Rare-Earth Outlook
Quote of the Week
"With scientists there's the hero archetype—the person who invents the thing that changes the world."
DAVID ROODMAN, CENTER FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT – p.
26
August 30, 2010
In This Issue:
Jump to Table of Contents ↓
Highlights
Cover Story
Securing The Supply Of Rare Earths
Green-energy and high-tech industries grow anxious over China's monopoly on these valuable resources. (pp. 9-12)
Business
Hot Market For A Cool Chemical(Member Content)
Eyeing an opportunity, the world’s synthetic menthol producers expand. (pp. 15-16)
Science & Technology
Grassroots Grants(Member Content)
Three nonprofits want to fund early-stage research with help from the masses. (pp. 26-27)
Table of Contents
News Of The Week
Judge Halts Stem Cell Research p. 4
Injunction: Federal funding for all human embryonic stem cell research must cease.
Chemists Convene In Boston p. 5
ACS Meeting News: Technical sessions highlight chemistry’s role in fighting diseases.
New Catalysis Journal To Launch p. 5
Publishing: ACS Catalysis will debut in January 2011.
Making Edible Nanostructures p. 6
ACS Meeting News: Food-grade starting materials yield new metal-organic framework compounds.
Silver Bullet For Fluorinations p. 6
ACS Meeting News: Late-stage cross-coupling may open route to radiotracers.
Buyout Targets Plead Their Case p. 7
Finance: PotashCorp, Airgas argue that hostile bids do not serve their shareholders.
A Head-Shaking Sensor p. 7
Bioengineering: Chemical detection linked to live cells and robotic mannequin.
Carbon Credits Under Fire p. 8
Kyoto Protocol: United Nations examines alleged abuse of carbon-trading system.
Red Wine Mimics Defended p. 8
ACS Meeting News: Sirtris says controversial antiaging compounds act at an allosteric site.
Business
Hot Market For A Cool Chemical pp. 15-16 (Member Content)
Eyeing an opportunity, the world's synthetic menthol producers expand.
Reactive Chemistry p. 17 (Member Content)
Skill in handling fluorine has allowed 60-year-old halocarbon to continue to build its product slate.
Business Concentrates pp. 13-14 (Member Content)
- Asian Firms Expand Solar Polysilicon
- South Korea’s OCI will spend $285 million to expand its output of polysilicon used in solar cells...
- LyondellBasell Pulls Out Of Iran
- LyondellBasell Industries is withdrawing from business with firms in Iran, Syria, and Sudan because of U.S. sanctions against those countries...
- DuPont Makes More Solar Panel Polymer
- DuPont has expanded a plant in Fayetteville, N.C., that makes polyvinyl fluoride, a raw material for its Tedlar brand film...
- Arch Chemicals Plans R&D Consolidation
- Arch Chemicals is consolidating much of its U.S. research effort at a site in Alpharetta, Ga., that was part of the company’s 2008 acquisition of the water treatment chemicals maker Advantis Technologies...
- Nalco Buys Enhanced Oil Recovery Firm
- Nalco has acquired Casper, Wyo.-based Fabrication Technologies, a supplier of enhanced oil recovery equipment and services...
- BASF Will Sell Starch Business
- BASF has signed an agreement to sell its European starch business, including a cationic reagent division, to Chemigate...
- Coal-To-Plastics Plant Opens In China
- China Shenhua Coal to Liquid & Chemical Baotou Coal Chemical Co., part of the Chinese coal giant Shenhua Group, has started up China’s first polypropylene plant to use feedstocks derived from coal...
- Petrobras Inks Biofuels Partnership With KL Energy
- Under a joint development agreement, the U.S. arm of Brazilian energy firm Petrobras will optimize KL Energy’s cellulosic ethanol process to use sugarcane bagasse...
- Asahi Builds Medical Materials R&D Center
- Asahi Kasei will spend $19 million to build an R&D center for medical materials. To be located in Miyazaki, Japan...
- Roche Signs Peptide Pact With Aileron
- Roche and Cambridge, Mass.-based Aileron Therapeutics will jointly develop a new class of stapled-peptide drugs against five Roche disease targets...
- … And Will Acquire Diagnostics Company
- Roche is buying BioImagene, a digital pathology technology vendor, for approximately $100 million...
- Merck Matches Gates On Aid For Botswana
- Merck & Co. and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are committing a total of $60 million to support Botswana’s African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships (ACHAP)...
- Researchers Decode Energy Crop Genomes
- Independent programs have sequenced the genomes of two oilseed crops...
- Business Roundup
- Shell, AWB, Dorf Ketal, Dow Corning, Tata Chemicals, Cosan, ChemAxon, Albany Molecular...
ACS Comment
ACS's Road Map—Strategically Speaking p. 30 (Member Content)
ACS Scholars
Trinity N. Horton p. 31
Family and mentors told this former ACS Scholar to keep moving forward; she did and still does.
Government & Policy
NASA's Path Depends On Congress pp. 19-22 (Member Content)
Through their appropriation power, lawmakers could alter Obama's plans for the agency's future.
C&EN Talks With Rep. Vern Ehlers p. 23 (Member Content)
First physicist in Congress crossed party lines to advance science and math education.
Government & Policy Concentrates p. 18 (Member Content)
- Proposed Boiler Rules Are Unachievable, ACC Says
- EPA’s proposed regulations for limiting emissions of toxic air pollutants from industrial boilers and process heaters are “far more stringent than necessary...
- CSB Slams Xcel Energy For Deadly Accident
- A flash fire that killed five workers in a deep underground tunnel nearly three years ago was caused by safety failures of Xcel Energy and contractor RPI Coating...
- Penn State Team To Run Building ‘Hub’
- The Department of Energy last week selected a team led by Pennsylvania State University to receive $122 million over five years to create an R&D center...
- Novel NSF Program Gives $500,000 Awards
- As part of a new Industry-Defined Fundamental Research pilot program in partnership with the National Science Foundation, the Industrial Research Institute awarded $500,000 each to two research projects...
- EPA Gets $26 Million From Chemtura
- Chemtura has settled with EPA and the Department of Justice for $26 million to cover penalties and costs of environmental cleanup at 17 sites owned by the specialty chemicals maker across 15 states throughout the country...
» more government & policy news...
Awards
ACS 2011 National Award Winners pp. 32-33 (Member Content)
IUPAC-Richter Prize To Arun Ghosh p. 33 (Member Content)
James Boggs Earns Mez-Starck Prize p. 33 (Member Content)
Social Networking And C&EN
You can now follow C&EN on Facebook. Become a fan and track the latest news and discussions at facebook.com/CENews.
Science & Technology
Grassroots Grants pp. 26-27 (Member Content)
Three nonprofits want to fund early-stage research with help from the masses.
Breaking Carbon's Tetrahedral Mold pp. 28-29 (Member Content)
Chemists' fascination with square-planar carbon compounds continues.
Science & Technology Concentrates pp. 24-25 (Member Content)
- Oysters Use Chemistry To Stick Together
- ACS Meeting News: Distinctive adhesive is helping scientists understand marine biology and providing a model for synthetic mimics.
- SERS Hot Spots Probed
- ACS Meeting News: Imaging shows larger-than-expected SERS-analyzable spots on nanoparticles.
- Self-Cleaning Solar Panels
- ACS Meeting News: Collected dust particles that block sunlight can be shaken off with a jolt of electricity.
- Crystallite Seeds Shape Up Micelles
- ACS Meeting News: Templated self-assembly process produces highly uniform cylindrical nanomaterials.
- A New Route To Germ-Killing Photons
- ACS Meeting News: Lanthanide nanomaterials convert visible light into disinfecting ultraviolet light.
- Built-In Timers For Paper Devices
- ACS Meeting News: Wax is used to time paper-based microfluidic assays.
- Bacteria Create Electrical Spikes
- ACS Meeting News: Microbe behavior could be akin to neuron firing.
- New Cloak May Suit Many Drugs
- ACS Meeting News: Novel prodrug strategy improves an experimental HIV pill
» more science & technology news...
ACS Meetings
2010–11 C&EN Calendar Web Exclusive
C&EN's latest list of meetings and events of interest to those in the chemical community is for August 2010 through June 2011.
Editor's Page
Forum On Climate Change p. 3
The Departments
Newscripts p. 40
Summer Prank Goes Viral, Chemiamigurumi
C&EN Archives
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Head here to discover the past via the C&EN Archives, go to http://pubs.acs.org/cen-archives
CENtral Science
» News, notes, and musings from C&EN
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