Cold Case
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
As the days wax longer, few of us care to dwell on the snow and ice that dominated the landscape only weeks ago. But for the scientists trying to explain...
Read More >>Happy half century!
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
The Constituent Societies of the CIC congratulate their members who are celebrating 50-years of membership in 2013: Hanspeter Alder; Howard Alper; John Apsimon; Ronald Brown; Dennis Davies; Peter Grindrod; Ross...
Read More >>Hitting the road with Attraction chimique
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
For the second year in a row, Attraction chimique has received a grant of $5,000 from the CIC’s Chemical...
Read More >>After 40 years, ChemEd comes home
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
This summer, ChemEd 2013 — North America’s largest gathering of chemistry educators — will return
Read More >>Errors & Omissions insurance available for professional chemists
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Accepting responsibility for one's work is a central tenet of being a professional — in practical application this means taking financial responsibility should there...
Read More >>Human Factor
INNOVATION
These days, technical skills alone do not an engineer make. Over the last decade, engineering schools across Canada have focused increasingly...
Read More >>Alumina Upended
MATERIALS
Richard Boudreault was lying awake at night, pondering two seemingly disparate things: stomach acid ...
Read More >>The ‘ole cola trick draws a crowd
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Charles Lucy, a professor in the chemistry department at the University of Alberta, prepares to do a Diet-Coke-and- Mentos demonstration as part of an evening event organized by the Edmonton...
Read More >>A good mix for innovation
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Laurence Meadows of Mitacs, a not-for-profit organization that funds internships and fellowships to encourage innovation, presents at a Vancouver Local Section event in...
Read More >>Glycan capture technique sheds light on cell surface proteins
BIOCHEMISTRY
A new technique for capturing glycosylated proteins, developed by a researcher at Simon Fraser University, has provided fresh insight into the relationship between the structure and function of these biomolecules,...
Read More >>Gold & DNA simplify disease detection
HEALTH
A clever combination of functional DNA and gold nanoparticles has produced a point-of-care diagnostic system that could allow medical workers in developing countries to achieve faster and cheaper detection of many common diseases. ...
Read More >>New compounds fight drug-resistant flu viruses
PHARMACEUTICALS
A new class of compounds that can fight influenza by preventing the virus from spreading has been developed by an international team led by chemists...
Read More >>Gold-forming molecule identified in bacterium
BIOCHEMISTRY
A Canadian team of researchers has identified a molecule used by a bacterium to convert soluble gold ions into insoluble elemental gold. Although soluble gold ions are inhibitory to most...
Read More >>New technique improves NMR spectroscopy
TECHNIQUES
A new nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy technique developed at the University of Ottawa allows physical chemists to...
Read More >>‘Rusty’ catalysts advance renewable energy storage
ENERGY
University of Calgary researchers have developed a new family of amorphous catalysts based on iron oxide — rust — that turns water into hydrogen fuel. The innovation could improve systems...
Read More >>Carbon nanotubes could help mend broken hearts
MATERIALS
A collaboration between Harvard University and the University of Waterloo has produced a carbon nanotube-reinforced scaffold for growing cardiomyocytes — heart muscle cells — in the lab.
Read More >>New extraction technique for functional foods
TECHNIQUES
A team of engineers at Université Laval has developed a new system for efficiently extracting high-value bioactive molecules — potential nutraceuticals or pharmaceuticals — from plant and animal proteins. In...
Read More >>Silence is golden
INTELLECTUAL MATTERS
At a recent symposium I attended, several “studentpreneurs” were showcasing their innovations which had been supported by a local technology incubator. It was heartening to see how passionate the students...
Read More >>Is stiffer competition for research dollars a good thing for Canada?
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
After the March 2013 federal budget, our chemical sciences and engineering community seemed to be staying mum on what the academic research community had received. Perhaps the changes made by...
Read More >>Then and now
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
From the beginning, the history of the companies that would become Canadian Industries Limited (C-I-L) have been entangled with that of the nation itself. The Hamilton Powder Company, founded in...
Read More >>Social license will trump technological advancements in the chemical industry of the future
CAREERS
The discovery of new chemicals has always supported new functionalities and rising standards of living. But when it comes to applying those discoveries to industry — including resource extraction, chemical...
Read More >>Cloak and … umbrella?
CHEMFUSION
On my last visit to London, England I made a point of going to Waterloo station. I wasn’t interested in taking a train, I just wanted to stand at the...
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