Volume 77, No. 3, July 2013

Volume 77, No. 3, July 2013

Inside Volume 77, No.3, July 2013 Articles and Features 69 Precise synthesis of conducting polymers by DNA-directed self-assembly Gary B. Schuster, Wen Chen, Zhijie Ma, Rekha R. Avirah 76 Qualitative testing of global QSAR models: The hERG K+ ion pump. Homayon John Arabshahi and Jóhannes Reynisson 79 Peptides: From Emil Fischer to Psa Viji Sarojini 87 Solid-state NMR of polyanilines with different morphologies Zoran D. Zujovic, Marija Gizdavic-Nikolaidis and Graham A. Bowmaker 92 Some Unremembered Chemists Sir Edward Frankland KCB, FRS, FCS (1825-1899) Brian Halton 102 Helping scientists redefine the kilogram Shariq Sharif 103 NZIC Conference 2013 Update Other Columns 62 Comment from the President 96 Patent Proze 63 NZIC July News 100 Dates of Note 75 Conference Calendar 105 Science in the News 78 Grants and Awards Advertisers Inside front cover Merck 78 New Zealand Institute of Chemistry Cover Front cover: Photo by Matt Walters, School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury 61 Chemistry in New Zealand July 2013 Comment from the President It has been a busy few months since the last edition of Chemistry in New Zealand. On the local front, I have been busy in Canterbury with events to encourage students to study chemistry and science. Last week saw more than 60 secondary school students invading the labs at CPIT to compete in our annual Year 12 chemistry competition. I get a great buzz out of watching the student teams work NZIC President together using wet chemistry to identify unknown organic compounds, as well as extracting key information from journal articles. And this weekend saw the Canterbury Career Expo where hundreds of local teenagers came to find out the various career and training options around New Zealand. I always look forward to talking to students who want to know what career options there are that can fulfil their interest in chemistry. I just hope I don’t bewil- der them too much once I have finished listing the many career and tertiary options available to them! I find it quite frustrating sometimes that many students only see chem- istry as a stepping stone to health sciences or engineering, I’d also like to thank Shimadzu for agreeing to sponsor and are not aware of the wider opportunities for study in- our Industrial and Applied Chemistry prize for the next volving chemistry. This is why at the ChemEd conference five years. We have some excellent work going on in New this year I will be giving a talk which reminds teachers Zealand in the area of industrial and applied chemistry, about the wide range of careers available to someone who so it is fantastic to be able to continue to recognise this excels in, or simply enjoys, chemistry. work through this award. And thank you to our on-going sponsors: ABA books, the Maurice Wilkins Centre and On a national level, we have seen the government reveal the Royal Society of New Zealand. an increase in science funding, including an almost dou- bling of the funding originally set aside for the National I’d also like to remind members that this year we have Science Challenges. My colleague at sciblogs, Peter Grif- a national NZIC conference. Members of the Wellington fin, provides a concise summary of the increased funding Branch have been working hard to prepare for the confer- (http://sciblogs.co.nz/griffins-gadgets/2013/05/16/bud- ence, and have already confirmed some excellent speak- get-2013-whats-in-it-for-science/). While it still remains ers. Preliminary information on the conference can be to be seen how funding is distributed amongst the Nation- found at http://nzic.org.nz/conferences.html I hope to see al Science Challenges, virtually all 12 challenges have many of you there. some relevance to chemistry, reflecting that chemistry is Michael Edmonds indeed, the central science. Whether it is contributing to NZIC President challenges involving high value nutrition, aging well, pri- mary sector production, or our southern oceans, chemists will have roles to play in these areas. Furthermore, the addition of a 13th challenge focusing on science and soci- ety will focus on the promotion of science literacy within schools and across the wider community. The benefits of improving science literacy in New Zealand cannot be un- derestimated. This challenge will also provide opportuni- ties in the area of educational research, something I know will interest our members who are already active in this area. 62 Chemistry in New Zealand July 2013 New Zealand Institute of Chemistry NZIC News supporting chemical sciences July News AUCKLAND Congratulations to Dr Cosmin Laslau Part A 2013; 83(2), 227-34). who was one of the five PhD students The first Chemistry Pub Quiz of the from The University of Auckland Many visitors gave excellent talks NZIC Auckland Branch was held at awarded the prestigious Vice-Chan- over the past few months. Prof. Chris the end of April. Over sixty people cellor’s Prize for the Best Doctoral Orvig from the University of Brit- attended, making up fifteen teams. Thesis in 2012. Cosmin’s thesis is ish Columbia, Vancouver Canada The winners were the ‘Willy Wonka titled Novel Fabrication and Char- gave a seminar on Inorganic Medici- and the Oompa Loompas’ consisting acterization Methods for Conducting nal Chemistry. Professor Suzanne of Dr Pooja Yadava, Dr Ali Hosseini, Polymer Nanostructures and Micro- A. Blum, Chemistry Department Dr Michel Nieuwoudt and Dr Peter structures. The research was super- University of California, Irvine pre- Swedlund. This event was organised vised by A/Prof. Jadranka Travas- sented her seminar, Microscopy for by John Arabshahi (Quiz Master), Sejdic and Prof. David Williams. Synthetic Chemists and Dual-Metal Charles Kong, Dr Viji Sarojini and Catalysis with Gold. A MacDiarmid Dr Jóhannes Reynisson. The Quiz In March the MSc class of 1963 came seminar, Ultraviolet Vision – New was great fun, a ringing success and back to the School for their 50th an- Frontiers in Health and Technol- we plan to make it an annual event. niversary reunion. Several of the staff ogy, was given by Dr Martin Allen, that taught them were also present; Dept. of Electrical and Computer En- among them were former Heads of gineering, University of Canterbury, Department George Clark and Brian and Dr Scott McInode of the De- Davis, as well as Graham Wright and partment of Chemistry, University John Packer. The group of 33 were of Victoria, BC, Canada presented impressed with the new undergradu- his seminar, Mass Spectrometry-led ate laboratories and many of the new Catalyst Discovery, to the School. research facilities. Thanks to Prof. Dr Annie K. Powell of the Institute Laurie Melton for organizing this of Inorganic Chemistry, Karlsruhe wonderful event. Institute of Technology, Germany gave a seminar on Incorporation of Chemistry Quiz winner the ‘Willy Wonka Congratulations to the BioMEMS and the Oompa Loompas’. Highly Anisotropic Ions into Coor- Group who made the cover of the dination Clusters in the Search for The NZIC Presidential talk for 2013, February issue of the journal Cytom- Enhanced Single Molecule Magnets. entitled Chemistry – an Antidote to etry A. This signifies the recent inno- Prof. Muthupandian Ashokkumar of Pseudoscientific Thinking?, was giv- vations that the group has achieved the School of Chemistry, University en by Dr Michael Edmonds, Depart- in the fields of non-invasive and real- of Melbourne, Australia gave his talk ment of Applied Sciences & Allied time probing of tumour cell death us- Sound and Bubbles: Fundamentals Health, Christchurch Polytechnic In- ing Lab-on-a-Chip flow cytometry in and Applications of Acoustic Cavita- stitute of Technology. conjunction with inert fluorescence tion to the School. probes (Akagi, J. et al. Cytometry School of Chemical Sciences, Uni- versity of Auckland The School of Chemical Sciences now has a new Head. We welcome Distinguished Professor Margaret Brimble in her new role. Also, as the 2012 Rutherford Medal recipient, our new head presented the lecture Mastering molecular chess to mine Nature’s medicine chest around the country in May. In this lecture, she showed how natural products derived from either micro-organisms that live in extreme environments, or algal blooms, can be harnessed to develop anticancer, antibacterial and antiviral drugs and drugs to treat neurodegen- erative diseases. The MSc class of 1963 with their lecturers at the Coral Hall. 63 Chemistry in New Zealand July 2013 The New Zealand Institute for Prof. Schramm’s transition state the- detox therapies, miracle mineral solu- Advanced Study, Massey University ory proposes that chemically stable tions and climate change arguments. Auckland mimics of individual enzymatic tran- The consequences of pseudoscientific sition states will be the most powerful thinking are not necessarily benign, Massey University in Auckland fi- inhibitors known. The approach has frequently resulting in pain, suffering nally decided to start a Chemistry the potential to create transition state and death, and costing time and mon- Major from 2014. The new chemistry analogues as powerful inhibitors of ey. When confronted with dubious laboratories have already been built enzymes. Experimental isotope ef- claims about a product or treatment and a number of new chemistry posi- fects and computational methods are there is the option of complaining to tions will be advertised. The Univer- used to establish the nature of en- the Advertising Standards Authority; sity is currently seeking a lecturer in zymatic transition states and design complaints can be registered online. synthetic organic chemistry to start transition state analogues. The impli- A successful complaint can result in in Albany. Massey in Albany will cations of Professor Schramm’s work the individual or company offering also receive major funding in capital are frankly astonishing. With exam- a product or service being forced equipment, with a new Bruker NMR ples that included drugs designed to to modify their claims or have their coming in 2014.

View Full Text

Details

  • File Type
    pdf
  • Upload Time
    -
  • Content Languages
    English
  • Upload User
    Anonymous/Not logged-in
  • File Pages
    44 Page
  • File Size
    -

Download

Channel Download Status
Express Download Enable

Copyright

We respect the copyrights and intellectual property rights of all users. All uploaded documents are either original works of the uploader or authorized works of the rightful owners.

  • Not to be reproduced or distributed without explicit permission.
  • Not used for commercial purposes outside of approved use cases.
  • Not used to infringe on the rights of the original creators.
  • If you believe any content infringes your copyright, please contact us immediately.

Support

For help with questions, suggestions, or problems, please contact us