On Wednesday night (June 27th), Nature Network Boston will be hosting their first ‘pub night’ at Tavern in the Square (in Central Square, Cambridge). Corie Lok, the editor of Nature Network Boston, recently blogged about this event, which will be “your chance to meet other scientists from the Boston area, including other members of and bloggers on Nature Network Boston and a few people from Nature’s Cambridge office…”

The pub night officially starts at 6:30 PM, and I’ll be there for an hour or so; I think Catherine said that she’s planning on being there for a little while too. So if you’re in Cambridge that night, please swing by and say ‘hello.’ Make sure you come early, as Corie’s buying the first 30 people a free drink…

Hope to see you on Wednesday night!

Joshua

Joshua Finkelstein (Senior Editor, Nature)

Apologies to our international readers for the U.S.-centric post, but the National Institutes of Health announced earlier today that PAR-07-353, a grant involving Cheminformatics Research Centers, has been canceled for “programmatic reasons.” For those of you who haven’t heard of the Cheminformatics Research Centers, they are part of the Molecular Libraries Roadmap Program (MLP), which is

an integrated set of initiatives aimed at developing and using selective and potent chemical probes for basic research … [The MLP] was proposed to introduce high-throughput screening approaches to small molecule discovery, formerly limited to the pharmaceutical research industry, into the public sector… [and] is made up of the following major components: (1) access to a library of compounds (Molecular Libraries Small Molecule Repository); (2) access to bioassays provided by the larger research community; (3) support for the development of breakthrough instrumentation technologies; (4) access to a network of screening and chemical probe generation centers (MLPCN) where assays are screened and probe development is undertaken; (5) Pubchem, the primary portal through which the screening results of the MLPCN are made public and (6) the Cheminformatics Research Centers (CRCs) with multiple roles focused on high-level data analysis and dissemination with a focus on developing new understanding of the cellular processes (genes and pathways).

One reason why this is so surprising is because the grants were due next week (June 28th). I imagine the timing of this decision (and the decision itself) is bound to upset a number of people in this community, especially since many applicants were probably working around the clock to get their grant submitted before the (now non-existent) deadline…

Does anyone know more about this story or why the grant was canceled?

Joshua

Joshua Finkelstein (Senior Editor, Nature)

(Editor’s note: at the request of the GRC, this post has been removed.)

Joshua Finkelstein (Senior Editor, Nature)

[In lieu of profiles, the contributors to this blog have decided to do their own Reactions pieces…]

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

I was a bit of a ‘late bloomer’ when it came to chemistry: I didn’t own a chemistry set when I was growing up or run reactions in my garage. And I didn’t really enjoy high school chemistry classes (though I liked that feeling you get after successfully balancing a complex chemical reaction…) But I had an amazing AP chemistry teacher in high school, so I went into college with an open mind. When I got there, I was drawn to organic and biological chemistry: I thought it was so cool that a chemist could (design and) synthesize a biologically-active organic molecule that could be used to tease apart a complex cellular process or could be developed into a drug.

2. If you weren’t a chemist/Nature Editor and could do any other job, what would it be – and why?

Like Andy, I probably would have been a musician – I play drums, jazz piano, various percussion instruments, and sing a bit. (I’m trying to learn how to play guitar, but don’t think my fingers are the right length/shape – or maybe I just need to practice more?) I played in a few bands in graduate school (which really helped keep my spirits up when my chemistry wasn’t working), and I miss the feeling you get when you’re playing music with close friends in a dirty/dusty basement…

3. How can chemists best contribute to the world at large?

The simple answer is to work on an important scientific problem that isn’t being adequately addressed by other chemists – easier said than done, though… I guess an important question to constantly ask is “why am I doing this experiment/project?” As long as you know the answer to that question, then you are probably “contributing to the world at large” – if you can’t think of a good/satisfying answer, maybe it’s time to change projects?

4. Which historical figure would you most like to have dinner with – and why?

If I had to choose a scientist, I’d probably invite Linus Pauling or RB Woodward to dinner – I’d be interested in hearing what they think about all the things scientists have discovered in the last few decades. If I could choose any historical figure, I think I’d invite Oscar Wilde or John Coltrane – I imagine Wilde would be hilarious in person and I’d love to hear Coltrane talk about music and tell stories about the jazz scene in the 50s and 60s…

5. When was the last time you did an experiment in the lab – and what was it?

Several years ago – I can’t remember exactly what it was, but it involved DNA glycosylases…

6. If exiled on a desert island, what one book and one CD would you take with you?

I think I’d want to bring something I’d read before/knew I liked – so I’d probably go with Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina or Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum. As for music, I don’t think I could survive if I only had a single CD – does a mix CD count? If so, I’d burn one that had the second movement of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, John Coltrane’s Giant Steps, Dizzy Gillespie’s A Night in Tunisia, Beck’s Tropicalia, Life In A Glass House from Radiohead’s Amnesiac and/or Morning Bell from Radiohead’s Kid A, Stevie Wonder’s Superstition, and a few other tracks… (Thank goodness for iPods…)

Joshua Finkelstein is a Senior Editor for Nature and a regular contributor to the Sceptical Chymist.

There’s an interesting news piece over at news@nature.com that caught my eye – a team led by Helge Riemann at the Institute of Crystal Growth is trying to generate a ‘pure’ sample of crystalline silicon-28:

The new barbell-shaped crystal, which weighs 5 kilograms and was completed on 23 May by Riemann’s team … is nearly isotopically pure. It was made from Russian source material, whose silicon was 99.994% pure silicon-28.

A standard kilogram is currently calibrated using the “”https://www.bipm.org/en/scientific/mass/pictures_mass/prototype.html">international prototype," which “”https://www.bipm.org/en/scientific/mass/prototype.html">was manufactured in the 1880s [from] an alloy of 90% platinum-10% iridium" and is housed in the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures in France. Over time, the loss and/or gain of atoms from the international prototype may have altered its weight – the news story suggests that it might be off by 0.1 milligrams/0.01% (but I couldn’t find any additional information to verify that statement…)

Making this (two-million euro/2.7-million USD) piece of silicon was no easy task:

The researchers spent six months eliminating contaminating elements by repeatedly melting the silicon in an apparatus that does not touch the material. The resulting crystal is thought to contain one foreign atom to every 10 million atoms of silicon.

Talk about a pure sample…

Joshua

Joshua Finkelstein (Senior Editor, Nature)