SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
CROWDSOURCING INDY ACS MEETING NEWS: Readers tell a
C&EN reporter where to go
CARMEN DRAHL, C&EN WASHINGTON
TEN STORIES ABOVE the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the observation tower called
“The Pagoda” is shady and calm. A single car whips around the track below. I’m enjoying a brief pit stop before returning to ground level, where I’ll be overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of the Celebrate Science Indiana festival—cockroach racing, flaming hydrogen balloons, robots throwing Frisbees, and an earthquake simulator the size of a van. I’m covering the controlled chaos of the festival, which was held in collaboration with ACS, because C&EN’s readers sent me. Just about everything I attended at the ACS national meeting in Indianapolis, held Sept. 8–12, was chosen by reader votes on Facebook. The idea came from News Editor William Schulz, who months ago wondered what would happen if we asked our readers what I should cover in Indy. C&EN’s coverage at ACS meetings is usually directed by the magazine’s writers and editors, on the basis of a symposium’s or other meeting activity’s potential interest to readers or relevance to current scientific trends. Readers tell us time and again that the multitude of symposia at ACS national meetings can be overwhelming. With this three-day experiment, I would cover events readers didn’t want to miss.
COURTESY OF ERIN DOTLICH (BOTH)
Reporter’s Log, Day 1: Zero to 140 Miles Per Hour
Volunteers from the ACS Indiana Section mobilized their members to vote for their Celebrate Science event in C&EN’s poll. Now they’re determined FACEBOOK to give me the full experiPOLL RESULTS ence—race cars and all. I sign up for a lap around Indianapolis Motor Speedway the Indy 500’s iconic oval —Celebrate track. “How fast do the Science Indiana: drivers go?” I ask ChrisVOTES tina Bodurow, a senior director at Eli Lilly & Co. What You Need and chair of the local sec- for the First Job, Besides the Ph.D. tion host committee for in Chemistry: this ACS meeting. “At least 125,” she says. VOTES “But if they’re feeling Others: saucy they’ll go upwards of 140.” During a real VOTES IndyCar race, drivers will
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AN EXPERIMENT IN C&EN READER INTERACTION Goals: Involve readers in ACS national meeting coverage, spark conversations on C&EN’s social media sites. What happened: ◾ Readers voted for their favorite sessions at C&EN’s Facebook page (facebook.com/cenews) ◾ Poll winners were announced on Facebook and the C&EN ACS Meeting Tumblr blog (cenatacs.tumblr.com) ◾ Carmen covered winning events live with blog posts and video on Tumblr and Facebook ◾ Readers conversed with Carmen on Twitter (hashtag #wherescarmen) ◾ Carmen summarized her adventures in this “reporter’s notebook”-style feature
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easily top 200 miles per hour. I buckle up in on the balcony of a white Chevy Impala the observation pace car, then shoot tower at the video of the experience Indianapolis Motor Speedway. with my iPhone while the driver burns rubber. After the speedy ride, I bid Bodurow farewell and walk back toward the festival’s air-conditioned tents filled with science demonstrations. I end up helping the Notre Dame University Chemistry Demo Team. The group is setting up races between small boats for eager children. Each boat is made from recycled materials and uses a different form of energy—steam, generated by a small flame; wind from blowing into a sail; mechanical/ potential energy generated by a crank; and chemical energy from THE PAGODA a battery. The chemiI ascend to the cal energy boat isn’t story of working. Grad student 10th the Indianapolis Karen Antonio has tak- Motor Speedway’s en it aside and is twid- observation tower for a break. dling with wires when I approach. “Occam’s razor,” I say. “Your battery’s probably dead.” She agrees, but doesn’t have another. I dig into my backpack and pull out one AAA battery. Bingo—the boat is operational again, if a bit finicky. Michelle Bertke, the team’s leader, thanks me for the battery. She says they designed the demo to combine the ACS meeting’s theme, “Chemistry in Motion,” with this year’s National Chemistry Week theme, “Energy: Now & Forever.” It’s meant to show children that energy comes in many forms, only some of which are renewable. Kids are never going to remember all that, I say. “It’s a little idealistic to say you’re going to teach specific facts here,” Bertke agrees. “You want kids to take away an interest in science, or to at least remember that they enjoyed it.” Bertke is a senior graduate student at Notre Dame. Before I move on, I ask about her future plans. “The ideal job would be science outreach coordinator at a children’s museum,” she says, though she knows those jobs are hard to land. C&EN readers, too, have concerns about the job market. It should come as no surprise to anyone following the troubling BIG-PICTURE VIEW Standing
chemistry employment situation that career-related events proved popular with readers. I spent my Sunday morning in a session called “What You Need for the First Job, Besides a Ph.D. in Chemistry.” I could stick around only long enough to hear that session’s first three speakers, but they brought up similar concepts: Traditional Ph.D. training doesn’t build the communication and teamwork abilities employers seek, and changing some wellestablished traditions in doctoral training programs may be desirable but is difficult. Yet the message seems to bear repeating, particularly for meeting-goers like Sarah E. Waller and Jennifer E. Mann of Indiana University, Bloomington, and Elizabeth J. Petro of Johns Hopkins University. “We’re here to find information about what to do next,” Waller, who’s nearing completion of her Ph.D., tells me. Petro, meanwhile, wants to get at the causes of institutional inertia in doctoral programs. “What are the incentives for faculty to make changes to Ph.D. training?” she asks speakers at the symposium. Faculty reap benefits from having students conduct research, in the form of publications, citations, and speaker invitations, she notes, whereas the benefits of sending their students to a communications workshop may be less obvious.
Reporter’s Log, Day 2: You Just Blew My Mind
“Oh, did we get enough votes?” asks Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) chemist Carlos Fraga when he notices me arFACEBOOK riving for the symposium, POLL RESULTS “Analytical Methods in Undergraduate Chemical Forensics,” Speed Networking inside the Indiana ConJennifer Maclachlan @pidgirl with Chemistry vention Center. “I didn’t Social Media Panelists: #ACSIndy Professionals : think it would be appro#smchem #WHERESCARMEN priate to vote for my own VOTES Offering advice for the novice social talk,” he says. media user.#CINF Analytical Not everyone was so Methods in reluctant to engage in a Chemical little self-promotion, I Forensics: jokingly point out. Even VOTES* William Tolman, the editor-in-chief of the ACS Lightweight journal Inorganic Chemis- Materials from try, cast votes for sympo- Biopolymers: sia in his home division. VOTES* In truth, this forensics session squeaked into my Others: schedule at the last minment, so I kept it in my schedule. The sesVOTES ute. The runaway winner sion is in full swing when I arrive. for Monday was the after* Tiebreaker I’ve prepared questions for the panel noon-only undergradumembers in case the audience is shy. I’m ate speed networking session. I decided curious what social networking tools they to spend my morning at the runner-up think chemists are underutilizing, and why. vote-getter. To break a tie for second place, Panelist Joseph Sabol, program chair for I turned to readers the ACS Division of Small on Twitter. The foChemical Business, tells Carmen Drahl @carmendrahl rensics session came the room he believes ACS’s We have a tie for 9/9 AM out on top. own social network hasn’t #ACSIndy. 1st reply to me with Fraga and his reached its full potential. #wherescarmen and choice of fellow forensic On the ACS Network, “dis“forensics” or “biopolymers” chemists help law cussions among members seals my fate! enforcement track who do not know down the source each other do Ryan G. Coleman @rgcjk materials and makers of illicit happen, and @carmendrahl #wherescarmen substances and chemical weapthat is good,” he forensics! ons. They often profile the tells me. But he impurities that typically turn thinks the adup in production of substances such as sadition of small-business-friendly features rin gas—unreacted starting material, trace to the network might improve it. “I want contaminants in reagents, and degradation to know what a member can do for me as a products, to name a few. PNNL’s John R. subcontractor, supplier, or customer,” he Cort discloses a new NMR advance and explains. I make a note to evaluate it as a potential It’s finally time for undergraduate news item (C&EN, Sept. 16, page 29). speed networking. The session pairs stuChemical forensics researchers must dents with chemistry professionals of all work out consistent, reliable ways to anastripes. As in speed dating, each student lyze bits of chemical evidence smeared on gets only five minutes to tell potential a wall, or something sopped up from the graduate advisers or employers somesurface of a road. thing about themselves and ask questions “We didn’t have many talks focused before they must move on to someone on sampling issues, but that’s a big chalelse. lenge,” session organizer Herman Cho, Soon after the networking starts, it
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CARMEN DRAHL/C&EN
GOOGLE GLASS After the race track, I make an exception in my Wolf takes a wearable reader-driven calendar computer for a to meet with Carmel, spin. Touching a finger to the Ind., 8th-grader Chris glasses’ frame Nardi, whose chemist is like operating mom brought the entire a mouse. family to the meeting. He lets me and fellow C&EN writer Lauren Wolf try out Google Glass, a wearable computer that’s the ultimate in trendy tech. After a late dinner with C&EN colleagues, I edit a slew of video, post it online, and conk out around 2 AM.
also a chemist at PNNL, told me after the session. Before C&EN decided on my readerdriven adventure, I had agreed to moderate a panel discussion at the symposium “Role & Value of Social Networking in Advancing the Chemical Sciences.” I figured readers wouldn’t want me to back out of a commit-
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NOT ALL BUSINESS Sharing a laugh with
undergraduate Stella Koiki of the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia at the undergraduate speed networking session. CARMEN DRAHL/C&EN
becomes clear that many of the undergrads participating in the session haven’t learned that chemistry careers can fall under categories other than “academia” and “industry.” “You just blew my mind,” Western Michigan University senior-year undergraduate Noah O. Masika said when I described the reporting career I crafted with a chemistry Ph.D. “Sometimes it sounds like you can only be a chemist if you’re in a lab,” he says. Intrepid reporter Wolf also attends the networking event, and afterward we hike to Kilroy’s, a pub outside the convention center, for a chemistry “tweetup,” or Twitter meetup. It’s another late night because I must read papers and obtain feedback on the chemical forensics NMR work from this morning. I put the finishing touches on a story draft before my head hits the pillow.
LAUREN WOLF/C&EN
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Reporter’s Log, Day 3: To Titan and Beyond
First thing in the morning, jumbo latte in hand, I stake out a chair next to a power outlet at the symposium “Chemical Frontiers in Solar System Exploration” so I can blog and tweet without battery issues. The dominant topic for the morning session is Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. FACEBOOK The heavenly body is one POLL RESULTS of astrochemists’ favorite Chemical places to study as a frame Frontiers in of reference for questions Solar System Exploration: about life’s origins on Earth. VOTES Session speakers C&EN Webinar describe their work in on Food Fraud: chemical kinetics and reaction dynamics, all VOTES directed at fundamental Others: questions about Titan and other celestial VOTES bodies. For example, researchers don’t understand the mechanisms by which molecular nitrogen, held together by one of chemistry’s strongest bonds, somehow breaks
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apart on Titan and becomes incorporated into organic molecules. After several data-heavy talks, I go to lunch with a group that includes session coorganizers Nadia Balucani of Italy’s University of Perugia and Ralf Kaiser of the University of Hawaii, Manoa. “Let’s eat somewhere healthy,” Kaiser says, as we exit the convention center. Instead, we end up at a fast food joint called Steak ’n Shake, which resembles Carmen Drahl @carmendrahl a 1950s diner. All right #ACSIndy–what do I’ve never eaten I order at Steak ‘n Shake?
MORE ONLINE
Videos and live blog posts are available at http:// cenm.ag/wherescarmen.
kitchen, he tells me that the subdivision is planning symposia for future national meetings. The topics will include Earth’s solar system, the interstellar medium, and astrobiology. I’d like to take in research presented
about Titan all afternoon, but I must deviate from C&EN readers’ agenda to help behind the scenes at the magazine’s 90th anniversary celebration. My first job is to help escort celebrity chef Alton Brown, C&EN’s guest speaker at the event, to a recording
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at the chain, which apparently is something of a midwestern institution. I use Twitter to get advice about what to order from the masses. Kaiser is the previous chair of the Division of Physical Chemistry’s new Astrochemistry Subdivision. While we await greasy goodness from the Steak ’n Shake
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studio, where he will offer tips on science communication and cooking. I must act as discreetly as possible. I don’t want Brown to be mobbed by autograph seekers. Brown, Wolf, and I wander through a warren of “backstage” corridors in the convention center until we’re only a doorway and 20 paces from the studio. We sneak outside to see whether the coast is clear. Satis-
fied, we come back and beckon to Brown, who slips into the studio unnoticed. After the recording session, I take a seat by a microphone in the packed auditorium, where Brown is scheduled to perform. I will be helping with the Q&A after his talk. By sheer coincidence, I am sitting next to Mann and Waller. I begin to live-tweet Brown’s talk, but
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at this point, I’m exhausted and figure that readers will forgive me for looking up from my smartphone and simply enjoying the show. I set the phone aside and watch as Brown debunks common food science myths. I resolve, for example, to toss my plastic cutting boards and buy wooden ones, which Brown convinces me harbor fewer bacteria. Then I do a double-take: a friend I met during graduate school has fielded a question from Brown, and his face is now a larger-than-life projection on the room’s massive viewing screens. I pull the phone out again, this time to send my friend a text. We haven’t said hello to each other in at least two years. “I’m so glad you wrote me!” came his reply. “I wanted to find you but discovered to my dismay I didn’t have your number.” We make plans to meet after C&EN business wraps for the night. It’s a fitting end to my Indy adventure. Interacting with C&EN’s readers online made this ACS national meeting special, but what has always made these gatherings great has been the opportunity to reconnect with a friend over a glass of wine. ◾
CALLING CARD Why the red hat? C&EN’s crowdsourcing concept didn’t include a red fedora. Until, of course, “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?” came up as a joke during a planning meeting. If you grew up in the 1980s or 1990s, that title is all the explanation you need. For those who didn’t, the title refers to a popular series of educational computer games, as well as a PBS game show. Players used geography know-how to tail supercriminal Carmen Sandiego as she moved from location to location. The character always wore a red hat. Seeing as how the character shares my first name and is constantly on the move, the connection to my Indy activities was too good to pass up. The hat certainly made it easy for people to participate in my meeting adventure. But my haberdashery highlight was when celebrity chef Alton Brown, in town to help celebrate C&EN’s 90th anniversary, told me, “That’s a snappy hat.”
