The conference gets underway even before my plane lands. A fellow from a microscopy concern is leaning across the aisle chatting to a chemist about his latest model. In the airport shuttle to downtown, chemists wedge inside the van, their poster tubes making the whole process seems like some complex protein folding problem. And today the streets of downtown San Francisco are alive with chemists—teeming with badged hordes looking for a cup of coffee between sessions.

The ACS meeting is big. It has strong points and weak points, but most of all, it is big. This year sees the innovation of satellite registration desks in hotels throughout downtown, and a mind-boggling number of papers—almost 10,000. And I am going to “cover” the meeting. Ha ha ha.

Catherine Goodman, below, says she ends up more or less walking the poster sessions as her fancy takes her. This is perhaps the perfect way to approach a meeting of this size—both posters and talks. Why see all the talks in your own field, when half of it will be old news? Why not stab a pin into the program or just amble into any old session? I pledge to spin the wheel of fate at least once this time—stay tuned for some chemical Kismet.

Calling all chemists! Emma Marris traipses across the golden gate bridge to San Francisco, to blog the American Chemical Society’s latest gargantuan meeting, September 10th – 14th. With bustling pharma and biotech, UC Berkeley, Stanford and Cal Tech (sort of) all nearby, expect a strong showing from the locals. But as ever, the meeting is a 7-ring circus, and anything could happen, including an earthquake.

Everything below this blog entry is from last time. Read it to remember. Everything above here is hot, sizzling new content: read it and weep.

Calling all chemists! Emma Marris traipses across the golden gate bridge to San Francisco, to blog the American Chemical Society’s latest gargantuan meeting, September 10th – 14th. With bustling pharma and biotech, UC Berkeley, Stanford and Cal Tech (sort of) all nearby, expect a strong showing from the locals. But as ever, the meeting is a 7-ring circus, and anything could happen, including an earthquake.

Everything below this blog entry is from last time. Read it to remember. Everything above here is hot, sizzling new content: read it and weep.

Calling all chemists! Emma Marris traipses across the golden gate bridge to San Francisco, to blog the American Chemical Society’s latest gargantuan meeting, September 10th – 14th. With bustling pharma and biotech, UC Berkeley, Stanford and Cal Tech (sort of) all nearby, expect a strong showing from the locals. But as ever, the meeting is a 7-ring circus, and anything could happen, including an earthquake.

Everything below this blog entry is from last time. Read it to remember. Everything above here is hot, sizzling new content: read it and weep.

As the conference winds down, I think it was, all in all, a good thing. It will be interesting to see how it develops. Will it become a mega-meeting, like the ACS meetings, or will it find some sort of niche, disciplinary or otherwise?

It was quite windy for most of the week, with the main plenary tent creaking and popping like a schooner in full sail. I thought about making some corny pun about these being the winds of change sweeping over European chemists, as they find their collective identity and become a force to reckon with. This would have been just too pat though, and in any case, we will have to wait and see.

And so, Viszontlátásra from Budapest!

As the conference winds down, I think it was, all in all, a good thing. It will be interesting to see how it develops. Will it become a mega-meeting, like the ACS meetings, or will it find some sort of niche, disciplinary or otherwise?

It was quite windy for most of the week, with the main plenary tent creaking and popping like a schooner in full sail. I thought about making some corny pun about these being the winds of change sweeping over European chemists, as they find their collective identity and become a force to reckon with. This would have been just too pat though, and in any case, we will have to wait and see.

And so, Viszontlátásra from Budapest!

As the conference winds down, I think it was, all in all, a good thing. It will be interesting to see how it develops. Will it become a mega-meeting, like the ACS meetings, or will it find some sort of niche, disciplinary or otherwise?

It was quite windy for most of the week, with the main plenary tent creaking and popping like a schooner in full sail. I thought about making some corny pun about these being the winds of change sweeping over European chemists, as they find their collective identity and become a force to reckon with. This would have been just too pat though, and in any case, we will have to wait and see.

And so, Viszontlátásra from Budapest!

A big conference just isn’t a big conference without a lot of handing out of medals. So here’s congrats to Jonathan Nitschke of the University of Geneva, for winning the European Young Chemist’s award. He got an IOU from the Italian Chemical Society for 1,800 €, and a nice gold medal. Lee Cronin promised me that if he didn’t win, he would get up and shout ’It’s rigged! It’s rigged!‘, but unfortunately, he got one of the silver medals, and so we didn’t get to see a temper tantrum in the tent.

A big conference just isn’t a big conference without a lot of handing out of medals. So here’s congrats to Jonathan Nitschke of the University of Geneva, for winning the European Young Chemist’s award. He got an IOU from the Italian Chemical Society for 1,800 €, and a nice gold medal. Lee Cronin promised me that if he didn’t win, he would get up and shout ’It’s rigged! It’s rigged!‘, but unfortunately, he got one of the silver medals, and so we didn’t get to see a temper tantrum in the tent.

A big conference just isn’t a big conference without a lot of handing out of medals. So here’s congrats to Jonathan Nitschke of the University of Geneva, for winning the European Young Chemist’s award. He got an IOU from the Italian Chemical Society for 1,800 €, and a nice gold medal. Lee Cronin promised me that if he didn’t win, he would get up and shout ’It’s rigged! It’s rigged!‘, but unfortunately, he got one of the silver medals, and so we didn’t get to see a temper tantrum in the tent.