NEWS OF THE WEEK
SENATE REJECTS HOUSE BUDGET CUTS CONGRESS: Legislators remain
divided about how much to reduce fiscal 2011 spending
HE SENATE REJECTED two proposals for com-
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pleting the 2011 federal budget last week, one that was passed by the Republican-led House of Representatives that included deep cuts and a second plan of more modest cuts proposed by Senate Democrats. Both measures would have reduced discretionary spending, including federal R&D spending, for the remaining months of the fiscal year. The defeat of these measures means that Republicans and Democrats will have to restart budget negotiations. The federal government is operating on a short-term continuing resolution that expires on March 18 (C&EN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Senate Majority Leader Reid blasted Republicans’ proposed budget cuts.
March 7, page 8). If Congress cannot pass a budget for the rest of the year by that date, or pass another continuing resolution, the government will shut down. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) blasted Republican spending plans as “reckless” and said that it’s time for GOP legislators to work with Democrats on a “responsible, long-term solution that funds our government for the rest of the year, makes responsible cuts, and safeguards our fragile economic recovery.” The House measure, H.R. 1, would have cut 2011 spending by $61 billion relative to 2010 spending (C&EN, Feb. 28, page 7), whereas Senate Democrats would cut $11 billion. Scientific and technology groups criticized the House bill as far too damaging to the U.S.’s R&D programs. In a March 3 letter to Reid, the Task Force on American Innovation, a coalition of companies, scientific societies, and research universities, said the House measure “would make deep cuts” to federal science agencies. The American Chemical Society, which publishes C&EN, is a member of this coalition. In a statement, the Obama Administration expressed its willingness to work with Republicans and Democrats to “find common ground” on budget cuts. But the Administration also stressed the need to “ensure we cut responsibly, and that we don’t undermine growth and competitiveness by cutting investments in education and research and development.”—DAVID HANSON
POISED TO REACT
surface. This forced the molecules to react in a manner that, although theoretically possible in solution, rarely occurs there because of unfavorable geometry. NANOSCIENCE: Tethering molecules In principle, the mallet-shaped molecule 9-phenylethynylanthracene (PEA) should undergo a 4 + 4 photo gold surface forces reaction tocycloaddition with another molecule of PEA. But because of geometric constraints, that reaction rarely SING EXQUISITE CONTROL at the nanoscale, happens. Instead, one PEA’s anthracene moiety tends researchers have demonstrated that they can to do Diels-Alder chemistry with the ethynyl unit on foster an extremely unlikely chemical reacanother PEA’s phenylethynyl handle. tion—one that simply would not occur in the bulk. To force the disfavored reaction, the researchers Exercising control over reactivity in this manner “has attach a thiol group to the end of PEA’s handle and great potential for both understanding and measuring tether two such molecules next to one another on a complex chemical reactions,” the researchers write in gold surface within the defect sites of a self-assembled Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1200830). alkanethiolate monolayer. The anthracene moieties are In the work, chemists led by Paul S. Weiss and Kendall then poised in the correct orientation to do the photoN. Houk of the University of California, Los Angeles, and cycloaddition when photoexcited. Alex K-Y. Jen of the University of Washington, Seattle, The team used scanning tunneling microscopy to tied two anthracene analogs next to each other on a gold follow the course of the reaction—a feat that took considerable modifications of the microscope. “The most important aspect of this work is to see the efCLOSE ENCOUNTER A 4 + 4 photocycloaddition of two anthracene fect that photoexcitation has on single molecules analogs occurs when the molecules are tied next to each other on a gold surface. in well-defined environments,” Weiss tells C&EN. “We now have a tool to do this.” The researchers were able to “harness the full power of nanoscale science and engineering toward their ends,” comments Ted Sargent, a nanoscience expert at the University of Toronto.—
MOONHEE KIM
U
BETHANY HALFORD WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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MARCH 14, 2011
