Nov 27, 2009
A wide range of stories again in this week’s Alchemist column on ChemWeb.com
Absolute configurations reveal themselves through NMR spectroscopy using residual dipolar couplings in small molecules, according to an international team who have put it to work on an anticancer compound. Discussed also in more detail on SpectroscopyNOW.com
A failed antidepressant could be marketed as a novel treatment for female sexual dysfunction. …
Nov 26, 2009
According to the promoters of a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London aimed at UK Scientific Heritage: “Scientists are no longer unrecognisable boffins” thanks to the Science in Focus exhibition, which runs until 17 January 2010.
Well…I take issue with that remark! Which of the following faces do you recognise?
I suspect that most sciencebase readers will recognise all of them being the clever lot …
Nov 19, 2009
A couple of years ago, I re-posted an old article of mine about homeopathy discussing its ludicrous claims, its feeble attempts to provide a scientific explanation for those claims, and basically pointing out that no solid evidence has ever been found that infinitely diluted solutions of spurious ingredients have any more beneficial effect on a patient than a glass of fresh water….
Nov 17, 2009
Time to bring you up to date on the latest science headlines I’ve put together for other sites this last couple of weeks, so here’s a quick round-up:
On the SpectroscopyNOW site, this issue, I covered natural chemicals that can help sunflowers soak up toxic cadmium from the soil (another example of the phytoremediation process I discussed in more detail on Sciencebase.com recently). I also …
Nov 13, 2009
The wastewater released from industry often contains high levels of toxic heavy metals, which can kill organisms, damage ecosystems, and accumulate in the foodchain. Electroplating, lead smelting, mining, and countless other processes produce enormous volumes of such wastewater.
In a perfect world, remediation would be powered by a renewable energy supply, there would be no solid waste to dispose of, and the heavy metal contaminants could be recycled back into the industrial process with minimal losses. …
Nov 12, 2009
Latest news reports from yours truly on Spectroscopynow.com
Juggling matters on the brain – UK scientists have used magnetic resonance imaging to reveal that learning a complex task like juggling can causes changes in the white matter in the brain. The findings could have implications for developing new approaches to neurodegenerative diseases, such as multiple sclerosis.
Cancer transition – Anticancer drugs for treating ovarian and colon cancer could use rare metals as weapons in the …
Nov 9, 2009
Twenty years ago today, my girlfriend (now my wife) and I lay on a bed in a cramped backpackers’ hostel in the Katherine Gorge National Park (now Nitmiluk), in Australia’s Northern Territory, watching news of the fall of the Berlin Wall (now rubble). Outside insects were buzzing ferociously, the temperature was in the high 30s, and the hostel owner told us that he wouldn’t bother going in the (tiny, dirty) pool unless the temperature in …
Nov 5, 2009
In the current issue of The Alchemist we learn how to stick methane molecules to metals without breaking carbon-hydrogen bonds and how to make impossible carbene catalysts without the usual prerequisite of an attendant metal centre.
Another seeming impossibility comes to light: a new microscopy technique for visualizing non-fluorescing biomolecules using the kind of stimulated emission suggested by Einstein almost a century ago.
An exchange program leads …
Nov 3, 2009
Laura Bonetta wrote an excellent article for the science journal Cell recently in which she quoted various science types who use Twitter on the subject of whether or not scientists should be tweeting. It’s a topic I’ve discussed more generally regarding scientists’ use of social media and online networking communities.
Anyway, she asked my opinion on a few matters regarding twitter and …
UPDATE – NOV 5: Still working through the almost 650 members of the list, but now up to the P’s.
Pressure was on from lots of science tweeps for to categorise my scientwist list…so I’ve made a start.
The spillover (lots of tweeps in the T to Z group from the TweepML.org version of my scientwist list have now each been given a category as I cannot squeeze them into the 500 limit for the …
Nov 2, 2009
Before twitter created user lists, I hand selected scientists and science types on Twitter to help you find new and interesting people to follow.
I started the project with 100 of my own Twitter friends back in January 2009 and expanded the list to well over 600 members by November 2009.
I migrated the old manual list to Tweepml.org and then Twitter announced the release of its own lists system. I then added my scientwists to …
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