the chemical record - columbus section 2011-/2013/chemical recor… · disappearing spoon” which...

COLUMBUS SECTION OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, INC. ─ PO BOX 82181 ─ COLUMBUS, OH 43202 ─ columbus.sites.acs.org

The Chemical Record Volume 55 — Number 7 — November, 2013 Columbus Section of the American Chemical Society, Inc. David Speth, Section Chair — [email protected] George Greene, Editor — [email protected] Section Website: columbus.sites.acs.org

IN THIS ISSUE… ABOUT THE COLUMBUS SECTION ...................................................................................................................... 1 MEETING NOTICE ........................................................................................................................................... 2 ABOUT THE SPEAKER: SAM KEAN ................................................................................................................... 5 SUMMARY OF THE LECTURE ............................................................................................................................. 5 NOTE FROM THE CHAIR ................................................................................................................................... 5 NEW SECTION COMMITTEE STRUCTURE ............................................................................................................. 8 FIFTY AND SIXTY-YEAR MEMBER STATEMENTS ................................................................................................... 9 FRANCIS "FRANK" SCHMIDT (50-YEAR MEMBER) ................................................................................................ 9 CLARENCE “DUTCH” DECKER (60-YEAR MEMBER).............................................................................................. 9 SILVER CIRCLE NEWS .............................................................................................................................. 9 NATIONAL CHEMISTRY WEEK 2013 REPORT ..................................................................................................... 10 WELCOME NEW MEMBERS! ........................................................................................................................... 11 PHOTOGRAPHS FROM NATIONAL CHEMISTRY WEEK 2013 DEMONSTRATIONS AT THE COLUMBUS METROPOLITAN LIBRARY12 COLUMBUS SECTION ACS CALENDAR OF EVENTS ............................................................................................. 13 ABOUT THE CHEMICAL RECORD ..................................................................................................................... 14 CHANGE OF ADDRESS .................................................................................................................................. 14 ADVERTISING RATES .................................................................................................................................... 14 PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSOR… ............................................................................................................... 14

ABOUT THE COLUMBUS SECTION

The Columbus Section of the American Chemical Society comprises approximately 1,500 members who live and work in the following central Ohio counties: Delaware, Fairfield, Fayette, Franklin, Hocking, Knox, Licking, Madison, Marion, Morrow, Muskingum, Perry, Pickaway, Ross, and Union. . The Mission of the American Chemical Society (ACS) is to encourage in the broadest and most liberal manner the advancement of the chemical enterprise and its practitioners. Toward that end, the ACS advances scholarly knowledge, provides professional services and support, communicates with varied audiences, and is actively involved in the science, education, and public policy arenas. The Columbus Section of the ACS adheres to this mission and the strategic thrusts of the national organization and leadership by providing programs and networking opportunities for Chemistry professionals in Central Ohio. We invite ACS members and scientists in the community to lend their expertise and talents to our activities in science education, government and legislative policy issues, safety in our industrial plants and in our communities, and care of our land.

http://columbus.sites.acs.org/

mailto:[email protected]



Volume 55, Number 7 November, 2013


MEETING NOTICE

Columbus Section of the American Chemical Society, Inc.

Meeting #867 columbus.sites.acs.org

Columbus Section Special Event

Chemistry Day at COSI 333 West Broad Street Columbus, OH 43215

Saturday November 16, 2013

10:00 AM – 3:00 PM in the COSI Lobby

• Public exhibits and demonstrations by the Columbus Section’s own Jeff Trent

and by local chemistry-related companies.

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM Public Lecture by Author Sam Kean





6:15 PM – 7:15 PM Reception with Sam for Section Members and Guests

Program Details

10:00 AM-3:00 PM COSI Lobby

Chemistry Day at COSI featuring Jeff Trent and The Periodic Table of the Elements along with displays by local companies. Attendance at Chemistry Day activities requires admission to COSI. Admission fees are listed at www.cosi.org.

5:00pm-6:00pm Public Lecture COSI Extreme Screen Theater

Sam Kean Lecture The Disappearing Spoon and other True Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements The lecture is free but reservations are suggested since the lecture is open to the public and space is limited.

6:15 PM -7:15 PM Reception for Section Members and Guests with Sam Kean and COSI Leadership Hors d’oeuvres and soft drinks. Reservations are required.

Costs for COSI Activities in the Lobby are free to the public. The lecture is also free.

Costs for the Reception

$10 per person for members and guests, $5 for retired and unemployed members, $5 for students (including college and graduate students) and children under 18. Payment will be collected at the door; cash and checks accepted. There is no cost to attend the lecture only. Remember that this reservation is a commitment and must be paid. Please help control costs by honoring your order.

RSVP

CHEMISTRY DAY AND THE LECTURE ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. SEATING IS LIMITED. PLEASE MAKE RESERVATIONS FOR THE LECTURE BY USING THE LINK:

https://samkeanatcosi.eventbrite.com/

Those without reservations will be admitted to the lecture as space allows.


http://www.cosi.org/




The reception is for ACS members and guests only. For the reception we will use our normal reservation scheme. Please use the voice mail reservations service by calling 614-447-3600 extension 7047. Follow the template for reservations*. Alternatively, please send e-mail with the same information to The Columbus Section at the following e-mail address: [email protected] or use the Meeting Reservation Form on the Section’s website.

*Voicemail/e-mail Reservations Template

• First and last name: Please spell last name. • Membership category: member, non-member, retired, emeritus, unemployed, student. • Employer • Guests: number of people names and age if student • Your phone number, in case we need to contact you

Reservation Deadline Friday November 8, 2013 at 5:00 PM

Program Contact David Speth (989-430-5123); [email protected]

Program Notes

• Sam Kean’s Lecture is sponsored by the American Chemical Society. • Sam Kean’s books, The Disappearing Spoon” and “The Viiolinist’s Thumb” will both be available for

sale at the event. • Children are welcome to attend.

Program Contact David Speth [email protected]

Directions & Parking

From the North If on I 71 South, exit to 670 West by Exit 109A to Dayton. Take the 3rd Street/US 23 by Exit 4B. Turn left on 3rd Street US 23. Go to Spring Street/US 33 and turn right. Turn left onto High Street and then right onto Broad Street. Cross the river and pass Veterans Memorial. COSI is on the left. To reach the parking lots turn left onto South Belle Street. – or – Take US 33/Riverside south. Turn right onto Marconi and then right onto West Broad Street. COSI is on the left just across the river. To reach the parking lots turn left onto South Belle Street. From the East Take 670 W to the 3rd Street/US 23 Exit 4B. Merge onto North 3rd Street. Turn right onto East Broad Street and continue across the river. COSI is on the left across from Veterans Memorial. To reach the parking lots turn left onto South Belle Street. From the West Go East on I-70 to I 670. Merge onto Ohio 315 via Exit 2A. Take the US 40/Broad Street Exit. Turn left onto Broad Street. COSI is on the right just before Veterans Memorial and the river. To reach the parking lots turn right onto South Belle Street. From the South Take Ohio 315 N to the US62/Ohio 3/Rich Street Exit. Turn right onto Rich Street. COSI will be on the left. To reach the parking lots turn left onto South Belle Street. Parking is $4 for COSI members and $5 for the general public.



http://columbus.sites.acs.org/meetingreservation.htm

http://columbus.sites.acs.org/meetingreservation.htm





ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

SAM KEAN Sam Kean spent years collecting mercury from broken thermometers as a kid. Now he’s a writer in Washington, D.C. His stories have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Mental Floss, Slate, Smithsonian Air & Space, and The New Scientist, among other places, and his work has been featured on “Radiolab” and NPR’s “All Things Considered,” among other shows. He has worked on fellowships in the United States and Europe, and was the national runner-up in the National Association of Science Writer’s award for best young science writer. The Disappearing Spoon, his first book, a national bestseller, was named an Amazon “Top 10″ science book. It was also nominated by the Royal Society for one of the top science books of 2010. Sam has also spoken at National American Chemical Society meetings and presented ACS webinars for the membership.

SUMMARY OF THE LECTURE “The Disappearing Spoon” includes true tales of madness, love and the history of the world from the periodic table of the elements. It is an entertaining tale of the people behind the elements in the periodic table. The following paragraph is the end of a story about mercury. It’s a good summary of what Sam will talk about. The periodic table is, finally, an anthropological marvel, a human artifact that reflects all of the wonderful and artful and ugly aspects of human beings and how we interact with the physical world — the history of our species written in a compact and elegant script. It deserves study on each of these levels, starting with the most elementary and moving gradually upward in complexity. And beyond just entertaining us, the tales of the periodic table provide a way of understanding it that never appears in textbooks or lab manuals. We eat and breathe the periodic table; people bet and lose huge sums on it; philosophers use it to probe the meaning of science; it poisons people; it spawns wars. Between hydrogen at the top left and the man-made impossibilities lurking along the bottom, you can find bubbles, bombs, money, alchemy, petty politics, history, poison, crime, and love.

NOTE FROM THE CHAIR BY DAVID SPETH

As the year draws to a close I am pleased to announce a special activity sponsored by the Columbus Section. On Saturday November 16, COSI will sponsor Chemistry Day at COSI. Activities will include displays and demonstrations related to chemistry by local companies and organizations. This will include a display on the elements organized by the Local Section’s own Jeff Trent. Our exhibits will be in the Lobby Atrium so you can view them before you enter the rest of the museum. The day will conclude with a very special event. At 5:00 the Section will sponsor a lecture by author Sam Kean taken from his book “The Disappearing Spoon” which has the subtitle “and other true tales of madness, love and the history of the world from the periodic table of the elements.” An excerpt from the book is included below. Copies of the book and Sam’s book on genetics “The Violinists Thumb” will be on sale after the lecture. The Section will also host a reception for the author. We encourage you to bring your family members to attend this look at science from a cultural perspective. The lecture is free but seating may be limited so reservations are encouraged. THE LECTURE IS FREE BUT SEATING IS LIMITED. PLEASE MAKE RESERVATIONS FOR THE LECTURE BY USING THE LINK https://samkeanatcosi.eventbrite.com/. You can also go to www.cosi.org/calendar-of-events . Those without reservations will be admitted to the lecture as space allows. Reservations are required to attend the reception with the author. The reception will include soft drinks and hors d’oeuvres. Costs will be $10 for members and adults and $5 for students and children under 18. Reservations can be made at the website.



http://www.cosi.org/calendar-of-events



Author Sam Kean Sam Kean gets called Sean at least once a month. He grew up in South Dakota, which means more to him than it probably should. He’s a fast reader but a very slow eater. He went to college in Minnesota and studied physics and English. He taught for a few years at an experimental charter school in St. Paul, where the kids showed up at night. After that, he tried to move to Spain (it didn’t take) and ended up in Washington, D.C. He has a master’s degree in library science he will probably never use. He wishes he had a sports team he was passionate about, but doesn’t, though he does love track & field. Sam Kean spent years collecting mercury from broken thermometers as a kid, and now he’s a writer in Washington, D.C. His stories have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Mental Floss, Slate, Smithsonian Air & Space, and The New Scientist, among other places, and his work has been featured on “Radiolab” and NPR’s “All Things Considered,” among other shows. He has worked on fellowships in the United States and Europe, and was the national runner-up in the National Association of Science Writer’s award for best young science writer. The Disappearing Spoon, his first book, was a national bestseller, was named an Amazon “Top 10″ science book, and was nominated by the Royal Society for one of the top science books of 2010. From The Disappearing Spoon As a child in the early 1980s, I tended to talk with things in my mouth — food, dentist’s tubes, balloons that would fly away, whatever — and if no one else was around, I’d talk anyway. This habit led to my fascination with the periodic table the first time I was left alone with a thermometer under my tongue. I came down with strep throat something like a dozen times in the second and third grades, and for days on end it would hurt to swallow. I didn’t mind staying home from school and medicating myself with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Being sick always gave me another chance to break an old-fashioned mercury thermometer, too. Lying there with the glass stick under my tongue, I would answer an imagined question out loud, and the thermometer would slip from my mouth and shatter on the hardwood floor, the liquid mercury in the bulb scattering like ball bearings. A minute later, my mother would drop to the floor despite her arthritic hip and begin corralling the balls. Using a toothpick like a hockey stick, she’d brush the supple spheres toward one another until they almost touched. Suddenly, with a final nudge, one sphere would gulp the other. A single, seamless ball would be left quivering where there had been two. She’d repeat this magic trick over and over across the floor, one large ball swallowing the others until the entire silver lentil was reconstructed. Once she’d gathered every bit of mercury, she’d take down the green-labeled plastic pill bottle that we kept on a knickknack shelf in the kitchen between a teddy bear with a fishing pole and a blue ceramic mug from a 1985 family reunion. After rolling the ball onto an envelope, she’d carefully pour the latest thermometer’s worth of mercury onto the pecan-sized glob in the bottle. Sometimes, before hiding the bottle away, she’d pour the quicksilver into the lid and let my siblings and me watch the futuristic metal whisk around, always splitting and healing itself flawlessly. I felt pangs for children whose mothers so feared mercury they wouldn’t even let them eat tuna. Medieval alchemists, despite their lust for gold, considered mercury the most potent and poetic substance in the universe. As a child I would have agreed with them. I would even have believed, as they did, that it transcended pedestrian categories of liquid or solid, metal or water, heaven or hell; that it housed otherworldly spirits. Mercury acts this way, I later found out, because it is an element. Unlike water (H2O), or carbon dioxide (CO2), or almost anything else you encounter day to day, you cannot naturally separate mercury into smaller units. In fact, mercury is one of the more cultish elements: its atoms want to keep company only with other mercury atoms, and they minimize contact with the outside world by crouching into a sphere. Most liquids I spilled as a child weren’t like that. Water tumbled all over, as did oil, vinegar, and unset Jell-O. Mercury never left a speck. My parents always warned me to wear shoes whenever I dropped a thermometer, to prevent those invisible glass shards from getting into my feet. But I never recall warnings about stray mercury. For a long time, I kept an eye out for element eighty at school and in books, as you might watch for a childhood friend’s name in the newspaper. I’m from the Great Plains and had learned in history class that Lewis and Clark had trekked through South Dakota and the rest of the Louisiana Territory with a microscope, compasses, sextants, three mercury thermometers, and other instruments. What I didn’t know at first is that they also carried with them six hundred mercury laxatives, each four times the size of an aspirin.




The laxatives were called Dr. Rush’s Bilious Pills, after Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a medical hero for bravely staying in Philadelphia during a yellow fever epidemic in 1793. His pet treatment, for any disease, was a mercury-chloride sludge administered orally. Despite the progress medicine made overall between 1400 and 1800, doctors in that era remained closer to medicine men than medical men. With a sort of sympathetic magic, they figured that beautiful, alluring mercury could cure patients by bringing them to an ugly crisis — poison fighting poison. Dr. Rush made patients ingest the solution until they drooled, and often people’s teeth and hair fell out after weeks or months of continuous treatment. His “cure” no doubt poisoned or outright killed swaths of people whom yellow fever might have spared. Even so, having perfected his treatment in Philadelphia, ten years later he sent Meriwether and William off with some prepackaged samples. As a handy side effect, Dr. Rush’s pills have enabled modern archaeologists to track down campsites used by the explorers. With the weird food and questionable water they encountered in the wild, someone in their party was always queasy, and to this day, mercury deposits dot the soil many places where the gang dug a latrine, perhaps after one of Dr. Rush’s “Thunder-clappers” had worked a little too well. Mercury also came up in science class. When first presented with the jumble of the periodic table, I scanned for mercury and couldn’t find it. It is there — between gold, which is also dense and soft, and thallium, which is also poisonous. But the symbol for mercury, Hg, consists of two letters that don’t even appear in its name. Unraveling that mystery — it’s from hydragyrum, Latin for “water silver” — helped me understand how heavily ancient languages and mythology influenced the periodic table, something you can still see in the Latin names for the newer, superheavy elements along the bottom row. I found mercury in literature class, too. Hat manufacturers once used a bright orange mercury wash to separate fur from pelts, and the common hatters who dredged around in the steamy vats, like the mad one in Alice in Wonderland, gradually lost their hair and wits. Eventually, I realized how poisonous mercury is. That explained why Dr. Rush’s Bilious Pills purged the bowels so well: the body will rid itself of any poison, mercury included. And as toxic as swallowing mercury is, its fumes are worse. They fray the “wires” in the central nervous system and burn holes in the brain, much as advanced Alzheimer’s disease does. But the more I learned about the dangers of mercury, the more — like William Blake’s “Tyger! Tyger! burning bright” — its destructive beauty attracted me. Over the years, my parents redecorated their kitchen and took down the shelf with the mug and teddy bear, but they kept the knickknacks together in a cardboard box. On a recent visit, I dug out the green-labeled bottle and opened it. Tilting it back and forth, I could feel the weight inside sliding in a circle. When I peeked over the rim, my eyes fixed on the tiny bits that had splashed to the sides of the main channel. They just sat there, glistening, like beads of water so perfect you’d encounter them only in fantasies. All throughout my childhood, I associated spilled mercury with a fever. This time, knowing the fearful symmetry of those little spheres, I felt a chill. From that one element, I learned history, etymology, alchemy, mythology, literature, poison forensics, and psychology. And those weren’t the only elemental stories I collected, especially after I immersed myself in scientific studies in college and found a few professors who gladly set aside their research for a little science chitchat. As a physics major with hopes of escaping the lab to write, I felt miserable among the serious and gifted young scientists in my classes, who loved trial-and-error experiments in a way I never could. I stuck out five frigid years in Minnesota and ended up with an honors degree in physics, but despite spending hundreds of hours in labs, despite memorizing thousands of equations, despite drawing tens of thousands of diagrams with frictionless pulleys and ramps — my real education was in my professors’ stories. Stories about Gandhi and Godzilla and a eugenicist who used germanium to steal a Nobel Prize. About throwing blocks of explosive sodium into rivers and killing fish. About people suffocating, quite blissfully, on nitrogen gas in space shuttles. About a former professor on my campus who would experiment on the plutonium-powered pacemaker inside his own chest, speeding it up and slowing it down by standing next to and fiddling with giant magnetic coils. I latched onto those tales, and recently, while reminiscing about mercury over breakfast, I realized that there’s a funny, or odd, or chilling tale attached to every element on the periodic table. At the same time, the table is one of the great intellectual achievements of humankind. It’s both a scientific accomplishment and a storybook, and I wrote this book to peel back all of its layers one by one, like the transparencies in an anatomy textbook that tell the same story at different depths. At its simplest level, the periodic table catalogs all the different kinds of matter in our universe, the hundred-odd characters whose headstrong personalities give rise to everything we see and touch. The shape of the table also gives us scientific clues as to how those personalities mingle with one another in crowds. On a slightly more complicated level, the periodic table encodes all sorts of forensic information about where every kind of atom came from and which




atoms can fragment or mutate into different atoms. These atoms also naturally combine into dynamic systems like living creatures, and the periodic table predicts how. It even predicts what corridors of nefarious elements can hobble or destroy living things.

NEW SECTION COMMITTEE STRUCTURE BY DAVID SPETH

As part of our ongoing effort to streamline the workings of the Columbus Section, the Executive Committee has reorganized the committee structure. To do so, we contacted all of the previously listed committee chairs to see which committees were active and which were not. After waiting for several months, we have adopted the new committee structure shown below to insure that the Local Section is supporting chemistry related activities in the Columbus area. If any member has or knows of an activity that needs committee support, please let me know so we can either assign it to one of the active committees or form a new committee to support the effort.

Local Section Committees Archives and Bylaws Steven Rosenthal Chemistry Olympiad Mary Whaba Columbus Section Award Lewis Hogarth Communications Chemical Record George Greene Electronic Robert Bird Hospitality Gordon Renkes National Communications Reservations Wenbin Qi/Yun Gong Web master Priscilla Ratliff High School teachers Jeff Bracken Membership Dave Speth Nominations Karen Irving Outreach/Kids in Chemistry Jeff Trent National Chemistry Week John Blaha Patterson Crane Award Theresa Huston Priscilla Ratliff Steve Rosenthal Silver Circle Tom Weeks Priscilla Ratliff State Science Day Wenbin Qi Yun Gong Tellers Natalie Chilicki Young Chemists Committee Rosemary Loza Tom Spilker (OSU grad student

Contact for Chemtalks) If you are interested in any of these activities, please contact me at [email protected] and I will place you in contact with the committee chair.





FIFTY AND SIXTY-YEAR MEMBER STATEMENTS At the October Section meeting, American Chemical Society President-Elect Dr. Tom Barton joined the Columbus Section in recognizing persons who have been members of ACS for fifty or more years: Two of those members contributed statements about their experiences for The Chemical Record. We congratulate Frank and Dutch on their years of dedication to ACS, and we thank them for sharing snapshots of their experiences with us.

FRANCIS "FRANK" SCHMIDT (50-YEAR MEMBER) My association with ACS began when I was an undergraduate. While working for DuPont I attended several meetings and took several courses associated with my work endeavors. I utilized ACS publications and abstract concentrates. My work at DuPont in research and technical assistance involved fuel additives, fiber coatings and film manufacture from fluoropolymer resins. Retiring after 32+ years, I have been involved in many volunteer activities including mentoring 7th grade students with their science fair projects.

CLARENCE “DUTCH” DECKER (60-YEAR MEMBER) Sixty year honoree Clarence (“Dutch”) Decker earned his Ph.D. in physiology and pharmacology from Michigan State University. His career has included medical research at Argonne National Lab, and service as Chief Biochemist in the endocrinology section and Consulting Biochemist in the pathology department of St. Luke’s Hospital in Chicago (now Rush University Medical Center). He was Chairman of the biology department of Point Park College in Pittsburgh and served as an editor in the biochemistry department at Chemical Abstracts Service from 1975 – 1982. Clarence has had a dual career after earning his Master of Divinity degree from Seabury Western Theological Seminary in 1965. He has served as clergy for the Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Ohio and (currently) in the Diocese of Southern Ohio.

SILVER CIRCLE NEWS By Tom Weeks

The Silver Circle Group is having an active Fall with our luncheon meetings. In September we visited the United States Geological Survey offices off Busch Blvd. We learned about the active program that office has in managing water flow data throughout the state. There is a massive amount of water information on the USGS.gov website, including current stream flows in the US as well as flood plain information for many cities. In October we had a very informative tour of Velocys, Inc. in Plain City which included their pilot plant and test facility. Velocys sells a gas to liquids technology which involves a unique catalyst and reactor system. The micro channel reactor technology they demonstrated was amazing. On November 12 we will have our last meeting of the year at Battelle, where we will learn about current air testing technology, including the use of drones. The Columbus Section subsidizes lunch so that cost to attendees is only $5. To get on the mailing list contact [email protected].

Silver

Silver


http://www.usgs.gov/




NATIONAL CHEMISTRY WEEK 2013 REPORT By Professor John Blaha

The National Chemistry Week event was held at the Columbus Metropolitan Library, Main Branch on Saturday, October 26, 2013 from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. The location was the main atrium which allowed us to capture the attention of library visitors. This year's events were coordinated by John Blaha - Columbus State Community College Jeff Trent - Boehringer Ingelheim George Greene – Abbott Nutrition Special thanks is given to GFS Chemicals for sponsoring and underwriting this year's event and the Columbus Metropolitan Library staff for their assistance. This year, about 300 children and adults visited the display areas. A great time was had by all. COSI provided hands-on demonstrations through the COSI-on-Wheels program under the guidance of Perrin Shepherd.

• Solids/Liquids/Gases - identifying the states of matter and converting one state to another • Density of objects - which items from the test group float or sink in water • pH - testing acidity or basicity of common household items • Slime - always a crowd favorite • Chemical or Physical Change - a sorting game to identify items undergoing physical changes or chemical changes

Jeff Trent also provided an array of hands-on alternate-energy source activities including black-light luminescence and wind-power, water-power, solar-power, and mechanical-power toys. He also arranged:

• Catching clouds – carbon dioxide-generated soap bubbles that were dropped from the second floor landing so that children could catch them and hold a cloud when they popped.

• Dry-ice demonstrations – generating cold streams of air and popping corks • Atom model – lets kids climb inside and get the nucleus’ perspective on the world • Transfer tattoos

Copies of ACS Celebrating Chemistry pamphlets were distributed.




The following is a list of additional volunteers for this year's sessions: David Speth (representing himself and American Chemical Society, Columbus Section) Angela Howard (Columbus State Community College) Lewis Hogarth (Ohio Dominican University) Naina Rangavajla (Columbus State Community College) Brian Peebles (Columbus State Community College) Jeff Trent ( Boehringer-Ingelheim) John Blaha (Columbus State Community College)

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS! BY DAVID SPETH, SECTION CHAIR

Please join us in welcoming the following members who have joined the Section recently: The Columbus Section cordially invites new members to our monthly meetings. The Section will pay for new members’ meals the first time they attend a meeting. CHRISTIAN BUETTNER BRUCE CALDWELL BENJAMIN GARRETT CHRIS GESSNER

DAVID HEISLER COLEEN KEARNEY TANYA KONOVALOVA

CHRISTOPHER SHELTON MARCOS SOTOMAYOR ELIZABETH THOMAS THIMMA REDDY THATIPATI

MOLECULE OF THE MONTH FROM THE ACS WEBSITE

Hydrocortisone Hydrocortisone, also called cortisol, is a glucocorticoid produced by the adrenal glands. It has many physiological functions, including fighting inflammation. Synthetic hydrocortisone is sold over the counter as a topical anti-inflammatory and anti-itch agent.

T. Reichstein in 1937 and H. L. Mason et al. in 1938 isolated hydrocortisone from adrenal glands. (Reichstein was awarded the 1950 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for his work on adrenal cortex hormones.) Its first synthesis was reported by N. L. Wendler and co-workers in 1950.

Hydrocortisone is also called “the stress hormone”: It is released by the adrenal glands as a response to stress or fear. So expect your hydrocortisone level to increase on Halloween!

More about this molecule from CAS, the most authoritative and comprehensive source for chemical information.


http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja01168a551

http://www.cas.org/motw/hydrocortisone



PHOTOGRAPHS FROM NATIONAL CHEMISTRY WEEK 2013 DEMONSTRATIONS AT THE COLUMBUS METROPOLITAN LIBRARY

By Professor John Blaha, NCW Chair

The activity area in the Library Atrium. From left Perrin Shepherd (COSI), a visitor, David Speth (American Chemical Society Columbus Section), Naina Rangavajla (Columbus State Community College), and Lewis Hogarth (Ohio Dominican University).

Entrance area showing ACS logo

Jeff Trent in his favorite position Alternate energy activities including black light luminescence, wind

power, water power generator, solar power, and mechanical power items.

Brian Peebles with the cloud generation machine Monarch Montgomery stacking soap bubbles




Perrin Shepherd making slime A cloud exploding around the girl’s hand

A cloud falling Event in full action.

Event in full action - a different view Jeff Trent generating zillions of soap bubbles over entire area

COLUMBUS SECTION ACS CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Year Month Date Day Location Comments 2013 November Fri 8 Deadline for reservations for November Section meeting

2013 November Sat 16 COSI November Section meeting. See details elsewhere in this issue of The Chemical Record.




COLUMBUS SECTION ACS CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Year Month Date Day Location Comments 2013 December 12 SEA Lecture at Scientific Expert Analysis 2014 March 2 – 6 Sun – Thu Chicago Pittcon Conference and Expo 2014 2014 March 16 – 20 Sun – Thu Dallas 247th ACS National Meeting and Exposition 2014 August 10 – 14 Sun – Thu San Francisco 248th ACS National Meeting and Exposition 2014 October 1 – 4 Wed – Sat Pittsburgh 45th ACS Central Regional Meeting

ABOUT THE CHEMICAL RECORD The Chemical Record, official newsletter of the Columbus Section of the American Chemical Society, Inc., is published monthly, February-May and September-December (eight issues per year.) Opinions expressed by editors or contributors do not necessarily represent the official position of the Columbus Section or of the editorial staff. We welcome your contributions to your Chemical Record. Please submit them via postal or electronic mail to George Greene, PO Box 360941, Columbus, Ohio 43236-0941, [email protected]. Electronic mail contributions should be in MS Word file attachments (preferred) or plain-text messages. Thank you very much!

CHANGE OF ADDRESS Changes in postal or e-mail address should be reported to the Membership Chair, David Speth, 614-688-5162, [email protected]. David will forward the change-of-address information to ACS Headquarters.

ADVERTISING RATES Advertising rates for The Chemical Record are as follows (per single insertion): Full Page, $250; Half page, $150; Quarter Page, $120; Eighth Page: $60; Business Card, $50. Discounts: 5% for four insertions or 10% for eight insertions during a calendar year. There is no charge for “help wanted” ads.

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSOR… The Chemical Record is brought to you by the Columbus Section of the American Chemical Society and our fine sponsor, Hogarth Chemical Consulting:




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