Canadian Chemical News articles from March 2003

Canadian Chemical News archives from March 2003

The future has its eyes on you: national Chemistry Week can sell chemistry to the young student, but we need to close the sale with the teenager.(Editorial)
March 1, 2003... I must admit it: in high school, I decided not to pursue science at the university level because I thought it would be boring. That's right, boring. Not excessively boring, but certainly humdrum, and constraining. These were the...

Letters/Lettres.(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2003... This Scientist Understands My compliments to Richard Cassidy for writing the Interfaces column, especially the one appearing in the September 2002 issue [p. 37, 'Do Scientists Understand Science?']. I enjoyed reading the book Structure of...

University. (Personals/Personnalites).(Anthony Secco, University of Manitoba)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Anthony Secco, MCIC, of the department of chemistry at the University of Manitoba, has won the 2002 University 1 Teaching Award. Established in 2002, this award recognizes teaching excellence among teachers of University 1 courses who were...

Government. (Personals/Personnalites).(Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, appointment of Camille Limoges)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Camille Limoges has been appointed to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Limoges served as deputy minister of Quebec's ministere de la Recherche, de la Science et de la Technologie and as president of the...

Distinction. (Personals/Personnalites).(awards, Canada)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Donald Mackay, director, Canadian Environmental Modelling Centre (CEMC), Trent University, Peterborough, ON, has been the named recipient of the Kalev Pugi Award by the SCI Canada Section for his outstanding work in the development of computer...

ACCN. (Personals/Personnalites).(new Order of Canada appointments)
March 1, 2003... In January of this year, the governor general, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, announced 100 new appointments to the Order of Canada, and six promotions within the Order. ACCN readers will be pleased to learn of three of...

Obituaries.(Harry Gunning, University of Alberta chemistry department chair)
March 1, 2003... Harry Gunning, FCIC, an internationally renowned scholar who served as the University of Alberta chemistry department chair from 1957 to 1974, and as president of the university from 1974 to 1979, passed away November 24, 2002. Gunning was...

Most new chemical substances first disclosed in patents. (News Briefs/Nouvelles en Bref).(Chemical Abstracts Service)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), the leading provider of chemical information and a division of the American Chemical Society, has reported that more than 50 per cent of the organic and inorganic chemical substances recorded in the CAS...

6 million farmers chose biotech last year. (News Briefs/Nouvelles en Bref).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Biotechnology continues to be a growing choice among farmers worldwide as global acreage of crops enhanced through biotech increased by 12 percent, or 15 million acres in 2002, according to a new report released today from the International...

Double Cohort main reason University Applications up by 46.7%. (News Briefs/Nouvelles en Bref).
March 1, 2003... The implications of the Ontario curriculum change are becoming clearer. As of the January 15 deadline for the submission of high school student applications to be eligible for guaranteed consideration for the first round of admission,...

BASF strengthens its plastics business. (News Briefs/Nouvelles en Bref).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... BASF Aktiengesellschaft announced January 14, 2003, the signing of definitive agreements for two transactions with Honeywell International. BASF has agreed to acquire Honeywell's worldwide engineering plastics business. In a separate...

Petroleum Additives plans to increase capacity at Canadian facility. (News Brief/Nouvelles en Bref).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Crompton Corporation's Petroleum Additives business plans to expand Naugalube[R] aminic antioxidant capacity at its manufacturing facility in Elmira, ON. The capacity increase is expected to come on line in the second quarter of 2003. The...

Curran Lecture annoints Queen's new Chemistry building. (News Briefs Nouvelles en Bref).(University of Pittsburgh professor, Dennis Curran; lecture on fluorous techniques)
March 1, 2003... On November 18, 2002, The Department of Chemistry, Queen's University hosted the 2002 Brantford Chemicals Inc. Distinguished Lecture that was delivered by Dennis Curran, Distinguished Service Professor, University of Pittsburgh. The lecture...

Launch of Canadian Raw Materials Database. (News Briefs/Nouvelles en Bref).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... A new, on-line database that houses life cycle inventory data has been designed to help industry support voluntary efforts aimed at improving the environmental performance of their products. The Canadian Raw Materials Database is the combined...

Web-based nanotechnology patent searches available. (News Briefs/Nouvelles en Bref).(Thomson Derwent's Derwent Web of Nanotechnology)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... In January, Thomson Derwent announced the development of Derwent Web of Nanotechnology [TM], a web-based patent resource that can delivers up-to-the-minute nanotechnology-related patent records from Derwent, journal literature from Thomson ISI,...

Antibiotic market driven toward $30 billion. (News Briefs/Nouvelles en Bref).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... The worldwide market for antibacterial drugs will grow to almost $30 billion USD by 2006, according to a new study released by Kalorama Information. Antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria are challenging the industry to develop new drugs and...

Canadian Chemical sales increase by 3% in 2002. (News Briefs/Nouvelles en Bref).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Overall sales of Canadian manufactured chemicals increased by 3 per cent in 2002, despite a continued slowdown in the United States and other key economies. According to the annual survey of business conditions compiled by the Canadian Chemical...

New Substances Fees Regulations -- now a reality. (Regulatory Update).
March 1, 2003... In progress for almost two years, the CEPA New Substances Fees Regulations have finally become a reality. Effective January 1, 2003, importers and manufacturers are required to pay a filing fee each and every time they submit a notification...

Proposed amendment to CEPA NSN regulations: notice of commencement. (Regulatory Update).
March 1, 2003... On November 2, 2002, Environment Canada and Health Canada proposed amendments to its New Substance Notification Regulations (NSNR). Industry has been working with Environment Canada and Health Canada in supporting these proposed amendments,...

Putting Pizzazz in powerpoint. (Chemputing).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... While you were reading the October 2002 Chemputing view of Dante's Inferno, I was actually there -- or at least it seemed that way. Sitting through a day of PowerPoint presentations has got to be one of the most diabolical tortures ever...

Update on QuickTax. (Chemputing).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Last year at this time, I described my experiences preparing and paying my taxes with QuickTax. As is my custom, I waited until the latter half of April. Even at that late date, it took me less than an hour to prepare a pair of returns, a few...

Murder or illness? Chemistry decides. (Chemfusion).
March 1, 2003... The emergency room physician thought he recognized the symptoms. The three-month-old boy was vomiting, breathing with difficulty and showed virtually no reflexes. A blood test quickly revealed his blood pH to be 7.0, indicating an unusually...

Nanotech heads to Hollywood: Michael Crichton's latest novel Prey will propel nanoscientists into the limelight. It may benefit them. Or it may not. (Articles).
March 1, 2003... When Antonella Badia successfully made the first gram of her gold nanoparticles in a lab downtown Montreal in 1994, she knew she had hot stuff in her hands. So did her mentor and research director Bruce Lennox, a chemistry professor at McGill...

Students work their chemistry on the school and the community. (Articles).
March 1, 2003... While a 'national' week of any sort is worthy of some note at a variety of levels, in New Brunswick National Chemistry Week is very much a happening in small towns like Hampton and St. George. New Brunswick cities, such as Saint John, are...

Chimie en pleine action: la chimie, un mystere devoile aux jeunes ados. (Articles).
March 1, 2003... Etudiant(e)s du secondaire ont organise une serie de miniateliers,durar~t la semaine nationale de la chimie ; cette aventure educative a travers le monde de la chimie etait un vrai succes! Le 25 octobre 2002, l'Ecole Secondaire Catholique...

If liquid nitrogen isn't to your taste: try this experiment to give your students a taste of the scientific method. (Make Every Week a Chemistry Week!).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... For some chemistry fun, take your students to Baskins and Robbins and try all 39 flavours! Each student should hypothesize about which flavour they will like best and why. In eating, each student can test their hypothesis against experiment and...

The National Crystal Growing Competition. (Articles).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... The NATIONAL CRYSTAL GROWING COMPETITION is held annually and is open to any high school student (including homeschooled) in Canada. The above image shows the top seven crystals in the Best Quality category for 2002, which were grown using...

Chemistry at the movies. (Articles).
March 1, 2003... Getting good attendance at student chemical society meetings is not always easy -- particularly at a small institution like ours. There are so many other demands on students, such as upcoming tests to study for, that there has to be something...

Ignorance kills the cat: an interview with an award-winning high school chemistry teacher. (Articles).(Gabriel Ayyavoo)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... For many people -- not ACCN's readers, of course -- the mere mention of the word 'science' conjures up memories of seemingly complicated rules of chemistry physics, and dry algebraic drills. But the truth is, says Gabriel Ayyavoo, that science...

The Process Safety Management Award. (New in 2003).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... (Established 2002) Sponsored by AON Reed Stenhouse Inc. The Award will be presented as a mark of recognition to a person who has made an outstanding contribution in Canada, to The Process Safety Management (PSM) Division of The...

Elaine Miasek wins the 2002 sarnia chemical engineering scholarship. (Student News).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Elaine Miasek is a fifth-year chemical engineering and management student at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON. She is the president of the McMaster Chemical Engineering Club, which serves over 130 students. The club coordinates social and...

Student Chapters' Merit Awards. (Student News).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... The Student Chapters' Merit Awards are offered as a means of recognizing and encouraging initiative and originality in Student Chapter programming in the areas of chemistry, chemical technology and chemical engineering. Each Student...

Where does your future lie? (Student News).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Undergraduate, MSc. and PhD students are invited to participate in the CIC Career Fair taking place at the 39th IUPAC Congress and 86th CSC Conference and Exhibition taking place in Ottawa, ON on August 10-15, 2003. Watch for more details...

Kathleen Buset wins the 2002 edmonton chemical engineering scholarship. (Student News).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Kathleen Buset is in her final year of study in the bachelor of engineering program at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, ON. Throughout the previous three years, while studying chemical engineering, she has been continuously involved in the...

Students see success at 52nd Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference. (Student News).
March 1, 2003... SNC*Lavalin Plant Design Competition The SNC*Lavalin Plant Design Competition was held on Sunday, October 20, 2002 at the 52nd Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference in Vancouver, BC. First place went to The University of Western...

Need practice presenting papers? (Student News).(CSChE Undergraduate Chemical Engineering Student Competitions )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Why not participate in the CSChE Undergraduate Chemical Engineering Student Competitions in Hamilton, ON. The students of McMaster University will be hosting the SNC*Lavalin Plant Design Competition, the Robert G. Auld Oral Paper and the Reg...

Meetings/Reunions.(Calendar)
March 1, 2003... Canada March 19-21, 2003. Americana 2003 - Pan-American Environmental Technology Trade Show and Conference, Montreal, QC, Americana and the Canada Climate Change Action Fund. Tel: 514-270-7110; Fax: 514-270-7154; E-mail:...

Pioneering work in alkaloid chemistry. (Milestones of Canadian Chemistry in the 20th Century).(Richard Manske)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Richard Manske, educated at Queen's University and Manchester University, began his study of the alkaloids of the Fumariaceae at the National Research Council in 1929. During his stay at Ottawa he isolated three new classes of...