A few of this week's stories in C&EN:
- Pretty awesome cover story by Bethany Halford on nonagenarian chemists.
- Unsurprisingly, they're mostly academics. Yet another point for academia, I think.
- Interesting article on Piramal on their API contract manufacturing by Jean-François Tremblay.
- "Piramal is an Indian company that the Food & Drug Administration has so far not cited for quality problems or data inconsistencies...." Is that "FDA has visited them and found no problems?" or the White Oak popo haven't shown up yet?
- Marc Reisch interviews the CEO of DuPont's spinoff, Chemours.
- NB Chemours laid off 9,000 workers worldwide, including workers from its Belle, WV plant in early June.
- C&EN in Spanish is an interesting development. (editorial by Bibiana Campos Seijo)
- Interesting Letters to the Editor on that "sleeping beauties" article (on papers highly cited, many years after publication).
- I wonder if it is true that most of them are colloid-related.
- Diane Grob Schmidt, the current ACS president, notes that she is attempting to engage industrial members. I like the idea of a "CTO summit", although I suspect that most of the results will be business-oriented ("we want lower taxes!", "less regulation!") than not.
- I also like the idea of her and Tom Connelly making calls on the different CEOs/CTOs around the industry. I would sincerely hope that issues of chemistry employment are on the agenda.
re: nonagenarian chemists in academia, it's a bit analogous to what Peter Cook said, as the miner who wanted to be a judge.
ReplyDelete"When you're a miner, when you're too old and tired and ill, and sick and stupid, to do your job properly, you have to go! But the very opposite applies with the judging..."
https://youtu.be/ofUZNynYXzM?t=488
I see Wani most days, walking down the corridor. He always has a smile for you. Though I didn't realize he was 90!
ReplyDeleteWe have Ivy Carroll too, a little behind in years and still very active. He sets a good pace on his daily walk around the campus.
"although I suspect that most of the results will be business-oriented ("we want lower taxes!", "less regulation!") than not."
ReplyDeleteDon't forget "We need more H1B's, because Americans can't or won't do the work. Now excuse me while I go lay off a few thousand American workers".
Nothing wrong with trying to reduce the tax burden (one of the more onerous regimes on Earth) - or reducing regulation, for that matter. This isn't quite the same group as the (less numerous) H-1B promotion crowd.
ReplyDelete...and the agencies involved with both (taxation and regulation) have both been implicated in criminal misbehavior.
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