Student teaches her own chemistry class

Via Block Club Chicago, this rather remarkable story: 

HUMBOLDT PARK — A week after their teacher left, the students were growing restless.

Despite promises that a permanent new teacher was coming, students in the sophomore-level chemistry class at Roberto Clemente Community Academy were sitting in their classroom with little to do. Though a substitute teacher was assigned to the room, the students quickly concluded that he didn’t know much about chemistry.

Carolina Carchi was struck by the reaction of one of her classmates: “They forgot about us.”

“When I heard that, this spark and passion grew in me,” Carolina said. She told herself: “No, you’re not going to be left out, they didn’t forget about you, and I’m going to be here to prove that.”

The following day, the 15-year-old got up in front of the class and began to teach her peers about the properties of liquids and solids and how to balance chemical equations.

Carolina went on to teach the class for two months during the winter of her sophomore year. A permanent teacher didn’t take over the classroom until the following fall.

I sense this staffing problem happened in either 2021 or 2022, which was a weirder time in the employment market. Nevertheless, students should have qualified teachers, and this was clearly not the case here. 

Ms. Carchi is now a high school senior. Here's hoping she considers a career in either chemistry or teaching. 

Consumer reports finds lead in cinnamon | FDA requests Congress to require food companies to test for lead

Via the New York Times:  

One dozen of 36 cinnamon products tested by a consumer group contained elevated levels of lead, according to a study released on Thursday that reinforced concerns about metals in foods after tainted cinnamon applesauce poisoned dozens of children last year.

The study, by Consumer Reports, documented levels that were far lower than the amounts discovered last year.

An agency spokeswoman said the F.D.A. had no authority to require companies to test final products for heavy metals, including foods consumed by babies and toddlers, who are particularly sensitive to the effects of lead. Their intestines absorb more lead, and their blood-brain barrier is still developing, Dr. Guilarte said.

The agency said it was asking Congress for the power to require food companies to do such testing and to review company records remotely whenever necessary.

I imagine this will increase the cost of cinnamon (and spices in general), but if it catches more lead in food, it might be worth it. 

Have a great weekend

Well, this was both a fun and somewhat less productive week than I had hoped. Nevertheless, important tasks were completed. Here's hoping that you had a wonderful week, and that you have a great weekend. See you on Monday. 

You can buy a CVD machine from China for $450,000?

Via Ars Technica, this news: 

In an age when you can get just about anything online, it's probably no surprise that you can buy a diamond-making machine for $200,000 on Chinese eCommerce site Alibaba. If, like me, you haven't been paying attention to the diamond industry, it turns out that the availability of these machines reflects an ongoing trend toward democratizing diamond production—a process that began decades ago and continues to evolve.

The history of lab-grown diamonds dates back at least half a century. According to Harvard graduate student Javid Lakha, writing in a comprehensive piece on lab-grown diamonds published in Works in Progress last month, the first successful synthesis of diamonds in a laboratory setting occurred in the 1950s. Lakha recounts how Howard Tracy Hall, a chemist at General Electric, created the first lab-grown diamonds using a high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) process that mimicked the conditions under which diamonds form in nature.

Since then, diamond-making technology has advanced significantly. Today, there are two primary methods for creating lab-grown diamonds: the HPHT process and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Both types of machines are now listed on Alibaba, with prices starting at around $200,000, as pointed out in a Hacker News comment by engineer John Nagle (who goes by "Animats" on Hacker News). A CVD machine we found is more pricey, at around $450,000.

I guess I'm not too surprised about all of this, but the rate at which laboratory-grown diamonds have advanced feels awfully fast. 

House passes BIOSECURE Act 306-81; awaits Senate passage

Via FiercePharma:

After much anticipation and concern, the BIOSECURE Act—which would prevent U.S. companies from working with certain Chinese biotech service providers—has passed a key threshold.

Late Monday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 306-81 in favor of the bill, which was introduced in January and seeks to halt federal contracts with five named Chinese life-sci companies—WuXi AppTec, WuXi Biologics, BGI Group, MGI and Complete Genomics—over alleged national security concerns.

...With the bill having passed through the House, it will now be up to the Senate to decide on the fate of the BIOSECURE Act.

Still, the most likely route for the bill to become law would involve tucking BIOSECURE into a larger legislative vehicle, such as the annual defense bill or government funding legislation, according to Stat.

...Despite support for the BIOSECURE Act in Washington, industry watchers have raised concerns about the complicated work that would be required for U.S. and European drugmakers to untangle themselves from their Chinese contractor partners. The current version of the bill would require drugmakers to sever ties with the named Chinese contractors by 2032 to retain their positions on Medicare and Medicaid, which serve as crucial sales drivers for many pharmaceutical companies.

I am once again surprised that it has gotten this far, but I'm not very good at predicting Congress. I have my doubts this will make it through the Senate, but maybe I should learn a lesson and simply say "I dunno." 

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 219 research/teaching positions and 14 teaching positions

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 219 research/teaching positions and 14 teaching positions. 

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

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

On September 12, 2023, the 2024 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 223 research/teaching positions and 13 teaching positions.

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. 

Are you having problems accessing the Google Sheet because of a Google Documents error? Email me at chemjobber@gmail.com and I will send you an Excel download of the latest sheet. 

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 28 research/teaching positions and 10 teaching positions

 The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List (by Heather LeClerc or Daniyal Kiani) has 28 research/teaching positions and 10 teaching positions. 

Here is a link to the open thread for the year.

C&EN on NHL general manager/PhD chemist Eric Tulsky

I typically don't add Newscripts items to the Monday C&EN review, but a NHL general manager makes the cut, I think (article by Chris Gorski): 

What if I told you a researcher found a way to spend more time solving problems instead of going to meetings, writing grants, and performing administrative tasks? For Eric Tulsky, what made that possible was going to work for a hockey team.

And now, he says, “I’m probably the first person in the history of the [National Hockey League] to be interviewed by C&E News.” In June, he was named the general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team, responsible for overseeing hockey operations.

How does a chemist land that kind of job?

After completing his PhD and a postdoctoral fellowship, Tulsky worked on nanotechnology for multiple companies. As much as he enjoyed that work, his interest in another analytical pursuit grew: interpreting hockey data. After spending many years doing science by day and hockey projects on the side, Tulsky joined Carolina in 2014...

Good article - read the whole thing. I imagine that technical people from all fields are tempted to get into professional sports analytics, but to move all the way to GM probably points to skills that were present before graduate school in the sciences... 

Reuters: "Democrat to vote against bill restricting China's WuXi Biologics, BGI"

Via Reuters, this news: 

Sept 6 (Reuters) - An influential Democratic U.S. congressman said on Friday that he will vote against legislation that would restrict business with China's WuXi Biologics (2269.HK), opens new tab, BGI and other biotech companies on national security grounds. Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the ranking member on the House Rules committee, told Reuters he is trying to convince colleagues to join him in opposition.

McGovern said there was no process for how companies were included in the legislation, and that he could not get a straight answer for why Wuxi Biologics was added. The company is building a facility in his district.

The Biosecure Act is scheduled for a vote on Monday by the U.S. House of Representatives. Supporters say the legislation, which would subject the companies to federal contracting bans, is needed to protect Americans' personal health and genetic information as well as U.S. pharmaceutical supply chains.

McGovern, the top House Democrat on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and a critic of China's human rights abuses, said, "Companies providing sensitive information to the Chinese government is a real and important issue."

"But the bottom line is, this is a lousy bill."

The bill is scheduled to be voted on under a process which limits debate, does not allow for amendments and requires a two-thirds majority vote for passage.

I'm genuinely interested to see the outcome of this vote, and how many employment/constituent-related objections there are to this. A brief scan of FEC records does not indicate a huge amount of donations from WuXi to McGovern (zero, to be exact), but I'm guessing there will be more now! 

Have a great weekend

Well, this was an unexpectedly fun week, even with the travel on Labor Day. I hope that you had a great short week, and I hope that you have a fun weekend with your family. I know I'm looking forward to it. See you on Monday.

BIOSECURE Act to receive a vote on week of September 9

Via C&EN's Aayushi Pratap, this news on the BIOSECURE Act, from the ChemOutsourcing trade show: 

At ChemOutsourcing, a pharmaceutical ingredients conference held early this month in Parsippany, New Jersey, the Biosecure Act was on the minds of many.

The legislation, introduced in January and slated for a vote by the US House of Representatives during the week of Sept. 9, seeks to prevent firms that receive federal funds from using five Chinese drug service companies.

One of those firms is WuXi AppTec, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) that counts multiple US pharmaceutical companies among its clients. The company was singled out for its alleged sponsorship of “military-civil fusion” events in China and investments from a military-civil integration investment fund. Also named is WuXi AppTec’s sister company, WuXi Biologics, which was added in a May update of the bill.

David Gunn, an executive at a European CDMO, anticipates that even if the bill passes into law, not much will change for WuXi AppTec’s business prospects. For one, he said, most US firms that work with the Chinese CDMO don’t receive government funds, meaning that the act would not legally affect them. “Moreover, many of the bigger pharma companies have long-standing contract relations that can’t be unwound so easily,” he said...

That will be interesting to watch! I bet those firms are watching this very closely. Via FiercePharma, more context on the action in Congress: 

After running up against a roadblock earlier this summer, the controversial BIOSECURE Act could gain new momentum next week.

The U.S. House of Representatives is slated to consider the legislation during the week of Sept. 9, according to a website maintained by the congressional chamber. The bill was introduced in January and seeks to halt federal contracts with certain Chinese biotech equipment and service providers over national security concerns.

In its current form, the bill calls out five Chinese life science companies by name, including R&D powerhouse WuXi AppTec and its manufacturing-focused sibling WuXi Biologics—though more companies could be added to the list in the future.

WuXi AppTec and WuXi Bio have repeatedly rejected the claims laid out in the bill, which accuses them—and the genomics companies BGI Group, MGI and Complete Genomics—of having ties to China’s military, internal security forces or intelligence agencies.

Notably, the bill is set to be considered under the House's "suspension of the rules" procedure. This process is generally used to quickly pass noncontroversial measures, Axios reports.

As for what comes next for BIOSECURE, Axios noted that votes on standalone bills are less common in the Senate. In turn, the most likely path forward for the legislation is for it to be folded into the annual defense policy bill this year.

BIOSECURE has won wide bipartisan support since its introduction by former Republican congressman Mike Gallagher early this year. The bill advanced out of the House Oversight Committee with a 40-1 vote in May.

I'm shocked it's going to get a vote on the House floor, but maybe they know that it won't get through the Senate. We shall see... 

Job posting: Research Chemist, USDA / ARS / NCAUR, Peoria, IL

Via C&EN Jobs: 

Research Chemist

GS-1320-12/13

Salary Range of $86,962 to $134,435

Announcement Open: September 3, 2024 to October 2, 2024

The incumbent serves as a Research Chemist in the Bio-Oils Research Unit, National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, Illinois. The focus of the unit is to develop new technology for using vegetable oils as renewable sources for value-added industrial products.  

The assigned project is "New High-Value Biobased Materials with Applications Across Industry.” Incumbent will be an expert in biobased polymeric materials and conduct research addressing needs of national interest for value-added industrial materials from agricultural commodities, especially plant oils. Incumbent provides expertise on synthesis, analysis, characterization, structure/function relationships, and industrial applications of biobased materials to the Research Leader, Lead Scientist, domestic and international collaborators, ARS Office of National Programs, and stakeholders. Incumbent is responsible for conceiving, initiating, planning, executing, evaluating, and publishing research on plant oil-based materials and technologies. 

Incumbent has authority to identify research priorities and to develop collaborations both within and outside of ARS, including other federal agencies, universities and cooperating industrial stakeholders. Incumbent will develop a stakeholder base to advocate for enhancing the research and to enable commercialization of products to meet mandated technology transfer objectives with the potential to increase funding.

U.S. Citizenship is required. Applications are being accepted via the USAJobs Web site: https://www.usajobs.gov/. For further information and complete application instructions, go to the USAJobs Web site and refer to announcement number ARS-D24MWA-12524769-HCL. Applications must be received by the closing date of October 2, 2024.  *Please note that the announcement number will not be accessible on USAJobs until Tuesday, September 3, 2024.

Contacts:

Application procedures: Heather Lee at heather.Lee@usda.gov or 301-956-3803

Scientific information: Dr. Steven Cermak at steven.cermak@usda.gov or 309-681-6233

 Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested. 

In C&EN, "Proposed names for intermolecular forces"

Via C&EN, this letter:

What is a protopole?

After having spent my career at Henry Ford College (HFC), once Henry Ford Community College in lovely Dearborn, Michigan, as an adjunct in 1995 and then as a full-timer in ’98, on the eve of my retirement, I find it somehow fitting to submit my first letter to C&EN. First, a shout-out to the HFC faculty, staff, administration, and most of all, my students, who helped make this a career beyond what I could have imagined. Thank you all!.

Over the years, I have enjoyed giving a colorful rant about what a disservice we are doing to our students when we chemistry instructors force them to first learn the concept of hydrogen bonding and then the next week tell them that during a chemical change, bonds are broken or made. The students who remain on top of things put this together after 2 weeks: “So when you boil water, you are breaking hydrogen bonds; therefore, that must be a chemical change.” Then we say, “No, hydrogen bonds are intermolecular forces, not bonds, so that is not a chemical change but, rather, a physical one.”

Do you see how ridiculous we sound when forced to say a bond is not a bond? The students who are less on top of things just think, “Chemistry is too hard. How can I ever get this?” With this in mind, I have the following simplified names for the three major intermolecular forces:

• Old name: hydrogen bond
• New name: protopole

• Old name: dipole-dipole attraction
• New name: dipole-dipole attraction (keep that one; it is good!)

• Old name: London forces/van der Waals forces
• New name: vacillipole

I feel that keeping pole in each name will help students. The word vacillate serves us well in science and English, ergo the last suggestion. As for London and van der Waals, don’t get me started on scientists and their love of putting their names on things. This is an equal disservice to our students, who have to learn both the concepts of science and the names of people who think they discovered something that has existed for billions of years. This is not your discovery, “Dr.” Columbus! I don’t want to sound disrespectful to the wonderful work of our dedicated predecessors, but should we remove some of these barriers to learning, perhaps chemistry can be made more understandable and easier to learn (even though I would lose my opportunity to rant).

Todd Whitaker
Eastpointe, Michigan

I think "hydrogen bond" is going to stay, but "protopole" and "vacillipole" are definitely memorable. 

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 17 research/teaching positions and 8 teaching positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List (by Heather LeClerc or Daniyal Kiani) has 17 research/teaching positions and 8 teaching positions. 

Here is a link to the open thread for the year.

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 186 research/teaching positions and 11 teaching positions

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 186 research/teaching positions and 11 teaching positions. 

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

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

On September 5, 2023, the 2024 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 191 research/teaching positions and 13 teaching positions.

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. 

Are you having problems accessing the Google Sheet because of a Google Documents error? Email me at chemjobber@gmail.com and I will send you an Excel download of the latest sheet. 

Happy Labor Day

Today is Labor Day, a holiday in the United States. Back tomorrow.