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SOUTHWEST RETORT SEVENTY-FIRST YEAR SEPTEMBER 2018 Published for the advancement of Chemists, Chemical Engineers and Chemistry in this area published by The Dallas-Fort Worth Section, with the cooperation of five other local sections of the American Chemical Society in the Southwest Region. Vol. 71(1) SEPTEMBER 2018 Editorial and Business Offices: Contact the Editor for subscription and advertisement information. Editor: Connie Hendrickson: [email protected] Copy Editor: Mike Vance: [email protected] Business Manager: Martin Pomerantz: [email protected] The Southwest Retort is published monthly, September through May, by the Dallas-Ft. Worth Section of the American Chemical Society, Inc., for the ACS Sections of the Southwest Region. SEPTEMBER 2018 The Southwest RETORT 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Employment Clearing House………….......3 Fifty Years Ago…………………………......5 ARTICLES and COLUMNS And Another Thing………………………...6 Councilor’s Notes……………….……....….8 Around the Area…………………...…..….15 Pros and Cons of Volunteering……..……10 Letter from the Editor…..…..………........19 NEWS SHORTS World’s oldest cheese found, contaminated with Brucella........…..……………….……..7 Off-taste in onions..………………….…….12 Biodegradable plastic………….…..……...13 Micromotors in pills……………………....19 Trace amount detection of peanuts….…...20 ANNOUNCEMENTS and MEETINGS DFW Section Meetings…......…...….……..14 Contact the DFW Section INDEX OF ADVERTISERS General: [email protected] Huffman Laboratories……………...….......4 Education: [email protected] Vance Editing…..…………….…………......4 Elections: ANA-LAB……………………...….…….…..5 [email protected] Facebook: DFWACS Twitter: acsdfw SEPTEMBER 2018 The Southwest RETORT 2 SERVICES and ANNOUNCEMENTS EDITING AND PROOF- READING SERVICES Need someone to proof or edit Advertise in the your next paper, grant, or Southwest presentation? Let an experi- RETORT enced proofreader and PhD chemist do it for you! I have a strong grasp of English gram- mar and scientific writing and can condense text without los- ing the underlying meaning. Competitive rates! Contact Mike Vance: [email protected] 408-786-7451 SEPTEMBER 2018 The Southwest RETORT 3 DOCUMENT TITLE SEPTEMBER 2018 The Southwest RETORT 4 FIFTY YEARS AGO IN THE SOUTHWEST RETORT First Dallas-Fort Worth ACS Section Corrosion Engineers held in Cleveland. Dr. Meeting-in-Miniature. Dr. C. Gordon E. Thomas Strom presented a talk on Skinner of North Texas State University “Substituent Effects on the g Values of Aro- (NTSU) reported on the first Meeting-in- matic Free Radicals” at the 2nd Conference Miniature held in our section. The judges on Linear Free Energy Relationships held in for the event were Jack D. Reynolds of Irvine, CA. At the Southwest Center for General Dynamics, W. A. Padgett of Alcon Advanced Studies (now UT-Dallas) Dr. Labs, and W. R. Foster of Mobil Research Harold Werbin attended the ACS meeting and Development Corp. First place in the in San Francisco and the Federation of graduate division went to C. H. Freeman American Societies for Experimental Biolo- of NTSU. The second and third place win- gy and Medicine held in Atlantic City. ners were, respectively, W. B. Mohr of UT- Arlington and S. Truitt of NTSU. In the At the University of Arkansas Dr. Lothar undergraduate division the first place win- Schafer has joined the chemistry depart- ner was J. H. MacKay of Austin College. ment as an assistant professor. Eminent ge- The second place winner was E. P. Seitz of ochemist Dr. Takahisa Hanya will be a TCU. The third place award was shared by visiting professor in the department during G. D. Smith of UT-Arlington and Tom the 1968-69 academic year. Drs. W. L. Folsom of NTSU. In the evening a recep- Meyer and R. N. Porter have been promot- tion and awards dinner was held in the ed to professor. Dr. George D. Blyholder Crystal Room of Marquis Hall. The after has been appointed vice chairman of the de- dinner speech was given by Dr. Peter partment. Girardot of UT-Arlington, while Larry Smith gave out cash award and certificates At UT-Austin Dr. Norman Hackerman, on behalf of Alpha Chi Sigma. It is hoped current president of the university, was ses- that this event will be the first of a continu- sion chairman of a Gordon Research Con- ing series of Meetings-in-Miniature. ference on Corrosion in July. Dr. Alan Cowley attended the Gordon Research In the D-FW ACS Section Dr. E. C. Hurdis Conference on inorganic chemistry in Au- of Texas Woman’s University has been gust. Dr. Nathan Bauld attended the Gor- elected a fellow in the American Institute of don Research Conference on radical ions in Chemists. Dr. Norman G. Foster of TWU July. Dr. Norman F. Brockmeier in chem- has been elected a Fellow of the American ical engineering has received an NSF grant. Association for the Advancement of Sci- ence. At the Socony Mobil Lab Dr. James C. Melrose gave seminars at Rice and at contributed by UT-Austin. Dr. Anton G. Ostroff will be E. Thomas Strom serving as Chair of a new ASTM sub- committee on saline water. Dr. Earl Sna- vely presented a lecture at the National Conference of the National Association of SEPTEMBER 2018 The Southwest RETORT 5 And Another Thing... Start With the Brain By Denise L. Merkle, PhD targeted, so prional diseases and whatever else is adversely affecting brains around the It's a new school year, a new perception of world will become historical stories and not autumn, and, one can only hope, a new current events. attitude. All this New affects every aspect of our lives, but it all starts with the brain. To Topic 2: Migraine. Migraine sufferers put it colloquially, if the brain ain't happy, experience everything from minor vision ain't nobody happy. So, it's only fitting to disturbances and stomach upset to full-on discuss some brain-related topics to kick off debilitation. Migraine intensity varies wildly this new season of learning. The first is food from symptoms that can be vanquished by for thought - and the second is an aspirin within an hour of onset to unrelieved advancement that also illustrates the agony that can send a victim to bed for a drawbacks of our healthcare payment system week. Until now. In May 2018, FDA - Intriguing, no? announced approval of a novel injectable that reduces migraine in some patients3. The Topic/Hypothesis 1: Alzheimer's Disease self-administered calcitonin gene-related (AD) is contagious1. As with many scientific peptide (CGRP) antagonist knocks out this discoveries, this concept is terrifying, but, as migraine-inducer and stops the cascade of with most real-world problems, elucidation biochemistry that, unchecked, results in of the mechanism is the only way to develop migraine. This is a breakthrough treatment efficacious treatments - and cures. Is AD a that will give many migraine sufferers a transmissible disease such as Scrapie, Mad fraction of their lives back - if they can Cow, and Creuzfeld-Jakob? Prions were afford it. Anti-CGRP costs more than $600 once the subject of scoffing, but are now per month - over $7000 per year. The annual accepted as robust, persistent, transmissible, earnings of an employee who makes the and fascinating vectors of brain disease2. federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour is a Kuru, the prional disease that kicked off the little more than $15,000.4 How might one idea of human brain disease as contagion secure a drug that trades half ones' wages for was fairly easy to alleviate. When bereaved 12-24 functional days? If employees have persons stopped eating the brains of their insurance, will that insurance cover the deceased relatives, the transmission of Kuru costs? Will the manufacturer have a all but ceased. Perpetuation of souls likely compassionate pricing program? Will those continued without the spread of prion- who need relief most have access to this induced dementia, which reinforces the idea medication? The answers to these questions that beliefs are not science - but that's remain a mystery, a headache, even. another 'And Another Thing'. Are prions rampant in wastewater, ready to spread self- So, there you have it. Two brain-related directed protein misfolding in the masses? topics to ponder as 2018 advances. As daily Some visionaries say yes. Sooner -rather life hits its autumn swing, consider: than later, one hopes- the disease Everything starts with the brain. mechanisms will be identified and properly SEPTEMBER 2018 The Southwest RETORT 6 From the ACS Press Room World’s oldest cheese found in Egyptian tomb (contaminated with Brucella) Proteomic Analyses on an Ancient Egyp- suitable for containing a solid rather than a tian Cheese and Biomolecular Evidence liquid, and the absence of other specific of Brucellosis markers, support the conclusion that the Analytical Chemistry dairy product was a solid cheese. Other Aging usually improves the flavor of peptides in the food sample suggest it was cheese, but that’s not why some very old contaminated with Brucella melitensis, a cheese discovered in an Egyptian tomb is bacterium that causes brucellosis. This po- drawing attention. Instead, it’s thought to tentially deadly disease spreads from ani- be the most ancient solid cheese ever mals to people, typically from eating un- found, according to a study published in pasteurized dairy products. If the team’s ACS’ journal Analytical Chemistry. preliminary analysis is confirmed, the sam- ple would represent the earliest reported The tomb of biomolecular evidence of the disease. Ptahmes, mayor of Memphis in The research was supported by the Ital- Egypt during the ian Ministry of Education, University and 13th century BC, Research, the University of Cata- was initially un- nia and Cairo University. earthed in 1885. From Wikipedia: notes on Brucellosis After being lost Brucellosis in humans is usually associated under drifting sands, it was rediscovered in with consumption of unpasteurized milk 2010, and archeologists found broken jars and soft cheeses made from the milk of in- at the site a few years later.