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CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING NEWS 1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036 (202) 872-4600 or (800) 227-5558 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Rudy M. Baum DEPUTY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: A. Maureen Rouhi MANAGING EDITOR: Robin M. Giroux SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER: Marvel A. Wills NEWS William G. Schulz, Editor BUSINESS Michael McCoy, Assistant Managing Editor NORTHEAST: (732) 906-8300 Lisa M. Jarvis (Senior Editor), Rick Mullin (Senior Editor), Marc S. Reisch (Senior Correspondent), Alexander H. Tullo (Senior Editor), Melody M. Bomgardner (Senior Editor), Rachel Eskenazi (Administrative Assistant). HONG KONG: 852 9093 8445 Jean‑François Tremblay (Senior Correspondent). HOUSTON: (281) 4863900 Ann M. Thayer (Senior Correspondent). GOVERNMENT & POLICY Susan R. Morrissey, Assistant Managing Editor Britt E. Erickson (Senior Editor), Glenn Hess (Senior Editor), Cheryl Hogue (Senior Correspondent), Jeff Johnson (Senior Correspondent), Andrea L. Widener (Associate Editor) SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY/EDUCATION BOSTON: (617) 395-4163 Amanda Yarnell, Assistant Managing Editor. WASHINGTON: Stuart A. Borman (Deputy Assistant Managing Editor), Celia Henry Arnaud (Senior Editor), Carmen Drahl (Associate Editor), Stephen K. Ritter (Senior Correspondent), Lauren K. Wolf (Associate Editor). BERLIN: 49 30 2123 3740 Sarah Everts (Senior Editor). CHICAGO: (847) 6791156 Mitch Jacoby (Senior Editor). NORTHEAST: (732) 906-8302 Bethany Halford (Senior Editor). WEST COAST: (925) 485-1034 Jyllian Kemsley (Associate Editor), (510) 870-1617 Elizabeth K. Wilson (Senior Editor). BEIJING: 150 1138 8372 Jessie Jiang (Contributing Editor). JOURNAL NEWS & COMMUNITY: (202) 872-6039 Lila Guterman (Senior Editor), (626) 765-6767 Michael Torrice (Associate Editor) ACS NEWS & SPECIAL FEATURES Sophie L. Rovner, Assistant Managing Editor Linda Wang (Senior Editor). DALLAS: (972) 529-4351 Susan J. Ainsworth (Senior Editor) EDITING & PRODUCTION Kimberly R. Twambly, Assistant Managing Editor Craig Bettenhausen (Assistant Editor), Emily Bones (Assistant Editor), Sophia L. Cai (Assistant Editor), Nader Heidari (Assistant Editor), Arlene Goldberg-Gist, Senior Editor Jeff A. Huber (Assistant Editor), Gail M. Mortenson (Associate Editor) ART & DESIGN Robert Bryson, Design Director Robin L. Braverman (Senior Art Director) Yang H. Ku (Associate Designer) C&EN ONLINE Rachel Sheremeta Pepling, Editor Tchad K. Blair (Visual Designer), Luis A. Carrillo (Production Manager), Ty A. Finocchiaro (Web Associate), Pamela Rigden Snead (Web Products Manager) PRODUCTION & IMAGING Renee L. Zerby, Lead Digital Production Specialist Tim Bauer, Richard C. Smith, and Steven J. Lovasz (Digital Production Associates) SALES & MARKETING Elise Swinehart, Assistant Director Elaine Facciolli Jarrett (Marketing Manager) Wendy Wise (Marketing Manager) Angela Yeo (Associate Marketing Manager) ADVISORY BOARD Paul T. Anastas, Paul J. Bracher, Jean-Claude Bradley, Seth M. Cohen, Kendrew H. Colton, Christopher C. Cummins, Joseph M. DeSimone, Donald Hilvert, Malika Jeffries-El, Rohit Khanna, Derek Lowe, Michael W. Major, Michael A. Marletta, Cheryl A. Martin, Harold Meckler, Stephen A. Munk, Nick Roelofs, Melanie Sanford, John M. Schwab, Francis X. Sherman, Linette M. Watkins, Christopher Welch, Vicki Wysocki, David Zimmermann, Dorothy Zolandz Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY Madeleine Jacobs, Executive Director & CEO Brian Crawford, President, Publications Division EDITORIAL BOARD: Ned D. Heindel (Chair); ACS Board of Directors Chair: William F. Carroll Jr.; ACS President: Bassam Z. Shakhashiri; Stephanie L. Brock, John N. Russell Jr., Leah Solla, Peter J. Stang Copyright 2012, American Chemical Society Canadian GST Reg. No. R127571347 Volume 90, Number 14
Pittcon Roundup PITTCON IS A SIGNATURE EVENT for the
instrumentation and analytical chemistry communities. C&EN’s comprehensive coverage of Pittcon 2012 begins on page 32, reported by Senior Editor Celia Arnaud, Deputy Assistant Managing Editor Stu Borman, and Senior Correspondent Marc Reisch. Despite some questions about the exhibition (C&EN, March 19, page 3), Pittcon offers not only a terrific overview of the breadth of instrumentation innovations and offerings, but also historical perspective in the form of the annual Pittcon Heritage Award. I attended the meeting’s plenary lecture and was delighted with the accessibility of the lecturer’s talk. Most of all, I enjoyed the conversations with visitors at C&EN’s booth. The opening session featured the presentation of the first-ever posthumous Pittcon Heritage Award, to Genzo Shi madzu Sr. and Jr., father and son founders of the Japanese instrumentation company that bears their name. Shimadzu Chairman of the Board Shigehiko Hattori accepted the award from Chemical Heritage Foundation President and CEO Thomas R. Tritton and Pittcon President Jon Peace. Genzo Sr. was a maker of Buddhist altars before he became an inventor of instruments. When Western powers forced Japan to open its ports to international trade in 1868, the nation also opened its eyes to Western technology. At the Physics & Chemistry Research Institute in Kyoto, the elder Shimadzu learned to repair and maintain foreign equipment. In 1875, he began manufacturing distillation and other devices for use in Japanese schools. After Genzo Sr. died in 1894, control of the business went to his eldest son, Umejiro, who changed his name to Genzo. With his younger brothers, Genzo Jr. took the business in new directions, notably storage batteries and X-ray equipment. Today, Shimadzu offers diverse products, from analytical and measuring instruments to aircraft and industrial equipment. In the plenary lecture, R. Graham Cooks, Henry B. Hass Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry at Purdue University, shared his vision: the mass spectrometer as a people’s instrument, based on the premise that everyone could have a reason
to use a mass spectrometer. To make the point, he showed a video of two people in a supermarket with a portable mass spectrometer. They took an orange purported to be “organic.” On-the-spot analysis showed that the skin contains thiabendazole, a pesticide applied to oranges after harvest to prevent fungal growth. “Not organic,” Cooks declared. “We have a lot of measurements to make,” Cooks said, but most instruments are geared for high-end analysis. For the “billions of items of commerce, food, medicine, and household items,” he said, “we also need to develop less capable instruments that can make lots and lots of measurements with adequate analytical performance.” At the C&EN booth, I asked those who said they read C&EN, “How are we doing?” The answers varied from good to great. “I joined the American Chemical Society to get C&EN,” offered one visitor. James Bellows, an engineer at Siemens Energy, in Orlando, came by especially to thank C&EN for being his “lifeline to the chemistry world.” Bellows works in the steam turbine department at Siemens’ energy sector headquarters for the Americas. His job is to keep impurities in the steam at only 4 x 10-7 M to avoid corrosion. Above approximately 10 parts per quadrillion, he says, salts can deposit on the turbines, leading to corrosion. But a few parts per billion is a practical, effective limit; at higher concentrations, salts and oxides can become thick deposits on the turbine, causing capacity to drop. “A 2% capacity loss gets people very excited,” he said, because downtime from his turbines can cost up to $250,000 to $1 million per day. Bellows is the lone chemist among hundreds of mechanical and electrical engineers at his location. “I think about chemistry in everything,” he said, and C&EN “keeps me up-to-date.” For topics familiar to Bellows, he said, C&EN “has it right. That gives me confidence that all the reporting is good quality.” Thanks for the feedback, Jim.
Deputy editor-in-chief
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