RSC News Vol 36 : Issue No. 10

RSC NEWS
22 July 2005

Vol 36 : Issue No. 10

Editor - Marilyn Holloway and Susan Riches

This edition sees the departure of Susan Riches to prepare once again for grandmotherhood, and my return from overseas. As per the previous edition, I sent no word regarding my jet-setting activities which, though very interesting, were otherwise unremarkable - except to say that I was due to travel by train from Cambridge, via Kings Cross and Waterloo, to Basingstoke on 7th July when the London bombings took place. This would normally have been a 2.5 hour journey by train and tube. I managed to avoid the aftermath of that tragic event by taking a series of buses via all of the southern UK airports, in jig-jag fashion, to arrive twelve and a half hours later at my destination.

The organisation of the emergency services in London was truly awesome, and somehow, whilst the inconvenience was undeniable, the authorities managed to keep travellers moving, albeit slowly, and within the hour hundreds of staff were on hand at all train stations and bus depots to advise and assist re-routed travellers. I have to say that the Heathrow Bus Station, which took the brunt of all incoming and outgoing tube, train and bus travellers moving between the airport and London central, kept a constant stream of commandeered buses and taxis moving in and out at a furious rate. The Brits are a calm and resolute lot - I'm proud to count myself as formerly one!

Thank you to Lee Welling for his very welcome and lengthy contribution to the last issue. As he said, editorship of this paper is a thankless task, made a little easier by the receipt of contributions from staff. Unlike Ray Withers (yes, it's that man again) we hope you will save all announcements, science articles, funnies, seminar notices, and Limericks for issues of the future. All contributions are gratefully received and acknowledged.

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

CONGRATULATIONS
Congratulations to Jasmine Jury who was awarded a Geoffrey I. Feutrill Award for Best Student Oral Poster Presentation at the 21^st RACI Organic Chemistry Conference.

Congratulations to Professor John White who was awarded, by unanimous decision, the 2005 Leighton Memorial Medal of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Inc. This is the Institute's most prestigious medal and is awarded "in recognition of eminent services to chemistry in Australia in the broadest sense".

Rado Faletic of the IT Unit had his PhD degree (Faculty of Science) conferred at the recent ANU ceremony.

The School Scrapbook
Elmars Krausz and Maria Kubik have spent many hours scanning historical photographs into an electronic scrapbook. The scrapbook is available at http://rsc.anu.edu.au/scrapbook/ At present, this site is only available from machines connected in the School. Note: there is an email address for people to add their comments/information about scrapbook entries and any input would be most welcome:

scrapbook@rsc.anu.edu.au This facility can also be accessed by clicking on 'comments' on any page being viewed.

Below is a picture of Maria doing 'the thing'. The School expresses its thanks to Elmars and Maria for the many hours of time they have devoted to completing this project.

Recent Arrivals
Welcome to Dr Namazian Mansoor, who is a Visiting Fellow with Dr Michelle Coote until 30^th September.

Departures
Farewell to Dr Helen Berney who departs the Dixon Group for County Kildare, Ireland.

Disorder in the Court

Q. Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?

A. No.

Q. Did you check for blood pressure?

A. No.

Q. Did you check for breathing?

A. No.

Q. So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?

A. No.

Q. How can you be so sure, Doctor?

A. Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.

Q. But could the patient still have been alive nevertheless?

A. It is possible that the patient could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.

Recent Publications:

Espeau, P., White, J.W. The phase transitions of n-alkanes in mesoscopic pores of graphite. Carbon (2005), 43(9), 1885-1890. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2005.02.037

Fry, F.H., Dougan, B.A., McCann, N., Ziegler, C.J., Brasch, N.E. Characterization of novel vanadium(III)/acetate clusters formed in aqueous solution. Inorg. Chem. (2005), 44(15), 5197-5199. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ic050336f

James, M., Wallwork, K.S., Withers, R.L., Goossens, D.J., Wilson, K.F., Horvat, J., Wang, X.L., Colella, M. Structure and magnetism in the oxygen-deficient perovskites Ce_1-xSr_xCoO_3-δ (x ≥ 0.90). Mater. Res. Bull. (2005), 40(8), 1415-1431. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.materresbull.2005.03.025

Ng, V.W.L., Kuan, S.L., Leong, W.K., Koh, L.L., Tan, G.K., Goh, L.Y., Webster, R.D. Heterocyclic thionates as a new class of bridging ligands in oxo-centered triangular cyclopentadienylchromium(III) complexes. Inorg. Chem. (2005), 44(15), 5229-5240. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ic048287e

Petravic, J., Delhommelle, J. Hydrogen bonding in ethanol under shear. J. Chem. Phys. (2005), 122(23), 234509/1-5. http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1940050

Purmova, J., Pauwels, K.F.D., van Zoelen, W., Vorenkamp, E.J., Schouten, A.J., Coote, M.L. New insight into the formation of structural defects in poly(vinyl chloride). Macromolecules (2005), 38(15), 6352-6366. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ma050035p

Wijffels, G., Dalrymple, B., Kongsuwan, K., Dixon, N.E. Conservation of eubacterial replicases. IUBMB Life (2005), 57(6), 413-419. http://journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/link.asp?id=u4056710213n2107

Xu, Y., Wen, D., Brown, C., Chen, C.J., Carr, P.D., Ollis, D.L., Vasudevan, S.G. Expression, purification and crystallization of the C-terminal domain of Escherichia coli adenylyltransferase. Acta Crystallogr., Sect. F (2005), 61(7), 663-665. http://dx.doi.org/10.1107/S1744309105017458

Patent:

Banwell, M. G., Bonnet, M., Ferro, V., Kreipl, A., Renner, J. Small molecule glycosaminoglycan mimetics. Australian Provisional Patent Application Number 2005903280 (filed 22 June 2005).

MEMORY LANE

Perhaps, due to the increasing age profile of RSC there is no 'memory' for this issue.

L.U.S.H. Notes

Jul. 16 1746 GIUSEPPE PIAZZI was born in Italy. He catalogued thousands of stars, and discovered Ceres during this work.

1876 ALFRED STOCK, who was born in Danzig, discovered hybrids of phosphorous, silicon, and boron. He suffered chronic mercury poisoning, and it was the subject of his later researches.

Jul. 18 1635 ROBERT HOOKE, the physicist, was born in the Isle of Wight. He invented many scientific instruments and engaged in many controversies.

1853 HENDRICK ANTOON LORENTZ, the first professor of theoretical physics in the Netherlands, was born at Arnhem. His famous electron theory served to interpret Zeeman's experiments, and they shared the 1902 Nobel Prize.

Jul. 23 1847 HELMHOLTZ read his paper Über Die Erhaltung Der Kraft before the Physikalische Gesellschaft.

1886 WALTER SCHOTTKY was born in Zürich. He invented the screen-grid tube and discovered the dependence of work function on electric fields.

Jul. 16	1746	GIUSEPPE PIAZZI was born in Italy. He catalogued thousands of stars, and discovered Ceres during this work.

	1876	ALFRED STOCK, who was born in Danzig, discovered hybrids of phosphorous, silicon, and boron. He suffered chronic mercury poisoning, and it was the subject of his later researches.

Jul. 18	1635	ROBERT HOOKE, the physicist, was born in the Isle of Wight. He invented many scientific instruments and engaged in many controversies.
	1853	HENDRICK ANTOON LORENTZ, the first professor of theoretical physics in the Netherlands, was born at Arnhem. His famous electron theory served to interpret Zeeman's experiments, and they shared the 1902 Nobel Prize.

Jul. 23	1847	HELMHOLTZ read his paper Über Die Erhaltung Der Kraft before the Physikalische Gesellschaft.
	1886	WALTER SCHOTTKY was born in Zürich. He invented the screen-grid tube and discovered the dependence of work function on electric fields.