Inside Volume 72, No.2, April 2008 Articles and Features 42 Comment from the President 47 Developing Site-Specific Guidelines for Orchard Soils Based on Bioaccessibility – Can It Be Done? Sally Gaw, Nick Kim, Grant Northcott, Alistair Wilkins, and Gavin Robinson 51 Medical Applications of SIFT-MS in New Zealand Wan-Ping Hu and Malina Storer 55 The Quantitation of Ochratoxin A in Foodstuffs Sold in New Zealand Darren A. Saunders, Shirley Jones, and Rudolf Schmitt 57 From Small Rings to Big Things: Xerography, Sensors, and the Squaraines Brian Halton 63 BestChoice: Interactive Web-Based Learning Sheila Woodgate and David Titheridge 67 Obituary: Ken Seal (1923-2007) 68 MALDI-TOF Mass spectrometry of Cyanobacteria: a Global Approach to the Discovery of Novel Secondary Metabolites* Jonathan Puddick and Michèle R. Prinsep 72 The 2007 Royal Society of Chemistry Australasian Lectureship Tour - Report Prof. Peter Schwerdtfeger 75 Protecting Cultural Heritage: Reflections on the Position of Science in Multidisciplinary Approaches Jan Wouters Other Columns Advertisers Index Inside Cover ChemScrapes - Brendan Burkett 60-61 Merck 43 NZIC January News 80 Pacifichem 2010 71 Dates of Note Inside Back IC08 74 New Zealand Science Scene 78 Patent Proze 79 Conference Calendar 41 Chemistry in New Zealand April 2008 Comment from the President It is with great pleasure that I assumed the 2008 Presiden- internationally - is the disparity in standards applied to pro- cy of the Institute from Jan Wikaira, and on behalf of the fessional chemists and the general public, when it comes to Institute, I would like to thank Jan for all her efforts. I am the handling of chemicals. The public have access to a wide delighted to report to members that the Institute is in good range of rather hazardous substances – concentrated hydro- financial shape, due to the excellent work carried out by pre- chloric acid in hardware stores, bleach and organophospho- ceding Councils, and in particular the prudent financial prac- rus pesticides in supermarkets, and petrol, to name but a few. tices carried out by the Institute’s Treasurer, Colin Freeman. These can be purchased over the counter, no questions asked, NZIC President This is also an opportune time to express the Institute’s grati- and if you don’t bother to read the safety instructions, there is tude to a number of people who make things run smoothly, no-one watching over you. Doubtless, the Government puts through much behind-the-scenes work; Richard Rendle, the this issue in the too hard basket. Could you imagine a scenar- Honorary General Secretary; Brian Halton, for his editorial io where every person who filled up their car at a petrol sta- expertise on the Journal, and Fiona Summerfield and Rebec- tion was required to have attended a training course in order ca Hurrell for Journal production. It is also a great pleasure to gain a suitable certificate as an approved handler? While to welcome Peter Hodder to the editorial group. Of course, health and safety standards have – quite rightly – come a long there are many others who also contribute willingly of their way since the days of characterising your products by tasting time, especially at the Branch level, and the Institute could them, trends suggest that things will only become even more not operate without the contributions of many chemists highly regulated for practising scientists, while the public are across the country. likely to remain to do more or less as they wish. Perhaps if the public were forced to attend multiple training courses, Council has recently embarked on a project to electronically and pay significantly more for consumer products as a result, archive back issues of Chemistry in New Zealand, which will they just might have more appreciation for the long list of appear on the website in the near future. My thanks go to dividends that chemists have brought. Mark Waterland for efficient expedition of this project. The Chemical Education Specialist Group continues to develop, Raising the public perception of chemistry has been debated, thanks to the efforts of Suzanne Boniface and her colleagues, for many years, by chemical societies far larger than us, and and there are current discussions regarding setting up an En- I am not certain that there are concrete solutions. What I am vironmental, Green and Industrial Chemistry specialist sure of though, is that we must endeavour to convince young group. people that chemistry is a worthwhile subject. The sense of awe and wonder experienced by children during a chemistry Personally, I feel that it is an exciting time to be a chemist. magic show indicates that the seed can easily be sown, but in One has to look only at some of the fantastic research being most cases never grows to its full potential. This remains one carried out to appreciate that chemists are, slowly but surely, of our major challenges. becoming masters of the molecule, able to design materials with a wide range of functions. Of course, we still have a long I look forward to discussing some of these issues with you, way to go before we can match the marvels of Mother Na- and I wish you all a successful and productive year. ture. However, it is rewarding that NZ is able to contribute to the top echelons of international research. Recently, I served Bill Henderson on the Marsden Physical Sciences & Engineering panel, where the quality of applications was, with very, very few About the President exceptions, of an extremely high standard, from researchers with excellent track records. It is disheartening though, not to be able to fund all but a tiny handful of these proposals. The Marsden Fund is a good fund, but it desperately needs more money in order to support a greater percentage of our researchers. I am also heartened by the significant number of recent ap- pointments in the chemical sciences in this country. These new researchers are already producing some great work, and the future looks good, as long as they can be financially sup- ported properly. Indeed, the panel who recently assessed the nominations for the Institute’s Easterfield Medal commented on the number and quality of the applicants. I am very much looking forward to meeting NZIC members, new and old, during my visits to the Branches later in the year, and at the Prof Bill Henderson is in the Department of Chemistry at the Institute’s conference, to be held in Dunedin in December. University of Waikato, Hamilton. He has research interests in the chemistry of the platinum group metals and gold, and And now time for some food for thought. One matter which applications of mass spectrometry to inorganic syntheses. causes me some concern - and may well have crossed the A more extensive biography was published in This Journal minds of many other chemists, not just in our country but 2006, 70, 61. 42 Chemistry in New Zealand April 2008 New Zealand Institute of Chemistry NZIC News supporting chemical sciences April News The 2008 International Year New Fellow The inorganic chemistry meeting, of Planet Earth paper in this At its February meeting Council IC08, will follow later: from De- issue is that by Sally Gaw and elected Richard Tapper (Otago – now cember 14-18 at the University of Canterbury. co-workers – see page 47 overseas) to the Fellowship. BRANCH NEWS New Year Honours Chemistry in NZ The back issues of Chemistry in New AUCKLAND Dr Richard Garland, Managing Di- Zealand have now been archived and rector New Zealand Pharmaceuticals, are held on CD/DVD and held by the In November, the Auckland Branch was appointed as an Officer of the Hon. Gen. Secretary and the editors. of NZIC had a lively talk entitled Left Order of New Zealand Merit for his Access via the NZIC web site is to be or Right in Nature? That is the Ques- services to chemistry and pharmaceu- activated as soon as practicable – see: tion from Prof Peter Schwerdtfeger, ticals. www.nzic.org.nz the NZIC RSC Australasian lecturer for 2007. His talk brought out the Alan MacDiarmid – Super CHEM NZ excitement and challenge of trying to predict and measure minute differ- Plastics Man Dr Alan Happer, Editor of CHEM NZ, ences between chiral molecules. An excellent forty minute documen- has announced his retirement from tary celebrating the life and work of the position from the end of 2008. University of Auckland Prof Alan MacDiarmid is available Council is actively seeking a replace- for download free of charge from the ment. Dr Cather Simpson hosted an open Macdiarmid Institute – www.macdi- house in the new laser laboratory armid.ac.nz/superplasticsman.php Physical Chemistry - early last November. The new laser Chemical Physics facility is a Science Faculty initia- NZIC Awards tive in partnership with Physics and This journal is owned by a series of Chemistry. When fully operational NZIC is pleased to announce two new chemical societies worldwide and it will boast both nanosecond and sponsors of our awards, Fonterra and published by the RSC in the UK. sub-picosecond lasers. In November The Maurice Wilkins Centre for Mo- NZIC has accepted an invitation to the Department also hosted a mini- lecular Biodiscovery. Nominations become a co-owner for which it will symposium involving four academics for the annual Fonterra Applied and receive a payment for each article from the University of Tokushima on Industrial Chemistry Award ($1000 + published by NZ resident authors. topics ranging from biosensors to hy- plaque), The Maurice Wilkins Cen- drogen production. tre Prize for Research in the Chemi- Contracts cal Sciences ($1500 + plaque), and The contracts for hosting the NZIC The second annual 2nd year PhD post- the Denis Hogan ($500) Award close Office and the NZIC Journal Manag- er competition run late last year, had with the Honorary General Secretary ing Editors expire mid-year.