Periodic Tabloid

Inspired by “Health for Sale,” the current Philadelphia Museum of Art show featuring prints and posters donated by Dr. William Helfand, on Tuesday we started examining one of the images from CHF’s own Helfand Collection.

Urban planners – and smug urbanites – have long celebrated the energy efficiency of densely populated areas (a topic we recently covered on Distillations). But a new report published in the journal Environmental Research Letters suggests this might not be the case.

Dr. William Helfand is a longtime collector of prints and posters relating to the history of medicine. “Health for Sale,” an exhibit highlighting some of the gems of his collection, is currently delighting audiences at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Dr. Helfand is also a longtime friend and supporter of CHF, and has donated a number of unique pieces to our collection. Today Periodic Tabloid examines one of them.

While settling into my new job at CHF and leaving to my wife the daunting task of selling our house in Massachusetts, I am living a Spartan, bachelor existence. In my Old City sublet you will find no television, stereo, or computer; in my free time I wander weathered cobblestones and read books about chemistry.

June's conference "Renewing the Heritage of Chemistry" was an incredible opportunity in itself, but while in Paris we also discovered another treasure: the Librairie Alain Brieux, an antique and rare book shop that specializes in science and medicine. Robert Anderson let Rosie Cook and me in on its secrets.

Drug combinations for infections could be very useful since discovery of totally new agents is rare, and drug resistance a relentless and intractable problem. One possibility is using drugs approved for other maladies in combination with proven antibiotics. This cool idea was recently put to the test by a Canadian and Scottish research collaboration.

A May episode of Distillations, CHF’s award-winning podcast, focuses on the science and history of gas lighting. This week, we were delighted to find a cartoon in the collection from that same history.

Walking around as a “guest scientist” at the Science Leadership Academy (SLA) 9th-grade science fair last month, I felt more like a collaborator at an American Chemical Society meeting than a judge. Far from cookie-cutter “sunlight and plants” projects, students presented real research, motivated by curiosity, with results ready to jump off their posters.

Fireworks being the most watched chemical reaction in popular culture, July 4th presents a prime opportunity to talk up electrons and elements to your friends. Seriously, this is one day people will listen to you. Make sure you’ve got it right.

It’s First Friday at CHF, and we’re ready to celebrate with “Stars, Stripes, and Science,” our annual science fair. We know, of course, that the July 4th holiday commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But this year we are commemorating another important anniversary in American history: the sesquicentennial of the Civil War.