. Others worried that the lighter, breezier tone we were hoping to achieve on “C&ENtral Science” could detract from the perception of C&EN as a serious newsmagazine.

For the past two years, “C&ENtral Science” has been something of a grabbag. Numerous staff members attending national meetings continued to post on, yes, tchotchkes, dining experiences, and people they ran into on shuttle buses, as well as symposia and governance functions. C&EN’s informal “staff photographer,” Associate Editor Linda Wang, worked with C&EN Online Visual Designer Tchad Blair to create memorable slide shows from the meetings.

Other posts on “C&ENtral Science” ranged from my editorials to serious discussions of lab safety to lighthearted items on almost anything that caught a C&EN staffer’s fancy. One memorable posting—a tribute to Michael Jackson after his death—came from Senior Editor Lisa Jarvis following her two-week fellowship at NSF’s Toolik Field Station in Alaska (see C&ENtral Science, July 6, 2009). In 2009, “C&ENtral Science” had more than 137,000 page views.

Now it’s time for “C&ENtral Science” to evolve to the next level. Jarvis got the discussion going last September with the distribution to C&EN’s senior staff of what I have come to call her “blog manifesto.” In it, she wrote: “The business group had a spontaneous discussion about the future of journalism and social media this week, and one result was a growing desire to allow staff to have their own blogs. The idea is to have a portal that would lead readers to any of several blogs that focus on a particular beat.”

After much discussion and the work of an ad hoc task force led by C&EN Online Editor Rachel Pepling, that’s what will happen. On March 22, in conjunction with the national meeting in San Francisco, “CENtral Science” will relaunch as a portal to, initially, six hosted blogs on the following topics:
- General chemical business, hosted by Senior Editor Alex Tullo.
- Cleantech chemistry, hosted by Senior Editor Melody Voith.
- Newscripts, hosted by Assistant Editor Lauren Wolf and the “Newscripts Crew.”
- Pharmaceuticals/biotechnology, hosted by Jarvis and Associate Editor Carmen Drahl.
- The Editor’s Blog, hosted by me and Deputy Editor-in-Chief Maureen Rouhi.
- Chemical safety, hosted by Associate Editor Jyllian Kemsley and Senior Correspondent Jeff Johnson.
Relaunching “CENtral Science” as a portal to several hosted blogs that focus on specific topics of interest to C&EN’s diverse readership is a natural evolution of the site. Since its launch, “CENtral Science” has provided C&EN reporters with an alternative outlet for their natural curiosity and creativity and C&EN readers with another channel to express their opinions.

We hope that the new “CENtral Science” will allow C&EN reporters and the readers who follow their reporting to develop productive relationships in which the flow of information and opinion is truly multidimensional. We hope you will find one or more of the blogs on “CENtral Science” to be of interest and that you will contribute to the content by posting comments on the blogs.

Thanks for reading. And commenting.
March 10, 2010
12:39
Another season starting for Breaking Bad
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

Hey, Breaking Bad fans–season three starts on March 21! (Coincidence or not that that’s also opening day of the spring ACS meeting?)

To get you in the mood, David Bianculli of the public radio show Fresh Air interviewed Breaking Bad director Vince Gilligan on Tuesday. And here’s a teaser from AMC:

For those who haven’t watched past seasons, it looks like AMC is once again doing a marathon of previous shows over the weekend leading up to the season premiere.
March 09, 2010
15:06
Celebrating The Laser
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

In honor of this week’s laser-rific cover story, which takes a look at the laser’s impact on chemical research during the past five decades, I’m also giving a nod to its influence on pop culture.

After all, what would movies and television be without lasers that blow up planets and sharks that use them for frickin’ nefarious purposes?

Here, then, are my top five picks for the Best Uses of Lasers in Film:

5) Countless movies have used “laser fields” to protect some sort of data or priceless artifact from being stolen. And characters have always gotten by those laser grids with a lot of practice and, well, flexibility. Take Catherine Zeta-Jones in “Entrapment,” for instance. She and Sean Connery practiced really hard to defeat a laser-based security system and steal a desirable Chinese mask in the film. An even more elaborate dance through a laser field in a much better movie, however, was undertaken by the Night Fox in “Ocean’s Twelve.” He dances his way through the lasers to steal the Coronation Egg, an antique he eventually finds out was a fake all along.

4) No one could forget the moment the Death Star blows up Princess Leia’s home planet of Alderaan in “Star Wars.” An entire planet gone in the blink of an eye, my friends. And what technological wonder was responsible? You guessed it: a really, really big laser.

3) James Bond has gotten into a number of sticky situations over the years. In one of the most memorable, though, Bond (I’m clearly partial to Sean Connery) was strapped to a table, staring down an industrial laser in “Goldfinger.” The laser begins cutting the table in half and threatens to slice 007 up the middle as well. He gets away, of course, but the scene is a classic.

2) “Lasers” feature prominently in the first Austin Powers movie, “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.” And, yes, as I’m writing this, I’m pausing to make the air quotations with my fingers. Dr. Evil had only one simple request: sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads. Alas, he had to initially settle for some ill-tempered sea bass. We all had to wait until the final movie in the trilogy for Scott Evil, his son, to bring his grand vision to fruition.

1) Drum roll, please. Say what you will about the cinematic quality of the movie, but there is no question that “Real Genius,” a gem from the ’80s, pays tribute to geeks and laser jocks everywhere. Brainiac students at Pacific Tech, a fictional school modeled after Caltech, use their smarts to build new lasers and, in their spare time, to play practical jokes on one another.

In what other movie would a character (Val Kilmer) describe his laser breakthrough as such: “It is possible to synthesize excited bromide in an argon matrix. Yes, it’s an excimer frozen in its excited state. It’s a chemical laser but in solid, not gaseous, form. Put simply … it’s like lasing a stick of dynamite” ?

And in what other movie would a laser be used to pop enough popcorn to destroy a house? A little far-fetched, sure. But a guilty pleasure nonetheless.
13:59
Whither Literacy?
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

C&EN has been engaged in a major project with the ACS Washington IT Department for more than three years to create a workflow that renders all C&EN content in XML—extensible markup language—to facilitate delivery of the content electronically over the Internet and via mobile devices. That Digital Workflow Project has now morphed into the C&EN Production Automation Program, a set of four projects that will revolutionize the delivery of C&EN to its readers.

One reason the workflow project has been so complex and drawn out is that C&EN is a weekly magazine with three delivery modes—print, electronic, and C&EN Online—which we produce in parallel. We do multiple types of editing simultaneously, and the content you read isn’t final until the pages of the print edition are complete. Our workflow is inherently complicated.

Another reason, however, is the complexity of the typography and design of a magazine that covers the chemistry enterprise. Of necessity, C&EN contains many “special characters”—Greek letters and mathematical symbols, for example, to express chemical names and concepts. We have also chosen to retain many elements of classical typography, with the names of journals and the Latin names of species italicized, to take another example.

Because I have been in the magazine business for more than 30 years, I am sensitive to typography. Have you noticed how some of the elements of typography I noted above have completely disappeared from newspapers and most magazines? You won’t see Science magazine or Escherichia coli in italics in the New York Times. You almost certainly will not see α-interferon, either. I call this the tyranny of XML; it is a protocol that is powerful for the electronic delivery of content, but it is wreaking havoc on print.

I know, print’s days are numbered, so who cares? Well, we offer the electronic edition of C&EN—an electronic facsimile of the print edition—and only 13% of ACS members living in North America opted in 2010 to take it over the print edition. It appears that many ACS members still prefer to read C&EN on paper.

Anyway, the lead article in the March 2 “Science Times” section of the New York Times was a fascinating story entitled “Striving to Map the Shape-Shifting Net.” The focus of the story was the evolving nature of the channels over which information flows on the Internet. That volume is enormous. The article quotes Cisco Systems’ Doug Webster, who said, “When we started releasing data publicly, we measured it in petabytes of traffic. Then a couple of years ago we had to start measuring them in zettabytes, and now we are measuring them in what we call yottabytes.” The article defines a petabyte as 1 million gigabytes; a zettabye is 1 million petabytes; a yottabyte, 1,000 zettabytes.

A statement that caught my eye was that Cisco “estimates that video will account for 90% of all Internet traffic by 2013.”

I know, video requires much greater bandwidth to transmit than text, so the statement doesn’t mean that 90% of the content will be video. Still, what does this say about the evolution of how we exchange information? Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press using movable type in 1439 or so. Widespread literacy has been a trait of civilized humans for only 500 years. Speech and storytelling are hard-wired in our genes. We are called Homo sapiens, but would anyone know we could think if we didn’t talk about our thoughts? Reading words on paper or a computer screen is most definitely not part of our basic nature.

Is it possible that reading words is a transient phase in our evolution as storytellers and information exchangers? That if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million? That in the future, people will choose to receive the information they need by listening and/or watching rather than by reading?

I have no idea what the answers are to these questions. I do know from the C&EN workflow project that the Internet is not friendly to words rendered gracefully, the way Gutenberg and his printing descendants rendered them.

Thanks for reading.
March 05, 2010
14:48
First Impressions At Pittcon – Final Edition
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

I don’t have the time to fully understand zeta potential, so of course I go to Wikipedia, according to which: “Zeta potential is an abbreviation for electrokinetic potential in colloidal systems. In the colloidal chemistry literature, it is usually denoted using the Greek letter zeta, hence ζ-potential. From a theoretical viewpoint, zeta potential is electric potential in the interfacial double layer (DL) at the location of the slipping plane versus a point in the bulk fluid away from the interface. In other words, zeta potential is the potential difference between the dispersion medium and the stationary layer of fluid attached to the dispersed particle.”

Okay, that makes my head ache. And thank goodness, Steven Trainoff, director of engineering at Wyatt Technology assures me that even if I don’t exactly know what zeta potential is, I could still appreciate the importance of an instrument they are introducing at Pittcon 2010, the Möbiuζ, which Wyatt claims can more precisely and easily measure the electrophoretic mobility of proteins than other methods.

Accurate measurement of protein electrophoretic mobility—which is related to the zeta potential—is especially important in formulating protein drugs. That’s because protein drugs must be charged in a formulation. The charge must be high enough to ensure that proteins are stable—individual molecules repel each other—but not so high that not enough molecules can be crammed in the formulation. It’s therefore critical to know the charge on the molecule, which can be inferred from the electrophoretic mobility.

Now, many instruments out there can measure electrophoretic mobility, Trainoff says, but they are not good with small proteins, such as the 14.4-kilodalton lysozyme, in the high concentration that they exist in a formulation. That’s because as proteins become smaller, the noise from diffusion becomes too much. Wyatt’s new optical instrument solves this problem by using an array of 30 photodiode detectors instead of the usual single detector. The massively parallel detection system means faster detection and higher sensitivity than is possible with other instruments. For example, Wyatt’s Möbiu? can determine the electrophoretic mobility of a 1-mg/mL sample of immunoglobulin G in about 30 seconds.

Watch out for the March 29 issue for C&EN’s official coverage of Pittcon 2010. Senior Correspondent Stu Borman will summarize the highlights and trends, Senior Correspondent Steve Ritter will compile the most noteworthy instruments on display, and Senior Editors Celia Henry and Mitch Jacoby will report from the technical sessions.
March 04, 2010
9:50
First Impressions At Pittcon – Part 4
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

I had back-to-back meetings with 10 companies while at Pittcon; some of them I’ve mentioned in earlier posts. The one that left a deep impression is Anasazi, a maker of 60- and 90-MHz FT-NMR instruments that sells 90% of its products to the education market: community colleges, 4-year colleges, and even high schools.

I completed my chemistry education without ever seeing, let alone using, an NMR instrument, and I’m so excited that high school and college students can actually use, touch, and manipulate the machine instead of just learning how to read and interpret the spectra, thanks to affordable and low-maintenance products such as those from Anasazi.

Don Bouchard, president of Anasazi, tells me that Anasazi FT-NMRs are ideal for the education market because they do not use superconducting magnets that need gases and cryogenic conditions to operate. The company does have a few industry customers, he says, for applications that can be optimally executed with the 60- and 90-MHz instruments. The
difference in price, according to Don, is significant: about $100,000 for an Anasazi instrument, including a five-year warranty vs about $225,000 + $15-30,000/per year in maintenance costs for a 400-MHz spectrometer with a superconducting magnet.

Anasazi NMR spectrometers are installed at three U.S. high schools and many colleges, including at least 20 community colleges in California, Don says.

Although Anasazi’s primary customers are from academia, Don and his wife, Julie, are at Pittcon in hopes of attracting customers from industry and government labs. Those of you chemistry teachers with some Department of Education Title III money might want to talk to them.
March 03, 2010
7:56
BPA Craziness
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

The sad saga of bisphenol A (BPA) and food containers reveals much about what is wrong with some environmentalists today.

C&EN has covered the health concerns associated with BPA extensively for several years. We have covered the reports of the National Toxicology Program on the health effects of BPA and the Food & Drug Administration’s difficult balancing act in regulating human exposure to the chemical.

C&EN has also covered the chemistry that makes it difficult to eliminate all uses of BPA associated with food. Senior Editor Mitch Jacoby, for example, wrote in the Dec. 15, 2008, issue (page 31) that “for many food applications, for example, in the metal-packaging industry, finding a new material with just the right combination of properties remains a major challenge” because “the materials used to coat food cans must adhere strongly, provide corrosion resistance, and withstand the high temperatures required for sterilization and processing. The coating also has to be compatible chemically with the food and cannot impart a flavor or odor.” BPA has all of these characteristics; most potential alternatives do not.

Last year, Senior Editor Melody Voith addressed this issue as well (July 20, 2009, page 28). “Linings made with BPA give a wide range of canned goods their long shelf life and good food safety record,” Voith wrote. “Without any lining, a typical aluminum or steel can creates a strong air and light barrier all by itself. But eventually, contact between the food and the metal will corrode the packaging, leading to spoilage or microbial contamination. Corrosion would rapidly ruin high-acid foods, such as tomatoes. Low-acid foods like peas may last longer but are more likely to harbor toxin-producing bacteria such as Clostridium botulinum.” Alternatives to BPA-based linings do not perform as well and/or are significantly more expensive.

The fact is that the evidence linking BPA with adverse health effects is weak. Many studies have been carried out, and the results have been contradictory. This is why FDA has acted cautiously with regard to BPA and why the chemical and food-packaging industries resist stringent regulation of it. FDA announced earlier this year that it has “some concern” about the potential health effects of BPA in infants and children, but also said that more research is needed to fully assess the safety of the chemical (C&EN, Jan. 25, page 8). Market pressure, however, has effectively removed BPA from products such as baby bottles, so that’s no longer an issue.

Nevertheless, the drumbeat against BPA continues. Once suspicion of any kind has been leveled against the safety of a chemical, watch out. No amount of contrary evidence will ever convince some chemophobic environmentalists that use of the chemical should continue. Ban it. Period. It’s no wonder the chemical industry shudders at the mere mention of the precautionary principle.

A front-page story in the Feb. 23 Washington Post, “Replacing BPA in Cans Gives Foodmakers Fits,” carries on in that tradition. Despite the fact that it calls BPA a “synthetic estrogen,” which it isn’t (BPA exhibits weak estrogenic activity, but it is not related to estrogen structurally), the story is, for the most part, factually accurate. Its underlying premise, however, is that exposure to BPA is dangerous. Running throughout the story is the assumption that BPA should be removed from all food containers. A sidebar on the jump page is titled “How to reduce BPA exposure.”

No one has shown that adults exposed to BPA at the levels that leach from food container liners suffer any harm. Potential replacements for BPA don’t work as well and very likely will pose risks of their own. BPA and the polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins that are made from it are useful chemicals that are getting a bum rap from people who don’t know what they are talking about.

Thanks for reading.
March 02, 2010
15:40
First Impressions Of Pittcon–Part 3
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

C&EN’s full coverage of Pittcon 2010 will appear in the March 29 issue. In that issue, C&EN reporters Celia Arnaud, Stu Borman, Mitch Jacoby, and Steve Ritter will synthesize the four-day scientific and exhibition fest on instrumentation/analytics in highlights of product introductions, technical sessions, and industry trends. Their stories will be C&EN’s definitive take on Pittcon. What I am posting are my mere musings.

Herrema

Whitney

We just finished from the first ever C&EN luncheon at Pittcon, attended by 100 guests. Not a bad crowd, considering that Tuesday is the second day of the exhibition. Our luncheon guest speakers were Frank Witney, president and CEO of Dionex, and Greg Herrema, senior vice president and president of analytical instruments at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Both made a strong case of the complexity of analytical challenges in the 21st century, as well as the ability of the instrumentation/analytics to develop new methods and tools to meet these challenges. So far so good.

At Q&A period, though, not one person in the audience asked a question. What’s with that? Are people too busy, shy, wary to participate? Any ideas about how to encourage discussion during a luncheon?

Altogether, the luncheon was fine. As moderator, I asked a question with several follow ups that I think the speakers and the audience appreciated.

I’m still figuring out zeta potential, but I have to catch my flight back to Washington, DC now.

Photo credit (both): Peter Cutts Photography
13:46
First Impressions at Pittcon—Part 2
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

As I said yesterday, what Frank O’Connor of Heidolph Brinkmann is really excited about is Demo for Donations, which the company will implement at the ACS national meeting in San Francisco on March 21-25. According to O’Connor, Demo for Donations works like this: Meeting attendees sign up for a product demonstration at Heidolph’s booth, #1110, and Heidolph will contribute $10 per sign up to the Red Cross earthquake relief fund for Haiti.

Instead of mints, ballpens, or any of the usual freebie trinkets at exhibitions to get people to stop at their booth, Heidolph believes that Demo for Donations will attract more traffic because, as O’Connor’s explains, it offers attendees “a way to give something back to the community.” I warned O’Connor that the San Francisco might attract more than 12,000 people, and Heidolph could be deluged with sign ups. O’Connor’s expectations are conservative, about 1,500.

Well, ACS national meeting attendees, perhaps you can help O’Connor exceed expectations. Again the place to do something good for Haiti in San Francisco is booth #1110.

From Heidolph, I next visited Wyatt Technologies. They’re excited about a new instrument that measures something related to zeta potential and has a key application in protein drug formulation. I’ll tell more about this advance in Part 3. Right now I have to understand what zeta potential is. Can anyone help?
March 01, 2010
15:06
First Impressions At Pittcon
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

For Pittcon 2010, the Orange County Convention Center is in its full glory. It’s one of the most beautiful convention centers in the county, said Annette Wilson, president of Pittcon 2010, at the opening ceremonies this morning, and I agree. It looks gorgeous from the outside. It is also huge, so huge that despite hosting more than 2,000 booths, more than 1000 exhibitors, and more than 2,000 technical papers, Pittcon occupies only the West Section. Advance registration totals more than 14,000.

I’ve had interesting conversations since the first function I attended, the Waters Symposium Dinner last night. There I met James A. de Haseth, a senior partner of a company based in Georgia called Light Light Solutions. It makes instruments that help analyze fibers as they are processed for various uses, including as alternatives to glass. De Haseth tells me the company is working with Canadian groups that are interested in natural fibers such as flax as superstrong, superlight materials for industrial applications.

Another interesting conversation was with Patricia A. Bordell, Pittcon’s chair for shortcourses. She works with the College Board, the organization best known for the SAT and the Advanced Placement Program. Bordell goes around the country and the world to train teachers who teach AP and pre-AP chemistry. The push now by the College Board, she says, is to train chemistry teachers to apply inquiry-based learning in pre-college chemistry classrooms.

I have not been to a Pittcon since three years ago, and I find it pleasing that the familiar hallmarks of Pittcon are still around, such as the trays of apples in the exhibit area and the shuttles that go back and forth the center aisle to move attendees from one end of the exhibition area to the other. I did remember to bring comfortable shoes.

At the exhibition hall, the people I talked to give the impression of optimism. First up was Kristof O’Connor, product manager of Heidolph Brinkmann LLC, a manufacturer of such staple laboratory equipment as rotary evaporators and magnetic stirrers. Heidolph did “well during the recession,” O’Connor tells C&EN, “exceeding sales expectations by 3.5%.” Heidolph’s attitude, O’Connor explains, was to work with customers within their budgets–so if a customer bought a second-hand equipment, Heidolph will help them make it work–with the hope when money becomes available and customers are ready to make new purchases, they would go back to Heidolph. Heidolph saw a significant effect of the Obama Administration’s stimulus money, O’Connor says, with increased business from beneficiaries of NIH and NSF largesse, military research facilities, public universities, and companies in the alternative-fuel business. Demand for evaporators was high from companies trying to make biodiesel from algae.

But what O’Connor really is excited about is what Heidolph plans to do at the ACS National Meeting in San Francisco, which they are calling “Demo for Donations.” More about that in my next update.

Photo credit: Cutts Photography
February 26, 2010
12:55
How Grainy Is The Salt Picture?
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

Sodium chloride is in the spotlight at the New York Times once again this week. John Tierney’s column and blog post delve into what scientists really know about the effects of reducing salt in people’s diets.

It isn’t just an academic question. A movement to cut sodium intake in the population at large is afoot. It’s based on public health data that say lowering NaCl consumption in a population lowers blood pressure on average, and can thus reduce the risk of diseases such as stroke. And
it involves chemists, from those trying to determine how we taste salt to those working on making salt taste enhancers.

Since C&EN last blogged about this topic, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg revealed an initiative to prod food manufacturers and restaurants to reduce the amount of salt in their foods. It’s not a new law, so compliance is voluntary.

The latest from the Times asks whether it’s even possible to get America to permanently cut its salt intake. Perhaps people would just eat more of everything, or go for saltier foods, to compensate, the article says.

I would’ve liked to see a link to the report out of Britain that the column mentions. This report was said to conclude that Britain’s more intensive salt-reduction effort is translating into a 10% decrease in daily salt intake, as measured by the amount of salt excreted in urine. (Now there’s a job for the new guy in the lab..) I haven’t found this report yet, but I will update if I do.

I don’t know much about public health, but the call at the end of the column for a randomized clinical trial on salt intake makes sense to me. I was surprised that this hasn’t been attempted, and my cursory search at clinicaltrials.gov shows that researchers are trying, sort of. See here and here. Only one of the two trials appears to be randomized, and neither claims to be double-blind.

More reading:

The (Political) Science of Salt – reporter Gary Taubes delivers what I still think is the most measured assessment of the ’salt wars’. This article is over ten years old though, so take it as an introduction and read some more recent work, too.

Institute of Medicine of the National Academies – the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences. Here you’ll find reports and information about meetings on developing strategies for salt reduction. Searching the site for ’sodium’ is a good start.

The Salt Institute – a nonprofit organization of salt companies.

Image: Shutterstock
February 23, 2010
14:41
Gimme That Old Time Poisonin’
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

It’s not often that an article about chemistry reaches the “most popular” articles list on Slate. Perhaps the last one was a much-talked-about Slate article about the UCLA/Sheri Sangji case.

Unlike the Sangji article, this story from Friday was about something I’d never heard of before- during Prohibition, the U.S. government ordered the adulteration of industrial alcohol in order to thwart bootleggers and stop people from drinking. As author Deborah Blum explains, that didn’t go so well. Poisoned holiday revelers died by the dozens in the nation’s hospitals. And outraged public health officials and anti-Prohibition legislators had harsh words for the government’s ethically dubious chemistry dabblings.

Since most liquor syndicates were simply taking denatured industrial alcohol, which has additives put in to make it undrinkable, and distilling it to remove said additives, the feds decided to make that distillation a bit more complicated.

From Blum’s article:

By mid-1927, the new denaturing formulas included some notable poisons—kerosene and brucine (a plant alkaloid closely related to strychnine), gasoline, benzene, cadmium, iodine, zinc, mercury salts, nicotine, ether, formaldehyde, chloroform, camphor, carbolic acid, quinine, and acetone. The Treasury Department also demanded more methyl alcohol be added—up to 10 percent of total product. It was the last that proved most deadly.

A couple of chemistry thoughts went through my head as I read Blum’s piece:

How easy is it to separate methanol and ethanol? I pulled out my CRC Handbook, checking to see whether there was an azeotrope- there was none to be found. I also dug up this brochure. Anybody out there know how this works?

The strychnine mention recalled a lecture on poisons I attended several years ago. The professor who gave the lecture told the crowd that the lecture was a favorite of undergrads. I could see why. He started off dramatic, pacing the front of the room with a white coffee mug filled with water and a small, non-lethal (he assured us) dose of strychnine. Then he had us dip a finger in the mug and taste it. I am not making this up. Whatever was in that mug was bitter almost to the point of gagging. The professor explained that at a lethal dose of strychnine, the bitterness would be overwhelming, so it wasn’t a perfect poison, as poisons go. The stuff probably was strychnine- The Merck Index writes that a solution containing as little as 1 part strychnine to 700,000 parts of water will still taste bitter.

Brucine, the alkaloid mentioned above, is a little less bitter than strychnine (the threshold for tasting bitterness in the tetrahydrate is 1:220,000, again per the Merck Index). But I’m guessing that for the poor souls drinking that bootlegged swill, bitterness was the least of their problems.

Image: Shutterstock
February 16, 2010
10:10
ETH Data Manipulation Report Posted On-line
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

Last fall, chemist Peter Chen voluntarily resigned from his post as the vice president for research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, in Zürich, (ETH) following a report from a scientific board of inquiry–that Chen had himself requested–which found that data from his lab published a decade ago in two peer-reviewed papers and a doctoral thesis had been falsified.

The university announced the board of inquiry’s results in September 2009 but it was prevented from releasing the full report publically by a court order from the graduate student involved. According to a post today on the ETH website: “The Court has now ruled, in an initial decision taken at the end of December 2009, that ETH Zurich may in principle publish the export report but only in such an anonymised form “that no conclusions can be drawn about the dissertation or the identity of the complainant”.”

You have to go to the university’s German site to access the report. The blacked out lines are actually multicolor and here is the legend: Blue = PhD Student, green = molecule 1, yellow = molecule 2, black = miscellaneous, red and grey = additional members of the research group.

The basic conclusion from the board of inquiry: “The only credible explanation is manipulation of the data.” They finger the graduate student and vindicate Chen.

Some parts of the 22-page document are dry, but in general it is well-written and shows a measured and comprehensive analysis by the scientific board of inquiry. It also gives insight into how such investigations proceed…
February 11, 2010
5:22
Blame It On The Brain(s) Behind The ACIEs Puns
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

So. My breaking point came a few weeks ago when I read one of ACIE’s genius abstract caption titles, “Just another Mannich Monday.” After laughing out loud, I proceeded to hum the cheesy tune by the Bangles, loudly, from C&EN’s rooftop Berlin office, for three days. From here until perpetuity, the lyrics “I can’t be late because I guess I just won’t get paid” will remind me of Mannich-derived, stereoselective, one-pot syntheses of “spirocycles, 1-aminoindanes, and 5,6-fused azabicycles that have a quaternary carbon center.”

Yeah yeah. I know I’m not the first to grin, groan, or comment about the puns, pop references, and general goofiness ACIE puts into its online abstracts. Many a blogger (Derek Lowe, Excimer, “Phil,” and Chiral Jones ) have also, um, “admired” ACIE’s ability to bring Shakespeare (“Double, double, no toil and trouble”), Star Trek (“Beam me up,” twice), the X-files (”The truth is out there“), and the disembodied voice from the London Underground (“Mind the gap”) into the world of chemistry. The journal has even gotten pretty risqué of late with “Metal ménage à trois” and “Balls galore!”

But Mannich Monday followed soon on the heels of the caption “The Write Stuff,” which permitted the New Kids On The Block hit–(oh yes, here’s the video)–to breach my consciousness for the first time in 20 years—a particularly traumatic reminder of the boy band phenomenon.

So much so, that I had to meet the evil mastermind behind it all.

So I contacted the friendly folks at ACIE, asking whether I could interview (and then, um, perhaps, hound) the person responsible for all the journal’s quirky little abstract captions.

You can imagine my palpable disappointment when Guy Richardson, one of ACIE’s senior associate editors broke the news that the journal’s doozies, like most of science, aren’t the work of a lone genius, but the output of many minds. According to Richardson, “The majority of these texts are indeed the handiwork of the editors (there are about a dozen Ph.D. chemists who work for ACIE, all of whom are native English speakers), but some very good texts do, in fact, come from the authors, and we are always very grateful to authors who join in the fun.”

Yet someone had come up with the Mannich Monday gem, and that someone, I found, is an ACIE editor named Andrew Kelly. He’s only been on staff for a few months “but clearly has a knack for this kind of thing,” Richardson notes. So kudos to you, Dr. Kelly. And here’s a challenge: Try slipping Walk Like An Egyptian into an ACIE caption, given its (remote) chemical connection. (The guy who wrote the pop hit is brother to the chemist who did alot of the early bench work for Visudyne, a macular degeneration drug.)

While we’re on the topic of the humor hot spot of Weinheim, Germany, where ACIE’s headquarters is located, I’ve received a few inquiries about whether the German version of the journal has abstracts that are just as punny. The answer, I fear, is no.

Many of the German abstract titles have a nice alliterative ring to them, and there are definitely a few puns (one about ruthenium employs the element’s symbol: “Ru-ndum erneuert,” which means “completely refurbished” and is possibly droll if you read the article), but there are no thigh-slapping groaners–that I could find.

It would be unfair to expect a snappy German translation of “Just another Mannich Monday” because it’s in reference to an English pop tune. But the risqué “Metal ménage a trois,” which needs no translation, was skipped in favor of “Die Kraft dreier Metalle,” meaning “the power of three metals.” Ah well.

Fearing that my German skills aren’t good enough to catch subtle hilarity, I recruited several German chemists whose sense of humor I hold in high regard to help me scan the German abstracts. The humor task force agreed with my general consensus… but we are happy to be challenged by someone who wants to dig deeper into the archives. Time to ante-up, German speakers.
February 10, 2010
13:56
Snoverkill Safety
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

Safety goggles protect the eyes from more than stray chemicals: this hardy worker protects his eyes from the driving wind and snow of today’s Snowpocalypse III, Snoverkill, GroceryStore Thunderdome, Snoverload, whatever you want to call it.

Although ACS offices have been closed all week, C&EN is still operating, and we do need to eat. Venturing into the tempest, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Maureen Rouhi, Associate Editor Linda Wang, and I went to pick up lunch for the seven of us who stayed in hotels in town or braved the commute to get to headquarters and produce the magazine on schedule. On our way back with the victuals, we encountered this fellow shoveling the sidewalk in front of the hotel/restaurant.

C&EN Enjoys Snoverkill

Most people in DC seem to have taken a light-hearted outlook to the past couple Snowpocalypses, unlike the first one in December, when a cop pulled a gun at a snowball fight. This fellow chuckled and was very happy to have his picture taken with Linda. As quoted from a fellow C&ENer who saw this photo, “Linda looks like she’s about to happily bonk the equally happy grinning dude! Reminds me of Japanese TV!”
February 03, 2010
14:57
Jobs Do Exist
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

Those of you who follow C&EN writers on Twitter may have noticed the small blitzkrieg of tweets (a twitzkrieg?) announcing open positions at C&EN. We’re looking for two assigning editors for C&EN’s ACS Journal News & Community department. Read the full job description/qualifications and apply here. Contrary to what the job ad has listed, location may be flexible.
13:12
Science And Public Policy
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

Critics of this page frequently argue that C&EN’s editor-in-chief should comment only on matters concerning chemistry or the chemical industry. There is no place, they argue, in the American Chemical Society’s newsmagazine for commentary on public policies about which ACS members might disagree. The magazine, in fact, should stay out of public policy issues altogether, in the view of some of these critics.

The stories in this week’s issue of C&EN illustrate why this criticism is unrealistic in today’s world. The first seven department stories—from the cover story to both stories in the Business Department, both stories in the Government & Policy Department, the single story in the Science & Technology Department, and even the first story in the ACS News Department—all deal with issues that have a public policy component to them. Science and technology and public policy are inextricably linked in modern societies.

For example, the cover story, “Fluorochemicals Go Short” by Senior Correspondent Steve Ritter, is a comprehensive examination of the development of a policy for dealing with two particularly persistent long-chain perfluoroalkyl compounds: PFOS and PFOA. As an interim measure, chemical companies, with EPA’s blessing, are replacing PFOS and PFOA with compounds with shorter perfluoroalkyl chain groups that impart the same functional properties as the longer chain compounds. “Although the alternatives are just as persistent, they aren’t as bioaccumulative and appear to have a better toxicity profile—which is still being confirmed by testing—and are thus considered sound replacements,” Ritter writes.

This is not a trivial public policy issue. Fluorocarbons are extremely useful. Ritter quotes David W. Boothe, global business manager for DuPont Fluoroproducts, who says: “The societal benefits of fluoroproducts—boosting gas mileage in cars while cutting air emissions, adding durability to clothing, improving semiconductor and communications cable performance, and increasing fire-fighting speed—help consumers save money and make products safer, last longer, and environmentally friendlier.”

Nevertheless, in January 2006, DuPont and seven other major PFOA producers and users agreed with EPA that PFOA had to go. What Ritter chronicles is the scientific, technological, and public policy challenges that stemmed from this decision. This is a success story that should be applauded. A regulatory agency and chemical producers and users can work together to protect the environment.

The second story in the Business Department, by Senior Correspondent Marc Reisch, is also a success story, but perhaps a bit more controversial than Ritter’s. Reisch examines the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a CO2 cap-and-trade program that has operated for more than a year in the northeastern U.S., generating $500 million in 2009 for energy-saving projects in the 10 states involved.

The program has its critics, Reisch notes, quoting one who calls cap-and-trade “a standard-of-living killer.” Nevertheless, the Western Climate Initiative (seven states and four Canadian provinces) and the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord (six states) are adopting the RGGI model. When implemented, the programs will create a trading area covering more than 50% of the U.S population and more than 50% of U.S. emissions.

Any mention of climate change in C&EN stirs up some people. RGGI is happening, however, and it shows that cap-and-trade can work.

Finally, the first ACS News story by Associate Editor Linda Wang looks at the ACS policy statement on endocrine disruption adopted by the ACS Board of Directors at their December 2009 meeting. ACS has policy statements on a variety of topics. Statements are developed by ACS committees with expertise in the area covered by the statement, and they are reviewed every three years to determine if they should be retired, renewed, revised, or replaced. The ACS Standing Board Committee on Public Affairs & Public Relations has responsibility for the review. One of the policy statements up for review in 2010, in fact, is the society’s position on global climate change.

Thanks for reading.
January 28, 2010
12:03
Elements Abound In D.C.
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

After reading Beth’s elemental town-name Newscripts last week, I spent a bit of time looking through Nicholas C. Thomas’ article trying to find the closest elmental town to Washington, D.C. Of the ones listed, Barium Springs, N.C., is the closest, at just under 400 miles away. (Although Alloy, W.Va., is a bit closer, it’s not an elemental name, so I’m not counting it.)

I thought this area should have tons of elementally named towns, what with all the science that goes on here. Maybe we can convince some towns to change their names for the International Year of Chemistry 2011? I’m thinking “Radon, District of Columbia” has a nice ring to it (especially as we’re ringing out Radon Action Month). Or maybe “Lead,” to go with all the contamination we have in our soil and water.

Anyhow, not finding any towns in the area currently named after elements, I was surprised to stumble upon some graffiti on the trash can across the street from my apartment building.

Chemistry Graffiti

I’m not sure if this is someone’s nickname or a territorial marker, but it made my day and got me thinking, which reminded me of this elementally named night club/lounge/restaurant only blocks from the American Chemical Society headquarters.

Hot Spot

So, I did a Google maps search for a bunch of elements in D.C. Not surprisingly, fluorine, sodium, neon, and other commonly known and used elements popped up a lot. But I also found a nice elemental shoe and clothing store just down the road from my apartment.

Shoes With A Common Bond

When I asked Carbon’s owner, Kevin Powers, whether there was any chemistry behind naming his store, he responded with “I sell shoes, furniture and accessories. At the molecular level, they each include carbon as an element… A nice common ‘bond.’ ”

Elements In The Office

Most of D.C.’s elemental and chemical names appear in buildings such as this, which houses (although you’d never know it) Alkylphenols & Ethoxylates, the Environmental Arsenic Council, the Chlorinated Paraffins Industry Association, the Acrylonitrile Group, the Emulsion Polymers Council, the Vinyl Acetate Council, et cetera. Not as exciting as the graffiti, night clubs, and shopping options in the area, although the workers in this particular building got to witness a little bit of action a few months ago when a protester stopped traffic in a busy intersection to demand a few million dollars.
January 26, 2010
12:12
Celebrating ACS Scholars
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

The American Chemical Society Scholars Program celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2010. The program awards renewable scholarships of up to $5,000 per year to underrepresented minority students who want to enter chemistry or chemical engineering or related fields such as environmental science, toxicology, and chemical technology.

As part of the 15th anniversary celebration, C&EN is launching in this issue a series of profiles of current and former ACS Scholars. The profiles will run in the last issue of each month.

The first profile is of Steven W. Meier, who is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, an American Indian tribe with its headquarters in Shawnee, Okla. (see page 41). Meier was an ACS Scholar at Rice University. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Rice, went on to receive his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Northwestern University, and is now at ExxonMobil R&D in Annandale, N.J.

Through the year, C&EN will tell 12 of these inspirational stories. There are many, many more. The ACS Scholars Program, which won the 2001 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics & Engineering Mentoring and the 1997 American Society of Association Executives Award of Excellence, has aided more than 1,900 students since its inception.

African Americans comprise 55% of the recipient pool, Hispanic/Latino students represent 39%, and Native American students represent 6%.

To date, more than 900 students receiving scholarships have graduated with a bachelor’s degree in a chemical science, and 48% have entered the chemical science workforce. Thirty-six percent of the students majored in chemistry; 36%, chemical engineering; 13%, biochemistry; and 10%, a chemistry-related discipline. More than 60 ACS Scholars have gone on to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry, chemical engineering, or a related discipline.

Eligibility requirements for ACS Scholars and other information on the program can be found at www.acs.org under “Funding & Awards.”

Madeleine Jacobs, ACS executive director and chief executive officer, says of the program: “The ACS Scholars Program has had enormous impact in only 15 years in literally changing the face of the chemistry enterprise. Since the program’s inception, $12.2 million in scholarships have been awarded, plus ACS has provided all the administrative support. When I look at the success stories of our hundreds of ACS Scholars and the Ph.D.s the program has produced, I know that this success would not have been possible without the tremendous support of the ACS Board of Directors, which committed significant funding and moral support to launching and sustaining the program, as well as the generous contributions of companies, foundations, ACS members, and other individuals. This is a program of which we can all be very proud.”

Mentoring is key to the success of the scholars program. ACS seeks mentors from college and university faculty, industry, members, and volunteers associated with minority advocacy organizations.

Also key to the success of the program has been the support it has received from companies and foundations. The program does not have an endowment but rather relies on funding from ACS and contributions to continue its operation. Some of the companies and foundations that have been particularly generous include Founding Partner PPG Industries Foundation, which has contributed more than $1 million; Sustaining Partners Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation, GlaxoSmithKline, and Procter & Gamble, each of which has donated $200,000 or more; and National Partners 3M Foundation, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, Bayer, Dow Corning Foundation, DuPont Central Research & Development, Schering-Plough, and Xerox, each of which has contributed $100,000 or more.

Individuals and ACS local sections have also contributed time and money to the scholars program. If you are interested in becoming involved, please contact Kathy Fleming in the ACS Development Office at (800) 227-5558 ext. 6210 or k_fleming@acs.org.

Thanks for reading.
January 22, 2010
18:40
They Might Be Giants of Science
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

Time has a nice video up with interview footage of They Might Be Giants talking about their new album, Here Comes Science. My kids love the album–their current favorite song is The Ballad of Davy Crockett–and if TMBG schedules a family show for SF, we’ll be there!
January 19, 2010
15:09
Cadmium In The Trash
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

Parents across America are throwing out their kids’ inexpensive costume jewelry because they fear it might contain cadmium.

When the Consumer Product Safety Commission set lower limits on the amount of lead allowed in U.S. toys, some Chinese manufacturers apparently began using cadmium instead. Cadmium is cheap, but it’s also toxic.

According to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, cadmium is “a soft, blue-white malleable, lustrous metal or a grayish-white powder that is insoluble in water and reacts readily with dilute nitric acid.” Cadmium metal is primarily used because of its anticorrosive properties. It is found in alkaline batteries, pigments, metal coatings, plastics, and now some children’s toys imported from China.

Cadmium is considered a known human carcinogen by the Department of Health & Human Services. Long-term exposure to the metal can lead to kidney disease, lung damage, and fragile bones, depending on the route of exposure.

The question is whether a child is likely to be exposed to cadmium in toys. Wearing a necklace or bracelet is unlikely to cause harm, but sucking on a necklace, or swallowing a piece of it, would certainly be a different story.

In October, bright orange pumpkin erasers with extremely high levels (1800 ppm) of cadmium were in the news. I happened to have a few of them around my house from birthday party goody bags my kids brought home. Out of concern that my kids would chew on them, I threw the erasers out in the trash.

Someone ought to calculate how much cadmium is likely to enter landfills because of the recent cadmium jewelry scare, and what impact that could have on ground and surface waters.
January 15, 2010
11:44
Chemist Rumored To Be Next Boss Of France’s CNRS
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

According to the French newspaper Le Monde, France’s prestigious National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) might soon have chemist Alain Fuchs as its new director general-president. Neither the CNRS communications office nor the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research are confirming the Fuchs appointment, stating that they will make an official announcement next Wednesday. Fuchs is also declining to speak to the media at the moment.

Fuchs is a physical chemist who leads a molecular simulation group at Chimie Paris Tech, and is also the university’s director. Chimie Paris Tech is part of a distinguished and influential group of higher learning institutions in France called “écoles nationales supérieures.” According to Le Monde, a mathematician named Antoine Petit and a cryptologist named Jacques Stern were also considered for the CNRS position.

Whoever gets the job will be responsible for 26,000 permanent CNRS staff and a budget of 3 billion Euros ($4.3 billion). That person will also be at the helm of an organization in transition: The French government is splitting the CNRS into 10 institutes by subject. For example the institute of chemistry will be separate from the institutes of physics and biological sciences.

The new CNRS director general-president will be kept busy: The relationship between President Nicholas Sarkozy’s government and French scientists (including those from CNRS) has been rocky. Some of the government’s proposed reforms to the CNRS and to universities have brought thousands of scientists out of their labs and into the streets in protest.
January 13, 2010
18:57
Now on the Sheri Sangji Case: The L.A. District Attorney’s Office
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

Sangji's hood after the fire. Credit: UCLA

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) last week sent its findings in the investigation of the death of University of California, Los Angeles, chemistry researcher Sheri Sangji to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The DA’s office will now review the case and decide whether to file charges against the university or any of its employees.

Sangji, a research assistant in the lab of chemistry professor Patrick Harran, died a year ago after being badly burned in a laboratory fire. Cal/OSHA investigated the incident and subsequently fined UCLA $31,875 for laboratory safety violations related to Sangji’s death.

As is standard practice in the case of a workplace death, Cal/OSHA’s Bureau of Investigations reviewed the case to determine whether there was sufficient evidence of criminal violations of the California Labor Code to warrant referring the case to the DA’s office.

Now, “the prosecutor must evaluate the evidence to determine if a crime has been committed and, if so, if the evidence is sufficient beyond a reasonable doubt to show that the suspect is guilty of the crime,” says LA County DA’s office spokesperson Sandi Gibbons. “Reviews can take weeks or months, depending on the amount of evidence and if follow-up investigation is needed.”

Cal/OSHA spokesperson Erika Monterroza told C&EN that the agency had referred Sangji’s case to the DA’s office. Gibbons confirmed that the DA’s office received the evidence from Cal/OSHA and is reviewing it.

UCLA, however, “has been assured by Cal/OSHA’s lead investigator, as recently as today, that the investigation is ongoing and that no decision has been made,” says UCLA spokesperson Phil Hampton. “UCLA strongly disagrees with any pursuit of criminal charges. The campus believes that Ms. Sangji’s death resulted from a tragic accident involving no willful negligence and was unrelated to the record-keeping, inspections and follow-ups that have been the focus of Cal/OSHA and accounts in the news media.”

Sangji’s sister, Naveen Sangji, has previously said that her family would like the district attorney’s office to get involved, because they felt that the Cal/OSHA and university investigations were not thorough enough. “We want to know who was responsible and who failed in their duties to make sure Sheri was safe at work,” Naveen said.

According to Cal/OSHA policies & procedures, the laws generally considered in cases such as this are Labor Code Sections 6423 and 6425. The sections outline penalties for violations of occupational safety & health standards that include prison time and/or hefty fines.
January 11, 2010
15:10
Periodic Tables Galore
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

As I was scrolling through boing boing today, I came across a familiar face – the Periodic Table of the Elephants elephant, which hangs out here at the ACS building in Washington. Now, we’ve chronicled various periodic tables from beeriodic table t-shirts to a video periodic table to baked goods ones, but Mark Leach has taken the chronicling to a whole new level with the Internet Database of Periodic Tables. Take a gander at his extensive collection of periodic tables, great and small (including said elephant).

(Hat tip to Maggie Koerth-Baker at boing boing)

Photo credit: C&EN
12:33
After Copenhagen
» ‎ C&ENtral Science

The United Nations-sponsored climate conference held in December in Copenhagen was neither the groundbreaking success proclaimed by President Barack Obama and other world leaders nor the abject failure gleefully denigrated by climate-change skeptics.

C&EN Senior Correspondent Cheryl Hogue attended the entire conference and, with assistance from Senior Correspondent Jeff Johnson here in Washington, reported on it in several News of the Week stories (Dec. 14, 2009, pages 6 and 7; Dec. 21, 2009, pages 6 and 7; and Jan. 4, page 8). Hogue’s comprehensive wrapup from the conference appears in this week’s issue (see page 27).

As Hogue points out, negotiations in Copenhagen “yielded little. They were stymied not only by shifting geopolitical dynamics but also by procedural maneuvers that stifled consensus and by disruptions from the unprecedented number of people observing the proceedings.”

That’s a nice way of saying that the conference was a mess. As Hogue suggests, it has now become likely that a UN-sponsored, worldwide agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions is unattainable. Climate-change skeptics are elated by this development, but they should not be.

Their fundamental position is no longer tenable. No world leader who spoke in Copenhagen suggested that human-induced climate change is the fiction skeptics claim it to be. Copenhagen, in fact, established global climate change caused by human activities as a worldwide challenge, no longer deniable, that even the Chinese recognize they have to at least pay lip service to.

Do not underestimate the importance of lip service. Climate-change skeptics would have you believe that Chinese (and Indian and Brazilian) commitments to curb their contributions to global warming are meaningless. This misses the point entirely. China, India, Brazil, and other rapidly industrializing countries have now acknowledged that they have a responsibility to play a role in protecting the global climate. This is important progress that should not be dismissed.

Nevertheless, consensus doesn’t equate with constructive action on climate issues. What is also now clear is that the U.S. should move forward to aggressively tackle climate-change issues outside of the UN-sponsored framework.

For starters, H.R. 2454, the 1,200-page climate-change and energy legislation passed by the House of Representatives in June 2009 that establishes a CO2 cap-and-trade system, should be put out of its misery in favor of a simple carbon tax. Cap-and-trade is a sop to the coal, petroleum, and other energy-intensive industries; it does nothing but muddle the very simple need to put a price on carbon on which industry can base its capital-spending decisions. A carbon tax accomplishes that goal simply and efficiently.

The Europeans already are coming to recognize the inherent problems of cap-and-trade because they are experiencing them. The European Union and the U.S., together with Japan—already the most energy-efficient developed nation—should jointly enact a significant and escalating carbon tax that would promote real energy efficiencies and cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

But wait, wouldn’t that leave China, India, and other nations free to undercut the carbon-tax-inflated prices of goods from the U.S., the EU, and Japan? Not at all. Nations that adopt the carbon tax regimen should impose a carbon tariff equal to the carbon tax on all manufactured goods from countries that do not participate.

The Chinese, in particular, would protest such an action vociferously. Let them. China is not a developing nation; it is an authoritarian, industrialized, mercantile behemoth that is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. It is time for the world to stop allowing China to pretend otherwise. If China wants to sell its carbon-tax-free products to developing nations in Africa, Asia, and South America, fine.

Many thoughtful economists have put forth mechanisms whereby a carbon tax would be truly revenue neutral, simultaneously discouraging the use of fossil fuels and stimulating development of alternative energy sources while protecting less affluent consumers. It’s time to join forces with other developed nations to put one in place.

Thanks for reading.

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