A more potent meth?

An unusually chemistry-heavy article in The Atlantic about methamphetamine: 

Among the drawbacks of the P2P method is that it produces two kinds of methamphetamine. One is known as d-methamphetamine, which is the stuff that makes you high. The other is l-methamphetamine, which makes the heart race but does little to the brain; it is waste product. Most cooks would likely want to get rid of the l-meth if they knew what it was. But separating the two is tricky, beyond the skills of most clandestine chemists. And without doing so, the resulting drug is inferior to ephedrine-based meth. It makes your heart hammer without offering as potent a high.

Bozenko’s sample contained mostly d-methamphetamine. Someone had removed most of the l-meth. “I’ve taken down labs in several continents,” Bozenko told me years later. No one in the criminal world, as far as he and his colleagues knew, had ever figured out how to separate d-meth from l-meth before.

Would be interesting to know how exactly clandestine chemists are performing this resolution, but it looks like it's via the tartrate salt, which is pretty reasonable. This conclusion about this newer meth was interesting and a bit skepticism-inducing: 

Why is P2P meth producing such pronounced symptoms of mental illness in so many people? No one I spoke with knew for sure. One theory is that much of the meth contains residue of toxic chemicals used in its production, or other contaminants. Even traces of certain chemicals, in a relatively pure drug, might be devastating. The sheer number of users is up, too, and the abundance and low price of P2P meth may enable more continual use among them. That, combined with the drug’s potency today, might accelerate the mental deterioration that ephedrine-based meth can also produce, though usually over a period of months or years, not weeks. Meth and opioids (or other drugs) might also interact in particularly toxic ways. I don’t know of any study comparing the behavior of users—or rats for that matter—on meth made with ephedrine versus meth made with P2P. This now seems a crucial national question.

I'm pretty skeptical that there's a major chemical difference between ephedrine-based meth and P2P-based meth, but maybe I'm wrong. It seems to be that "more meth, cheaper" is probably the horses-not-zebras answer, even as there are other, tempting explanations (contaminants, etc). 

The 2022 Faculty Jobs List: 366 research/teaching positions and 24 teaching positions

The 2022 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 366 research/teaching positions and 24 teaching positions. 

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On October 20, 2020, the 2021 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 136 research/teaching position and 12 teaching positions. On October 22, 2019, the 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 417 research/teaching positions and 20 teaching positions.

To see trending, go to Andrew Spaeth's visualization of previous years' list.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the first open thread. 

Don't forget to click on "load more" below the comment box for the full thread.

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 46 positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List has 46 positions. It is curated by Lilian Josephson (@lljosephson).

Want to talk? Go to this year's open thread. 

Chemistry Bumper Cars

Check out the latest moves here! 

To submit information, click here or e-mail chembumpercars@gmail.com

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 32 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 32 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady and @nmr_chemist. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread.

Supply chain issues hitting very basic chemicals too

Via the Associated Press: 

In an economy upended by the coronavirus, shortages and price spikes have hit everything from lumber to computer chips. Not even toilet paper escaped.

Now, they’re cutting into one of the humblest yet most vital links in the global manufacturing supply chain: The plastic pellets that go into a vast universe of products ranging from cereal bags to medical devices, automotive interiors to bicycle helmets.

Like other manufacturers, petrochemical companies have been shaken by the pandemic and by how consumers and businesses responded to it. Yet petrochemicals, which are made from oil, have also run into problems all their own, one after another: A freak winter freeze in Texas. A lightning strike in Louisiana. Hurricanes along the Gulf Coast.

All have conspired to disrupt production and raise prices.

“There isn’t one thing wrong,” said Jeremy Pafford, head of North America, market development, at Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS), which analyzes energy and chemical markets. “It’s kind of whack-a-mole — something goes wrong, it gets sorted out, then something else happens. And it’s been that way since the pandemic began.”

The price of polyvinyl chloride or PVC, used for pipes, medical devices, credit cards, vinyl records and more, has rocketed 70%. The price of epoxy resins, used for coatings, adhesives and paints, has soared 170%. Ethylene — arguably the world’s most important chemical, used in everything from food packaging to antifreeze to polyester — has surged 43%, according to ICIS figures.

It's hard to know when all the various pandemic-related supply chain issues will be over. 

The negative effects are obvious, i.e. if you can't get product, you can't sell it and your revenue projections go down, so you dial back hiring. 

It seems that there hasn't been a major impact on hiring yet, especially for the companies that do the bulk of hiring out of graduate school. That said, it bears watching, and I think it poses the largest obvious threat to the 2022 chemical employment market. Developing...

Disappearing tattoo ink?

This is a cool science entrepreneurship story (via The New York Times): 

...Ephemeral’s fading ink was invented by two chemical engineers who specialize in protein, Brennal Pierre, 41, and Vandan Shah, 33. They met at New York University, where Mr. Pierre was an adjunct professor, and Mr. Shah was a Ph.D. candidate.

Their work began in 2014 when one of Mr. Pierre’s students, who was also Mr. Shah’s research assistant, was going through a very painful and expensive laser removal process for a tattoo, and he wanted to know if it would be possible to remove it with an enzyme.

Once the question was asked, Mr. Pierre and Mr. Shah were hooked. “It was so intriguing to us,” Mr. Pierre said. They spent the next seven years developing an ink that would be broken down by the body’s natural mechanism.

...When you get a tattoo made of permanent ink, most of the ink remains where it is deposited. By contrast, Ephemeral’s ink is made of a material that the body naturally breaks down over time. The ink works in a similar way to biodegradable medical devices like stents used in implants or sutures used in stitches. These products, like the ink, are broken down naturally by available oxygen and water in the body.

Looks like to me that the inks are pretty typical inks, but the encapsulation is where the secret sauce is? 

I used to be pretty skeptical of science entrepreneurship stories, but the last ~5 years have changed my opinion broadly as to its potential applicability. I still think the problems are pretty tough to surmount (i.e. I think you (the scientist) basically needs a full-time spouse to provide health insurance, etc). Makes you wonder if the inevitable climb in interest rates will clamp down on rates of entrepreneurship...

Have a good weekend

This has been a relatively quiet week, but it's had its moments. Hope that you have a good weekend, and we'll see you on Monday. 

Postdoc: Synthetic chemistry, US Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, Dulles, VA

From the inbox: 

Office/Lab and Location: A postdoctoral research opportunity is currently available with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) located in Dulles, Virginia.

The DEA Special Testing and Research Laboratory provides investigative support and executes multiple special programs for customers including the DEA Intelligence Division, DEA Special Agents, United States Drug Policymakers and other Nations. These special programs include drug signature and profiling of illicit drugs including heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl in order to provide strategic and tactical intelligence.

Research Project: Under the guidance of a mentor, the participant will be actively involved with the synthesis of new and existing drugs and precursors currently encountered or potentially to be encountered in the illicit drug market. The participant will design novel synthetic pathways to unknown/known compounds, formulate and carry out synthetic procedures leading to purified compounds. The participant will possess a broad and thorough knowledge of organic synthetic chemistry and corresponding knowledge/experience with applicable laboratory techniques. The participant will also keep abreast of the latest developments in synthetic procedures so that new advances can be applied without delay to the solution of problems encountered.

Learning Objectives: The participant will learn to perform novel syntheses, hone synthetic skills, design novel syntheses, enhance purification skills, identify emerging compounds of abuse.

Full ad here; US citizens only. Best wishes to those interested. 

Lawsuit filed against LyondellBasell

Via Houston Public Media: 

The father of a worker who died during a chemical leak at LyondellBasell’s La Porte facility in July filed a $1 million lawsuit against the company on Thursday.

According to the lawsuit, LyondellBasell became aware of a leak inside of the Acetyls Unit at the 1515 Miller Cut Off Road facility on July 27, and decided to delay permanent repairs — opting to instead to temporarily fix the leak.

Later that day, 32-year-old Shawn Kuhleman was working near the Acetyls Unit when more than 100,000 pounds of a mixture of harmful chemicals — including acetic acid, methyl iodide, and hydrogen iodide — was released into the complex, the lawsuit reads. The lawsuit says Kuhleman was fully exposed to “the harmful toxic chemicals which burned his body internally and externally,” resulting in his death.

36-year-old Dustin Day was also pronounced dead at the scene, and 30 workers were hospitalized.

That sounds awful. Condolences for the families of the deceased, and here's hoping the facts of what happened will be described in full soon. 

30 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Common Organic Chemistry is resolving some technical difficulties, but has ported over the list to Google Drive for now. There are 30 new positions for October 13.

Don't forget to check out the Common Organic Chemistry company map, a very helpful resource for organic chemists looking for potential employers.

Global organic chemistry job market link

Via organic-chemistry.org, a link to the job market section. 

Quora microwave expert Robert Schiffman dies

Via the New York Times, an obituary of a microwave food chemist: 

After earning a bachelor’s in pharmacy at Columbia University in 1955 and a master’s in analytical science and physical chemistry at Purdue University four years later, Mr. Schiffmann answered an advertisement for “a physical chemist with a sense of humor” at DCA Food Industries, a bakery equipment maker, and got the job.

It was there, in 1961, while studying the heat transfer characteristics of deep-fat frying, that he saw a co-worker place a sandwich on a paper plate inside a chrome-plated machine.

“When the guy took the sandwich out, it was warm, but the plate was cool and so was the air in the oven,” he told People. “I couldn’t get over it.”

He quickly microwaved his own sandwich, and, over the next 15 minutes, started experimenting. He microwaved doughnut dough, and then a beaker of fat into which he added raw dough, all of which eventually led to his building large microwave doughnut fryers.

The microwave - is there anything it can't do?  

BLS: quits up dramatically

Via the New York Times: 

As the economy struggles to get back on track amid the pandemic, businesses are struggling to find employees — and workers are discovering that they have leverage.

Nearly 4.3 million workers voluntarily quit their jobs in August, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That was up from four million in July and is by far the most in the two decades the government has been keeping track.

The explosion of quitting is the latest evidence that the balance of power in the labor market has swung toward workers, at least temporarily. Average hourly earnings have surged in recent months, particularly for the lowest-paid workers, and yet many businesses report they are still having difficulty finding workers.

Anyone out there quitting their jobs in the chemical or pharma industry? What are things like right now? 

The 2022 Faculty Jobs List: 342 research/teaching positions and 24 teaching positions

The 2022 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 342 research/teaching positions and 24 teaching positions. 

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On October 13, 2020, the 2021 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 125 research/teaching position and 12 teaching positions. On October 15, 2019, the 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 406 research/teaching positions and 16 teaching positions.

To see trending, go to Andrew Spaeth's visualization of previous years' list.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the first open thread. 

Don't forget to click on "load more" below the comment box for the full thread.

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 40 positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List has 40 positions. It is curated by Lilian Josephson (@lljosephson).

Want to talk? Go to this year's open thread. 

Chemistry Bumper Cars

Check out the latest moves here! 

To submit information, click here or e-mail chembumpercars@gmail.com

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 29 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 29 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady and @nmr_chemist. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread.

Cool gunpowder story

Well, this is a lot cooler than baking sourdough: 

In the early days of the pandemic, Dawn E. Riegner, a chemist at an elite college, found that she had time on her hands because of the empty classrooms. So she filled her downtime with an explosive diversion.

Dr. Riegner talked three of her colleagues — and her daughter — into studying how well different kinds of gunpowder recipes from the Middle Ages performed in firing projectiles out of a replica cannon. Her ambitious plan was relatively easy to carry out because she’s a tenured professor of chemistry at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., which gave her access not only to top scholars and laboratories but world-class firing ranges.

“It’s a silver lining of the pandemic,” Dr. Riegner, whose usual research centers on better detection of explosives and chemical warfare agents, said in an interview of the gunpowder study. “It’s been one of the greatest things.”

Makes you wonder what the vinegar was used for... 

NYT: new college graduates getting hired

Via the New York Times, looks like it's a good year to be a young college graduate: 

“The appetite for college labor is strong right now, whether it’s student positions, or part time, all the way through entry-level jobs,” said Jennifer Neef, director of the Career Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

That appetite at this stage of the pandemic — when overall U.S. employment remains more than five million jobs below the level in early 2020 — underscores the longstanding economic premium for those with a college education over holders of just a high school diploma.

The unemployment rate for all workers with a college degree stood at 2.5 percent in September, compared with 5.8 percent for high school graduates with no college. Among workers 22 to 27, the jobless rate in June was 6.2 percent for those with at least a bachelor’s degree and 9.6 percent for those without one, according to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

“We’ve seen a bifurcation in the labor market recovery,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. “College graduates were less affected by job losses and have seen a faster rebound while people with high school diplomas or less witnessed a much more serious decline in employment opportunities during the Covid crisis.”

 Good news for this year's grads. Will be interesting to see how long the good times keep rolling. 

Have a good weekend

Well, we've made it through another one. Here's hoping that you had a good week, and that you will have a great weekend. We'll see you on Monday. 

Job posting: development chemist, FutureFuel, Batesville, AR

From the inbox, two positions available: 

FutureFuel Chemical Company is seeking a Development Lab Bench Chemist for our Chemical Technology Department.  The Development Lab Bench Chemist works under the direction of an Advanced Scientist, typically a PhD Chemist.  The Development Lab Bench Chemist assists in the development of new organic chemical synthesis manufacturing processes and the improvement of existing manufacturing processes.  The Development Lab Bench Chemist would also support the resolution of manufacturing issues and product quality issues and provide technical assistance to customers.

They aid in planning and conducting laboratory projects and investigations of a research or development nature.  They assemble laboratory equipment, perform experiments, observe and record details of experimental work, and document the results in memos, reports, and other technical methods.  They perform minor maintenance on laboratory equipment and design and order the necessary supplies and parts to conduct chemical synthesis experiments.  They interface with outside customers and internal peers.  They use a variety of highly technical laboratory equipment to perform research and development type experiments (i.e., automated reactor systems and data acquisition.)  They must consider safety and environmental conditions as well as effectiveness and efficiency when designing and conducting experiments.  Candidates must be strong in initiative and self-direction and committed to follow-through.  Candidates with a B.S. in Chemistry and previous experience are preferred.  Candidates with a B.A. in Chemistry or other related degrees will be considered depending on their course completions and experience.  

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested. 

23 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Common Organic Chemistry is resolving some technical difficulties, but has ported over the list to Google Drive for now. There are 23 new positions for October 3.

Don't forget to check out the Common Organic Chemistry company map, a very helpful resource for organic chemists looking for potential employers.

Professors List and MacMillan win Chemistry Nobel for organocatalysis

From the New York Times: 

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded on Wednesday to Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan for their development of a new tool to build molecules, work that has spurred advances in pharmaceutical research and lessened the impact of chemistry on the environment.

Their work, while unseen by consumers, is an essential part in many leading industries and is crucial for research.

From Chemical and Engineering News' Leigh Krietsch Boerner: 

The 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has gone to Benjamin List of the Max Planck Institute for Kohlenforschung, and David W. C. MacMillan of Princeton University for the discovery of asymmetric organocatalysis. Asymmetric organocatalysis uses small organic molecules as catalysts instead of traditional catalysts such as enzymes or metals. These molecules are able to catalyze reactions to selectively form one enantiomer of a particular compound—meaning one version of two mirror-image molecules.

Best wishes to Professors List and MacMillan.  

Longread of the day: using data science to mine cobalt

Via Bloomberg: 

Late in August, at a precisely specified point in the low Arctic, a geologist named Dave Freedman stood in a raw wind and a limitless expanse of tundra and began to thwack with a sledgehammer at a rock outcrop jutting up from the soil.

Freedman, 29, works for a company called KoBold Metals, and the process that had brought him to this pair of GPS coordinates in Quebec’s far north was complex. But the rock had had its own journey. Before it was rock, it had been magma in the Earth’s mantle, part of a molten tongue tens of meters wide that had welled up as two tectonic plates spread apart 1.85 billion years ago.

Lots of interesting chemistry within.  

The 2022 Faculty Jobs List: 318 research/teaching positions and 20 teaching positions

The 2022 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 318 research/teaching positions and 20 teaching positions. 

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On October 6, 2020, the 2021 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 114 research/teaching position and 10 teaching positions. On October 8, 2019, the 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 381 research/teaching positions and 11 teaching positions.

To see trending, go to Andrew Spaeth's visualization of previous years' list.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the first open thread. 

Don't forget to click on "load more" below the comment box for the full thread.

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 38 positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List has 38 positions. It is curated by Lilian Josephson (@lljosephson).

Want to talk? Go to this year's open thread. 

Chemistry Bumper Cars

Check out the latest moves here! 

To submit information, click here or e-mail chembumpercars@gmail.com

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 27 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 27 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady and @nmr_chemist. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread.

C&EN: Chinese power outages affect chemical production

In this week's Chemical and Engineering News, this news (by Hepeng Jia): 

China’s chemical sector is enjoying a profit surge, but continued prosperity is threatened by spreading power outages and the nation’s attempt to control carbon emissions.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics says profits in the chemical industry rose by 145% in the first 8 months of the year, nearly tripling the average industrial profit increase.

But the streak could be coming to an end. In recent days, at least a dozen stock market–listed Chinese chemical manufacturers—ranging from fertilizer producers to polyester fiber firms—have announced production curtailments due to lack of electricity.

In addition, on Sept. 23, the US firm Celanese declared force majeure for several polymers after it was forced to shut down acetic anhydride and vinyl acetate facilities in Nanjing, in Jiangsu Province, to comply with government orders. Nationwide, thousands of chemical factories could be impacted by power cuts, says China Petrochemical News.

The publication quotes several chemical firms’ executives in Jiangsu Province and the regions of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia as complaining that the unstable electricity supply is hampering maintenance, feedstock loading, and production safety.

 I imagine this will have the effect of driving Chinese prices up, which will have further inflationary effects on the world economy. I think I expected inflation to pop up eventually, but how it's affected the global economy and why have been beyond me. 

Cool art techniques

Via the New York Times, this neat bit of spectroscopy: 

The year was 1791, and while Marie Antoinette may not have had the favor of the people of France, she did have a pen pal. Her confidant, Axel von Fersen, was a Swedish count, and one of the French queen’s close friends.

Between the summers of 1791 and 1792, though the queen was kept under close surveillance after a botched escape attempt, she still managed to sneak letters to the Count of Fersen. He copied the letters, which are now held in the French national archives. But between the time the letters were written and the time they arrived at the archives, some mysterious actor censored the letters, scrawling out words and lines with tightly looped circles of ink.

The content of the censored lines — and the identity of the fastidious scribbler — eluded historians for nearly 150 years. In a paper published on Friday in the journal Science Advances, scientists have now revealed the redacted content of eight of the censored letters between Marie Antoinette and the Count of Fersen. The researchers used a technique called X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, which can detect the chemical signatures of different inks without damaging documents.

...The method that prevailed was X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, or XRF, which differentiated the chemical signature of the ink used by the original author and the ink used by the censor. The initial XRF scans revealed that both texts had been etched with metal-gall ink, a common ink made with iron sulfate. “But the iron sulfate is not pure most of the time,” Dr. Michelin said. “It contains other metallic elements, like copper and zinc. With that slight difference, we can differentiate the inks.”

In some letters, copper was present only in the original ink, so isolating the element on its own would remove the censor. “So just with the map of the copper, I can read the text,” Dr. Michelin said...

 It seems that art science always has the best stories. 

Have a good weekend

Well, here we are at the weekend. Hope that you had a good week, and that you have a good weekend. See you on Monday! 

LIDAR for bear mass

Me, after dinner on Thursday
credit: New York Times

Always cool to see what instruments of science can be used for (via High Country News): 

“I got a laser return from the butt of Otis, one of the more famous brown bears up there,” Cusick said. “I thought, ‘Wow, this just might work.’” 

Lidar, which stands for “light detection and ranging,” emits beams of light to measure three-dimensional objects or areas. When light waves hit an object, they bounce off and return to the sensor. Computers then use the speed of light to calculate the distance between the sensor and all the points. That figure is then processed using software that can model a three-dimensional object. Scanners have become standard technology that is deployed from the ground, the sky and satellites to measure vegetation growth. Now, they’re being used to measure bears’ length, height and girth.

Insurance companies are probably going to start using LIDAR to measure their policy holders... 

30 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Common Organic Chemistry is resolving some technical difficulties, but has ported over the list to Google Drive for now. There are 30 new positions for September 29.

Don't forget to check out the Common Organic Chemistry company map, a very helpful resource for organic chemists looking for potential employers.

Global organic chemistry job market link

Via organic-chemistry.org, a link to the job market section.