RSC NEWS

24 June 2005

Vol 36 :   Issue No. 8

Editors -- Marilyn Holloway and Sue Riches

Welcome to our latest edition of RSC News. As Marilyn is currently overseas, we await with bated breath reports of her travels which we hope to publish in the next issue. Meanwhile please continue to send in contributions either in person to the Academic Secretary's office or by email to asec@rsc.anu.edu.au


WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

CONGRATULATIONS   to Professor Chris Easton, Dr Michelle Coote and Dr Mick Sherburn who are involved in a new ARC Centre of Excellence: The Centre for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology. One "node" of the centre will be based at the RSC, which will receive around one third of the $12 million funding over 5 years. Chris Easton is the Centre's deputy director. Free radicals are involved in the preparation of pharmaceuticals and polymers. Free radicals are also implicated in the cause and development of many chronic diseases that shorten life span. eg. in humans: emphysema, atheroschlerosis, cancer. The aim of this Centre is to develop a deeper theoretical and experimental understanding of free radicals and their behaviour.


PRIZES AND AWARDS

The Ramsay Trustees have agreed to award Dr David Loong (formerly a student with Professor Martin Banwell, and currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Sydney) a British Ramsay Memorial Fellowship for 2005-07, to be based in the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London. The Fellowship will be tenable from 1 October 2005 for a period of two years.
Congratulations, David!

Congratulations also go to Mr Greg Sandala (supervisor Professor Leo Radom) who has been awarded a Jim O'Donnell International Travel Scholarshp from the RACI. This award will support Greg's travel to the up-coming Pacifichem conference to be held in Hawaii in December.


Item 1

The June edition of Chemistry in Australia (Vol. 72, No. 5) features a profile of Professor Lew Mander, detailing his past and present research as well as a summary of his life.


Item 2

RACI ACT Branch Paintball Day
Special Report By embedded paintball correspondent Lesley Debono


On a warm Saturday in April, 16 chemists converged on a seemingly peaceful pine forest in Pialligo, near Canberra airport. We had arrived at Paintball Sports and were greeted with a sign sporting the cheeky tagline "You've gotta have balls to play".

For the uninitiated, paintball is an outdoor game in which two teams battle it out on a series of specially designed courses. Everyone is equipped with a gas powered gun loaded with paint filled gelatin spheres ~2cm in diameter called paintballs. To achieve a "kill" one must fire a paintball at one's opponent so that it ruptures on impact and leaves a highly visible splash of paint on the victim. A fact to which most of us can attest, a paintball impact can be rather painful!

To avoid premature blindness, protective face masks had to be worn at all times when a game was taking place. Camouflage overalls, knee pads and chest protectors (for the ladies) were also provided and two Paintball Sports staff members supervised all games.

A typical game would go something like this: after the start whistle was blown everyone scrambled from their starting position to find a suitable object to hide behind. A melee ensued with people cautiously ducking out from their hiding spots and enthusiastically shooting at each other. Amid the shouting and sporadic paintball fire, those brave enough would crawl along the ground trying to outflank the opposition. (I can tell you a hit from the side is a most unpleasant surprise!)

All games could be won by eliminating the opposition, though to make things interesting, some games required that a flag be captured and taken to the opposition's starting point. This was no mean feat! Some other memorable games included a wooden fort, which had to be stormed to raise one's team flag (and inside which, funnily enough, we were greeted by a barrage of paintballs from the opposing team bunkered down inside). Another required one person from each team to be nominated as a 'Terminator' who could only be killed with a head-shot (meanwhile getting every other body part thoroughly pummelled!).

When the paintball supply ran dry, it was all over and we took time to compare bruises. Despite the aching muscles and dull pains everyone was in good spirits and looked forward to going home and washing off the paint. The group was well represented by both genders and all areas of chemistry.

On behalf of all participants, thanks to Eleni Notaras for initial organization and Nathan Kilah for drumming up last minute support for the event and taking over organisational duties. Thanks must also go to the RACI (ACT branch) for financial support and to David Pinkerton for the photographs.



Item 3

A story for the ladies - or the New Age Sensitive Guys amongst us:

Once upon a time, in a land far away, a beautiful independent self-assured princess happened upon a frog as she sat contemplating ecological issues on the shores of an unpolluted pond in a verdant meadow near her castle. The frog hopped into the princess' lap and said: "Elegant Lady, I was once a handsome prince, until an evil witch cast a spell upon me. One kiss from you, however, and I will turn back into the dapper, young prince that I am and then, my sweet, we can marry and set up housekeeping in your castle with my mother, where you can prepare my meals, clean my clothes, bear my children and forever feel grateful and happy doing so."

That night as the princess dined sumptuously on lightly sautéed frog legs seasoned in a white wine and onion cream sauce, she chuckled and thought to herself:

"I don't freaking think so!"


Hatches and Matches

Congratulations to Dr and Mrs Xing Hua Ma whose second child, a little girl, was born earlier this week.

Our congratulations also go to Dr Muriel Bonnet who celebrated her marriage to Christian Blüchel on 21 May in Bordeaux.


Recent Arrivals

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

Mr Mark Mulcair who is continuing his association with Dr Nick Dixon's group as a Postdoctoral Fellow (room E205, ext. 54181).

Ms Magdalene Addicoat who has joined Professor Peter Gill's group as a Visiting Scholar until the end of July (room E117, ext. 53573)


Departures

Farewell and best wishes to the following who have left the School since our last issue:

Ms Suzanne Williams who recently left her position as Administrative Assistant in Professor John White's office. We wish her well in the future.


Soccer News

Purple Shins games scheduled for the next four weeks:


Wednesday 29 June 2005 - 12 noon: RSC vs F & S

Thursday 7 July 2005 - 12.40 pm: RSC vs RSBS

Wednesday 13 July 2005 - 12.40 pm: RSC vs RSSS

Monday 18 July 2005 - 12.40 pm: RSC vs DOI


Results of previous games are:


  1/6/05:     RSC -3; DOI - 1
  8/6/05: RSC - 2; RSPHYSSE - 0
  13/6/05: game postponed    
  20/6/05: game postponed  


The results ladder currently looks like this:

Team P W D L GF GA GD Off ded Pts
RSBS 2 2 0 0 5 1 4 0 6
RSC 2 2 0 0 5 1 4 0 6
DOI Wanderers 2 1 0 1 3 4 -1 0 3
Real RSPHYSSE 2 0 1 1 2 4 -2 0 1
F&S Strikers 2 0 1 1 2 5 -3 0 1
Life Sciences 1 0 0 1 1 2 -1 0 0
Dynamo RSSS 1 0 0 1 1 2 -1 0 0


Staff Publications since last issue as at 21 June 2005:

Advances in Organometallic Chemistry, Vol. 52. West, R., Hill, A.F., Eds. Academic Press: San Diego, USA (2005), pp. v-390.

Banwell, M.G., Chand, S. Exploitation of co-operative directed ortho-metallation (DoM) by 1,3-related -OMOM groups in the development of a fully regio-controlled synthesis of atranol from orcinol. Org. Prep. Proced. Int. (2005), 37(3), 275-279.

Carter, M.L., Withers, R.L. A universally applicable composite modulated structure approach to ordered BaxMyTi8-yO16 hollandite-type solid solutions. J. Solid State Chem. (2005), 178(6), 1903-1914. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jssc.2005.03.040

Coote, M.L., Henry, D.J. Computer-aided design of a destabilized RAFT adduct radical: Toward improved RAFT agents for styrene-block-vinyl acetate copolymers. Macromolecules (2005), 38(13), 5774-5779. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ma050415a

Dewhurst, R.D., Hill, A.F., Willis, A.C. Stoichiometric and catalytic demercuration of bis(tricarbido)mercurials: The first dimetallaoctatetraynes. Organometallics (2005), 24(13), 3043-3046. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/om058011u

Norén, L., Withers, R.L., Brink, F.J. Where are the Sn atoms in LaSb2Snx, 0.1 ≤ x ≤ ~0.75? J. Solid State Chem. (2005), 178(6), 2133-2143. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jssc.2005.04.026

Ozawa, K., Headlam, M.J., Mouradov, D., Watt, S.J., Beck, J.L., Rodgers, K.J., Dean, R.T., Huber, T., Otting, G., Dixon, N.E. Translational incorporation of L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine into proteins. FEBS J. (2005), 272(12), 3162-3171. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1742-4658.2005.04735.x

Sandala, G.M., Smith, D.M., Radom, L. Divergent mechanisms of suicide inactivation for ethanolamine ammonia-lyase. J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2005), 127(24), 8856-8864. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja051527k

Theis, A., Stenzel, M.H., Davis, T.P., Coote, M.L., Barner-Kowollik, C. A synthetic approach to a novel class of fluorine-bearing reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) agents: F-RAFT. Aust. J. Chem. (2005), 58(6) 437-441. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/CH05069

Udomsinprasert, R., Pongjaroenkit, S., Wongsantichon, J., Oakley, A.J., Prapanthadara, L., Wilce, M.C.J., Ketterman, A.J. Identification, characterization and structure of a new Delta class glutathione transferase isoenzyme. Biochem. J. (2005), 388(3), 763-771.‡ http://dx.doi.org/10.1042/BJ20042015

Urones-Garrote, E., Gómez-Herrero, A., Landa-Cánovas, A.R., Withers, R.L., Otero-Díaz, L.C. Order and disorder in rocksalt and spinel structures in the MgS-Yb2S3 system. Chem. Mater. (2005), 17(13), 3524-3531. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/cm050593i

Withers, R.L., Liu, Y. Local crystal chemistry, structured diffuse scattering and inherently flexible framework structures. In Inorganic Chemistry in Focus II, Meyer, G., Naumann, D., Wesemann, L., Eds. Wiley-VCH: Weinheim (2005), Chapter 18, pp. 347-363.


‡ Research conducted prior to commencement at RSC





Interestingly, science cartoonist, Nick Kim, is a former RSC postdoctoral fellow.


His cartoons have appeared on the web since about 1994, and in print form in quite a number of mainly science-related publications (including the 1990 RSC Annual Report).