ACS News Service Weekly PressPac: Aug 30, 2006

• New whiter-than-white technology for laundry detergents
• Toward cracking the mystery of disease-fighter QS-21A
• High levels of pollutants may decrease sexual organ size in polar bears
• Enhancing the healthful properties of silkworms
• A new generation of super microscopes is poised for scientific use

Laundry detergents that give new meaning to that old advertising clichÉ, "whiter than white," may emerge from a controlled-release technology scheduled to be described in the Aug. 22 issue of the ACS journal, Chemistry of Materials.

Bakul C. Dave and colleagues report development and testing of tiny silica gel beads to encapsulate the enzymes now used in a large number of laundry detergents. Developed with biotechnology, those enzymes are used in liquid and powdered detergents to help remove protein-based stains from dirty laundry. Other detergent ingredients, however, create a hostile environment for the enzymes, sometimes causing them to clump and loose activity.

The new silica gel beads form a protective shell around the enzymes. It protects the enzymes from air and moisture for extended periods on store shelves and after packaging has been opened. The coating dissolves quickly, however, and releases the enzymes when conditions are right in the washing machine.

Back to Top

Exposure to high levels of environmental pollutants called organohalogen compounds (OHCs) seems to reduce the size of sexual organs in male and female polar bears, researchers report in an article scheduled for the Sept. 15 issue of the ACS journal, Environmental Science & Technology. OHCs include dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls and some pesticides.

Christian Sonne and colleagues checked 55 male and 44 female East Greenland polar bears for a correlation between OHC levels in body tissue and size of sexual organs.

Sonne's group did the study to close gaps in knowledge about the OHC's possible effects on reproduction in polar bears, a vulnerable population because of their low reproductive rates. The bears have elevated OHC levels, due to a diet that includes seals, which accumulate large amounts of OHCs in their blubber. Past studies have linked OHCs to various health effects in the bears.

The new study reports a connection between OHC levels and reduced size of the uterus in female bears and reduced size of the testis and baculum (penis bone) in males. A large baculum is critical for successful mating in an arctic climate, the researchers note, and even slight decreases may interfere with reproduction. "Furthermore, similar physiological impacts from organohalogen-pollutant exposure may be manifested on the reproductive tract of humans relying on OHC-contaminated food resources," the study states.

Back to Top

Super-high resolution optical microscopes, with powers that seemed physically impossible a decade ago, are poised to open a new era in imaging in molecular biology, according to a report scheduled for the Sept. 4 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, the ACS’ weekly news magazine.

The new optical microscopes produce images that can identify the precise cellular locations of thousands of individual protein molecules with unprecedented clarity, C&EN Senior Editor Ivan Amato writes in the article. “Once such super-resolution tools get into the hands of the many, instead of just the few who have built them, [scientists say], the effect on biology could be transformative,” the article states.

Barely a decade ago, Amato explains, scientists would have scoffed at the notion of an optical microscope capable of resolving, or bringing into focus, objects as small as molecules. It would seem to defy an ironclad principle of physics dating to 1873. However, the new generation of microscopes can do exactly that by detecting fluorophores and other fluorescent tags used to label protein molecules.

Back to Top

Many reporters who cover chemistry, materials science, medicine, health, environment and business closely follow the rapid-pace of innovation in nanotechnology.

• The American Chemical Society Office of Communications is offering a special event for news media who attend the American Chemical Society national meeting in San Francisco or who work in the Bay Area.
• On Sept. 12 we’ll join nanotechnology pioneer, Paul Alivisatos, University of California, Berkeley, for a briefing and tour of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s new Molecular Foundry. Alivisatos is a renowned researcher who edits the premier scientific journal in the field, Nano Letters, published by the American Chemical Society.
• We’ll tour the Foundry — sort of a tool shop with instrumentation for nanotech research — and hear presentations by scientists.
• After a Q&A session, we’ll adjourn for a reception and a chance to chat informally about this exciting field of science.
• An e-mail (m_woods@acs.org) or phone call to (202) 872-6293, will put your name on the sign-up sheet.

Back to Top

• ACS Chemical Biology Now Accessible
  The American Chemical Society journal, ACS Chemical Biology, is now featured on EurekAlert!, the online science news service for reporters. To reach the listing, which includes a table of contents and a means of obtaining newsworthy papers published in the journal, go to: http://www.eurekalert.org/jrnls/acs/index.php?page=chemicalbiology.
  
  Led by Editor-in-Chief Laura L. Kiessling, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and MacArthur Foundation Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the journal is an international forum for biologists and chemists working together to understand cellular processes.
  
  Published monthly, it provides original research articles and reviews and spotlights current research in chemical biology, profiles of experts in the field and points of view from leading scientists. The journal Web site is updated weekly with new content, and features a WIKI and Ask the Expert forum. ACS Chemical Biology was launched in January 2006.
• National Meeting Weblog: Science, September & San Francisco
  The approach of autumn stirs thoughts of Major League Baseball’s World Series and a world-series-class event in science. Visit the ACS News Service’s newest weblog (http://acsnewsservice.typepad.com/sf_meeting/) for insights into preparations for an event expected to attract more than 17,000 scientists and other attendees.
• 10th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference
  If you’re writing on green chemistry, our weblog (http://acsnewsservice.typepad.com/) from the 10th annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference can be a valuable resource.

Back to Top

September 10-14 is one of the year’s biggest and most influential scientific conferences – the 232^nd ACS National Meeting in beautiful San Francisco.

Back to Top