Breaking chemistry's bad rap

Breaking Bad, cable channel AMC's popular series chronicling the dark transformation of Walter White from suburban chemistry high school teacher to crystal meth master chef and criminal mastermind, makes chemistry entertaining for the average person through shocking story developments, including White using his chemistry expertise (poison, noxious gas, and acid) to eliminate rival meth slingers.

But the show is not improving chemistry's tarnished public image says Matthew Hartings, assistant professor of chemistry at American University.

"Breaking Bad is an entertaining and truly fantastic show. And, it's amazing how much actual chemistry they weave into each episode. Unfortunately, though, the show plays into our preconceived notions that chemists are mad scientists and that chemicals are bad for you," Hartings said. "This reinforces some people's belief that chemicals are things to be avoided when, in fact, we eat, breathe, sleep, and work in a world of chemicals."

Hartings and Declan Fahy, an assistant professor of communication at AU, coauthored a recent article in the journal Nature Chemistry outlining why, of all the sciences, chemistry has perhaps the worst public image and how chemists can help turn that around through improved communication.

A timely message as 2011, the International Year of Chemistry, has chemists and the chemical industry ramping up their communication efforts to honor chemistry's history and showcase the countless ways chemistry has improved everyday life.

Chemophobia

Hartings and Fahy say chemistry's bad rap is a result of "chemophobia," a term coined by chemist and popular science writer Pierre Laszlo referring to the terms most people associate with chemistry: poisons, toxins, chemical warfare, alchemy, sorcery, pollution, and mad scientists.

"One of the reasons that Breaking Bad plays so well is because the public is familiar with the mad scientist/wacky chemist narrative," Hartings said. "What we're not familiar with is all of the other places that chemistry is present in our lives."

Chemophobia is why publishers and television/film production companies avoid using the word "chemistry" in the titles of creative works. They fear that potential consumers will shy away from their products—some recalling how difficult chemistry might have been in high school and others thinking, "Aren't chemicals bad for you?"

"When Deborah Blum wrote The Poisoner's Handbook, a 2010 book that describes the evolution of forensic science in 1920s America, she suggested the subtitle A True Story of Chemistry, Murder and Jazz Age New York," said Hartings. "But the book's subtitle ended up being Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York because the publisher told Blum putting the word 'chemistry' on the book's cover would sink sales."

Five Steps to Improve Chemistry Communication

In their Nature Chemistry article, Hartings and Fahy outline five communication strategies to help chemists increase public engagement with chemistry and improve the field's public image.

• Practice research-driven communication. Focus groups, surveys, and interviews can help chemists identify various publics (their attitudes, values, and beliefs) and understand how they get information and form their opinions about chemistry.

• Understand the audience. Because chemistry is a broad field, it can be relevant to numerous topics (a few examples include pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, and cooking and nutrition) and have numerous audiences.

• Participate in the new communication landscape. More chemists should use social media, blogs, and online videos to communicate with their peers as well as nonchemists/nonscientists.

• Tie chemistry to society. Relate chemistry to social issues or broader themes that touch the lives of everyday people.

• Frame key messages to prompt engagement. Because chemistry is a broad, complex field and can appeal to numerous publics, chemists need to learn frame their messages to encourage public engagement (present a specific issue in a way that shows people the issue's relevancy and application to their lives).

Provided by American University

Public image of chemistry: Breaking chemistry's bad rap

Breaking Bad, cable channel AMC's popular series chronicling the dark transformation of Walter White from suburban chemistry high school teacher to crystal meth master chef and criminal mastermind, makes chemistry entertaining for the average person through shocking story developments, including White using his chemistry expertise (poison, noxious gas, and acid) to eliminate rival meth slingers.

But the show is not improving chemistry's tarnished public image says Matthew Hartings, assistant professor of chemistry at American University.

"Breaking Bad is an entertaining and truly fantastic show. And, it's amazing how much actual chemistry they weave into each episode. Unfortunately, though, the show plays into our preconceived notions that chemists are mad scientists and that chemicals are bad for you," Hartings said. "This reinforces some people's belief that chemicals are things to be avoided when, in fact, we eat, breathe, sleep, and work in a world of chemicals."

Hartings and Declan Fahy, an assistant professor of communication at AU, coauthored a recent article in the journal Nature Chemistry outlining why, of all the sciences, chemistry has perhaps the worst public image and how chemists can help turn that around through improved communication.

A timely message as 2011, the International Year of Chemistry, has chemists and the chemical industry ramping up their communication efforts to honor chemistry's history and showcase the countless ways chemistry has improved everyday life.

Chemophobia

Hartings and Fahy say chemistry's bad rap is a result of "chemophobia," a term coined by chemist and popular science writer Pierre Laszlo referring to the terms most people associate with chemistry: poisons, toxins, chemical warfare, alchemy, sorcery, pollution, and mad scientists.

"One of the reasons that Breaking Bad plays so well is because the public is familiar with the mad scientist/wacky chemist narrative," Hartings said. "What we're not familiar with is all of the other places that chemistry is present in our lives."

Chemophobia is why publishers and television/film production companies avoid using the word "chemistry" in the titles of creative works. They fear that potential consumers will shy away from their products -- some recalling how difficult chemistry might have been in high school and others thinking, "Aren't chemicals bad for you?"

"When Deborah Blum wrote The Poisoner's Handbook, a 2010 book that describes the evolution of forensic science in 1920s America, she suggested the subtitle A True Story of Chemistry, Murder and Jazz Age New York," said Hartings. "But the book's subtitle ended up being Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York because the publisher told Blum putting the word 'chemistry' on the book's cover would sink sales."

Five Steps to Improve Chemistry Communication

In their Nature Chemistry article, Hartings and Fahy outline five communication strategies to help chemists increase public engagement with chemistry and improve the field's public image.

Practice research-driven communication. Focus groups, surveys, and interviews can help chemists identify various publics (their attitudes, values, and beliefs) and understand how they get information and form their opinions about chemistry.Understand the audience. Because chemistry is a broad field, it can be relevant to numerous topics (a few examples include pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, and cooking and nutrition) and have numerous audiences.Participate in the new communication landscape. More chemists should use social media, blogs, and online videos to communicate with their peers as well as nonchemists/nonscientists.Tie chemistry to society. Relate chemistry to social issues or broader themes that touch the lives of everyday people.Frame key messages to prompt engagement. Because chemistry is a broad, complex field and can appeal to numerous publics, chemists need to learn frame their messages to encourage public engagement (present a specific issue in a way that shows people the issue's relevancy and application to their lives).

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations) from materials provided by American University. The original article was written by Maggie Barrett.

Journal Reference:

Matthew R. Hartings, Declan Fahy. Communicating chemistry for public engagement. Nature Chemistry, 2011; 3 (9): 674 DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1094

Breaking the mold

National Physical Laboratory, after over nine years of extensive research, has developed a world-leading pvT (pressure-volume-temperature) and thermal conductivity test kit that can be used to help improve the design and processing of plastics.

The equipment can measure the thermo-physical properties of polymers and can help improve the injection molding process by allowing designers to find the exact pvT (pressure - volume - temperature) and shrinkage properties of a material. Although plastics are the main material tested, other more unusual materials such as soap and even chocolate have also been analyzed.

The pvT instrument operates at pressures ranging from 200 bar to 2500 bar, and is the only equipment in the world that can test materials at ultra fast cooling rates of up to 280 °C/min and down to temperatures approaching -100 °C. NPL found that at higher pressures polymers can conduct heat up to 20% more efficiently, leading to faster cooling rates and shorter cycle times.

Research on polymers such as HDPE (high-density polyethylene) and PBT (polybutylene terephthalate) is vital to manufacturers and it was found that they can increase their production rates and gain a higher profit by filling a polymer with glass - as this cools faster, reducing the time that the polymer needs to stay in the mould. The less time the polymer stays in the mould, the faster the output rate of products.

pvT testing kits are essential for the improvement in design and processing of ubiquitous, everyday plastics and for more specialised polymers with advanced applications. NPL is the only laboratory where manufacturers can send materials for testing using this advanced equipment and this work has improved the reliability and accuracy of measuring pvT data.

More information: http://www.npl.co.uk/science-technology/advanced-materials/materials-areas/polymers/

Provided by National Physical Laboratory

Breaking the chain: 'Molecular cap' blocks processes that lead to Alzheimer's, HIV

 A new advance by UCLA biochemists has brought scientists one step closer to developing treatments that could delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease and prevent the sexual transmission of HIV.

The researchers report that they have designed molecular inhibitors that target specific proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease and HIV to prevent them from forming amyloid fibers, the elongated chains of interlocking proteins that play a key role in more than two dozen degenerative and often fatal diseases.

"By studying the structures of two key proteins that form amyloids, we were able to identify the small chain of amino acids responsible for amyloid fiber formation and engineer a 'molecular cap' that attaches to the end of the fibers to inhibit their growth," said research leader David Eisenberg, director of the UCLA–Department of Energy Institute of Genomics and Proteomics and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

The study was published online June 15 in the journal Nature and will be available in an upcoming print edition.

"This research is an important first step toward the development of structure-based drugs designed against amyloid diseases," said Eisenberg, who is a UCLA professor of chemistry, biochemistry and biological chemistry and a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. "Our results have opened up an avenue so that universities and industry can start creating therapeutics that could not have been produced 10 years ago."

Toward delaying Alzheimer's disease
Amyloid fibers are elongated, water-tight structures formed from two linked protein sheets. Proteins from each sheet contribute side chains, causing them to interlock like the teeth of a zipper, Eisenberg said.

The fibers are found not only Alzheimer's disease but in a variety of conditions, including Lou Gehrig's disease, Parkinson's disease, type II diabetes and a family of disorders related to mad cow disease, among others. In Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases, the tau protein forms amyloid fibers inside brain cells, destroying them through a mechanism that is still being investigated.

Though many serious diseases are characterized by amyloid fibers, Alzheimer's is the most prevalent, Eisenberg said. Today there are 5 million patients in the U.S. who suffer from Alzheimer's, with 500,000 new cases every year. Alzheimer's health care cost this year alone have been estimated at $178 billion, including the value of unpaid care for Alzheimer's patients provided by nearly 10 million family members and friends.

"By the year 2050, it is projected that there will be 19 million Alzheimer's patients," Eisenberg said. "The care of so many patients with this debilitating illness could be a substantial fraction of the gross domestic product of the United States."

Eisenberg and his research team found that of the entire tau protein, a small chain of just six amino acids — abbreviated VQIVYK — was responsible for the formation of amyloid fibers. By studying the structure of the fibers using microcrystallography, a method developed at UCLA for this research, the team was able to use the fibers as a template to design an inhibitor that could 'cap' the fiber and stop it from growing.

The results were dramatic. The introduction of the inhibitor into a tau protein solution completely prevented amyloid fiber formation, validating the idea that the structure-based design of therapeutics for amyloid diseases is a plausible option.

Despite this success, there is still a long road ahead before a viable therapeutic can be developed to combat the onset of Alzheimer's in human patients, Eisenberg said. The inhibitor, a chain of amino acids, is far too large to penetrate deep into the brain where the tau proteins form amyloid fibers.

"This research is an important step toward identifying smaller molecules that can be utilized to develop a therapeutic," Eisenberg said. "Our goal is to be able to delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease."

Preventing the transmission of HIV
Unlike the tau protein, the SEVI (semen-derived enhancer of viral infection) protein is a far more accessible target for a molecular blocker because it builds amyloid fibers in a vaginal environment, a key process in the sexual transmission of HIV, Eisenberg said.

"The presence of SEVI makes the rate of HIV infection through sexual transmission up to 100,000 times more likely," he said. "By blocking SEVI, we have a method for inhibiting the sexual transmission of HIV."

Though the tau and SEVI proteins have different structures and unrelated functions, they both form amyloid fibers with similar morphology, making it possible to design two separate inhibitors using the same process, according to Eisenberg.

The SEVI blocker proved to be equally effective in preventing fiber growth, bolstering the idea that blockers can be designed for other diseases associated with amyloid fibers as well.

"Though many tests remain, it seems we could be on the way to developing a therapeutic," Eisenberg said. "Our hope is that we could make a blocker that could be applied with a vaginal gel or spray that would help to prevent HIV infection."

The tau and SEVI protein inhibitors were designed using synthetic amino acids, similar to the standard protein building blocks of the human body. But these synthetic amino acids were flipped, as if viewed in a mirror, or had added side chains not normally found in nature. Enzymes in the human body that are programmed to break apart protein-like chains are, in principle, unable to recognize the non-natural amino acids, keeping the blockers safe to latch on to the target proteins.

This research was federally funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Joint Center for Translational Medicine.

Other co-authors of this study included UCLA postdoctoral scholars Stuart Sievers and Lin Jiang; UCLA graduate students Howard Chang and Anni Zhao; John Karanicolas, an assistant professor at the University of Kansas; Jason Stevens, an undergraduate at the University of Kansas; David Baker, a professor at the University of Washington; and professor Jan Münch and researcher Onofrio Zirafi, of the University of Ulm in Germany.

Small molecules, big job
A second research team also led by Eisenberg recently announced that it had identified four small molecules that bind to amyloid fibers, including a promising candidate called 'orange-G' that wedges into the zipper-like fiber and may be able to break it apart.

This study was published June 14 in PLoS Biology, an online journal of the Public Library of Science.

"These are the first small molecules visualized as they bind to amyloid-like fibers," Eisenberg said. "These small molecules are less likely to be broken up in the body and can potentially be modified to force apart amyloid fibers or serve as diagnostic tools to identify infected areas of the body."

Eisenberg and his research team found that orange-G was uniquely able to pierce the impenetrable "steric zippers" that seal the water-tight amyloid fibers of the amyloid-beta protein that is responsible for forming senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease.

"In 10 years we have gotten to the point where we are starting to understand the structural biology of amyloid fibers and how to inhibit them and how to interfere with them," Eisenberg said. "The next step is to make practical molecules that inhibit and break amyloid fibers — that is the ultimate goal."

Co-authors on this UCLA research included Kym Faull, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences; Jorge Barrio, professor of molecular and medical pharmacology; researchers Michael Sawaya and Jie Liu; postdoctoral scholars Meytal Landau, Lin Jiang and Stuart Sievers; and graduate student Arthur Laganowsky.

Provided by University of California Los Angeles (news : web)

Breaking Kasha's rule: Scientists find unique luminescence in tetrapod nanocrystals

 Observation of a scientific rule being broken can sometimes lead to new knowledge and important applications. Such would seem to be the case when scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) created artificial molecules of semiconductor nanocrystals and watched them break a fundamental principle of photoluminescence known as "Kasha's rule."

Named for chemist Michael Kasha, who proposed it in 1950, Kasha's rule holds that when light is shined on a molecule, the molecule will only emit light (fluorescence or phosphorescence) from its lowest energy excited state. This is why photoluminescent molecules emit light at a lower energy than the excitation light. While there have been examples of organic molecules, such as azulene, that break Kasha's rule, these examples are rare. Highly luminescent molecular systems crafted from quantum dots that break Kasha's rule have not been reported -- until now.

"We have demonstrated a semiconductor nanocrystal molecule, in the form of a tetrapod consisting of a cadmium-selenide quantum dot core and four cadmium sulfide arms, that breaks Kasha's rule by emitting light from multiple excited states," says Paul Alivisatos, director of Berkeley Lab and the Larry and Diane Bock Professor of Nanotechnology at the University of California (UC) Berkeley. "Because this nanocrystal system has much higher quantum yield and is relatively more photostable than organic molecules, it holds promising potential for optical sensing and light emission-based applications, such as LEDs and imaging labels."

Alivisatos, an internationally recognized authority on nanochemistry, is one of two corresponding authors, along with Sanjeevi Sivasankar of DOE's Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University, on a paper describing this work in the journal Nano Letters. The paper is titled "Spatially Indirect Emission in a Luminescent Nanocrystal Molecule." Co-authoring the paper were Charina Choi, Prashant Jain and Andrew Olson, all members of Alivisatos' research group, plus Hui Li, a member of Sivasankar's research group.

Semiconductor tetrapods make exceptionally good subjects for the study of electronically coupled nanocrystals as Charina Choi, lead author of the Nano Letters paper, explains.

"For the study of nanocrystal molecules, it is important to be able to grow complex nanocrystals in which simple nanocrystal building blocks are connected together in well-defined ways," Choi says. "Although there are many versions of electronically coupled nanocrystal molecules, semiconductor tetrapods feature a beautiful symmetry that is analogous to the methane molecule, one of the fundamental units of organic chemistry."

In this study, Choi, Alivisatos and their co-authors designed a cadmium-selenide (CdSe)and cadmium-sulfide (CdS) core/shell tetrapod whose quasi-type-I band alignment results in high luminescence quantum yields of 30- to 60-percent. The highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of this tetrapod involves an electron "hole" within the cadmium-sulfide core, while the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) is centered within the core but is also likely to be present in the four arms as well. The next lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO+1) is located primarily within the four CdS arms.

Through single particle photoluminescence spectroscopy carried out at Ames, it was determined that when a CdSe/CdS core/shell tetrapod is excited, not only is a photon emitted at the HOMO-LUMO energy gap as expected, but there is also a second photon emitted at a higher energy that corresponds to a transition to the HOMO from the LUMO+1.

"The discovery that these CdSe/CdS core/shell tetrapods emit two colors was a surprise," Choi says. "If we can learn to control the frequency and intensity of the emitted colors then these tetrapods may be useful for multi-color emission technologies."

For example, says co-author Prashant Jain, "In the field of optical sensing with light emitters, it is impractical to rely simply on changes in emission intensity as emission intensity can fluctuate significantly due to background signal. However, if a molecule emits light from multiple excited states, then one can design a ratiometric sensor, which would provide more accurate readouts than intensity magnitude, and would be more robust against fluctuations and background signals."

Another promising possibility for CdSe/CdS core/shell tetrapods is their potential application as nanoscale sensors for measuring forces. Previous work by Alivisatos and Choi showed that the emission wavelengths of these tetrapods will shift in response to local stress on their four arms.

"When a stress bends the arms of a tetrapod it perturbs the electronic coupling within the tetrapod's heterostructure, which in turn changes the color of the emitted light, and also likely alters the ratio of emission intensity from the two excited states," Choi says. "We are currently trying to use this dependence to measure biological forces, for example, the stresses exerted by a beating heart cell."

By adjusting the length of a CdSe/CdS core/shell tetrapod's arms, it is possible to tune band alignment and electronic coupling within the heterostructure. The result would be tunable emissions from multiple excited states, an important advantage for nano-optic applications.

"We've demonstrated that the oscillator strength of LUMO+1 to HOMO light emissions can be tuned by changing the arm length of the tetrapod," Choi says. "We predict that the lifetime and energy of the emissions can also be controlled through appropriate structural modifications, including arm thickness, number of arms, chemical composition and particle strain."

This research was primarily supported by DOE's Office of Science.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations ) from materials provided by DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Journal Reference:

Charina L. Choi, Hui Li, Andrew C. K. Olson, Prashant K. Jain, Sanjeevi Sivasankar, A. Paul Alivisatos. Spatially Indirect Emission in a Luminescent Nanocrystal Molecule. Nano Letters, 2011; 110519123339093 DOI: 10.1021/nl2007032