Periodic Tabloid

Chemistry is all about transitions. Starting in November, a new CHF blog will amplify, expand, and build upon on the many types of content we already generate, from public programs, podcasts, Chemical Heritage magazine, scholarly publication, and our burgeoning web presence.

The story of Herman Fialkov, who died earlier this year, provides an exemplary lesson on semiconductor electronics and venture capital on both the East and West coasts.

First Person mainly deals with the subjects of oral histories at CHF, but I thought it might be an interesting change of pace to take you behind the scenes of the oral history process. Today I’ll be highlighting the people and processes that make those oral histories possible.

What would be the chemistry equivalent of the Higgs boson? What would attract such widespread media froth and public exhilaration?

Did you know the analytical instruments contained within Curiosity have a direct link to the historical instruments in the collection here at CHF?

Suppose when you were a small child you believed that the sun revolves around the earth. This wouldn’t be surprising since nothing in your experience would refute the idea. Then one day you go to school and your teacher informs you that the opposite is true—the earth revolves around the sun—and this has been fully accepted by all leading thinkers for nearly five centuries. Would the new information replace your old view, or merely suppress it?

Curiosity is equipped with an impressive array of geochemical instrumentation. The rover's SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) instrument suite contains a gas chromatograph and a mass spectrometer, enabling it to identify a wide range of organic compounds in the planet's soil and atmosphere. 

Our vital fluids are more than just bodily emissions—they can also be considered the purest expressions of our humanity, at least metaphorically speaking. In a three-part podcast and video series, the Distillations team checks out some of their lesser-known properties.

A provocative series of articles in Nature raises the tricky subject of how far we should allow science to go in conferring advantage to an athlete in competition.

Imagine the challenge of developing a chemical monitor to implant beneath the skin. The technology would provide non-invasive, constant monitoring of glucose in diabetic patients instead of current sporadic measurements requiring blood withdrawal. But its development is a rubix cube—all aspects of the puzzle must be considered with every turn; focus on one face and the other five will be a mess.