Quest to sequester
SEQUESTRATION
To paraphrase a famous observation, “Everybody talks about climate change, but nobody does much about it.” Indeed, media reports and scientific...
Read More >>Chemist Mario Pinto new head of NSERC
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
B. Mario Pinto, FCIC, takes on his latest leadership role this fall as president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Pinto, the former vice-chair of the Chemical Institute of Canada and former vice-president, research at Simon Fraser University (SFU), is the third chemist to head NSERC.
Read More >>Breath-fresh strips inspire new platform for vaccines
MATERIALS SCIENCE
In liquid form, life-saving agents such as vaccines can be notoriously unstable, often requiring refrigeration or other support systems to preserve them long enough to reach patients in need. International aid missions can easily be foiled by simple...
Read More >>CSC gets the Royal treatment
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
The Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC) signed a reciprocal agreement with the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in June at the 97th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition in Vancouver.
Read More >>Waxing poetic about plastics
MATERIALS CHEMISTRY
It’s in your car tires and the roads you drive on. It bonds the wood particles in your desk. It coats the apples and fancy cheeses you eat for lunch....
Read More >>Running Interference
BIOCHEMISTRY
In Guinea, West Africa, February is the dry season; a dusty haze, stirred by the northeasterly harmattan winds, thickens the air. This year, the winds were harbingers of ill omen....
Read More >>Nurturing a new crop of nanomaterial specialists
NANAOTECHNOLOGY
Materials that function on a nanometre scale are a practical reality for Vancouver-based STEMCELL Technologies Inc., which relies on them to contain and handle the sensitive cell lines. Dozens of other firms across Canada are also making use of such nanomaterials
Read More >>Canadians shine at Chemistry Olympiad
EDUCATION
Canadian chemistry high school students brought home two silver and two bronze medals from the 46th International Chemistry Olympiad IChO 2014, held this past July in Hanoi, Vietnam. Silver medal winners included Grade 11 student John Zhou and Grade 12 student...
Read More >>Grapevine
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Harold Jennings, FCIC, was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in June. Jennings developed a pediatric vaccine that is used internationally to prevent the most prevalent strain of meningitis.
Read More >>Nanotech pares platinum to cut catalysis costs
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Automobile manufacturers have well-established technology for adding an oxygen molecule to the toxic carbon monoxide from vehicles’ tailpipes, so that the output instead consists of CO2. Unfortunately, this active catalytic oxidation does not come chea...
Read More >>Chemistry delegates get summer schooled in Toronto
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
More than 450 delegates from 40 nations attended the IUPAC 23rd International Conference on Chemistry Education, held in Toronto this past July.
Read More >>Raman spectroscopy provides high-tech clues to Group of Seven’s Lawren Harris art mystery
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Fourteen years ago, David Robertson of Delta, British Columbia was holidaying in Ontario when he stopped at a small antique shop in the community of Bala, two hours north of Toronto in cottage country. An unsigned 1912 oil painting caught his attention.
Read More >>Western gathering of chemists at UVic
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
This past May at the University of Victoria, 80 scientists from across Western Canada spent three days sharing their knowledge at the 2014 Western Canadian Undergraduate Chemistry Conference. Guest speakers included Darren Johnson...
Read More >>Hydrogen is an energy currency, not an energy source
LETTER
I write in connection with the article “It’s a Heat Wave” in the July/August 2014 issue of the Canadian Chemical News (ACCN). The opening paragraphs of the article are reproduced...
Read More >>Oil sands phase-out may be Canada’s greatest contribution to the world
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
The occasion of writing this column prompted reflection on my engineering career, in particular three critical junctures. The first was in 1970, when my teacher pointed to Northern Alberta on...
Read More >>Then and Now
HISTORY
They say that nothing sells like celebrity, the proof being in the number of Hollywood stars hawking perfume, umbrellas, clothes and hair dye. But celebrity encompasses historical figures too, and...
Read More >>Scientists need to protect their discoveries with patents
INTELLECTUAL MATTERS
Recently, The Globe and Mail reported on a list of the world’s top researchers compiled by Thomson Reuters, a provider of solutions to the Canadian legal marketplace. The list, found...
Read More >>When no further testing is needed
CHEMFUSION
The gold standard in science is the randomized, controlled, double-blind trial. If you want to know whether Garcinia cambogia (also known as assam fruit) causes weight loss, or whether glucosamine...
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