Pipe dream
PETROCHEMISTRY
The Aframax-class tanker — 245 metres long and loaded with oilsands bituman piped in from Alberta — pulls away from the marine terminal at Burnaby, BC, moving through Burrard Inlet past Stanley Park.
Read More >>Inorganic Chemistry Division recognizes top-notch students
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
The Canadian Society for Chemistry’s Inorganic Chemistry Division announces its graduate and undergraduate award winners. The 2015 Award for Undergraduate Research in Inorganic Chemistry (AURIC) was awarded to Jackson Knott from the University of Lethbridge. Hailing from Crowsnest Pass, Alta., Knott has worked on...
Read More >>CIC/SCI seminar and awards dinner honours achievement
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Science and industry celebrated their accomplishments at the CIC/SCI Canada Business Innovation Seminar and Awards Dinner. Photo credit: Krista Leroux The CIC/SCI Canada Business Innovation Seminar and Awards Dinner held March 26 in Calgary highlighted the achievements and initiatives of chemistry and chemical engineering leaders in industry and academia. Seminar speakers discussed a range of...
Read More >>Arsenic—a foe with many faces
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
Wherever arsenic goes, its sinister reputation precedes it. And arsenic really gets around. While other elements may be found far more abundantly in the Earth’s crust, oceans or atmosphere, at least some measurable amount of arsenic compounds will crop up in almost any sample of soil, water, food or tissue from our bodies. Many if...
Read More >>Safety catch
REGULATIONS
March came in like a lion for Port Metro Vancouver when a shipping container full of trichloroisocyanuric acid imported from China exploded, creating a massive chemical fire with toxic brown-grey smoke that swept east into the city as well as the neighbouring municipalities of Burnaby and Coquitlam. The March 4 afternoon blaze forced thousands of...
Read More >>Mapping the frontiers of chemical confinement
NANOCHEMISTRY
Living cells can get a lot of chemistry done in some very tight quarters. In fact, if you take the chemical constituents of a cell and try to get them to interact outside of those confines, you will get nothing like the same level of activity.
Read More >>Grapevine
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Top Canadian chemists were honoured at the annual Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) awards ceremony Feb. 17 at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.
Read More >>$1 million Gerhard Herzberg prize awarded to chemist
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) annual awards, recognizing the work of outstanding Canadian scientists and engineers...
Read More >>New book examines Alberta bitumen and oil processing
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
A new book by about oilsands extraction has been released by Murray Gray, FCIC, of the University of Alberta and Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar.
Read More >>SOUSCC attracts Ontario students
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
The 43rd Southern Ontario Undergraduate Student Chemistry Conference (SOUSCC) took place this past March at the University of Toronto Mississauga.
Read More >>Michael Paleologou recognized with prestigious R&D award
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Dr. Michael Paleologou, Group Leader of FPInnovations in Québec, was named winner of the Research and Development Technical Award and William H. Aiken Prize by TAPPI’s...
Read More >>Quirky boron aids understanding of thermodynamics
MATERIALS SCIENCE
Considering boron’s prominent place near the top of the periodic table, along with the fact we have known about its existence for more than 200 years, it is remarkable how much we continue to learn about this element...
Read More >>DNA has potential to detect new antibiotic compounds
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Although the famous double helix of DNA is widely recognized as the biochemical lynchpin of organic growth and development, it also turns out to be a handy tool for managing enzymatic activities...
Read More >>“Gender bender” reversal for the fathead minnow
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
When the synthetic estrogen that is an active ingredient in birth control pills — 17α-ethynyloestradiol (EE2) — makes its way from toilets to municipal wastewater streams to a freshwater environment, it can decimate...
Read More >>Tapping into an iconic symbol of Canadian cuisine
FOOD CHEMISTRY
Quebec’s maple syrup producers are teaming up with the province’s research community to transform this iconic Canadian foodstuff into a staple of sophisticated cuisine with a character as nuanced...
Read More >>Teasing out magnetite’s elusive hidden properties
SURFACE CHEMISTRY
We can only imagine how intrigued and tantalized ancient observers became when they discovered the properties of magnetite (Fe3O4) more than 2,000 years ago. This material has since become a common source of
Read More >>1951 Chemistry in Canada
HISTORY
In 1901, Thomas Leopold Willson, Canadian inventor of the calcium carbide manufacturing process, created the Shawinigan Carbide Company. The facility was located near Shawinigan Falls, Que., benefitting from the surplus electric power produced by the Shawinigan Water & Power Company (SW&P). Eight years later, the utility company obtained a controlling interest in Shawinigan Carbide and...
Read More >>Higher energy storage in lithium-sulphur batteries
MATERIALS SCIENCE
University of Waterloo chemistry professor Linda Nazar has found herself mining some 19th century science in order to understand the basis for the next generation of 21st century batteries. Since 2009, Nazar’s research group has...
Read More >>The science network
POLICY PUNDIT
Alan Bernstein, head of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, calls for greater involvement from the private sector to ensure our nation stays abreast of rapid advances in the technology revolution sweeping the globe. The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) is widely considered the jewel in the crown of Canadian research bodies. Not because...
Read More >>NSERC brings companies and researchers together
RESEARCH
Innovation is the bread and butter of chemists. Chemistry is a central science and our discoveries are innovation drivers in almost every field. Yet, many chemistry researchers appear to struggle with how to work in partnerships with industry. Over the past five years, we at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)...
Read More >>I call the next chemistry professor to the stand
INTELLECTUAL MATTERS
If I had to, I would estimate that more than 50 percent of all patent litigation in Canada involves chemical subject matter. That shouldn’t come as a shock; chemistry, after all, is the central science! In view of this, I wouldn’t be surprised if many readers of the Canadian Chemical News have acted as expert...
Read More >>Homeopathic studies spark aggrieved letter
CHEMFUSION
Academic freedom is sacrosanct in universities. Researchers must be free to pursue their ideas, be they conventional or peculiar. But academic freedom also includes the freedom of others to question those ideas. That is just what we did in a courteous letter addressed to Heather Boon, dean of the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at...
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