A few of the articles from this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News:
- Cover: Sarah Everts, on protein folding
- This organic woven material is fascinating (article by Stu Borman)
- I think you need to know a lot about the fiber arts to fully understand what is going on there...
- Pretty interesting concept about liquid metal catalyzing reactions (article by Mitch Jacoby)
- Naturally-derived preservatives? (article by Melody Bomgardner)
- Not every day you get a political poem in the letters to the editor...
Regarding the naturally-derived preservatives article, I have to say it's sad that food scientists are forced to cater to the market's demand for "natural preservatives", and I fear that we are forfeiting to ignorance in doing so, rather than making sensible and science-backed changes. This is quite relevant to the recent blog post by Derek Lowe regarding Panera's gloating over their lack of sodium benzoate use, and the idiocy of it all. At the end of the day, there's nothing natural about shrink-wrapped beef patties sitting in chillers, maybe time for the mainstream to accept that science and scary-sounding chemical names have actually improved our lives.
ReplyDeleteThe political poem illustrates an important principle. When the going gets tough, the tough change the rules. And the Dow reaches a record high.
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