"Forever Chemicals"

Via random clickings on Twitter, a really depressing op-ed in the Washington Post from an assistant professor of exposure assessment science at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health:

...They are now in nearly all of our bodies, are found in the air and water around the globe, and they never go away. They are "Forever Chemicals." 

These are stain-repellent chemicals that we use in products throughout our homes, offices, schools, hospitals, cars and airplanes. They are characterized by a fluorine-carbon backbone. And the F-C bond, the Forever-Chemical bond, is quite amazing, representing one of the strongest bonds in all of organic chemistry. 

When several F-C bonds are strung together, some really useful industry properties appear, including allowing air to pass through while blocking things such as grease, oil and dirt.  

...But this property comes with a pernicious dark side. The F-C bond is so strong that these chemicals never fully degrade. Ever. Like, for millennia ever. 

[snip] 

And it may get worse. In every chemical with a carbon-hydrogen bond (the fundamental unit of organic chemistry), you can theoretically replace the "H" with an "F," creating a Forever Chemical. Thus, the number of Forever Chemicals that can be made is close to infinite. Scientists could study these indefinitely and not make any progress. It's job security that I don't want....

A more irritating mauling of chemistry and chemicals you will not read today. (The fundamental unit of organic chemistry is the C-H bond? whiskey tango over?)*

*I think the thing that gets me about articles like this is how much chemophobic articles like this belittle the good that chemistry and chemicals do and how much they use uncertainty and doubt to get people to fear the chemical-to-be-feared of the moment. 

(Should we as an industry be more careful with the compounds that we manufacture and sell as articles of commerce? Absolutely. Is the PFOA/PFOS story one that we as an industry need to come to terms with? Undoubtedly. Does this article help with that? No.) 

FNANO "Teaching through Nanoscience" track: April 16-19, 2018 in Snowbird,UT

From the inbox, an invitation to present papers on the "Teaching through Nanoscience" track at FNANO 2018 in Snowbird, UT in mid-April.

Best wishes to those interested. 

2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 481 positions

The 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 481 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On December 27, 2016, the 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 531 positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Try the open thread.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 29 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 29 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread.

Old-skool chemists

Also in this week's C&EN, some anecdotes from chemistry's past in the letters to the editors: 

Dr. Breslow literally changed my life. I worked in his laboratory in 1964–65 as a “prep boy,” running syntheses for the graduate students and postdocs. I probably made more methylcyclopropenone than [any] other person on the planet, before or since. Even though I was the lowest of the low, Dr. Breslow included me in all the activities of his group. His group meetings were amazing. I learned more in them than I learned in most classes. Dr. Breslow also arranged for me to take classes at Columbia University. I had had three years at another college, but the classes at Columbia were on an entirely different level. One of the classes I took was biochemistry, taught by Dr. Breslow, in which I earned an A+. The entire experience transformed me from a C student to an A student. I later went on to earn my Ph.D. in chemistry, which I probably would not have done were it not for my time with Dr. Breslow. I can’t express enough my gratitude to and affection for this wonderful, caring human being. 

Franklin P. Mason 

I took advanced organic synthesis with Gilbert in 1965. What impressed me the most is that he’d come into class sans notes, pick up a piece of chalk, put his hand to his forehead, and say “OK,” and proceed to give a perfectly presented one-hour lecture. Of course there were mechanisms for every reaction, etc., but the smoothness of it all always stuck with me. RIP Gilbert. 

Philip Warner

Good stuff - "prep boy" is an interesting one. 

This week's C&EN

A few of the articles from this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News: 

• Cover story: the incoming ACS president, Peter Dorhout
• Worth a read, especially for those interested in the intersection of academia and employment 
• Pretty cool story about making building materials on Mars (article by Neil Savage)
• What does the chemical enterprise look like from Inner Mongolia? Find out from Jean-François Tremblay.
• Summary of the ACS Pharma Leaders Conference by Susan Ainsworth
• Roald Hoffmann on Shelley's Frankenstein.
• Cool story about Regina Easley, NIST electroanalytical chemist. 

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 102 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list has 102 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)