Public embrace of hydrogen vital to its future
LETTER
I read with interest the Letter to the Editor by Nigel Bunce, “Hydrogen is an energy currency, not an energy source,” in the Sept-Oct issue of the Canadian Chemical News (ACCN).
Read More >>Marine natural products research threatened
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
The need for new biologically active compounds with applications as pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals is undeniable. In the very near future, there is a serious risk that a significant number...
Read More >>Most innovations are potentially patentable
INTELLECTUAL MATTERS
In my prior column, I wrote how some businesses in Canada are failing to protect and extract value from the intellectual property they are generating. In fact, it’s possible that...
Read More >>Then and Now
HISTORY
Few modern companies have roots reaching back to the Renaissance. Merck, the oldest pharmaceutical company in the world, is one of them. The company was created in 1668 by German...
Read More >>Can an apple a day keep the bad science away?
CHEMFUSION
Did Eve eat an apple to have a better sex life with Adam? One might come to that conclusion after reading a paper published in the Archives of Gynecology and...
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 >>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 >>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 >>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...
Read More >>Marketers play to the public’s growing ‘chemophobia’
CHEMFUSION
“Hey, aren’t you somebody?” the teenager queried as I got into the elevator. While I was pondering an appropriate answer to this deeply philosophical question, his crony spilled the beans,...
Read More >>Then and Now
HISTORY
Back in the 1950s, Dow Chemical promoted its glycols by highlighting the humectant and softening effect in cigarettes. Although cigarette advertising is anathema in society today, glycols and the role...
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