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ACS News Service Weekly PressPac: April 21, 2010

ACS News Service Weekly PressPac: April 21, 2010

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News Items in This Edition

Scientists are reporting discovery of what may be the “ancestral Eve” crystal that billions of years ago gave life on Earth its curious and exclusive preference for so-called left-handed amino acids. Those building blocks of proteins come in two forms — left- and right-handed — that mirror each other like a pair of hands. Their study, which may help resolve one of the most...

A new study identifies cattle feed as a possible culprit in the long-standing mystery of why California’s San Joaquin Valley — a moderately-populated agricultural region — has higher levels of ozone (one of the main ingredients in smog) than many densely-populated cities. The report, which explains how fermented cattle feed works with automotive exhausts in forming ozone, is in ACS’...

Scientists are reporting an advance toward development of a urine test for detecting colon cancer, the third most common cancer in the United States. Such a test could eventually compliment or even reduce the need for colonoscopy, the mainstay screening test used today. The study, which analyzes chemical differences in the urine of humans with and without colon cancer, is in...

Scientists have confirmed that the healthful substances found in green tea — renowned for their powerful antioxidant and disease-fighting properties — do penetrate into tissues of the eye. Their new report, the first documenting how the lens, retina, and other eye tissues absorb these substances, raises the possibility that green tea may protect against glaucoma and other common...

A growing shortage of high-quality paper for recycling into new paper products threatens to thwart consumers’ preferences for oh-so-soft toilet paper, according to an article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS’ weekly newsmagazine. In the cover story, C&EN Senior Editor Melody Voith notes that the decline of print newspapers and magazines and the growth in electronic communications have…

Journalists’ Resources

  • Save the Date: ACS Fall 2010 National Meeting
    Thousands of scientists will gather 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: A “gastric bypass pill” for diabetes?
    Patients with Type 2 diabetes who undergo gastric bypass surgery for obesity may recover from diabetes so fast that they can stop taking their medication before leaving the hospital. That observation may lead to new diabetes drugs that mimic gastric bypass’ effects on the GI system. To read more: m_bernstein@acs.org.
  • 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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