Serving the chemical, life sciences, and laboratory worlds
VOLUME 92, NUMBER 43 OCTOBER 27, 2014
COVER STORY
BIOBASED POLYMERS Innovation is driving creation of biobased chemicals, but the industry must still elbow products into the supply chain. PAGE 10
QUOTE OF THE WEEK “New welldocumented oxidation states are rarer than new elements.”
NEWS OF THE WEEK 6
Platform’s acquisition of Arysta is latest of several to reshape second-tier agrochemicals business. 7
COMPUTATIONAL CHEMIST, UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI PAGE 7
24
CONTROVERSIAL RESEARCH ON HIATUS
NEONICOTINOIDS EFFICACY IN QUESTION
The pesticides provide negligible benefit as soybean seed treatments, EPA finds. 8
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 25 26 27
CONCENTRATES FROM THE SCENES VENOM CHEMISTRY
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Cataloging venom components aids understanding of evolution and search for new drugs.
TRASHING “PSEUDOKINASES”
Signaling enzymes that cause cancers and blood disease can be inhibited by small molecules. 9
SHAUGHNESSY NAUGHTON
C&EN talks with the chemist and businesswoman who created 314 PAC, a political action group to back scientists running for office.
OXIDATIVELY SPEAKING, IRIDIUM’S A NINE
White House halts federal funding of “gain of function” studies while it reviews lab biosecurity. 8
INPUT SOUGHT ON EXPOSURE LIMITS
OSHA asks stakeholders to help overhaul dysfunctional chemical regulation.
Thought impossible, a molecule with an element in the +9 oxidation state is achieved. 7
PEKKA PYYKKÖ,
22
BOOM IN AG CHEMICALS DEALS
REDUCTIVE DEHALOGENASE STRUCTURES
Enzymes that remove halogens from molecules use vitamin B-12 in an unusual way. 9
CO2 TO CHEMICALS, FOR REAL
Texas start-up Skyonic opens the first such commercial-scale facility.
24
BUSINESS 15 16
CONCENTRATES MIXED OPTIMISM AT PHARMA EXHIBITION
Industry leaders at CPhI Worldwide were unsure about what effect new players in APIs would have. 18
ACTIVATED CARBON CATCHES ON
31
Manufacturer Calgon Carbon hopes to expand as activated carbon finds new purification uses. 33
GOVERNMENT & POLICY 20
PATENT PICKS
C&EN and Chemical Abstracts Service look at recent patenting activity in metamaterials.
CONCENTRATES
COVER: Fermentor at the first commercial-scale biobased manufacturing facility, operated by Reverdia in Cassano Spinola, Italy. Reverdia
WHAT’S THAT STUFF?
Pumpkin spice flavor doesn’t actually contain pumpkin; it just has plenty of food chemistry.
THE DEPARTMENTS 2 34
LETTERS AWARDS
CENEAR 92 (43) 1–40 • ISSN 00 0 9-2347
36 40
CLASSIFIEDS NEWSCRIPTS
