VOLUME 36, NUMBER 3 November 2010 The Alembic - 3 november 2010.pdf · VOLUME 36, NUMBER 3 November...
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The AlembicNewsletter of the Central Wisconsin Section of the American Chemical Society
VOLUME 36, NUMBER 3 November 2010
Visit the ACS web site at … www.acs.org
Also, up-to-date information about our Section activities including the
Alembic and meeting notices is
found at..... www.uwsp.edu/chemistry/acscws/
November 2010 CWS ACS Meeting
“A Tour of the Marshfield Clinic Lab
Host: Dr. Mary Alice Kettrick
Director, Reference Laboratories
Where: Laird Center for Medical Research
Marshfield Clinic campus
Marshfield, WI 54449
6:00 PM, Erdman Lobby (second floor)
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Supper and Meeting to follow at the China Chef
233 S. Central Ave
Marshfield, WI 5449
2010 ACS - CWS
Mini-Directory
Chair Stephen Leiterman
307 5th Street
Mosinee, WI 54455
Phone: (715) 693-3998
E-mail: [email protected]
Chair-Elect Robin Tanke
Department of Chemistry
Univ. Wisc. - Stevens Point
Stevens Point, WI 54481
Phone: (715) 346-4325
E-mail: [email protected]
Immediate Past Chair
David Thiel
Phone: (715) 887-4338
E-mail: [email protected]
Secretary - Treasurer Tipton Randall
Phone: (715) 720-1969
E-mail: [email protected]
Councilor C. Marvin Lang
Phone (715) 346-3609
Email: [email protected]
Alternate Councilor James Brummer
Phone: (715 346-2888
E-mail: [email protected]
Newsletter Editor Dale Pillsbury
796N Pripps Road
Park Falls, WI 54552
Phone: (715)583-4426
E-mail: [email protected]
Steve Leiterman
The Chair’s Corner - Farewell, but not Good-bye There comes a time in every man‟s life to be moving on. Unless we have
to make decisions at the executive committee meeting in December, this
will be my last Chair‟s Corner. As of this writing, I am continuing to
pursue candidates for the position of Chairman-Elect. While we have a
lot of good people in the section, it is difficult to find someone with suf-
ficient time to lead the section. Unfortunately, this is often the situation
with volunteer organizations. I know my time in office was a real learn-
ing experience for me and it reiterated how difficult it is for one to work
in any position today without good computer skills. However, one al-
ways learns better how things work by being on the inside. It certainly
provided a good spot for me to see how things run, learn who is active in
the section and discover what special things they do. Moving on, I‟ll
finish up with friends and fellow ACS members and I pray I‟ll continue
to make lasting friendships.
Page 2
Volume 36, number 3 The Alembic 2010
In Memoriam We regretfully note the passing of
Nadine St. Louis, wife of long-time
Central Wisconsin Section mem-
ber, Bob St. Louis. Known as Dina
to her friends, she provided an in-
sightful and moving perspective of
her eight-year battle with neuroen-
docrine cancer in “Zebra”, her sec-
ond book of poetry. Dina earned
her PhD in English from UCLA in
1969 and was shortly thereafter
tenured in the English Department
at UW-Eau Claire, while Bob taught
in the Eau Claire Chemistry Department (1968-1998).
Dina also held a number of administrative positions
during her productive career with the University. She
spent the 1985-86 academic year participating in a fac-
ulty exchange at the University of Bielefeld, Germany,
where her growing interest in writing poetry blos-
somed. On returning to Eau Claire, she became depart-
ment head and continued writing poetry. In 2010, to
honor her academic and personal achievements in the
field, she was named the first Poet Laureate of Eau
Claire. She will be sorely missed by those who knew
her personally, or through her poetry, and will be well-
remembered as an outstanding example of how to fully
live life in the face of great adversity.
Sharp Photo & Portrait Eau Claire, WI
Stephanie Kwolek
was born near Pitts-
burg, PA in 1923
and received her BS
from Margaret Mor-
rison Carnegie Col-
lege. Financially
unable to continue
on to medical school, she
obtained a “temporary”
job at DuPont‟s textile fibers laboratory near Buffalo,
NY. She never pursued further formal education,
finding she enjoyed her work and could learn what
she needed at DuPont‟s facilities.
Her excellent work earned her a transfer to DuPont‟s
Pioneering Research Lab in 1950, where she pursued
very basic polymer research. In 1965 Ms. Kwolek
was exploring aramides as improved fibers for car
tires. She found polymerization of p-amino-benzoic
acid chloride gave a very high-melting product. Solu-
tion of the polybenzamide required the use of N-
methyl pyrrolidone with added CaCl2 to help sever
the strong intermolecular hydrogen bonding. How-
ever, the solution appeared cloudy and the technician
who ran the spinneret machine believed it would clog
the very fine holes used to create threads from poly-
mers. She filtered the solution and after several days
of arguing her case, the technician relented and the
first Kevlar-like fiber was created. It was 5 times as
strong as steel (wt :wt). It was later found the solu-
tion opalescence was due to liquid crystal formation.
Kevlar was commercialized in 1971. Terephthaloyl
chloride and p-phenylene diamine are now reacted in
an elegant two-step solution polycondensation proc-
ess to yield poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide). It is
spun into fiber as a solution in 100% sulfuric acid.
Stephanie Kwolek was awarded the Perkin Medal,
inducted in the prestigious National Inventors Hall of
Fame, awarded the ACS award for "Creative Inven-
tion" and the Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement
Award with its $100,000 prize. Ironically, Ms
Kwolek‟s commitment to excellence as a chemist
very likely ended up saving many more lives than if
she had become a physician.
Kevlar Aramide
Men and Molecules
See video clip about Stephane Kwolek @ www.youtube.com/watch?
v=8dX3Z5CyF3c&feature=player_embedded#
!
The Editor ’s Desk
This month the Section will be visiting the Laird
Center for Medical Research on the Marshfield
Clinic campus in Marshfield. From information gra-
ciously provided by Marshfield, it is clear we will be
touring a top-notch research facility. The “Men and
Molecules” vignette is about Stephanie Kwolek,
who wanted to be a physician, but ended up work-
ing for DuPont — with much gratitude from a great
number of law enforcement and military personnel.
Robin Tanke‟s report on National Chemistry Week
(NCW) appears with pictures on pages 5 and 6. All
parties involved in the NCW activities appear to be
enjoying themselves thoroughly. Robin deserves a
Well Done! from the Section for her efforts as NCW
coordinator. Finally, I want to note that we urgently
need a person to be the 2011 Chairman-Elect.
Please think seriously about helping out the Section
by somehow finding the time in your busy schedule
to serve in this important position.
Dale Pillsbury
Host: Dr. Mary Alice Kettrick
Director, Reference Laboratories, Marshfield Labs
Where: Laird Center for Medical Research
Marshfield Clinic campus
Marshfield, WI 54449
6:00, Erdman Lobby (second floor)
Page 3
A Tour of the Laird Center for Medical Research
Volume 36, number 3 The Alembic 2010
The dinner and section meeting will be held after the tour at 7:15 at the China Chef, 233 S. Central Ave, Marshfield.
Contact Cristina Altobelli by Noon on November 11 [ ( 715 ) 346-2888 or e-mail [email protected]] for reservations.
Marshfield Clinic In 1916, physicians K.W. Doege, William Hipke, Victor Mason, Walter Sexton, H. H. Milbee
and Roy P. Potter incorporated a joint practice which they named Marshfield Clinic. Today, Marshfield Clinic serves
communities in Wisconsin and includes two hospitals and 52 clinical centers in its system of care.
A Brief History of Research at Marshfield The six founding physicians hosted meetings of fellow doctors to dis-
cuss medical advancements and practices. By 1959, the Clinic‟s Board of Directors established a formal program of
research with the University of Wisconsin in internal medicine, dermatology, syphilogy, pathology, otolaryngology
and surgery. Also, that year, a research foundation was created at Marshfield.
A National Institutes of Health grant, in 1960, funded the study of farmer‟s lung disease and this work ultimately led
to The National Farm Medicine Center in 1981. Clinical research is the largest research program at Marshfield
Clinic. At any one time, 450 clinical trials and other protocols are under way with approximately half of the active
clinical research studies related to cancer.
The Marshfield Epidemiologic Research Center was founded in 1991 and focuses on improved medical care and
more effective public health policies. Current research includes infectious diseases, antibiotic resistance, vaccine
safety and prevention of diabetes and obesity.
Marshfield Clinic became recognized internationally in the early 1990s with the discovery of short tandem repeat
poly-morphisms, which revolutionized the study of human genetics. The Center for Medical Genetics (CMG),
founded in 1994, focused its initial research on discovering the structure of the human genome. In 2001, Marshfield
Clinic Research Foundation (MCRF) established a second genetic research center, The Personalized Medicine Re-
search Center. Personalized medicine is an individually tailored health care approach to the prevention, detection and
treatment of disease based on knowledge of an individual‟s genetic profile. On October 1, 2004, MCRF merged the
Center for Medical Genetics and the Center for Personalized Medicine Research into the new Center for Human Ge-
netics to better position the Center for discoveries in the structure of the human genome, genetic basis of complex
disease, genetic epidemiology, pharmacogenetics and population genetics.
In September 2005, MCRF added a fifth research center, The Biomedical Informatics Research Center. Its mission is
to discover new knowledge in medical informatics; support a broad range of basic, applied, and clinical research
with biomedical informatics and biostatistics support; and provide stewardship for research informatics assets.
Two new structures adjacent to Marshfield Clinic were subsequently built to accommodate the increased need for
research space. The first building was named in honor of Ben R. Lawton, M.D., a Clinic cardiothoracic surgeon and
researcher, and the second in honor of former Congressman and Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird, a Marshfield
native and benefactor. In 2008, an expansion of the original Laird Center for Medical Research was completed.
See Page 4 for a map to the Laird Center
& directions to The China Chef
Marshfield Area
Showing Marshfield-
Clinic Buidings
Note Laird Center in
red near center of map
(off of the north side of
Kalsched St between
Oak St. and St. Joseph
Ave.)
Parking in Lot L in front of Laird Center for Medical Research
Directions to the China Chef (233 S. Central Ave (WI 97S)
1. Go Left out of Parking lot L onto Kalsched St. going east to Oak St. Turn RIGHT onto Oak St..
2. Continue on Oak St about 4/10 mile until you come to W Doege St. Turn Left onto W. Doege St.
3. Continue on W. Doege St. 4/10 mile until you come to N. Central Ave / WI 97. Turn Right on N. Central Ave/ WI 97.
4. Continue on N. Central Ave, crossing First St./ WI 13, where N. Central Ave/ WI 97 becomes S. Central Ave/ BR 13.
5. Continue to the China Chef, 233 S. Central Ave, on the left side of the street (715) 384-9004. Parking in back .
N
Detail of Area near
Laird Center for
Medical Research
Note Parking Lot L
to east of
Laird Center
This is where you
should park
Page 4
Volume 36, number 3 The Alembic 2010
Maps & Directions - November Meeting
Page 5
Volume 36, number 3 The Alembic 2010 Volume 36, number 3 The Alembic 2010
Stevens Point Boys and Girls Club For National Chemistry Week, the UWSP Student ACS group sponsored a
chemistry night at the Stevens Point Boys and Girls Club on Wednesday, October 20th. Drew Cunningham, Syngen
Grede, Austin Henderson, Amanda Nevins, Ashley Orozco, Tracey Oudenhoven, Qianwei Ren, Alyce Ruhoff, Randy
Siedschlag, Eric Terrell, and Albert Webster excited about 25 boys and girls and several parents and mentors about
chemistry.
Outside, they demonstrated how the properties of bananas, balloons and racquet balls change when cooled to liquid
nitrogen temperature. Then they added Mentos™ to soda, and we saw the Coke™ spray. Inside, the group explored
the making of nylon and the properties of soap.
After the demon-
strations were
complete, the boys
and girls were able
to make their own
slime, marbled pa-
per, and do chro-
matography art.
An excellent time
was had by all.
Chromatography Art Paper Marbling
Nylon 6,6 Rope Demonstration
The Properties of Soap Demonstration
Making Slime Making Slime & Paper Marbling
Continued on Page 6
National Chemistry Week 2010
“ B ehind the Scenes with Chemistry! ” - Fun for Students and Presenters
Just a reminder that on February 17, the Section will
hold a Meeting in Miniature at UW-Marshfield cam-
pus. Your presentation need not be highly polished nor
extremely technical. We are looking for diversity and
hoping to learn more about the professional lives of our
colleagues. If you can give a talk or present a poster,
please contact Dave Thiel at (715) 887-4338 or E-
mail: [email protected].
Grant Elementary In a third grade class at Grant
Elementary we made sugar glass that students en-
joyed punching and breaking ... and without hurting
themselves!! We also did an experiment to deter-
mine which type of fake snow makes the best fake
snowmen. Of the mixtures tested, the students all
agreed that 60 mL of water added to 1.25 mL of
polymer gave the best snowman.
I‟m grateful to Margaret O‟Connor Govett and Gary
Shulfer for supporting this and other outreach pro-
grams by collecting supplies and offering sugges-
tions.
Posters We received two entries for the NCW
poster contest: “A Chemist Making Smoke” by
Hope Jepson, a Grant Elementary (Wisconsin Rap-
ids) third grader
and “Behind the Scenes” by Jaclyn Thompson a
North High School (Eau Claire) student.
Since they are in different judging categories, both
posters were sent to the national competition.
Volume 36, number 3 The Alembic 2010 Volume 36, number 3 The Alembic 2010
National Chemistry Week ( con t ’d )
A career symposium was held at UW-Madison on Oc-
tober 23, hosted by the UW-Madison Younger Chem-
ists Committee. According to Christine McInnis, chair
of the committee, more than 138 people attended, in-
cluding 12 students from UW-SP. The presentations
were quite diverse by both topic and flavor and all
were well-received by the audience. Ms. McInnis also
noted that C&E News Deputy Editor-in-Chief Maureen
Rouhi very kindly wrote about the symposium in
C&EN's blog (http://cenblog.org/the-editors-
blog/2010/10/kudos-for-career-symposium-of-ycc-
wisconsin/) and it should be mentioned in next week's
print edition.
Career Symposium Follow-up
Page 6
Anyone who has ever cooked or eaten a turkey knows
the problem: Cook the turkey at too high a heat and
you get dry white meat, cook a turkey at too low a heat
and you get underdone dark meat. The dilemma is
that the proteins in dark meat require a higher tempera-
ture to break down than those in white meat. One solu-
tion is to brine the turkey, i.e., just keep the room tem-
perature turkey in a salt brine for some period of time
and presto!, the meat is juicier when cooked. The
question becomes, “Why?” Most food chemists agree
that one way or another, more salt and water gets into
the turkey through brining. Once the salt and water is
within the turkey meat, it denatures the proteins by
breaking hydrogen bonding between protein strands.
The denatured proteins can then hydrogen bond to wa-
ter and this helps keep the turkey moist. There is a lot
of hand waving about exactly how water and salt dif-
fuses out of the brine and across the cell membranes of
the turkey meat, but it sounds as if there should be at
least one graduate student‟s worth of an NIH grant
available to settle this question. And the undoubtedly
underpaid graduate student will have plenty of meat to
eat while they earn their doctorate.
The Turkey Dilemma
Robin Tanke
NCW coordinator & Section Chairman-elect
A Call for Presentations
Meeting in Miniature —
Antoine Lavoisier (Law of Conservation of Matter, Chemical Nomenclature) Lavoisier was born to
wealth in Paris in 1743. Working with Pierre-Simon Laplace, he debunked the phlogiston theory of com-
bustion and clearly formulated the law of the conservation of mass. Mikhail Lomonosov had expressed
these ideas in 1748, based on experiments of his own, but Lavoisier‟s work and his clear statement of the
law in his 1789 textbook of chemistry spread its acceptance. The combined efforts of Lavoisier, Claude-
Louis Berthollet, Antoine Fourcroy and Guyton de Morveau produced a much-improved system of chemi-
cal nomenclature, facilitating communication among chemists. Educated in chemistry, Lavoisier‟s wife,
Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze, served more as a colleague than a simple assistant in his laboratory work. Lavoisier was
guillotined during the Reign of Terror at the age 50.
David
Jeremias Richter & Joseph Proust (Law of Definite Proportions, Stoichiometry) Richter was
born in 1762 in Jelenia Gora, Poland, while Proust was born in Angers, France in 1754. Based on
Richter‟s acid/base titrations, in 1792 he introduced the concept of definite proportions in reac-
tions and the word “stoichiometry”. Proust‟s experiments with copper carbonate, the two tin ox-
ides and two iron sulfides also led him to state the Law of Definite Proportions in a paper in 1794
wherein reactants react with each other in definite, fixed proportions, thereby helping to systema-
tize the idea of fixed reaction stoichiometries.
Richter Proust
Thanks-Giving — From One Chemist ’s Perspective
John Dalton (Atomic Theory) Dalton was born in 1766 in Eaglesfield, England. Based on work by
earlier chemists interested in the relations between gas pressure, volume, mass and temperature (eg
Boyle 1662, Amonton 1699*), as well as his own work with the reaction of oxygen and hydrogen to
form water, Dalton proposed the first real atomic theory. This theory stated elements are composed of
atoms and compounds are materials made of atoms of different types somehow bonded together. Com-
pounds have fixed compositions because there is a fixed ratio of atoms and each atom has its own
weight. Chemical reactions result in a rearrangement of the atoms in the reacting compounds. *(Note Amonton‟s 1699
experiments were repeated by Charles 1787 & Gay-Lussac 1802 and they often receive credit for Amonton‟s work )
Amadeo Avogadro & Stanislao Cannizzaro (Atomic number, moles) Avogadro was born in
1776 in Turin, Italy while his student, Cannizzaro, was born in 1826 in Palermo, Sicily. In 1811,
Avogadro presented the theory that the relationship between the masses of the same volume of
different gases (at the same temperature and pressure) corresponds to the relationship between
their respective molecular weights. Hence, the relative molecular mass of a gas can be calculated
from the mass of sample of known volume. Part of the previous confusion was, that in most
cases, experimenters thought of gases as being monoatomic, i.e., O vs O2, H vs H2 or N vs N2.
However, Avogadro‟s ideas did not receive widespread acceptance until Cannizzaro attended the first international chem-
istry conference in Karlruhe, Germany in 1860. There, he restated these ideas in his talk and in a pamphlet, in so clear a
manner that, paraphrasing one chemist‟s comments: „The scales dropped from my eyes and I understood‟.
Avogadro Cannizzarro
Volume 36, number 3 The Alembic 2010 Volume 36, number 3 The Alembic 2010
Joseph Black (Analytical Balance, Latent & Specific Heat) Black was born in Bordeaux, France in 1728.
He was educated in Scotland and developed a greatly improved analytical balance, ca 1750. The greater
accuracy of the improved balance proved critical to succeeding chemists‟ efforts to understand the differ-
ence between chemical mass and chemical number and permitted the unraveling of the puzzle of chemical
stoichiometry. Black also explored and understood the idea of latent heat of melting and vaporization, as
well as the concept of specific heat, thereby contributing to the basis for thermodynamics.
Ibn al-Haytham (Scientific Method) Ibn al-Haytham was born ca 965 AD in Basra, Iraq. While some
science historians disagree about how “codified” his approach to science was ( relative to our modern con-
cepts of the scientific method), Ibn al-Haytham insisted the truth could be learned only through rigorous
physical experimentation and thorough testing of any hypotheses or conclusions. This was being done
while Europe labored under the fetters of an “appeal to authority” (usually church dogma or Aristotle) ap-
proach to science.
Page 7
Dale
On a personal basis, each of us undoubtedly has many good reasons to be thankful at this time of year. However, as a
group, we chemists can be thankful to a number of early progenitors who often go unrecognized for taking us from the
mysticism of alchemy to the science of chemistry. I refer to those men who may not have necessarily discovered a new
element or reaction, but who helped to clarify our thinking about atoms, molecules, what reactions are and how chemicals
interact, and all without the benefit of our modern chemical “common sense”. Here are a few of my favorites:
Mark your calendar … plan to come:
“A Tour of the Laird Center for Medical
Research” at the Marshfield Clinic
Marshfield, WI
November 11 at 6 PM
The Alembic (November 2010)
Newsletter of the Central Wisconsin Section, ACS
c/o Chemistry Department (#605516)
University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point
Stevens Point, WI 54481
Member Address Label
Page 8
Central Wisconsin Section, ACS Meetings and Programs - 2010/2011
Date (Day) Location Speaker Host Nov 11, 2010 (Thurs) Marshfield Laird Center for Medical Research Tour Dr. Mary Alice Kettrick Feb 17, 2011 UW-Wood County “Meeting-in-Miniature” Dave Thiel & Amanda Hakemian Mar, 2011 Stevens Point Paul Helquist (ACS Tour) Robin Tanke April, 2011 to be announced Robert Blackledge (ACS Tour) to be announced September, 2011 to be announced Glenn Roy (ACS Tour) to be announced
Mark the above dates and locations on your calendar; plan now to attend and participate in the Section’s various meetings and activities. Future issues of
the Alembic will give exact locations and arrangements for these meetings. Of
further interest are the following national and regional events: 66th Southwest & 62nd Southern ACS Regional Meeting Nov 30—Dec 4 New Orleans, LA Spring National ACS Meeting - March 27-25, 2011: Anaheim, California Chemists Celebrate Earth Day (CCED) - April 22, 2011