Chemical renaissance
MATERIALS
While the prospect of warmer Arctic temperatures generally earns negative reviews from many people, one group of researchers has been welcoming a positive...
Read More >>Conference explores chemistry in a sustainable world
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Nearly 2,500 students, researchers, industry representatives and academics came together for the 98th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition, held June 13-17 in Ottawa. The conference, hosted by the University of Ottawa’s Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences and themed “Chemistry in a Sustainable World,”...
Read More >>Reciprocal agreements give multi-national chemistry members numerous benefits
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
June 2015 marked an exciting month for Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC) members, who were officially given online access to Chemistry World, the Royal Society of Chemistry’s award-winning magazine.
Read More >>Power Couple
ENERGY
It was a summer of extremes, from fires blackening Western Canadian forests to a shrivelling drought in California to heat waves that baked Pakistan and India. Meteorologists pointed the finger...
Read More >>Cornfield of Dreams
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY
Anton Korenevski was doing laboratory work one night as part of a study into how bacteria stick to surfaces when he spotted something unusual. A post-doctoral researcher at the University...
Read More >>Queens University to host Poster Day and CIC trivia night
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Queen’s Chemical Engineering and the Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Association (CEGSA) will be hosting the 1st annual Queen’s Chemical Engineering Research Day on Sept. 11 in Kingston, Ont. Graduate and undergraduate students will have the opportunity to participate in a poster competition for...
Read More >>Grapevine
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) members Nicolas Abatzoglou, Gregory Evans, Robert Magee, Vladimiros Papangelakis, Federico Rosei, Michael V. Sefton, FCIC, and Huining Xiao were awarded Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) Fellowships in June. Fellows of the academy are elected by their peers...
Read More >>High school students capture bronze and silver in Azerbaijan
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Canadian high school students brought home two silver medals and two bronze medals from the 47th International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO), held July 20-29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Read More >>Fredericton hosts Atlantic science students for ChemCon 2015
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
The 40th Annual Science Atlantic/CIC Chemistry Conference (ChemCon) was held this past May at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) in Fredericton. More than 100 undergraduate and graduate chemistry students from the Atlantic provinces came together to learn about student research and to share their work.
Read More >>Yeast-brewed opiates hold promise of cheaper drugs
TECHNIQUES
When papers in Nature Chemical Biology and PLOS ONE released this spring revealed an engineered form of yeast that could be used to make morphine as easily as home brewers turn out batches...
Read More >>Persuading molecules to behave in a responsible manner
BIOCHEMISTRY
Electronic design is butting up against the physical limits of manipulating charges within a semiconductor, which means circuitry is approaching the effective limit of how small and densely...
Read More >>Synchrotron catches new glimpses of superconductors
FUNDAMENTALS
The search for new superconducting materials has waxed and waned over the past couple of decades as researchers have struggled to find...
Read More >>Woolly mammoth diet elucidates modern climate change
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
Although woolly mammoths have not walked the Earth for several thousand years, they played a crucial role in the balance of the world’s prehistoric ecosystem and have become...
Read More >>Phosphorus a dark horse candidate to replace silicon
MATERIALS SCIENCE
As we place ever-greater demands on the processing ability of electronic components, researchers have been seeking a semiconducting material that would improve on silicon’s performance...
Read More >>A new window on the chemical mechanics of glass
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Prehistoric peoples used naturally occurring glass to make some of the first cutting tools; modern humans began making this hard material at least 5,000 years ago.
Read More >>Sunlight plays key role in airborne aerosol gases
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY
The behaviour of aerosols in the atmosphere remains largely unaccounted for in climate modelling — with good reason. This complex atmospheric component is exceedingly difficult to...
Read More >>Canadian universities need re-schooling
POLICY PUNDIT
Wendy Cukier, vice-president research and innovation at Ryerson University, says that universities need to focus on the employability of their graduates. Ryerson University in Toronto is different from many Canadian...
Read More >>Teach the chemical sciences like a superhero
EDUCATION
Hey Ms P.L., if you could be a superhero based on an element in the periodic table, who would you be?” Hardly the ground-breaking, significant question a teacher might want...
Read More >>1951 Chemistry in Canada
HISTORY
When Canadian Liquid Air Company Limited ran this ad in Chemistry in Canada in 1951, its founding firm, Air Liquide of France, was one year shy of its 50th anniversary....
Read More >>Company trade secrets a high-stakes game
INTELLECTUAL MATTERS
Espionage. Double agents. Betrayal. Theft. While I could be describing the latest James Bond film, these elements were all part of a trade secret lawsuit in the United States involving...
Read More >>Coffee chemistry — good to the last drop!
CHEMFUSION
Caffeine can make you jittery. It can keep you awake. And it can make you pee more often. This much we know for sure. But as for other allegations against...
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