EDITOR'S PAGE CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING NEWS 1155-16th St.. N.W.. Washington, DC 20036 (202) 872-4600 or (800) 227-5558 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Rudy M. Baum MANAGING EDITOR: Pamela S. Zurer ART DIRECTORS: Nathan Becker. Robin L. Braverman ASSOCIATE DESIGNER: Yang H. Ku STAFF ARTIST: Linda Mattingty SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Lois R. Ember
NEWS EDITOR: William G. Schulz EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Michael Heylin SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER: Marvel A. Wills ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT: Marilyn Caracciolo BUSINESS Michael McCoy. Assistant Managing Editor NORTHEAST: (732) 906-8300. Rick Mullin (Senior Editor), Marc S. Reisch (Senior Correspondent), William J. Storck (Senior Correspondent), Alexander H. Tullo (Associate Editor). Rachel Eskenazi (Administrative Assistant). HONG KONG: 852 2984 9072. Jean-Francois Tremblay (Bureau Head). LONDON: UU 20 8870 6884. Patricia L. Short (Senior Correspondent) GOVERNMENT & POLICY David J. Hanson, Assistant Managing Editor WASHINGTON: (202) 872-4495. Glenn Hess (Contributing Editor). Bette Hileman (Senior Editor). Cheryl Hogue (Senior Editor). Jeffrey W. Johnson (Senior Editor), Susan R. Morrissey (Associate Editor) SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY/EDUCATION Doron Dagani, Assistant Managing Editor A. Maureen Rouhi. Deputy Assistant Managing Editor WASHINGTON: (202) 872-6216. Stuart A. Borman (Senior Correspondent). Bethany Halford (Assistant Editor). Celia M. Henry (Senior Editor), Stephen K. Ritter (Senior Editor). Sophie L. Rovner (Senior Editor). BOSTON: (617) 395-4163. Amanda T. Yarnell (Associate Editor). CHICAGO: (847) 679-1156. Mitch Jacoby (Senior Editor). HOUSTON: (281) 486-3900. Ann M. Thayer (Senior Correspondent). WEST COAST: (510) 849-0575. Elizabeth K. Wilson (Senior Editor). LONDON: 44 1256 811052. Michael Freemantle (Senior Correspondent) ACS NEWS & SPECIAL FEATURES Linda Raber, Assistant Managing Editor Corinne A. Marasco (Associate Editor). Aalok Mehta (Associate Editor). Rachel A. Petkewich (Assistant Editor) EDITING & PRODUCTION Robin M. Giroux, Assistant Managing Editor Janet S. Dodd (Senior Editor). Arlene Goldberg-Gist (Senior Editor). Melissa A. Kuhnell {Assistant Editor). Deanna Miller (Associate Editor), Stephen M. Trzaska (Associate Editor), Linda Wang (Assistant Editor) C&EN ONLINE Melody Voith, Editor Luis A. Carrillo (Production Manager), Wesley M. Lindamood (Production Associate), Rachel Sheremeta Pepling (Associate Editor), William B. Shepherd (Manager, Chemjobs) PRODUCTION & IMAGING Krystal E. King (Senior Digital Production Associate) SALES & MARKETING Elise Swinehart, Manager Elaine Facciolli Jarrett (Marketing Associate) ADVISORY BOARD Stephanie A. Rurns. Joe Carleone. Terry Collins, F. Fleming Cum, Marijn E. Dekkers, Michael P. Doyle. Richard M. Gross. Rudolf Hanko. L. Louis Hegedus, Nancy B. Jackson, Sunil Kumar, Robert L. Lichter, Charles M. Lieber. Joseph A. Loo. Eli Pearce. Peter Pollak. Patrick Prevost. Marquita M. Quails. Paul J. Reider. Gregory H. Robinson, Alan Shaw. Wilhelm Stahl, JoelTickner. Guy Viltax Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
Madeleine Jacobs, Executive Director & CEO Robert D. Bovenschulte. President. Publications Division EDITORIAL BOARD Grace Baysinger (Chair); ACS Board of Directors Chair: James D. Burke; ACS President: William F. Carroll; Ned D. Heindel. Madeleine M. Joullie, Peter C. Jurs, Peter J. Stang Copyright 2005, American Chemical Society Canadian GST Reg. No. R127571347
A Prizeworthy Package
E
VERY ISSUE OF C & E N C A R R I E S A
wealth of information on the chemical enterprise. This week's issue, however, is especially chock-full of stories that reflect the incredible breadth of our discipline and industry. We lead off our News of the Week Department with a story by Deputy Assistant Managing Editor Maureen Rouhi on that annual, much anticipated event: announcement of this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry (see page 8). The prize this year goes to Yves Chauvin of the French Petroleum Institute, Robert H. Grubbs of Caltech, and Richard R. Schrock of Massachusetts Institute of Technology for developing olefin metathesis. This Nobel Prize is particularly satisfying, for a couple of reasons. Unlike some recent Chemistry Nobels, which honored work that was quite biological, this year's prize honors research that is chemistry at its most fundamental: the breaking and making of chemical bonds to create new compounds. Olefin metathesis is one of the most useful synthetic techniques to be added to the chemist's toolbox in recent years. It is also satisfying because one of the five references provided by the Nobel Foundation in its supplementary information on the chemistry prize is the 2002 cover story by Rouhi on olefin metathesis (C&EN, Dec. 23,2002, pages 29 and 34). Rouhi's stories on the chemistry of olefin metathesis and the history of its discovery are the most comprehensive and accessible articles on this subject you will find. They are available on the C&EN Online home page. The three stories in this week's Business Department illustrate the global nature of today's chemical industry. In the lead story, Senior Correspondent Patricia Short examines the development of a vibrant biotechnology sector in the Czech Republic (see page 17). Senior Editor Rick Mullin profiles University of Utah spin-off LineaGen, which is making the Utah Population Database available to drug and biopharmaceutical firms (see page 20). The database, Mullin writes, is "an extensive compilation of genetic, epidemiological, demographic, and public health statistics on Utah families" that is regarded "as a gold mine for genetics and genomics researchers." Finally, Hong Kong Bureau HeadJean-Francois Tremblay writes on the opening of the $2.9 billion chemical complex in Nanjing built by BASF and China's Sinopec (see page 22).
In this week's Government & Policy Department, Senior Editor Bette Hileman provides an in-depth look at the current thinking on chemical intolerance, in particular the curious relationship between this environmentally induced illness and addiction (see page 24). In the second story, Associate Editor Susan Morrissey reports on efforts to increase the participation of minorities in math and science. And our cover story is a probing interview of Ralph Cicerone, the newly installed president of the National Academy of Sciences, by Senior Correspondent Lois Ember (see page 31). Cicerone is a major figure in science policy circles, and Ember's interview provides many insights into where he will take NAS during his six-year tenure. The Science/Technology/Education Department is a rich smorgasbord of stories on chemistry and chemical education, many of them based on presentations at the recent ACS national meeting in Washington, D.C. Nuclear forensics, nanotechnology applied to contact lenses, the complex chemistry of ginkgo trees, the synthesis of the first roomtemperature-stable electride (a compound in which the counterion in an alkali-metal crytpand complex is a trapped electron), ancient DNA from bones, Inside Instrumentation, the history of two seminal chemistry textbooks, and trends in chemistry libraries are examined. Wait, there's more! Much more. The bulk of the issue—160 pages of it—is devoted to the technical program of this year's Pacifichem (see page 56). More than 11,000 papers will be presented in 957 sessions in Honolulu, Dec. 15-20, and all of them are listed here. In our ongoing series of employment features, News Editor William Schulz provides useful information on working in Europe (see page 219). Finally, in an almost perfect bookend to the news stories on this year's science Nobel Prizes, Newscripts provides breaking news on the 2005 Ig Nobel Prizes awarded on Oct. 6 at Harvard University (see page 232). This is the meaty package of news and information that C&EN strives to provide its readers every week. Happily for C&EN's staff and readers, we don't do 232 pages every week! Thanks for reading.
Editor-in-chief
Views expressed on this page are those of the author and not necessarily those of ACS. WWW.CEN-0NLINE.ORG
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