Serving the chemical,
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and laboratory worlds
COVER STORY
SOURCING
RARE EARTHS
As China tightens its supply of
the valuable resources used in
many applications, including
defense, U.S. considers
plans to revitalize rare-earth
activities. PAGE 9
17 FLUOROCHEMISTRY
Halocarbon Products continues to build on its
decades of experience in handling fluorochemicals.
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
18 CONCENTRATES
19 FUNDING NASA
Space agency’s future direction is in the hands of
Congress.
23 REP. VERN EHLERS
C&EN talks with the physicist-turned-
congressman who championed increased federal
funding for science and math education.
NEWS OF THE WEEK
STEM CELL RESEARCH HALTED
Judge rules that federal funding must cease for
now, but the Administration plans to appeal.
CHEMISTS MEET IN BOSTON
ACS national meeting offered rich programming
in thousands of presentations.
CATALYSIS JOURNAL TO LAUNCH
ACS Catalysis will debut in January 2011 under
Editor-in-Chief Christopher Jones.
EDIBLE NANOSTRUCTURES
Researchers make metal-organic framework
compounds from food-grade starting materials.
6 SILVER BULLET FOR FLUORINATIONS
Late-stage cross-coupling may lead to new route
for radiotracers.
7 DEFENDING AGAINST TAKEOVERS
Airgas and PotashCorp tell shareholders that
suitors want to buy the companies on the cheap.
7 AN ECCENTRIC CHEMICAL SENSOR
Cell membrane embedded with insect
pheromone receptors is head-shaking when
activated.
8 CARBON CREDITS UNDER REVIEW
The United Nations wants to know whether firms
are abusing the carbon-trading system.
8 RESVERATROL DEBATE UPDATE
Antiaging compound acts at an allosteric site,
4
5
5
6
QUOTE
OF THE WEEK
“With scientists
there’s the hero
archetype—the
person who
invents the thing
that changes the
world.”
DAVID ROODMAN,
CEN TER FOR GLOBAL
DEVELOPMENT PAGE 26
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
24 CONCENTRATES
26 PUBLIC FUNDING
Three nonprofit
start-ups hope to
fund research with
financial help from
the general public.
28 THE ALLURE OF
FLAT CARBON
Square-planar,
four-coordinate
carbon compounds
continue to pique
chemists’ interest.
6
AWARDS
32 2011 NATIONAL AWARDS
Recipients are announced.
THE DEPARTMENTS
3 EDITOR’S PAGE
30 ACS COMMENT
31
40
ACS NEWS
NEWSCRIPTS
19
COVER: Molycorp engineer John Vialpondo examines
samples of rare-earth ore at the company’s Mountain Pass
mine. Molycorp
THIS WEEK ONLINE
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
BUSINESS
13 CONCENTRATES
15 MAKING MENTHOL
BASF develops new synthetic route to the aroma
chemical as industry eyes opportunity to expand
production.
C&EN WEBINARS
September is full of
webinars on topics
ranging from intermediates
to energy storage. For
details and to register, visit
cen-online.org/webinar.
