A few of the stories from this week's issue:
- Cover story on the top 50 chemical companies by Alex Tullo. No idea how high Sinopec was on the list.
- Lisa Jarvis writes on the latest Alzheimer's clinical results from Biogen and Lilly. A disappointment, to be sure.
- Melody Bomgardner writes on the problems at Molycorp, the United States' only rare earths mine.
- You really have to feel bad for the Molycorp folks, having filed for bankruptcy and all. That the problems are partially with the engineering of the plant itself makes it even harder. (I suspect the economics are the most challenging of all.)
- Speaking of supply problems with elements, Cheryl Hogue writes on recycling helium for academic instrument usage.
- Mitch André Garcia highlights talks at ACS Boston (man, I wish I was going.)
- I find letters to the editor like this one kinda annoying, but I can't quite figure out why. It's probably just me.
Interesting to hear that the rare earths operation isn't having technical challenges in the treatment of radioactive thorium and radium process streams, it's the 125 year old basic chloralkali chemistry that's tripping them up.
ReplyDeleteThe question for this mine was always whether or not the Americans could compete with the Chinese mines that aren't saddled with the same environmental regulation. In the last few years, the Chinese mines have faced stiffening pollution regulations, and my LLNL colleagues tell me the economics are now roughly at the break even point. As those market distortions disappear over the next decade, the economic challenges facing Molycorp will ease substantially, they simply need to stay afloat. As the article mentions, there's political/military pressure to keep some domestic production capacity.
Depends how the weather is....if it's like the last time, it wouldn't be any fun at all (although the talks were nice, and I got to meet Derek Lowe, Excimer, and Curious Wavefunction, so it was good, anyway). It's nice hanging out with chemists for a little while.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I am not a fan of the new convention center. Last time, there was no where within walking distance to eat except for the food court. Which was fine if you wanted to wait 45 min to pay $10 for a $3 burrito.
DeleteWith respect to that last story, I wouldn't blame the Russian dude for being pissed off if this new molecule gets published in a better journal than the one he described 24 years ago. Sadly, it wouldn't surprise me if that ends up happening. "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it... and publish it in better journals."
There was a convenience store on the way in, about 10-15 minutes away, if it's still there, and a Dunkin Donuts a little farther towards the city, but not much else. Not helpful (for us - I'm sure the convention center is happy about it). Indianapolis is much more boring but actually had convenient sources of food nearby at all times and easy walking.
DeleteI stayed in the city, nearest the convention center, and almost everything there shut down after work (because it's the financial district) so getting dinner nearby was nontrivial. Hoteling further away might be better, but then walking to the convention center becomes more difficult. It's a nice city, but poorly set up for this (although when they did it at the old convention center, it was really good, because it wasn't in the hind end of nothing, and had lots of options around.)
"I find letters to the editor like this one kinda annoying"
ReplyDeleteWhich one? The Alzheimer's one you linked to later?
@Hap: i 1/3 envy that story.
Thanks for catching that, anon!
DeleteAnd I 3/3 envy that story.
DeletePeople from the blogosphere i would like to meet:
DeleteDerek Lowe
Chemjobber
....
That is all.