Total alchemist

copper-alchemistA good, old-fashioned total synthesis of a natural product caught The Alchemist’s attention this week, as did the notion of spiking the hydrocarbon picene with potassium atoms to turn it into a superconductor.

In a related carbon field, Chinese chemists have broken the rules to crack bucky eggs and US scientists have looked to molecular midwifery to help explain the origins of life.

In environmental news, the tragic story of BPA is told from the chemical perspective and an award to a Swedish team could help studies of oxygen depletion in the Baltic Sea that might one day lead to a route to remediation.

More details and all the links can be found on ChemWeb. You could also get the latest chemistry news and more by subscribing to the email newsletter.

Getting a measure of scientific progress

Without entering into a debate about the merits of fundamental research, it is, pretty much taken as read by business, government, and many NGOs that science begets technology and technology begets money. Advances in science obviously underpin new technological developments and these then give us cultural, social, and economic progress of varying degrees.

That said, there is a school of thought that would suggest, aside from medical advances, the advent of much of the gadgetry we use today from iPods to wind farms and from hybrid cars to the International Space Station isn’t much of an advance on what we had in the past, but again, that’s probably a debate for another time, suffice to say that many of us, “shave with soap and razor, don clothes of cotton and wool, read a paper, drink a coffee heated by gas or electricity and go to work with the aid of petrol and an internal combustion engine,” and have been doing so for the best part of a century.

This post is intended to focus on how we can measure all of this progress, or more specifically how can we quantify research and innovation. The aim of measuring scientific and technological change would be to help explain how they come about and so “inform”, as they say, the powers that be so that guidelines and strategies can be developed to assist.

Ironically, two research issues are on the agenda for me today, one is the release of a report that shows that public engagement with research is critical to research success the second is that Intute, a major academic portal in the UK that pools and annotates manually incredible amounts of information on research and technology has had its funding cut. This latter fact is particularly frustrating as I spent many years providing Intute, and the predecessor of its physical science section, PSIgate, with research news and views.

So, back to the quantification of progress. A paper in the International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management, suggests that economics are the main scope of interest for measuring scientific and technological change. At this point, the cynical among us might grunt: “enough said,” and move on.

Mario De Marchi of the Research Unity Institutions and Policies for Science and Technology, at the Institute for Research on Enterprises and the Growth — National, Research Council of Italy, in Rome, points out that the economic field is simply pervasive in modern life and that is an inescapable fact of life, like press release embargoes, peer review delays, and funding cuts, you might say.

He says that in some instances and for some portions of society, the advancement of science and technology might, actually appear to lead to a deterioration of human living conditions. However, as anyone in the know will tell you, it is only the application of science that can solve those problems, whether they’re environmental or medical. No amount of hand waving and hand wringing will clarify water contaminated with arsenic from the bedrock or stifle a viral epidemic.

Nevertheless, he says, “The relation between economic studies, on one hand, and science and technology, on the other hand, is complex and multifaceted.” Measuring the economic effects of scientific and technological advances is an arduous task and there are no simplifications that can be made in the realm of economics to help. “As a consequence, judgements passed on science policies, often deriving from markedly subjective opinions and questionable interpretations of well-known statistics, are anything but incontrovertible,” he adds. Anyone at the sharp end of funding cuts knows this only too well.

Research Blogging IconMarchi, M. (2009). Measuring scientific research and technological innovation International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management, 9 (4) DOI: 10.1504/IJTPM.2009.032054

Whatever happened to the audiophile?

UPDATE: 8 SEP 2011 – The Register follows up on the loudness wars – “It is a standard sound engineer complaint, as well as of serious listeners. And, those that have simply listened and (easily) heard the difference. It was propelled by increased CD listening in cars (to further standout over more background noise). Louder and faster records on radio and jukeboxes are earlier variants. Louder ads on radio and TV is another.”

This video, which I think I saw at the time I wrote my original article highlights the difference between the sound engineering of today and yesteryear:

Back in the 1970s my parents had friends who had stacks of hi-fi separates with gold contact wiring and speaker stands on metal spikes. They were only playing Perry Como on vinyl, but that was their idea of fun, so good luck to them. When the CD emerged on to the market with its claims of superior quality and scratch resistance, the hi-fi enthusiasts split into two camps: those who clung to their “warmer” but crackly analogue vinyl and their hissy tapes and those who went digital and got optical wires to hook up their shiny new CD player to those spiky speakers.

Manufacturers propagated the upward spiral for both camps marketing ever more elaborate systems and even selling green pens to colour the edge of a CD to prevent laser leakage. Personally, I grew up with a “stereogram” and a personal radio-cassette and was quite happy with it, whiling away countless hours listening to prog rock, Jean Michel Jarre, Talking Heads, and the occasional Perry Como album.

But, was it all for nothing? Within another generation the notion of digital audio had been compressed using the audio equivalent of the lossy image format jpeg and music fans were listening on pocket devices or watching Youtube clips with embedded music on poor-quality computer speakers and really not caring either way, whether the sound was great or not.

Jerald Hughes of University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg writing in the International Journal Services and Standards has a nice table showing the technical specification of the human ear and comparing it to the various analogue formats:

Audio system Frequency range/Hz Decibel range/dB
Human ear 20-22,000 110+
Vinyl LP 30-15,000 50-60
8-track tape 45-8000 45
Cassette tape 50-12,000 45-50
Chrome cassette 50-16,000 60
Reel to reel 30-20,000+ 66+

So, the only system that ever came close to the full range of human hearing was reel-to-reel and I don’t recall seeing many of those around even among the most extravagant separates hi-fi aficionados of my parents’ acquaintance.

So, how does the CD fit into this picture?

Audio system Frequency range/Hz Decibel range/dB
Human ear 20-22,000 110+
Compact disc 20-22,000 90+
DVD audio 10-95,000 144

Not bad? It really was a golden era, then, apart from that lack of “warmth” and “colour” that the analogue stalwarts claimed. And, with DVD audio quality (and SACD, superaudio CD) far outstripping even CD. These latter formats are well-known to devoted adherents of jazz and classical where dynamic range and complex frequency content tends to be more common than in rock and pop, although there are serious mastering problems with many modern recordings in all genres.

Today, there are almost as many audio “formats” as there are audio files. One can choose a download or rip at almost any rate, a lossy or lossless compression algorithm, and countless other options and codecs to playback a music file on myriad devices. But, consumers in general, have gravitated towards a quality that is much lower than the human ear is capable of discerning and much lower than top-end equipment is capable of reproducing. It’s as if the hi-fi nuts never existed…

Perhaps that’s the point though, my generation was perfectly content to listen to vinyl albums duplicated on cassette tapes (remember: home taping is skill in music killing music, it never did) and today, the kids are quite happy to listen to downloaded 128kbps mp3 files through the cheap earbuds that come with portable music players.

Human senses and sensibilities have limits. It’s not that the human ear cannot receive the finest of musical details, it most certainly can, it’s just that most people perceive satisfaction in listening to a good-quality mp3 and are not worried about the top notes or the quiet moments that might be lost in the compression process that squeezes their collection of thousands of songs on to a sliver of silicon embedded in a case no bigger than a thumbnail.

Audio cassettes were popular because they were convenient – mix tapes, copying albumbs, recording off the radio all infinitely simpler with cassettes than with a reel-to-reel machine. In the post-digital era of music on chips rather than disks consumers are trading-off audio quality for convenience just the same as they ever did. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was.

Research Blogging IconJerald Hughes (2009). Emergent quality standards for digital entertainment experience goods: the case of consumer audio Int. J. Services and Standards, 5 (4), 333-353

I spoke to Hughes who confessed that he too is a prog-rock fan, and admitted that the first album he ever bought with his own money was the YesSongs triple live album. He also told me he is still listening to his Technics direct-drive turntable with hyperelliptical stylus through Bose 501 speakers and said, “it really IS ‘warmer’…”

 

Forensic saliva test within spitting distance

The latest issue of SpectroscopyNOW is online. This week I cover everything from MRI for testicular cancer to egg-shaped carbon balls by way of energy molecules, copper proteins, secret writing, first up a forensic science test for distinguishing saliva deposits from other substances at a crime scene:

Non-destructive spit test – Raman spectroscopy can identify samples of an unknown substance at a crime scene as human saliva during forensic analysis, according to a US study, the technique would preserve DNA evidence. I asked research team leader, Igor Lednev to tell me about his aspirations for the technique.

“The major motivation of this research project, funded by the National Institute of Justice, is to bring our novel method to the forensic lab and a crime scene as soon as possible,” he told me. “The method is at the developmental stage at the moment and several further developments need to be done before moving to the “real” world crime scene.” These include (i) automation of the technique and making it a user-friendly “black-box type” apparatus, (ii) expansion to potential mixtures of body fluids, (iii) protection from possible interference from substrate materials and possible contaminants, and (iv) expansion to possible evidence degradation under various environmental conditions.

To achieve those goals the team is collaborating with “real world” practitioners, CSIs including Barry Duceman, Director of Biological Science, at the NY State Police Forensic Investigation Center and John Hicks, Director of the Northeast Research Forensic Institute. Lednev revealed to me that a first prototype of the device should be in forensic laboratories within two to three years.

Also, in my SpectroscopyNOW column this week:

MRI on the ball – MRI proves to be a good diagnostic tool for testicular cancer and could spare some men unnecessary surgery.

Focus on energy molecule – Organisms use ATP as a universal energy storage molecule, now carbon nanotubes, modified with luciferase, have been used as near-infrared detectors for cellular ATP. The work has potential for studies of ischaemia, Parkinson’s disease, hypoglycaemia and more.

Copper, on the beat with NMR – The first NMR spectroscopy study of the copper site in an important blue metalloprotein, azurin, has been undertaken. Copper mediates many biochemical redox reactions and azurin plays an important role in catalysing electron transfer in cellular reactions.

Sunscreen spies – Sunscreen and boron can work together to make a compound that changes colour when touched under ultraviolet light. The compound changes from blue-green to yellow with the gentlest of rubs and then reverts quickly to blue-green when gently warmed, although the process is reversible at room temperature.

Bucky eggs cracked – Unusual egg-shaped fullerene molecules are rulebreakers because they do what no other fullerenes seem to do – fuse three pentagons of carbon atoms, according to chemists in China. The discovery of these molecules could lead to new insights into fullerene chemistry as well as offering new opportunities for synthesising novel materials.

Forensic saliva test montage by Albany’s Aliaksandra Sikirzhytskaya.

Research Blogging IconVirkler, K., & Lednev, I. (2010). Forensic body fluid identification: The Raman spectroscopic signature of saliva The Analyst, 135 (3) DOI: 10.1039/b919393f

Controlling your online identity

Interesting that this item, which was first published here almost 4 years ago still got around 10000 readers in 2013…wonder whether it will sustain that level of interest through 2014.

Geo-location services are very useful, helping you find a post office, ATM, decent restaurant, or hooking up with friends. They are commonly used in conjunction with smart phones and other mobile devices that ping your location (based on network coordinates or the global positioning system, GPS) back to the owner of a given system.

Location-based services also represent a security threat, especially if you hook whereabouts up to the likes of FourSquare and other social networking sites that can be set to reveal publicly your status in a timely way and reveal your precise position to all and sundry. Now, a new security awareness site, going by the ironically informative name of PleaseRobMe.com, demonstrates the hazards inherent in location-based services. The site’s strapline proclaims that they are: “Listing all those empty homes out there” and in interviews this week the owners have been telling the media that they’re not helping burglars but warning users about revealing too much about themselves on the networks.

This latest debacle, if you can call it that, highlights once again the fact that individuals are not necessarily aware of the privacy and security issues associated with revealing personal information and their identity online. Some observers have suggested that digital identity online will be “the next big thing”. One can imagine that it certainly will be, especially as governments, businesses, healthcare organizations, and others will increasingly require us to prove our identity digitally when we access their services online. But, wherever there is a lock guarding something precious, there is someone who will go set out to pick that lock.

If you’re not worried about privacy just check out these sites to see what systems can find out about you without your even logging in – EFF Panopticlick experiment and web tracking, what the internet knows about you.

As such, identity management, known in the “industry” as IdM is a more and more important aspect of one’s online persona for joining, interacting, and leaving countless systems. There are numerous protocols available, such as OpenID and the OAuth systems that allow you to login to one service by verifying you with a prior login process on a third-party trusted site.

Researchers in the UK explain that IdM could be reaching crisis point. “There is overwhelming evidence that current IdM is failing us, says Mark Pawlewski of Loughborough University and colleagues. Pawlewski is a Principal Researcher working for BT Innovate and Design.

Countless websites require registration and logins and users are now faced with the task of remembering dozens of usernames and passwords or else suffering “password fatigue” whereby they employ insecure practices, such as using the same username and password combination on multiple sites. The researchers have an explanation for the IdM problem:

At the root of the problem is the fundamental flaw that the internet was not designed, but evolved without a uniform system of digital identity in place. There have been numerous attempts to solve this problem, such as Microsoft Passport, but many of these have failed leaving a scattering of inconsistent, ad hoc, partial solutions.

One of the challenges is to give users immediate access to a particular site where they have not already registered, but do meet the requirements for access, e.g., being over 18 years of age and possessing a valid credit card. The OpenID system (and others such as Card Space and Liberty Alliance) goes part way to addressing this issue, as do the linkage systems employed by Facebook apps and similar systems that allow one to comment on some blogs using Facebook or other credentials. However, it would be foolhardy to trust a Facebook app with the login for one’s bank account. An Identity Provider (IdP) that mediates between users and websites is clearly needed.

But, there are only a very limited number of IdPs around and they provide only very limited functionality, certainly none is at the trust level yet for the average user to connect with the e-commerce sites they use, such as amazon.com, their online banking, or even all of their social media and networking accounts from Facebook to Twitter via LinkedIn.

Unfortunately, preserving the status quo is the approach adopted by sites and internet service providers. After all, the creation of an IdM system and trusted IdPs will not be cheap and will also face the resistance of the millions of internet users happy to create yet another username-password. On the bottom line, it is a matter of preventing fraudsters from getting a key to unlock one’s virtual valuables.

If service providers maintain fraud at an “acceptable”, level then the status quo will persist. However, if there is a surge in identity fraud the costs of which outweigh the necessary investment in IdM, then we might just see the emergence of a system that is simple, secure, and safe. In the meantime, just keep up the good work with those complex passwords and don’t tell everyone on the internet when you’re heading out the door, you might as well not lock up if you do.

So, how do you hack your online identity? Well, there’s lots of advice out there, this post from Liverpool University says it well.

Research Blogging Icon T. Martin, C. Durbin, M. Pawlewski, & D. Parish (2010). Future vision of identity Int. J. Liability and Scientific Enquiry, 3 (1/2), 86-98

Time-keeping alchemy

Time-keeping with quantum mechanics caught The Alchemist’s eye this week with a truly long-term view while secret writing that uses a mix of sunscreen and boron could lead to new scratch and read products.

Ionic liquids hold much promise in gas chromatography of biofuels, we learn, and a lethal combination of anticancer drug and protein inhibitors offers a new, effective approach to ovarian and breast cancers.

Chemists in China have boiled a bucky egg and broken the rules, and finally, a fourth NSF award for chemists at Kansas State University.

Write-ups and links to full articles now on ChemWeb.com