RSC NEWS

10 June 2005

Vol 36 :  Issue No. 7

Editors -- Marilyn Holloway and Sue Riches

It has been a lean week with few items for the RSC News.  This is surely because we are all anxiously awaiting the next instalment on the progress of the formation of the new ANU Colleges, and in particular the formation of the College of Science which will represent about one third of the ANU.  Regular meetings between Deans and Directors, Business Managers and Executive Officers are currently taking place as the pattern of organisation begins to take shape.  This week, Professors Tim Brown and Denis Evans addressed Faculty Board to discuss how the improved interactions between the Department of Chemistry and RSC will take shape, and to quote from that meeting " ...... it was agreed that neither area could effectively continue without the assistance of the other, and that there was much goodwill and cooperation being shown.  This was a new climate of cooperation and profound changes had already taken ........... which gave a new view of Chemistry at ANU". ........"The proposed 'Institute of Molecular Chemistry' was about improving the collective effort."


WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRIZES AND AWARDS

The Selection Committee for the Dean's Prize for Best PhD Thesis in 2004 awarded the prize of $1,000 to Dr David Loong, who was supervised by Professor Martin Banwell.  Congratulations!

ACHIEVEMENTS

Congratulations to Professor Lew Mander!  One of Lew's publications has been listed in the top ten of the most accessed research in The Journal of Organic Chemistry, January to April 2005:

Mander, L.N., Thomson, R.J. Total synthesis of sordaricin. J. Org. Chem. (2005), 70(5), 1654 - 1670. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jo048199b


PhD Submission

Ms Elizabeth Krenske, BSc Hons Qld

Thesis title: Phosphine-stabilised Arsenium Salts: Applications to the Asymmetric Synthesis of Tertiary Arsines

Supervisor: Professor Bruce Wild

Recent Arrivals

A sincere welcome is extended to the following people who have arrived since our last issue:

Dr Delphine Dauge arrived this week from Ecole Polytechnique Palaiséau, France, to take up a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Professor Banwell's group (room 245, ext. 55158).

Retirement

After 16 years of Administrative Assistance in Inorganic Chemistry, Ms Rosemary Enge is retiring.   She will formally leave on 30 August but will take leave prior to this.   Her last day in the School will be 15 July.   Her friends and colleagues wish her well in retirement.

Item 1

Lasse Norén has contributed the following "saga" on the grounds that he will be safe in Sweden when this issue of RSC News is released:

Far away in the tropical waters of the Caribbean, two prawns were swimming around in the sea - one called Justin and the other called Christian. The prawns were constantly being harassed and threatened by sharks that patrolled the area.

Finally one day Justin said to Christian, "I'm bored and frustrated at being a prawn.  I wish I was a shark, and then I wouldn't have any worries about being eaten..."

While Justin had his mind firmly on becoming a predator, a mysterious cod appeared and said, "Your wish is granted."  Lo and behold! Justin turned into a shark.

Horrified, Christian immediately swam away, afraid of being eaten by his old mate.

Time went on (as it invariably does...) and Justin found himself becoming bored and lonely as a shark. All his old mates simply swam away whenever he came close to them. Justin didn't realise that his new menacing appearance was the cause of his sad plight.

While out swimming alone one day he saw the mysterious cod again and couldn't believe his luck. Justin figured that the fish could change him back into a prawn, so he begged the cod to do this.

Lo and behold!  He was turned back into a prawn.

With tears of joy in his tiny little eyes, Justin swam back to his friends and bought them all a cocktail.

[The punch line does not involve a prawn cocktail - it's much worse]..........

Looking around the gathering at the reef, he searched for his old pal.

"Where's Christian?" he asked.
"He's at home, distraught that his best friend changed sides to the enemy and became a shark!" came the reply.

Eager to put things right again and end the mutual pain and torture, he set off to Christian's home. As he opened the coral gate the memories came flooding back. He banged on the door and shouted, "It's me, Justin, your old friend, come out and see me again!"

Christian replied "No way man, you'll eat me. You're a shark, the enemy, and I'll not be tricked."

Justin cried back "No, I'm not!   That was the old me! I've changed"....................

...."I've found Cod, I'm a prawn again, Christian!!!"

Enjoy your holiday anyway, Lasse! 

Item 2

Rules for non-pet owners who visit and like to complain about our pets

  1. They live here. You don't.
  2. If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture.  (That's why they call it "fur"niture.)
  3. I like my pets a lot better than most people.
  4. To you, it's an animal. To me, he/she is an adopted son/daughter who is short, hairy, walks on all fours and doesn't speak clearly.
  5. Dogs and cats are better than kids:

    a) They eat less, don't ask for money all the time, are easier to train, usually come when called, never drive your car, and don't hang out with drug-using friends.

    b) They don't smoke or drink, I don't worry about having to buy the latest fashions, they don't wear your clothes, and don't need a gazillion dollars for college.

    c) And (best of all) if they get pregnant, you can sell the children.

Item 3

More words from The Washington Post:

Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.

Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.

Frisbeetarianism (n.), the belief that, when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck there.

Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified demeanor assumed by a proctologist immediately before he examines you.

Bozone (n.), the substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating.  The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

Sarchasm (n.), the gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

Inoculatte (v.), to take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

Dopeler effect (n), the tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

Beelzebug (n.), Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

Watch this space?????????

.

Staff Publications since last issue as at 6 June 2005:

Bright, J.N., Evans, D.J., Searles, D.J. New observations regarding deterministic, time-reversible thermostats and Gauss's principle of least constraint. J. Chem. Phys. (2005), 122(19), 194106/1 - 8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1900724

Deev, V., Collins, M.A. Approximate ab initioenergies by systematic molecular fragmentation. J. Chem. Phys. (2005), 122(15), 154102/1 - 12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1879792

Evans, D.J., Searles, D.J., Rondoni, L. Application of the Gallavotti-Cohen fluctuation relation to thermostated steady states near equilibrium. Phys. Rev. E (2005), 71(5), 056120/1 - 12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.71.056120

Ghosh, S., Gill, P.M.W. Finite jellium models. I. Restricted Hartree - Fock calculations. J. Chem. Phys. (2005), 122(15), 154108/1 - 12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1873552

Hutt, O.E., Mander, L.N., Willis, A.C. Ring fragmentation processes resulting from acid catalysed diazo ketone cyclisations. Tetrahedron Lett. (2005), 46(27), 4569 - 4572. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tetlet.2005.05.009

James, M., Tedesco, T., Cassidy, D.J., Withers, R.L. Oxygen vacancy ordering in strontium doped rare earth cobaltate perovskites Ln1 - xSrxCoO3 - d(Ln = La, Pr and Nd; x > 0.60). Mater. Res. Bull. (2005), 40(6), 990 - 1000. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.materresbull.2005.02.020

Jung, Y., Sodt, A., Gill, P.M.W., Head-Gordon, M. Auxiliary basis expansions for large-scale electronic structure calculations. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (2005), 102(19), 6692 - 6697. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0408475102

MEMORY LANE

RSC News Vol. 10 No. 4 15 May 1979

PURPLE SHIN SOCCER -- SPOTLIGHT ON THE STARS

(an excerpt from a rundown on the team members)

 "LEAPING LEE WELLING:  Doesn't look like a soccer player but has a weak rib cage which prevents his excelling in other sports like rugby and lake-drinking.  Clears smaller opponents with a single leap.  Gets flattened by others.  Auditioned for 'Skippy' but the accent was entirely unsuitable."

LUSH Notes for Toasting at Bramley's

June 13     1676       NEWTON wrote to OLDENBERG about the binomial series.
 1773   THOMAS YOUNG was born to rich parents in Milverton, Somerset.  He studied medicine in London, Edinburgh, Göttingen and Cambridge.
 
June 15  1755  ANTOINE FRANCOIS FOURCROY was born in Paris and later on made a great reputation as a lecturer in chemistry.  Advocacy of the views of LAVOISIER was his main contribution to chemistry and later he was the patron of VAUQUELIN who was born in 1763 and discovered chromium in 1797.