Lots of newsworthy tidbits in this week's C&EN:
- Rick Mullin's cover story is full of DOOOOOOOM for the pharma industry.
- I found this editorial by Roald Hoffman about a Middle East chemistry conference worthwhile and sad. Students doing molecular modeling in Syria in the middle of a civil war is just an awful picture.
- Carmen Drahl looks over the latest numbers from NSF on academic R&D spending from 2011; the chemical R&D spending rankings are interesting.
- The European chemical sector does not love Europe's higher energy prices.
Those dollar increases (even constant dollars) are actually pretty good. Why was there a big cry from the academics about 'lack of funds'? Chemistry increased by 50% after accounting for inflation.
ReplyDeleteThe Missile East is DOOOOOOOMMed!!!! due to a culture of corruption and revering the big dictator in charge. Also lack of water and runaway population increase will DOOOOOOOOMMM!!! them all. Malta is lucky they got away to Europe despite having a semetic language. On the other hand, Iran has an Indo-European language and an educated society with some of the best Iranian chemists now famous professors in the States, but they decided to join the DOOOOOOM party because they have religious fundamentalists in charge of the shop.
"I am not naive enough to think that this conference will bring peace to the Middle East. But I was naive enough when these conferences began to think that there was zero cooperation and communication between Palestinian and Israeli chemists. The reality is much more flexible than the stereotypes that I, and I think most Americans, have." - Hoffmann.
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