Editorial 1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036 (202) 872-4600 or (800) 227-5558 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Bibiana Campos Seijo EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Amanda Yarnell PRODUCTION DIRECTOR: Rachel Sheremeta Pepling
What made headlines in 2017
SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER: Marvel A. Wills
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BUSINESS NEW YORK CITY: (212) 608-6306 Michael McCoy, Executive Editor Rick Mullin (Senior Editor), Marc S. Reisch (Senior Correspondent), Alexander H. Tullo (Senior Correspondent), Rachel Eskenazi (Administrative Assistant). BOSTON: Ryan Cross (Assistant Editor). CHICAGO: (917) 710-0924 Lisa M. Jarvis (Senior Correspondent). HONG KONG: 852 9093 8445 Jean-François Tremblay (Senior Correspondent). LONDON: 44 1494 564 316 Alex Scott (Senior Editor). WEST COAST: (315) 825-8566 Melody M. Bomgardner (Senior Editor) POLICY WEST COAST: (925) 519-6681 Jyllian Kemsley, Executive Editor WASHINGTON: Cheryl Hogue (Senior Correspondent) Britt E. Erickson (Senior Editor), Andrea L. Widener (Senior Editor) SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY/EDUCATION WASHINGTON: Lauren K. Wolf, Executive Editor, Deputy Editorial Director Celia Henry Arnaud (Senior Editor), Stuart A. Borman (Senior Correspondent), Matt Davenport (Senior Editor, Multimedia), Emma Hiolski (Contributing Editor), Kerri Jansen (Assistant Editor, Multimedia), Tien M. Nguyen (Assistant Editor), Stephen K. Ritter (Senior Correspondent). BERLIN: 49 30 2123 3740 Sarah Everts (Senior Editor). BOSTON: (973) 922-0175 Bethany Halford (Senior Editor). CHICAGO: (847) 679-1156 Mitch Jacoby (Senior Correspondent). WEST COAST: (626) 765-6767 Michael Torrice (Deputy Executive Editor), Sam Lemonick (Assistant Editor) JOURNAL NEWS & COMMUNITY (510) 768-7657 Corinna Wu (Senior Editor) (651) 447-6226 Jessica H. Marshall (Associate Editor) ACS NEWS & SPECIAL FEATURES Linda Wang (Senior Editor) EDITORIAL PROJECTS EDITOR: Jessica Morrison AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT EDITOR: Dorea I. Reeser EDITING & PRODUCTION Kimberly R. Bryson, Executive Editor Sabrina J. Ashwell (Assistant Editor), Craig Bettenhausen (Associate Editor), Melissa T. Gilden (Assitant Editor), Taylor C. Hood (Assistant Editor), Manny I. Fox Morone (Associate Editor), Alexandra A. Taylor (Assistant Editor) C&EN MEDIA PRODUCTION LAB Robert Bryson, Creative Director, Head of Media Production Lab Tchad K. Blair, Head of UI/UX Design Robin L. Braverman (Senior Art Director), Luis A. Carrillo (Web Production Manager), Ty A. Finocchiaro (Senior Web Associate), Yang H. Ku (Art Director), William A. Ludwig (Art Director), Kay Youn (Art Director) C&EN BRANDLAB Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay, Executive Editor Jeff Lee (Senior Editor), Kirsten Dobson (Marketing Manager), SALES & MARKETING Stephanie Holland, Assistant Director, Advertising Sales & Marketing Natalia Bokhari (Advertising Operations Manager), Sondra Hadden (Senior Marketing Manager), Joyleen SanFeliz Parnell (Advertising Operations Associate), Quyen Pham (Lead Generation Associate), Ed Rather (Recruitment Advertising Product Manager), Shelly E. Savage (Recruitment Advertising Associate) ADVISORY BOARD Deborah Blum, Raychelle Burks, Jinwoo Cheon, Kendrew H. Colton, FrançoisXavier Coudert, Cathleen Crudden, Gautam R. Desiraju, Paula T. Hammond, Matthew Hartings, Christopher Hill, Peter Nagler, Anubhav Saxena, Dan Shine, Michael Sofia, William Tolman, James C. Tung, Jill Venton, Helma Wennemers, Geofrey K. Wyatt, Deqing Zhang Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY Thomas M. Connelly Jr., Executive Director & CEO Brian D. Crawford, President, Publications Division EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicole S. Sampson (Chair), ACS Board of Directors Chair Pat N. Confalone, ACS President Allison A. Campbell, Cynthia J. Burrows, Jerzy Klosin, John Russell, Gary B. Schuster Copyright 2017, American Chemical Society Canadian GST Reg. No. R127571347 Volume 95, Number 49
et ready for the biggest chemistry-related stories of 2017. If you enjoyed our Dec. 4 issue, which brought you highlights of what happened in the world of pharma during the year, you are going to love this issue too. This year has been incredibly busy—as I said in my last editorial, a whirlwind—but also quite unusual because of the confluence of a series of circumstances affecting different parts of the world: A new administration in the U.S., the Brexit controversy in the U.K., and much more. So what made headlines? There is simply too much to list here—you’ll have to read this issue—but for the purpose of this editorial I’m going to pick some personal favorites. The first thing that comes to mind is the March for Science. Seldom have we seen scientists take to the streets to celebrate science and the role it plays in everyday life. Scientists who took part called for evidence-based policy-making, appropriate funding for scientific research, and greater government transparency for scientific matters. It was an unprecedented global event, with more than 1 million participants from about 600 cities around the world that held rallies. But it wasn’t without controversy. Many in the scientific community resist the notion that scientists should participate in public life in this fashion and see these activities as a politicization of science. In terms of scientific advancement, the fields of machine learning and quantum computing started to deliver on their promises, with significant advances announced this year (see page 20) and likely to continue into 2018. Also noteworthy is the evolution that we have continued to observe in the field of flow chemistry, which has made inroads in the pharmaceutical industry with the manufacture of a chemotherapy drug candidate (see page 23). When it comes to chemicals that made headlines this year, there was global controversy around regulation and safe use of pesticides like chlorpyrifos, glyphosate, and dicamba. But one could say that opioids, at least in the U.S., dominated the agenda. Deaths by overdoses skyrocketed this year, and the issue is now widely referred to as a serious national crisis.
In 2017 we lost many notable scientists. I’d like to spare a thought for Ronald Breslow, Mildred Dresselhaus, Isabella Karle, George Olah, and Gilbert Stork, among many others (see page 39). They exemplify the best of the chemical enterprise and will be sorely missed. Besides what made headlines in 2017, in this issue we also take a look back at the fate of research from a decade ago. Can you remember what was trending in terms of chemical research in 2007? If you guessed the elucidation of G protein-coupled receptor structures and the role they play in drug discovery, you guessed right (see page 42). And for first time this year we look forward and ask a selection of C&EN writers and editors to predict what will be in the limelight in 2018. There are some interesting suggestions, including Steve Ritter’s prediction that “chemistry’s cold war,” the divide between science and public policy, “will continue to grow and get chillier” and Britt Erickson’s suggestion that there will be further lawsuits on the reform of the U.S.’s Toxic Substances Control Act (see page 40). For a bit of fun and lighthearted reading, turn to page 28. We selected the most interesting and innovative chemical structures that chemists made in 2017 and asked people to vote on their favorites. A complex polysaccharide won the poll with 34% of the vote, followed very closely, with 32% of the vote, by a pair of unusual trinitrogen structures. What was your favorite? As the year draws to an end, the team and I would like to thank you for your loyalty to C&EN and for your continued support of our journalism.
Editor-in-chief @BibianaCampos
Views expressed on this page are those of the author and not necessarily those of ACS.
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | DECEMBER 11/18, 2017
