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ACS News Service Weekly PressPac: March 31, 2010

ACS News Service Weekly PressPac: March 31, 2010

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News Items in This Edition

How many gallons of water does it take to produce $1 worth of sugar, dog and cat food, or milk? The answers appear in the first comprehensive study in 30 years documenting American industry’s thirst for this precious resource. The study, which could lead to better ways to conserve water, is in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal...

Scientists in the United Kingdom are reporting evidence that consumption of insects contaminated with a toxic metal may be a factor in the mysterious global decline of meat-eating, or carnivorous, plants. Their study describes how meals of contaminated insects have adverse effects on the plants. It appears in ACS’ semi-monthly journal Environmental Science & Technology. Iain Green...

Scientists in Brazil are reporting for the first time that coffee beans contain proteins that can kill insects and might be developed into new insecticides for protecting food crops against destructive pests. Their study, which suggests a new use for one of the most important tropical crops in the world, appears in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication...

The “vegetable lamb” plant — once believed to bear fruit that ripened into a living baby sheep — produces substances that show promise in laboratory experiments as new treatments for osteoporosis, the bone-thinning disease. That’s the conclusion of a new study in ACS’ monthly Journal of Natural Products. Young Ho Kim and colleagues point out that osteoporosis is a global health problem, affecting up to 6 million women and...

Here’s a paradox for Passover and year-round: With observant Jews numbering barely one million in a United States population of 310 million, why are 40-50 percent of food items on supermarket shelves kosher? Those and other insights into the amazing and constantly growing popularity of kosher foods appear in an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS’ weekly newsmagazine. C&EN Senior Editor Bethany Halford notes that the number of kosher products on supermarket shelves has grown from about 3,000 in…

Journalists’ Resources

  • Save the Date: ACS Fall 2010 National Meeting
    Join thousands of scientists gathering in Boston August 22-26, 2010 for the 240th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society. Watch for further information in the months ahead.
  • Press releases, briefings, and more from ACS’ 239th National Meeting
    www.eurekalert.org/acsmeet.php

    http://www.ustream.tv/channel/acslive
  • Must-reads from C&EN: More methane escaping from oceans into atmosphere
    Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is seeping from under the Arctic Ocean into the atmosphere in amounts that exceed those of all the other oceans combined. Scientists are trying to determine whether oceanic warming due to climate change might further increase the outgassing of methane. More on methane.
  • ACS Pressroom Blog The ACS Office of Public Affairs’ (OPA) pressroom blog highlights research from ACS’ 38 peer-reviewed journals and National Meetings.
  • Bytesize Science blog Educators and kids, put on your thinking caps: The American Chemical Society has a blog for Bytesize Science, a science podcast for kids of all ages.
  • ACS satellite pressroom: Daily news blasts on Twitter
    The satellite press room has become one of the most popular science news sites on Twitter. To get our news blasts and updates, create a free account at https://twitter.com/signup. Then visit http://twitter.com/ACSpressroom and click the ‘join’ button beneath the press room logo.
  • C&EN on Twitter
    Follow @cenmag <http://twitter.com/cenmag> for the latest news in chemistry and dispatches from our blog, C&ENtral Science <http://centralscience.org>.
  • ACS Press Releases
    Press releases
    on a variety of chemistry-related topics.
  • General Chemistry Glossary
  • Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Web site on everyday chemicals
    Whether you want to learn more about caffeine, benzoyl peroxide (acne treatment), sodium chloride (table salt), or some other familiar chemical, CAS Common Chemistry can help. The new Web site provides non-chemists and others with useful information about everyday chemicals by searching either a chemical name or a corresponding CAS Registry Number. The site includes about 7,800 chemicals of general interest as well as all 118 elements from the Periodic Table, providing alternative names, molecular structures, a Wikipedia link, and other information.
  • Science Connections from CAS
    CAS - Science Connections
    is a series of articles that showcases the value of CAS databases in light of important general-interest science and technology news. Topics range from fruit flies to Nobel Prize winners, with the CAS - Science Connections series pointing to CAS databases for a more complete understanding of the latest news.

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