Quantum Leaps
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Axel Becke has a lot in common with Albert Einstein. Just like the famous physicist, Becke was born in Germany and made his greatest scientific contributions...
Read More >>Industry goes green at University of Toronto symposium
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
This past May, green chemistry enthusiasts and supporters gathered at the University of Toronto for the Green Chemistry Applied in Industry Symposium. The conference, which was organized entirely by students, brought in 14 high-profile speakers...
Read More >>Chemists honoured with Killam Prize Fellowships
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
This past April, the Canada Council for the Arts announced the recipients of the 2015 Killam Program. This included six Killam Research Fellowships, three of which went to chemists. The fellowship is valued at $840,000, which will be distributed...
Read More >>You can never be too thin
MATERIALS CHEMISTRY
Tony SpringThorpe holds his thumb and forefinger about a centimetre apart, then offers this revealing quip about his long and distinguished career, “For more than 40 years I’ve been doing...
Read More >>The Dawning of 3D Materials
MATERIALS CHEMISTRY
When one thinks of potential materials for use in 3D printing, Nutella — the hazelnut and cocoa spread that is smeared on morning toast...
Read More >>Grapevine
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
This year’s winner of the Chemical Institute of Canada Beaumier Award for High School/Cégep Chemistry Teachers is Yvonne Clifford of Jacob Hespeler Secondary School in Cambridge, Ont. The national award is sponsored by the CIC’s Beaumier Churcott Fund and recognizes...
Read More >>Helping the blind nets students CIC Hawkesbury Section Award
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Don Mutton, FCIC, (right), of the Chemical Institute of Canada’s Hawkesbury Local Section presents the CIC trophy for Best Project to Jeremy Malette and Samantha Peets from St. Joseph’s Secondary School in Cornwall, Ont. Their project, “UPOD: The Sixth Sense”...
Read More >>CIAC’s Responsible Care Report
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
This past April, the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada (CIAC) released its Responsible Care Performance: Delivering on our Commitments in Toronto at Chemistry 2015, the Canadian industry’s premier safety and sustainability conference. ...
Read More >>CSACS holds thesis competition
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
The Centre for Self-Assembled Chemical Structures (CSACS) 13th annual conference took place this past May at McGill University. About 220 participants attended the conference and 49 posters were shown. Speakers included Zhenan Bao of Stanford University...
Read More >>Broaching the blood-brain barrier with MRI technology
TECHNIQUES
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment has become a cornerstone technology of medical diagnosis. But Sylvain Martel, a professor of computer engineering at Polytechnique Montréal, is taking MRI research a step further by utilizing it as an equally...
Read More >>Shaken not stirred yields a new structure of zeolite
MECHANOCHEMISTRY
Zeolites are among the most highly prized materials of the modern chemical economy and many manufacturers may have been making them without even knowing it. These microporous crystals are exceptionally versatile adsorbents that have found a wide range...
Read More >>Firefighters pair with GreenCentre Canada to push gel
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
When a group of experienced firefighters in eastern Ontario wanted to come up with a way of making their profession more environmentally friendly, they turned to Ontario’s network of organizations that help turn such ideas into marketable products.
Read More >>Microbubbles release cancer-fighting nanoparticles
NANOTECHNOLOGY
If the human body had a building code, most cancerous tumours would qualify as fast and dirty construction that no inspector would approve. Their blood supply is delivered through leaky, poorly fitting vessels and the surrounding tissue does a terrible job...
Read More >>A pressing issue adds high-tech value to graphite
MATERIALS SCIENCE
A cross-country collaboration between companies and researchers in British Columbia and Ontario should enable the high-tech capabilities of graphite to withstand the brutal economics of building heat exchangers. An innovative method of rolling...
Read More >>Fluorine boosts efficacy of conventional medications
BIOCHEMISTRY
Among the most powerful weapons in our antibiotic arsenal are aminoglycosides, which can prevent the biosynthesis of key proteins that infectious bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli need to survive. First isolated in the 1950s...
Read More >>1951 Chemistry in Canada
HISTORY
Spectrochemical analysis, which is an integral instrument in many university and industrial chemistry laboratories, rests — like so many modern-day innovations — upon the shoulders of giants. The giant, in...
Read More >>Designer threads make for highly functional fashion
MATERIALS SCIENCE
The centuries-old Indian weaving technique known as zari wraps flattened metal wires around silk fibres to create a shimmering brocade. This traditional textile provides chemistry professor Christa Brosseau of Saint Mary’s University in Nova Scotia with an elegant ...
Read More >>An economist’s take on Canadian science
POLICY PUNDIT
In Alberta, ATB Financial is a household name and so is Todd Hirsch, its chief economist. What makes ATB Financial well known in the province is the wide range of...
Read More >>Trade secrets can protect better than patents
INTELLECTUAL MATTERS
I love sushi, especially when it comes with a large heap of wasabi. What, you may ask, does this have to do with chemistry? Well, not much actually, although I...
Read More >>Opium and laudanum history’s wonder drugs
PHARMACEUTICALS
Victor Frankenstein, who incidentally was a medical student and not a doctor, was very disturbed when the creature he created killed his friend Henry Clerval. Unable to sleep, he dosed...
Read More >>UBC Okanagan plays host to undergraduate conference
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
The 29th annual Western Canadian Undergraduate Chemistry Conference (WCUCC) was hosted by the University of British Columbia Okanagan in Kelowna this past May. More than 50 undergraduate students from Western...
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