Rethinking Biofuels

Quote of the Week
"Too many people think they can do some black-box type of calculations, and they end up doing bad stuff and getting published"
MARK S. GORDON, CHEMISTRY PROFESSOR, IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY – p. 36
August 15, 2011
In This Issue:
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Highlights

Cover Story
The Future Of Biofuels
Government policies must now take into account the nuances of producing alternative fuels. (pp. 10-15)

Science & Technology
Body Borers(Member Content)
Two neglected diseases share similar parasites and suffer the same diagnostic and treatment problems. (pp. 32-35)

Career & Employment
Quality Prospects
Drug developers are bolstering their quality management teams in response to a more rigorous regulatory climate. (pp. 40-43)
Table of Contents
Cover Story
Examining Biofuels Policy pp. 10-15
Government mandates have shaped the market but not always for the best.
Generations: Biofuels Are Grouped According To Commercial Maturity p. 12
Biofuels: An Ethical Framework Web Exclusive
Five principles should govern the ethical production of biofuels, according to a report released in April by the the U.K.-based think tank Nuffield Council on Bioethics (NCB)
News Of The Week
Economic Woes Hit Chemical Makers p. 5
Finance: Observers fear the economic soft patch is looking more like another recession.
Layoffs Hit Argonne Lab p. 6
Federal Funding: Budget uncertainty forces staff cuts, fiscal review.
Nickel Unites Protons Rapidly p. 6
Catalysis: Synthetic complex can speed production of H2 by a factor of 10.
Devices Reveal Hidden Messages p. 7
Materials Science: Sensors' response to surface tension can also differentiate liquids.
Agrochemicals p. 7
EPA orders recall of herbicide suspected of damaging trees.
Pfizer Augments Academic Network p. 8
Collaboration: San Diego hosts the drugmaker’s latest partnership.
No Progress In Nitrate Cleanup Of Mississippi River p. 8
Water Pollution: Nitrate leaving the river's basin has increased 9% since 1980, according to new study.
Direct Routes To Off-Target Effects p. 9
Molecular Biology: Techniques pinpoint zinc finger nucleases' unintended genomic cuts.
Stroller Brigades p. 9
Families march for chemicals law reform.
Business

Earnings Survive Unstable Recovery pp. 18-20 (Member Content)
Chemical firms' second-quarter results show signs that demand is stagnating.
Pipeline Payoff Helps Pharma pp. 21-23 (Member Content)
Drug company first-half results were helped by new product launches and emerging-market sales.
Lighting The Way p. 24 (Member Content)
Former PerkinElmer unit Excelitas pledges to strengthen its ties to the instrumentation industry.
Business Concentrates pp. 16-17 (Member Content)
- ICIG Will Acquire Roche Peptide Plant
- International Chemical Investors Group has agreed to acquire Roche’s peptide facility in Boulder, Colo....
- Bruker Investigates Bribery Charges
- After receiving of an anonymous tip, scientific instrument maker Bruker has confirmed that its optics subsidiary...
- Dow Will Wrap Olympic Stadium
- Dow Chemical will produce a fabric wrap that will encircle the Olympic Stadium during the 2012 Olympic Games in London...
- Cathay Industrial Halts Listing Process
- Cathay Industrial Biotech, a Chinese company that produces chemicals by fermentation, has dropped plans to list its stock in the U.S....
- JX And SK Team Up For p-xylene Plant
- Japan’s JX Holdings and South Korea’s SK Innovation have formed a joint venture to build in Ulsan, South Korea...
- DuPont, BP Venture Sues Gevo
- Butamax Advanced Biofuels, a joint venture between DuPont and BP, is suing Gevo for infringement of its newly granted patent...
- Plant Science Firm Comes To St. Louis
- A subsidiary of India’s Symbiotic Sciences has established U.S. operations at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center...
- India’s Ipca Buys Onyx Scientific
- India’s Ipca Laboratories has acquired Onyx Scientific, a U.K.-based pharmaceutical chemistry services provider...
- Microgen And Cornell Make Energy Harvester
- MicroGen Systems and Cornell University’s Cornell Nanoscale Science & Technology Facility have collaborated to develop battery-free sensors...
- Genentech And Array Join ChK-1 Programs
- Genentech will pay Array BioPharma $28 million as part of a deal to jointly develop the companies’ small-molecule inhibitors of Checkpoint kinase...
- SEC Charges Biotech Firm With Fraud
- The Securities & Exchange Commission has filed a complaint in federal court against biopharmaceutical firm Immunosyn...
- Lundbeck Swings Jobs Ax In Labs
- Lundbeck will eliminate between 125 and 175 R&D jobs in Denmark and the U.S. this year...
- Gilead to Acquire Genentech Facility
- Gilead Sciences is buying a Genentech process research and small-scale biologics manufacturing facility in Oceanside, Calif....
- Business Roundup
- Dow Chemical, Solazyme, Bunge, Solvay, Rhodia, Lonza, AstraZeneca, Bachem, Servier, Intercept Pharmaceuticals, VWR, LabPartner, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Biotica,Pfizer, Merck & Co...
This Week Online

Method Could Resolve Nanosilver's Cloudy Toxicity Picture
Nanomaterials: Cloud point extraction could help distinguish between silver nanoparticles and silver ions.
Chip Singles Out Cells
Cellular Imaging: Microfluidic chip traps thousands of cells at once to help researchers catch a glimpse of rare cellular events.
Sweet Science Of Glucose
Blogger SeeArrOh points out a newly discovered role for the sugar that is more exotic: turning differentiated cells back into pluripotent stem cells.
Better Than Invisible Ink
A shiny, glasslike material holds a secret message that can be read only after wiping it with liquid.
Government & Policy

E15 Controversy pp. 26-27 (Member Content)
Proposed shift to higher ethanol-blended gasoline draws questions from industry, activist groups, and Congress.
Revisiting Grant Reviews p. 28 (Member Content)
Congress scrutinizes the merit process for awarding federal research grants.
Government & Policy Concentrates p. 25 (Member Content)
- Groups Seek Deadline For Ozone Standards
- A coalition of health and environmental groups is asking a federal appeals court to set an immediate deadline for EPA to decid...
- Phthalate Testing Process Set By CPSC
- Under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, several phthalates used as plasticizers were banned from products intended for children ...
- Science Gender Gap Remains, Report Finds
- A new study of women in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) finds that women in these jobs earn higher salaries...
- Energy Panel Sees Risks In Gas Drilling
- Natural gas recovered from shale rock formations has “enormous potential to provide economic and environmental benefits for the country,”....
- EPA Proposes Easing CO2 Controls
- Carbon dioxide injected underground would not be treated as a hazardous waste under an EPA proposal issued Aug. 4...
» more government & policy news...
ACS Comment
Networking For Life p. 38
ACS News
Council Preview p. 39
Division changes and petitions are on the agenda for the fall ACS national meeting in Denver.
Supporting Future Chemistry Teachers p. 39
Career & Employment

Quality Prospects pp. 40-43
Drug developers are bolstering their quality management teams in response to a more rigorous regulatory climate.

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Science & Technology

Body Borers pp. 32-35 (Member Content)
Two neglected diseases share similar parasites and suffer the same diagnostic and treatment problems.
Black-Box Chemistry pp. 36-37 (Member Content)
The ease of doing computational chemistry has theorists concerned about accuracy.
Science & Technology Concentrates pp. 30-31
- Liquid Crystal Shines In Three Colors
- Mild heating and rubbing cause films to turn red, green, and yellow
- New Detector For Time-Of-Flight Mass Spec
- Nanomembrane design offers enhanced sensitivity to heavy ions
- Animal’s Amino Acids Go Unnatural
- Non-canonical amino acids incorporated into multicellular organism
- Making Nanotubes In The Microwave
- From starting materials to product, method takes less than 30 seconds
- Natural Product Syntheses Analyzed
- Mechanistic details could aid combinatorial efforts for drug discovery
- Examining Methane’s Slowing Increase
- Conflicting explanations attribute change in emission rates to human activity
- Supramolecular Polymerization
- Peptide-based molecules form tubes and helices
- Plasmons Enhance Solar-Cell Output
- Electron waves associated with core-shell particles lead to thinner better-performing devices
» more science & technology news...
Meetings
2011 C&EN Calendar Web Exclusive
C&EN's latest list of meetings and events of interest to those in the chemical community.
Editor's Page
Introducing C&EN Mobile p. 3
The Departments
Letters pp. 2-4

Newscripts p. 48
Backyard Gas, Crafty Chemistry
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Environmental SCENE News
Fertilizer May Help Bacteria Slip Into Groundwater
Water Safety: High phosphate levels allow deadly microbes to pass through soil.
Bisphenol A Is Ubiquitous In Receipts
Endocrine Disrupters: Researchers detect BPA in every receipt that they collected from seven U.S. cities.
Sunlight Is An Effective Disinfectant
Public Health: Field work shows that a cheap water treatment method improves children's health.
House Takes Aim At Clean Air Act
Pollution: Industry backs cost-benefit analyses of EPA rules, but critics fear assault on public health.
Analytical SCENE News
New Method Isolates Membrane Proteins
Protein Purification: Technique separates proteins on a lipid bilayer.
Bisphenol A Is Ubiquitous In Receipts
Endocrine Disrupters: Researchers detect BPA in every receipt that they collected from seven U.S. cities.
Mapping Drugs In Human Tissue
Clinical Chemistry: Mass spectrometry imaging provides view of an inhaled drug in human lung tissue.
Skeletons Come To Light
Fluorescence Imaging: Monitoring cells as they dissolve bone may lead to disease treatments.
Analyzing Nuclear Processes
ACS Meeting News: Analytical chemists devise ways to watch radioactive streams.
JACS Research In C&EN
Indole Changeup Yields Elusive Alkaloid
ACS Meeting News: Cyclization and nitrene insertion star in synthesis.
Prefab Synthesis Moves Ahead
Organic Chemistry: First stable alpha-boryl aldehydes ease preparation of complex small molecules.
Multiple Bradykinin States Revealed
The peptide adopts at least 10 conformers in solution, explaining why its structure had only been partially characterized.
Scaling Up The Axinellamines
A quicker, more efficient, and stereocontrolled route to a key intermediate streamlines natural product syntheses.
A Revamped Vancomycin
Medicinal Chemistry: Modified compound shows promise against hard-to-treat bacteria.
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