This week, I filled my regular fortnightly slot on ChemWeb with some applied chemistry, chemical engineering, and more:
volunteer work gets rewarded right from the top at the American Chemical Society, a novel approach to coupling unreactive arenes solves a century-old problem, sidesteps several synthetic steps and cuts down on waste, while a Stanford chemist reveals a PUG that can hack the PubChem database. Also, this week The Alchemist discovers that forests of nanotubes can be bundled together like so many logs in a molecular scale timberyard and new European regulations on chemicals came into force at the beginning of June, but may not reach consumers for years. Finally, yet another answer to the problem of binge-eating and obesity, a synthetic version of the hormone amylin gives positive rewards in the latest clinical tests.