Category: Chemistry

As long-time readers will know, Sciencebase has its roots in the first chemistry webzine, Elemental Discoveries, started by David Bradley Science Writer back in December 1995. The site continues to provide chemistry news from around the world.

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Open Access Drugs

Should drugs be open access? What about open source? Well, a step towards what some would sees as a utopia and others as the end of pharma R&D, could soon be taken with a proposed legislative bill in the US that seeks to make all pharmaceutical patents public domain.

There are some observers that suggest the existence of a patents culture in the pharma industry stifles research and development. Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, who has argued vehemently against pharma patents for years, has suggested a bounty system for medical cures. Now, Senator Bernie Sanders has taken up Stiglitz’ idea and has proposed a new law in Congress that would set aside US$80 billion a year as an incentive to pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs that would then be put in the public domain.

Technology writer Wayne Smallman is one of several people to suggest that removing the restrictions of patents from the pharmaceutical industry would open up a whole new drug discovery process because even previously unpatentable drugs, such as DCA, for instance, might be developed into marketable products with an injection of cash from something like the Bill Gates Foundation. This idea basically extends the Sanders’ bounty concept to the private funders. After all, $80billion is but a handful of blockbuster products over a ten-year lifespan.

One potential benefit of releasing researchers from the patent bind though is that they will be able to publish their papers that much sooner, which would then hopefully accelerate science still further.

Pick and Comment

Okay, here’s the thing. Sciencebase is now getting around 2000 spam comments every day. So, if I take a break, like I did this week, that’s a vast cr*pflood to check through even with the help of the Akismet spam filter and the Auntie Spam Greasemonkey script for Firefox that compresses and labels Akismet’s findings.

I just passed the 1200 posts mark on this blog and a total of 1200 or so legitimate comments and questions have been posted here by you, the readers. That’s one comment per post, on average, give or take a few. Some posts, such as any that mention the science and religion debate, Richard Dawkins or perpetual motion machines seem to elicit a flurry of comments, but other posts, which personally I predicted would stimulate discussion, seem not to get any comments at all.

Could it be that the vast majority of my posts are simply so wonderfully written and self contained that there is nothing more for you to add? I doubt it! Could it be that no one is actually reading Sciencebase? Well, with 2700 or so RSS subscribers, 1000 podcasters, and several thousand unique visitors to the site each day, that cannot be true either.

I know I shouldn’t worry that the blog receives relatively few comments even compared to countless blogs with fewer subscribers, but I would like to feel that this blog was more than just my random rants and raves and that there might be an opportunity for dialog across cyberspace.

So, here’s the challenge, have a dig around among my blog archives and pick out a post that piques your interest (it could be this one, if you like), leave a pertinent comment on that post of, say, at least 20 words. I’ll then pick out the most inspirational ten new comments over the coming week and post a summary next weekend together with a back link in that post to a site of the commentator’s choice (so be sure to include the web address you want linked in the comment form).

To get you started here are a few links to posts that have proved popular (i.e. were visited the most): Medical marijuana, No More Chocolate Headaches, and Benzene Soda.

Well…what are you waiting for, comment away…

High-speed MS Diagnosis is in the Eyes

Bacteriophage nuclease

MRI brain scans have recently been used to calibrate and corroborate the results of a new eye-scanning technique that can diagnose multiple sclerosis symptoms in just a few minutes. The technique, optical coherence tomography (OCT), scans the layers of nerve fibres in the retina to reveal nerve damage associated with the disease. The quick test will ultimately complement more detailed MRI studies of the brain when nerve damage is found an be useful in monitoring how effective treatment is. More on this in the latest issue of SpectroscopyNOW.com which goes live on November 1 (Sciencebase readers can get a sneak preview here)

Also, in the new issue, I discuss new research that could help pharmaceutical companies distinguish more easily between the different possible forms – polymorphs – of their products. The approach does not need to be used with a pure crystalline product and so works on formulated tablets. Researchers at the University of Warwick working with colleagues at Astra Zeneca have demonstrated that solid-state proton NMR spectroscopy can be used to crack the polymorphic secret of drugs by focusing on hydrogen atoms. The discovery could allow pharmaceutical companies to eradicate unwanted polymorphs from their formulations and so potentially improve drug efficacy and safety. Once again, you can get a sneak preview here

Also, in the new issue: A new grid technology that allows images from different analytical sources to be superimposed with high precision and so provide a mashup of X-ray fluorescence results on the inorganic components of a sample with an infrared image of the organic parts. The researchers who developed the technique say that their grid technology could be as useful in medical diagnostics and biomedical research as in environmental studies. More on this here.

Other research covered includes a study of bacteriophage DNA that could help explain how we get our mother’s eyes but not our father’s nose, and how Raman spectroscopy might explain the bacterial activity that is destroying ancient Italian frescoes – all on www.spectroscopynow.com

Alchemical Reactions

Cannabis leaf

The latest issues of my ChemWeb Alchemist and Reactive Reports columns are both available online.

Headline stories this month ask important questions, such as: Why does cannabis get you “high”? What is it about the psychoactive component in marijuana, THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, that exerts its special effects? Researchers hoping to use THC as a therapeutic agent in medicine, for treating symptoms of multiple sclerosis and other painful disorders, for instance, and others seeking to understand drug addiction, would certainly like to know precisely how cannabis works. New results reported in Reactive Reports this month could fill in some of the gaps.

We also find out what happens when your buckyballs rattle in their cage, learn how to kit out your Apple iPod (other mp3 players are available) with a nanoscopic radio. Add to that the discovery that a rare form of carbon dioxide could be to blame for the searing greenhouse effect…on Venus.

Chocoholics will not be surprised to learn that research by chocolate manufacturer Nestlé has shown a link between a love of chocolate and a specific chemical signature programmed into our body’s metabolism. There’s also news in The Alchemist that reveals the structure of a key enzyme that could underpin genetic uniqueness of offspring and so explain how you can have your mother’s eyes but not your father’s nose…

Also in Reactive Reports this week and sure to raise the hackles of anyone who sees the fatal flaws in the notion of a hydrogen economy, is a report on a new catalyst that might be able to convert sunlight and water directly into hydrogen, in a process analogous to the photosynthesis of carbohydrates by plants using sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water as the raw materials. Not only that the catalyst could act as its on storage medium for the hydrogen.

ACS Salary Spam

I suspect that a large proportion of the chemical blogosphere has either received the spam message from [email protected] some time this month or if they haven’t they will have seen it on one of the blogs. It’s on Chemical Forums, Peter Suber’s OA blog and from there it went to PeterMR’s blog, and the CHMINF-L discussion group, and several other blogs summarized in this Pg cluster.

The gist of the message is that a purported long-time ACS employee is frustrated by the size of the salary their boss receives and that this somehow relates to how the organisation operates and the profits it makes. Where’s the news in that? Bosses earn more than their subordinates! Shock! Salaries tied to success! Horror!

There is no way to validate the source of the original email from the headers alone, a free Yahoo account was used to send it and the YahooID is not in the membership directory of that site, so it may or may not be from a disgruntled ACS employee, we may never know, unless the person owns up.

My flippancy aside, the email does raise an important point, which Peter Suber and others wish to address and he suggests that the community should raise the following issue in open discussion: “If your professional society has opposed government OA policies, try to find out whether its executives get bonuses based on the revenues or profits of its publications. If they do, ask in a public meeting whether they believe this is a conflict of interest.”

I asked the ACS communications office to comment on the original email, and they got back to me with a statement. In it, the ACS categorically states: “The anonymous author makes erroneous and misleading claims about the compensation of these employees and alleges that the compensation is somehow related to the Society’s position on open access.”

It goes on to say that: “The ACS’s position on Open Access has been developed carefully over many years, in consultation with scientists and publishing experts from a wide range of scientific disciplines and interests. It is measured and seeks to balance the legitimate needs of all stakeholders in scientific publishing. That position has been fully reviewed and approved by the appropriate levels of ACS Governance, including Board Committees and the Board of Directors, and is not a ‘staff decision’ alone.”

So, on the one hand, we have a spurious claim from an anonymous emailer claiming to be an ACS employee, which has been taken up by the chemistry blogosphere and beyond and a statement from ACS denying all the claims in said email and consolidating their stance on Open Access.

Do ChemSpy readers have any thoughts on all of this?

A Tricorder for Blood Disease and Breast Cancer

Med-tricorder

Science news with a spectroscopy bent from my desktop hit the virtual newsstands today over on SpectroscopyNOW.com First up, an atomic coilgun that can stop atoms in their tracks using a sequence of pulsed magnetic fields has been developed by US scientists. The device opens up the possibility of slowing and trapping atoms regardless of atomic number, which is not possible even with Nobel prize winning laser trapping science, which works only for specific atoms. The new approach could allow technologically important elements such as iron, nickel, and the most fundamental element of all, hydrogen, to be slowed to a standstill.

Next, we have a story for fans of Italian cuisine in which scientists have figured out the details of how enzymes in the fragrant herb basil give it its sweet zing so beloved of pesto fans. structure of eugenol synthase, frozen in mid-action as it makes its natural product, eugenol. The researchers at the University of Michigan have taken an X-ray snapshot of basil’s enzyme eugenol synthase working on a substrate molecule key to the biological synthesis of the aromatic component of fresh basil leaves, eugenol. Apparently, the enzyme has a rather unique action in that it involves a push-pull mechanism that evolved from a simpler enzyme seen in other plants and basil’s ancestors.

We also have a rather gory story in this week’s issue related to sticky blood. In it, an entirely new approach to testing for the sticky blood disorder known as Hughes syndrome, or antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is developed. The technique involves a statistical analysis of near-infrared (NIR) spectra recorded for suspect blood samples. The accurate results suggests that NIR might one day be developed as a non-invasive test that can be carried out without piercing the skin for a blood sample. Some observers are already suggesting this is yet another step towards a Tricorder type device for medical diagnostics.

Finally, NIR spectroscopy is also being investigated as a new approach to detecting the microscopic calcium salt crystals that form in tissue during the early stages of breast cancer. A Harvard medical team is developing the novel scanning technique and has invented an easy to make compound that latches on to the microcalcifications and lights up in the near-infrared region of the spectrum. Presumably, the same observers heralding a medical Tricorder type device for blood diseases will see this as another example of so NIR and yet so far.

Solar Power, Japanese Hair, X-Rays, and Winning SONS

Japanese women

This week, The Alchemist learns of awards to two chemists funded by the European Science Foundation and undertaking cutting edge multidisciplinary work in solar energy and liquid crystals.

It turns out that when it comes to crystallography size no longer matters, thanks to developments in how well x-ray beams can be focused and the positioning of microcrystals for analysis by diffraction. Also this week, could an extract from bilberries be effective against certain types of tumor or even prevent specific cancers developing in the first place?

And, while water cannot burn, there is new evidence that a novel photocatalyst is getting solar energy experts hot under the collar in the search for the perfect hydrogen-production process. In inorganic chemistry, mercury shows its true mettle when confronted with plenty of fluorine and, finally, Raman spectroscopy can now see through even the most highly pigmented hair, revealing the secret of aging Japanese locks.

Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2007

Gerhard Ertl

The Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2007 goes to Gerhard Ertl of the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces. Congratulations Professor!

We have the semiconductor industry of the 1960s to thank for the emergence of surface chemistry. Gerhard Ertl was one of the first to see the potential of the new techniques and has pioneered methodology for different experimental procedures that give us a clear picture of surface reactions.

I wrote about Ertl’s work on several occasions for ChemWeb.com in its previous incarnation and reported on a catalyst surface science meeting of the UK’s Royal Society in 2004. There is a list of past winners on Sciencebase together with links and a brief summary of their research here.

Mapping Chemical Industry Knowledge

Joana Mendonça and Rui Baptista of the Centre for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research at the Technical University of Lisbon, working with Paulo Conde of Solvay in Brussells, Belgium, have examined how innovation occurs within the chemical industry, by examining the processes and activities undertaken by the Portuguese branch of a multinational chemical company. They have looked at the company’s formal innovation process and from that they have gleaned a map of the knowledge bases used in the search for innovative, new products.

Europe is a major player in the global chemical industry, but recently supply has begun to shift towards the Asian and Middle East markets. Demand from these regions is increasingly rapidly but their own fast-developing industries may not face the same high production costs and strict environmental regulations that increasingly make Europe a less attractive investment.

Couple this socioeconomic and geographical shift in production with a fall off in R&D spending in Europe and the exodus of skilled labour and on the surface it appears that chemical industry innovation within Europe is on the wane. Faced with this prospect, Mendonça and colleagues suggest that it, “is of crucial importance to analyse its processes within the chemical industry.”

Their analysis of the chemical industry has allowed them to produce a map showing the spread of the industry’s widely distributed knowledge bases and to demonstrate how knowledge flows between them and how it is used. They have found that the ability to generate value-creating knowledge is concentrated in the early stages of the industry’s lifecycle regardless of region. In contrast, the Portuguese industry is mostly concentrated on activities that have already reached maturity and, in some cases, are in decline rather than looking to innovation. “Owing to this asymmetry, disembodied knowledge flows are difficult to create, and other types of relationship should be pursued,” they suggest.

They also point out that multinational companies tend to rely strongly on internal improvements and do not seek new knowledge from outside sources that might lead to profitable innovation or improvements in efficiency. Indeed, any innovative activities that take place are actually focused on preventing “unwelcome surprises and to minimise risk” as opposed to facilitating the kin of “freewheeling, imaginative, and risk-taking approach that characterises entrepreneurship”.

All is not lost, add the researchers, “large multinational companies can have a decisive role in the innovation process by providing their market expertise to entrepreneurs and the case study presented shows a path other companies may follow.”

The original research paper, “A map of the knowledge bases for the chemical industry” can be found in the current issue of the International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management (2007, 7, 245-262)

Ten Improvements on the ACS Website

The American Chemical Society (ACS) website got a makeover. They haven’t gone totally two-point-oh (thankfully) but they have made a few improvements (ten to be precise, at least according to their announcement), two of which are comprehensiveand at least 2 or 3 of which amount to the same thing. Still, it is nice a nice layout, albeit, a bit toooo web one-point-ohhhh and a little more 2005 than 2007. If you’ve used the features leave a comment and tell us about your experiences.

Anyway, here’s the top ten according to the ACS itself:

  • Consistent, global navigation
  • Unified look and feel
  • Ten comprehensive categories
  • Member focused
  • Home page highlights
  • Comprehensive search
  • Easier to read
  • Faster access
  • One stop for help
  • User Tested and Approved