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news & research6 News15 On the market16 Research19 Aust. J. Chem.42 Cryptic chemistry42 Sudoku42 Events

members4 From the President32 RACI news34 Obituary35 RACI NSW initiatives for

young chemists36 New Fellow

views & reviews5 Your say36 Books40 Grapevine41 Letter from Melbourne

24 Australia’s biophysical chemistry traditionRonald J. Clarke traces the development of biophysical chemistry and itsemergence in Australia.

28 Celebrating chemistry 2016Dave Sammut takes a light-hearted look at some of this year’s chemistryhighlights.

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Radcliffe Camera, Oxford University, built in 1737–1749 to house the Radcliffe Science Library.

The knowledge-oriented travellerThere’s no reason to leave your scientific curiosity at home when youtake a holiday, says Terry Clayton.

Dec 2016/Jan 2017

At the recent RACI Annual General Meeting in November, theRACI President’s baton was handed to me from our outgoingPresident Paul Bernhardt. Typically, a baton would be handed toanother runner at close to full speed for a flying start, but asPaul noted in his last column he was pretty badly injured in acycling accident in early 2016. Paul has made a rapid recovery,but still has some time to go before hitting top speed on therunning track. It was very encouraging to see the effort Paulput into the RACI, particularly in this last year when he wasincapacitated, and it showed his passion for chemistry and thatleading the RACI was at the forefront of his mind. Well done,Paul, and good luck with the rest of your recovery.

It has been noted in this column previously that one doesn’treally find out the full operations of the RACI until you arethrust onto the Board. I have been a member of the RACI forapproximately 35 years, and while I spent some ten years as theInorganic Division secretary, the mechanisms of the Board hadeluded me. For the past two years, I have been President-elect,and have therefore attended three or four face-to-face meetingsannually while having teleconference hook-ups on a monthlybasis.

These meetings have really opened my eyes as to how theBoard operates, and the amount of effort put in by members ona voluntary basis never ceases to amaze. The Board, stateBranches, Divisions and Sections all have their place, andwithout the hard-working efforts of members, the RACI wouldnot and could not exist.

As with many not-for-profit membership societies, the RACIis suffering from diminishing membership. The Board has beenworking very hard to attempt to alleviate this, and we mustmaintain our numbers or the RACI could die. We are 100 yearsold next year, and we need to make it to at least 200. With thisin mind, the Board has been seeking to recruit a non-member ofthe RACI to the Board with marketing and communication skills,but also someone who has a non-chemist’s point of view, tohelp the Institute broaden appeal and therefore membership.

2017 will be a big year for the RACI. The highlight of theyear will be the Centenary Congress to be held in Melbourne 23–28 July 2017. This will be the largest chemistry conferenceorganised in Australia and will bring together all Divisions ofthe RACI, plus the 17th Asian Chemical Congress, the 6th AsianConference on Coordination Chemistry, the Asia Hub for e-DrugDiscovery Symposium, the 11th Asian Federation for MedicinalChemistry’s International Medicinal Chemistry Symposium,Carbon 2017, Chemeca 2017, the 8th International Conferenceon Green and Sustainable Chemistry and the 18th Asian EditionTetrahedron Symposium.

So far, we have been able to attract some outstandingplenary speakers, including two Nobel laureates – ProfessorAda E. Yonath and Professor Robert Grubbs. Overall, there willbe a large number of plenaries and keynotes at all conferences,with an expectation of about 3500 attendees. With such a widevariety of themes at this Congress, there will be something foreveryone. Roger Stapleford (CEO of RACI) and Mark Buntine(Chair) are doing much of the organising with help fromcommittees of all Divisions and Conferences involved. Thelogistics for this conference are astounding and all involvedneed to be congratulated by their efforts. I look forward toseeing you all there.

With so many events taking place in 2017 and beyond, theRACI will be a flurry of activity and it is with some trepidation,but also excitement that I begin my two years of beingPresident. It might be a little concerning that I may paraphrasea US President, but don’t worry, this is from 55 years ago: ‘Asknot what the RACI can do for you, ask what you can do for theRACI’. I don’t feel bad about quoting this line because it isclaimed it was attributed to President Kennedy’s former schoolheadmaster anyhow.

EDITOR Sally WoollettPh (03) 5623 [email protected]

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PRESIDENT Peter Junk FRACI CChem

MANAGEMENT COMMITTEESam Adeloju (Chair) [email protected], Amanda Ellis, Michael Gardiner, Helmut Hügel, Amanda Saunders, Colin Scholes, Madeleine Schultz, Richard Thwaites

CONTRIBUTIONSContributors’ views are not necessarily endorsed by the RACI, and noresponsibility is accepted for accuracy of contributions. Visit the website’sresource centre at chemaust.raci.org.au for information about submissions.

© 2016 The Royal Australian Chemical Institute Inc. unlessotherwise attributed. Content must not be reproduced whollyor in part without written permission. Further details on thewebsite (chemaust.raci.org.au). ISSN 0314-4240 e-ISSN 1839-2539


Chemistry in Australia4 | Dec 2016/Jan 2017

from the raci

From the President

Peter Junk FRACI CChem ([email protected]) is RACIPresident.

http://chemaust.raci.org.au

Aviation fuelsHaving read the article from AusBiotech (authors not identified)in the September 2016 issue (p. 38), I have the following pointto make. There is reference, with no supporting argument, to‘the type of isoprenoid needed for jet fuel’. In the choice of fuelfor a jet engine, the temperature at which the fuel starts todeposit solid and its viscosity at the temperatures experiencedby an aircraft at full altitude are both very important. Untilthese physical properties are characterised, it is difficult tomake a case for jet fuels derived from isoprenoids.

Some concern is expressed in the article at the fact that airtransport contributes 1% to total carbon dioxide emissions.Attempts to reduce this are laudable, though I might put thisperspective on them. Closer attention to the condition of thepeatlands of the world could achieve carbon dioxide reductionsmuch greater than this, and that is why there are proposals forissuance of carbon credits for peatland maintenance andrestoration, for example re-wetting a drained peat deposit(www.imcg.net/media/newsletter/nl0703.pdf). Suchrudimentary operations could be more productive of carboncredits than the very advanced chemistry proposed for making aparticular biofuel.

Clifford Jones FRACI CChem

Professor Jones makes two points in his letter. The first pointrelates to the required physicochemical properties of compoundssuitable for aviation fuel. Professor Jones is quite correct in thatdrop-in aviation fuels must have appropriate burn properties,viscosity, freezing point etc. to allow effective operation ataviation temperatures. The specific mix of C5 and C10 isoprenoidcompounds (limonene, farnesane and p-cymene) that has theseproperties is described in the US patent granted to the projectcollaborator, Amyris (US7589243). This blend is compliant withJet A/A-1 fuel specifications and has successfully gone throughthe strict requirements for aviation regulatory approval; indeed,it ‘outperforms conventional petroleum-derived fuel in a range ofperformance metrics, including fit for purpose and greenhousegas emission reduction potential, without compromising onperformance or quality’ (http://investors.amyris.com/annuals-proxies.cfm). The first passenger flight, using 10% renewable fuelblended with conventional petrochemical fuel, was on30 July 2014 (GOL 7725 MCO-GRU). The fuel is now sold throughTotal, and there are ongoing (albeit limited) commercial flightsusing that fuel.

The second point made by Professor Jones is that otherapproaches for reduction of CO2 emissions might be moreeffective compared to the ‘very advanced chemistry proposedfor making a particular biofuel’. Firstly, I would say that there isno one solution to the CO2 emissions problem, and the ultimatesolution will comprise myriad approaches in combination, oneof which will be renewable liquid aviation fuels. Secondly,

fermentation is an old and well-established technology, andcurrently used to make fuel-grade ethanol. The sametechnology, also using engineered yeast cells, is used to makethe isoprenoid-based fuels. Once the initial cell engineering iscompleted, the process is very similar. As stated in the article,at the moment, the rates/titres/yields are not economicallycompetitive with the petrochemical product; but we are workingtowards the ultimate goal of achieving this.

Claudia Vickers, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology,University of Queensland

Capture of atmospheric CO2 byLackner processRecent issues of Chemistry in Australia contain articles onindustrial processes using syngas, CO + 2H2. The work ofProfessor Karl S. Lackner at Columbia University and earlierenables CO2 to be taken from the atmosphere inexpensively. Thiscan then be converted to the required carbon monoxide.

Lackner’s work began with his daughter Claire winning aschool prize for demonstrating that CO2 could be removed fromair using sodium hydroxide. He decided it should not be toodifficult on a larger scale. First he tried air/liquid using NaOHsolution. This was ineffective so he switched to air/solid usingan anion exchange resin. This worked. The resin is supplied inchloride form and is treated with sodium hydroxide to convert itto hydroxide form. It then takes up CO2 from air, first to thecarbonate and then to the bicarbonate form. At this point,water is added to displace the CO2 and revert it to carbonateform. It then cycles between the carbonate and bicarbonateforms.

All of this is published in the European Physics JournalSpecial Topics, taking 14 pages of solid work (2009, vol. 176,pp. 93–106).

Lackner has set up a company to market the process usingstandard shipping containers. They can be located at suitablelocations where there is wind and will collect about 1 tonne ofCO2 per day. The cost in 2009 was about $200 000, dropping to$20 000 with mass production.

Rather than bury CO2, Lackner suggests it should be reusedto make hydrocarbons etc. by the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis, forexample, which uses syngas.

Carbon monoxide can be made from CO2 by the reverse watergas shift reaction:CO2 + 3H2 → CO + 2H2 + H2O (syngas plus H2O)

Here, extra hydrogen has been added to drive the reversiblereaction this way.

(The opposite direction is the water gas shift reaction whencoming from blue water gas (H2 + CO) to get extra H2.)

Geoff Peverell MRACI CChem

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Chemistry in Australia 5|Dec 2016/Jan 2017

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Physiology or Medicine:mechanisms ofautophagyThe Nobel Assembly at KarolinskaInstitutet has awarded the 2016 NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine toYoshinori Ohsumi, Tokyo Institute ofTechnology, Japan, ‘for his discoveries ofmechanisms for autophagy.’

This year’s Nobel Laureate discoveredand elucidated mechanisms underlyingautophagy, a fundamental process fordegrading and recycling cellularcomponents.

The word ‘autophagy’ originates fromthe Greek words auto-, meaning ‘self’, andphagein, meaning ‘to eat’. Thus,autophagy denotes ‘self-eating’. Thisconcept emerged during the 1960s, whenresearchers first observed that the cellcould destroy its own contents byenclosing it in membranes, forming sack-like vesicles that were transported to arecycling compartment, called thelysosome, for degradation. Difficulties instudying the phenomenon meant thatlittle was known until, in a series ofbrilliant experiments in the early 1990s,Yoshinori Ohsumi used baker’s yeast toidentify genes essential for autophagy. Hethen went on to elucidate the underlyingmechanisms for autophagy in yeast andshowed that similar sophisticatedmachinery is used in our cells.

Ohsumi’s discoveries led to a newparadigm in our understanding of howthe cell recycles its contents. Hisdiscoveries opened the path tounderstanding the fundamentalimportance of autophagy in manyphysiological processes, such as in theadaptation to starvation or response toinfection. Mutations in autophagy genescan cause disease, and the autophagicprocess is involved in several conditions,including cancer and neurologicaldisease.

In the mid 1950s, scientists observeda new specialised cellular compartment,called an organelle, containing enzymes

that digest proteins, carbohydrates andlipids. This specialised compartment isreferred to as a ‘lysosome’ and functionsas a workstation for degradation ofcellular constituents. The Belgianscientist Christian de Duve was awardedthe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicinein 1974 for the discovery of thelysosome. New observations during the1960s showed that large amounts ofcellular content, and even wholeorganelles, could sometimes be foundinside lysosomes. The cell thereforeappeared to have a strategy fordelivering large cargo to the lysosome.Further biochemical and microscopicanalysis revealed a new type of vesicletransporting cellular cargo to thelysosome for degradation. Christian deDuve, the scientist behind the discoveryof the lysosome, coined the term‘autophagy’ to describe this process. Thenew vesicles were namedautophagosomes.

During the 1970s and 1980s,researchers focused on elucidatinganother system used to degrade proteins,namely the ‘proteasome’. Within thisresearch field, Aaron Ciechanover, AvramHershko and Irwin Rose were awarded the

2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for ‘thediscovery of ubiquitin-mediated proteindegradation’. The proteasome efficientlydegrades proteins one by one, but thismechanism did not explain how the cellgot rid of larger protein complexes andworn-out organelles. Could the process ofautophagy be the answer and, if so, whatwere the mechanisms?

Yoshinori Ohsumi had been active invarious research areas, but upon startinghis own lab in 1988, he focused hisefforts on protein degradation in thevacuole, an organelle that corresponds tothe lysosome in human cells. Yeast cellsare relatively easy to study andconsequently they are often used as amodel for human cells. They areparticularly useful for the identificationof genes that are important in complexcellular pathways. But Ohsumi faced amajor challenge: yeast cells are small andtheir inner structures are not easilydistinguished under the microscope andthus he was uncertain whether autophagyeven existed in this organism. Ohsumireasoned that if he could disrupt thedegradation process in the vacuole whilethe process of autophagy was active,then autophagosomes should accumulate

2016 science Nobel prizes

Our cells have different specialised compartments. Lysosomes constitute one suchcompartment and contain enzymes for digestion of cellular contents. A new type of vesiclecalled an autophagosome was observed within the cell. As the autophagosome forms, itengulfs cellular contents such as damaged proteins and organelles. Finally, it fuses with thelysosome, where the contents are degraded into smaller constituents. This process providesthe cell with nutrients and building blocks for renewal.


within the vacuole and become visibleunder the microscope. He thereforecultured mutated yeast lacking vacuolardegradation enzymes and simultaneouslystimulated autophagy by starving thecells. The results were striking. Withinhours, the vacuoles were filled with smallvesicles that had not been degraded. Thevesicles were autophagosomes andOhsumi’s experiment proved thatautophagy exists in yeast cells. But evenmore importantly, he now had a methodto identify and characterise key genesinvolved in this process. This was a majorbreakthrough and Ohsumi published theresults in 1992.

Ohsumi now took advantage of hisengineered yeast strains in whichautophagosomes accumulated duringstarvation. This accumulation should notoccur if genes important for autophagywere inactivated. Ohsumi exposed the

yeast cells to a chemical that randomlyintroduced mutations in many genes, andthen he induced autophagy. His strategyworked. Within a year of his discovery ofautophagy in yeast, Ohsumi hadidentified the first genes essential forautophagy. In his subsequent series ofelegant studies, the proteins encoded bythese genes were functionallycharacterised. The results showed thatautophagy is controlled by a cascade ofproteins and protein complexes, eachregulating a distinct stage ofautophagosome initiation and formation.

After the identification of themachinery for autophagy in yeast, a keyquestion remained. Was there acorresponding mechanism to control thisprocess in other organisms? Soon itbecame clear that virtually identicalmechanisms operate in our own cells. Theresearch tools required to investigate the

importance of autophagy in humans werenow available.

Thanks to Ohsumi and othersfollowing in his footsteps, we now knowthat autophagy controls importantphysiological functions where cellularcomponents need to be degraded andrecycled. Autophagy can rapidly providefuel for energy and building blocks forrenewal of cellular components, and istherefore essential for the cellularresponse to starvation and other types ofstress. After infection, autophagy caneliminate invading intracellular bacteriaand viruses. Autophagy contributes toembryo development and celldifferentiation. Cells also use autophagyto eliminate damaged proteins andorganelles, a quality control mechanismthat is critical for counteracting thenegative consequences of ageing.

Disrupted autophagy has been linkedto Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetesand other disorders that appear in theelderly. Mutations in autophagy genescan cause genetic disease. Disturbancesin the autophagic machinery have alsobeen linked to cancer. Intense research isnow ongoing to develop drugs that cantarget autophagy in various diseases.

Autophagy has been known for over50 years but its fundamental importancein physiology and medicine was onlyrecognised after Yoshinori Ohsumi’sparadigm-shifting research in the 1990s.For his discoveries, he is awarded thisyear’s Nobel Prize in Physiology orMedicine.

Ohsumi studied the function of the proteins encoded by key autophagy genes. He delineatedhow stress signals initiate autophagy and the mechanism by which proteins and proteincomplexes promote distinct stages of autophagosome formation.

Chemistry: molecular machinesThe Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016 was awarded jointly to Jean-Pierre Sauvage (University of Strasbourg, France), Sir J. FraserStoddart (Northwestern University, USA) and Bernard L. Feringa(University of Groningen, the Netherlands) ‘for the design andsynthesis of molecular machines’. These laureates and theirwork will be featured in Chemistry in Australia early in 2017.

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Physics: revealing the secrets of exotic matterThe Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the NobelPrize in Physics 2016 with one half to David J. Thouless,University of Washington, USA, and the other half toF. Duncan M. Haldane, Princeton University, USA, and J. MichaelKosterlitz, Brown University, USA, ‘for theoretical discoveries oftopological phase transitions and topological phases of matter’.

This year’s laureates opened the door on an unknown worldwhere matter can assume strange states. They have usedadvanced mathematical methods to study unusual phases ofmatter, such as superconductors, superfluids and thin magneticfilms. Thanks to their pioneering work, the hunt is now on fornew and exotic phases of matter. Many people are hopeful offuture applications in both materials science and electronics.

The three laureates’ use of topological concepts in physicswas decisive for their discoveries. Topology is a branch ofmathematics that describes properties that only change step-wise. Using topology as a tool, they were able to astound theexperts. In the early 1970s, Michael Kosterlitz and DavidThouless overturned the then current theory thatsuperconductivity or suprafluidity could not occur in thinlayers. They demonstrated that superconductivity could occur atlow temperatures and also explained the mechanism, phasetransition, that makes superconductivity disappear at highertemperatures.

In the 1980s, Thouless was able to explain a previousexperiment with very thin electrically conducting layers inwhich conductance was precisely measured as integer steps. Heshowed that these integers were topological in their nature. Ataround the same time, Duncan Haldane discovered howtopological concepts can be used to understand the propertiesof chains of small magnets found in some materials.

We now know of many topological phases, not only in thinlayers and threads, but also in ordinary three-dimensionalmaterials. Over the last decade, this area has boosted frontlineresearch in condensed matter physics, not least because of thehope that topological materials could be used in newgenerations of electronics and superconductors, or in futurequantum computers.Current research isrevealing the secrets ofmatter in the exoticworlds discovered by thisyear’s Nobel laureates.

Nobel Media

Dec 2016/Jan 2017

M955_TwindriveRheometer20150622_275x76-CC14.indd 1 22/06/2015 17:42

About the Nobel laureatesYoshinori Ohsumi was born in 1945 in Fukuoka, Japan. He received a PhD fromthe University of Tokyo in 1974. After spending three years at RockefellerUniversity, USA, he returned to the University of Tokyo where he established hisresearch group in 1988. He has been a professor at the Tokyo Institute ofTechnology since 2009.David J. Thouless was born in 1934 in Bearsden, UK. He has a PhD (1958) fromCornell University, USA. He is Emeritus Professor at the University of Washington,USA.F. Duncan M. Haldane was born in 1951 in London, UK. He has a PhD (1978)from Cambridge University, UK. He is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics atPrinceton University, USA.J. Michael Kosterlitz was born in 1942 in Aberdeen, UK. He has a PhD (1969)from Oxford University, UK. He is the Harrison E. Farnsworth Professor of Physicsat Brown University, USA.Jean-Pierre Sauvage was born in 1944 in Paris, France. He has a PhD from theUniversité Louis-Pasteur (1971), France. He is at the University of Strasbourg,France.Sir J. Fraser Stoddart was born in 1942 in Edinburgh, UK. He has a PhD fromEdinburgh University (1966.) He is at Northwestern University, USA.Bernard L. Feringa was born in 1951 in Barger-Compascuum, the Netherlands.He has a PhD (1978) from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He is atthe University of Groningen.

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Mechanism of natural gasconversion to methanol discoveredTwenty years after the technique was developed, themechanism behind the direct conversion process of natural gasinto methanol at room temperature has been determined byscientists at KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Belgium, andStanford University, USA (doi: 10.1038/nature19059). This willhave major consequences for the future use of methanol.

The large-scale conversion of methane into methanolcurrently involves various steps under high pressure and at ahigh temperature, making it a process that requires a lot ofenergy.

In the 1990s, scientists developed a more direct method toproduce methanol – a process that even produces energy.

Twenty years later, postdoctoral researcher Pieter Vanelderenfrom the Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis atKU Leuven, has unravelled the mechanism behind the processin collaboration with chemists from Stanford University.

The chemical reaction involves adding a zeolite catalystcontaining a specific atom. For the direct conversion ofmethane into methanol, this catalyst is a zeolite with addediron. Co-author Professor Bert Sels said: ‘We found that the ironneeds to bind to the zeolite in a flat, bound orientation.’

Now that scientists know exactly what the catalyst lookslike, they can start imitating and optimising it in the lab. Thisopens up quite a few possibilities for the future. For one thing,the production of the methanol needed to produce plastic willbecome a lot cheaper. The catalyst is also useful for theconversion of nitrogen oxides. It could be used, for instance, toclean the exhaust fumes of cars.

KU Leuven


Harvard University researchers withexpertise in 3D printing, mechanicalengineering and microfluidics havedemonstrated the first autonomous,untethered, entirely soft robot. Thissmall, 3D-printed robot – nicknamed the‘octobot’ – could pave the way for a newgeneration of such machines.

Soft robotics could help revolutionisehow humans interact with machines. Butresearchers have struggled to buildentirely compliant robots. Electric powerand control systems – such as batteriesand circuit boards – are rigid, and untilnow soft-bodied robots have been eithertethered to an off-board system or riggedwith hard components.

Robert Wood, the Charles RiverProfessor of Engineering and AppliedSciences, and Jennifer A. Lewis, theHansjorg Wyss Professor of BiologicallyInspired Engineering at the HarvardJohn A. Paulson School of Engineeringand Applied Sciences (SEAS), led theresearch. Lewis and Wood are also corefaculty members of the Wyss Institute forBiologically Inspired Engineering atHarvard University.

‘One longstanding vision for the fieldof soft robotics has been to create robotsthat are entirely soft, but the strugglehas always been in replacing rigidcomponents like batteries and electroniccontrols with analogous soft systems andthen putting it all together,’ said Wood.‘This research demonstrates that we caneasily manufacture the key componentsof a simple, entirely soft robot, whichlays the foundation for more complexdesigns.’

The research is described in Nature(doi: 10.1038/nature19100).

‘Through our hybrid assemblyapproach, we were able to 3D print eachof the functional components requiredwithin the soft robot body, including thefuel storage, power and actuation, in arapid manner,’ said Lewis. ‘The octobot isa simple embodiment designed todemonstrate our integrated design andadditive fabrication strategy for

embedding autonomous functionality.’Octopuses have long been a source of

inspiration in soft robotics. These curiouscreatures can perform incredible feats ofstrength and dexterity with no internalskeleton.

Harvard’s octobot is pneumatic-based,and so is powered by gas under pressure.A reaction inside the bot transforms asmall amount of liquid fuel (hydrogenperoxide) into a large amount of gas,which flows into the octobot’s arms andinflates them like balloons.

‘Fuel sources for soft robots havealways relied on some type of rigidcomponents,’ said Michael Wehner, apostdoctoral fellow in the Wood lab andco-first author of the paper. ‘Thewonderful thing about hydrogen peroxideis that a simple reaction between thechemical and a catalyst – in this caseplatinum – allows us to replace rigidpower sources.’

To control the reaction, the team useda microfluidic logic circuit based onpioneering work by co-author andchemist George Whitesides, the WoodfordL. and Ann A. Flowers UniversityProfessor and a core faculty member ofthe Wyss. The circuit, a soft analogue of

a simple electronic oscillator, controlswhen hydrogen peroxide decomposes togas in the octobot.

‘The entire system is simple tofabricate. By combining three fabricationmethods – soft lithography, moulding and3D printing – we can quickly manufacturethese devices,’ said Ryan Truby, agraduate student in the Lewis lab and co-first author of the paper.

The simplicity of the assembly processpaves the way for designs of greatercomplexity. Next, the Harvard team hopesto design an octobot that can crawl,swim and interact with its environment.

‘This research is a proof of concept,’Truby said. ‘We hope that our approachfor creating autonomous soft robotsinspires roboticists, material scientistsand researchers focused on advancedmanufacturing.’

The paper was co-authored by DanielFitzgerald of the Wyss Institute andBobak Mosadegh of Cornell University.The research was supported by theNational Science Foundation through theMaterials Research Science andEngineering Center at Harvard and by theWyss Institute.

Leah Burrows, SEAS Communications

The first autonomous, entirely soft robot

The octobot, here with fluorescently dyed fugitive inks (red) and hyperelastic actuator layers(blue), is fabricated by moulding and 3D printing. Lori Sanders/Harvard University

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Winners of the 2016 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in ScienceAustralian & New Zealand Fellowships have been announced.The four researchers – including two chemistry researchers – areanswering important questions surrounding male infertility, theevolution of pregnancy, pollution and its effect on our healthand the environment, and the development of inorganicpolymers to create new synthetic materials.

The $25 000 Fellowships were presented by Rodrigo Pizarro,Managing Director, L’Oréal Australia & New Zealand, at theL’Oréal Australia headquarters in Melbourne in October.

Dr Jenny Fisher, University of Wollongong

Outdoor air pollution is a continual concern because it posesserious risk to human health. With many different emissionsfrom both human and natural activities, the ability to controlair pollution relies on understanding how different emissionsinteract. This is where Fisher’s work is key as she focuses onunderstanding the chemistry of these different emissions.

Over the next few years, Fisher plans to develop anAustralian atmospheric chemistry model, similar to thosealready successfully used in North America and Europe. Theinformation provided from the model will assist in predictingpollution amounts and their responses to future change. Theinformation will help advance scientific understanding of theatmosphere on a global scale – while also providing newinsights into what affects our local air quality.

Dr Erin Leitao, University of Auckland

Most synthetic chemistry is targeted at making molecules andmaterials containing predominantly carbon. Leitao wants tomake use of other main-group elements such as silicon,phosphorus, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur to synthesise polymers.These alternatives to carbon are not only in high abundance,they give the potential to produce materials with unexploredproperties and reactivity.

Linking atoms to form polymers is possible by the use ofcatalysts. Currently the chemistry of linking main-groupelements together is under-developed. Leitao plans ondeveloping new, efficient synthetic routes, by focusing onpromising catalytic reactions that will open doors to anothernext generation of functional polymers and materials.

Two other researchers received fellowships, for research intofertility and pregnancy. Dr Angela Crean of the University ofSydney received an Australian Fellowship for her workinvestigating the manipulation of environmental factors toboost sperm quality. Dr Camilla Whittington, also of theUniversity of Sydney, received her Australian Fellowship forwork investigating the evolution of pregnancy, and how thecomplex placenta has evolved independently in many differentspecies to transport large quantities of nutrients to the foetus.

L’Oreal Australia

L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science 2016 A&NZ Fellowships announced


Peak industry association Ai Group haspartnered with CSIRO to increase thenumber of industry professionalsshowcasing real-life science, technology,engineering and maths (STEM) skills andcareers in Australian schools. Theassociation, which represents more than60000 businesses, has called on industryto invest in the future workforce bygetting their staff into Australianclassrooms.

CSIRO’s partnership with Ai Group isthrough the Scientists andMathematicians in Schools (SMiS)program, which links practisingscientists, mathematicians, engineers andIT professionals with students togenerate interest and motivation in STEMthrough real-world exposure.

Of the 1972 active programpartnerships across Australia, only 13%of STEM professionals come from industryand corporate businesses.

Cisco, an Ai Group member, isinvolved in the SMiS program as part oftheir organisational commitment to

tackle Australia’s STEM skills shortage.Cisco Australia Vice President and SMiSmentor Sae Kwon said it was a realprivilege to give back to the studentswho will be tomorrow’s great innovators.

‘It’s great to be able to talk about thecool jobs available, the great people youget to meet, the many countries you canvisit and all the fun you can haveworking in STEM.’

AiGroup Chief Executive Innes Willoxexplained that participation in STEMsubjects is declining but industry can domore to support the Australian economywith a robust skills pipeline.

‘Our relative decline of STEM skills isholding back our national economy andcausing real frustration for employers,’Willox said.

According to the Ai Group and theOffice of the Chief Scientist’s STEM SkillsPartnerships program, 75% of the fastestgrowing occupations require STEMknowledge and skills but the number ofstudents coming out of university is notkeeping up with this demand.

CSIRO Education Manager MaryMulcahy said students’ interest in STEMsubjects is decreasing, and we need tosolve this early on in schooling to ensurethe future workforce pipeline can meetour future demand.

‘Our evidence shows that bringingreal-life, hands-on STEM into classroomsresults in students being more engagedin these subjects,’ Mulcahy said.

‘Letting students know about thediversity of careers available to them isalso important – jobs from accounting,construction, nursing to hairdressing alluse STEM skills.’

Industry also tells us that people withSTEM backgrounds are more flexible andinnovative and are able to takeadvantage of opportunities and changesin the workplace.

This will be important in the futurebecause it is predicted that up to 44% ofcurrent jobs will disappear within20 years.

CSIRO

Business peak body calls for companies to give back tostudents

news


ANSTO’s CEO has signed an agreement with the Director-Generalof the ITER International Fusion Energy Organisation to join aninternational consortium of countries that will lend expertise onthe groundbreaking ITER fusion project in southern France.

Seven member entities, comprising 35 countries, arecollaborating to build ITER – in the largest engineering projectin the world.

Scheduled to begin operations in 2025, ITER will be the firstfusion device to produce more energy than it consumes.

This is the first time a non-ITER member country has reacheda technical cooperation agreement to work on the project, andconnects the Australian community of fusion experts with thosefrom the European Union, China, India, Japan, Russia, the USand South Korea.

Australian researchers and innovators will now work withinternational experts on this massive engineering project,determining the feasibility of fusion energy as a large-scale,greenhouse-gas-free energy source.

ANSTO’s involvement allows all relevant Australianresearchers to engage with ITER.

Speaking at the ITER facility in Saint-Paul-lez-Durance,during the signing ceremony with the ITER Director-GeneralBernard Bigot and accompanied by ANU Professor John Howard,ANSTO CEO Dr Adi Paterson said, ‘Fusion is the Holy Grail forenergy production and if achieved at a large-scale would answersome of the world’s most pressing questions relating tosustainability, climate change and security.’

‘This agreement is the mechanism through which Australianswill be able to engage with ITER. In addition to ANSTO,Australian participants include the ANU, the University ofSydney, Curtin University, the University of Newcastle, theUniversity of Wollongong and Macquarie University.’

The ITER project was established in 2006 and the firstplasma is expected to be produced by December 2025.

ANSTO

Australian experts provide star power to global fusionenergy project

The ITER facility under construction in southern France. ITER

on the market


A treatment developed at the University of Queensland tocontrol sewer odour and corrosion is set for the internationalmarket. Researchers from the University of Queensland’sAdvanced Water Management Centre developed the technology,which uses free nitrous acid to remove biofilms that adhere tothe inner surfaces of sewer mains.

University of Queensland commercialisation companyUniQuest has negotiated an exclusive licence agreement withUSP Technologies, an Atlanta-based provider of chemicaltreatment programs for water and wastewater applications.

Lead researcher and Advanced Water Management CentreDirector Professor Zhiguo Yuan said the technology wasdeveloped with municipal wastewater collection systems inmind.

‘Corrosion and odour problems in sewers are most oftencaused by sulfate-reducing bacteria in sewer biofilms thatproduce hydrogen sulfide,’ Yuan said.

‘Hydrogen sulfide is released into the atmosphere above thewastewater, causing odour problems, and is converted bysulfide-oxidising bacteria into sulfuric acid, which is corrosiveto concrete sewer pipes.

‘Most existing treatments for managing sulfide-relatedproblems in sewers involve sewer pipe lining, sewer airventilation with follow-on air treatment and round-the-clockchemical dosing, resulting in high operating costs.’

USP general manager Tom Walkosak said, ‘This technology isdifferent from existing treatments because it is deliveredintermittently, provides longer duration control and effectivelystops the production of hydrogen sulfide at its source.’

USP expects to market for the technology in North America,Australia, China and Europe.

University of Queensland

Queensland sewer technology boundfor international markets

USP general manager Tom Walkosak says that, according to theWater Infrastructure Network, the total annual cost of hydrogensulfide corrosion in the US sewer network in 2000 was$US13.75 billion. Greg L/CC BY-SA 3.0

Automatic solvent extractorsWith the option of three or six simultaneous determinations,the Velp SER158 series of fully automated solvent extractorsoffer state-of-the-art technology for fast high samplethroughput, and precise, accurate fat determination inaccordance with the Randall or Twisselmann techniques.

A smart User Interface, Load & Go allows easy operation.Simply prepare the sample and start with one-click. VELPextraction units are equipped with high-tech sensors allowing24/7 analysis: the extractor automatically shuts down afterthe last analysis, without operator intervention.

The unique patent-pending titanium condensers useminimal cooling water (1 L/min) and combined with VELPtechnology, which enables more than 90% of solvent recovery,delivers unparalleled performance and makes theseinstruments cost-efficient and environmentally friendly.

The SER 158 provides reliable and accurate results via animproved extraction process compared to the traditionalSoxhlet method (five times faster). The determination ofextractable matter is performed with a solid–liquid extractionprocess. The SER 158 guarantees excellent reproducibility andcompliance to the major standards.

With a powerful new 7-inch display ControlPad, you canconnect additional units, increasing capacity as your demandsgrow. A single ControlPad is able to connect four SER 158units, giving you a maximum of 24 active positions processingup to 168 samples/day. The units have an intuitive UserInterface for versatile data management and Ethernetconnection, multi-lingual support and three USB ports.

The SER 158 safe SolventXpress™ technology allows safesolvent dispensing, minimising operator exposure. Theprotective transparent cover seals the instrument and sensorcontrol ensures a safe and reproducible analysis, time aftertime.

For more information, contact your local Rowe Scientificoffice or visit www.rowe.com.au.

research


The ability to trigger the coupling of two molecules with lightis an important tool in many scientific fields. A range ofefficient light-induced ligation methods exists, but mostcoupling techniques to date have used UV light as a trigger.Such high-energy irradiation can cause decomposition or by-product formation in (bio)organic species. In addition, for invivo applications, the depth penetration of UV light is limitedas a result of absorption by tissue. Therefore, strategies thatallow photo-coupling reactions to occur at longer wavelengthsare desirable. The teams of James Blinco and ChristopherBarner-Kowollik at the Queensland University of Technology andKarlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, and Si Wu at theMax Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany, have

combined the chemistry of near-infrared (NIR) absorbingupconversion nanoparticles with the established nitrile imine-mediated tetrazole-ene cycloaddition reaction to yield a novelphotoligation technique that can be activated at 980 nm(Lederhose P., Chen Z., Müller R., Blinco J.P., Wu S., Barner-Kowollik C. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 12 195−9). Fullconversion of reagents and exclusive formation of the desiredcycloadducts were observed. Enhanced penetration of the NIRlight was also demonstrated with successful through-tissuereactions. Furthermore, carrying out ligation of a biologicallyactive biotin moiety to full conversion resulted in no decreasein biotin bioactivity, demonstrating the potential of thetechnique for in vivo applications.

A gentler approach to joining molecules

The galvanic replacement reaction is asimple process in which a solid sacrificialtemplate such as Ag is oxidised in thepresence of ions of a different metal witha higher reduction potential, such asAu3+. The latter are subsequently reducedto the metallic state at the templatesurface. This process has yielded a varietyof nanostructured metals with manyapplications. Research by the O’Mullanegroup at the Queensland University ofTechnology has extended the concept

from solid particles to liquid metal(Hoshyargar F., Crawford J.,O’Mullane A.P. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016,doi: 10.1021/jacs.6b05957). Theresearchers have shown that a droplet ofliquid galinstan (70% Ga, 20% In and10% Sn) can be galvanically replaced tocreate a liquid metal core surrounded bya solid metal shell whose shape dependson the type and concentration of themetal ion used. In addition, sonication ofthe liquid metal into microdroplets,

followed by galvanic replacement bysilver or gold in the presence of thenanoparticle capping agentpolyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), createsgalinstan-based nanorice-like structuresdecorated with silver or goldnanoparticles. This process could be usedto recover precious metal salts fromsolution or its products could beemployed as redox-active catalysts forreducing organic dyes.

Plating liquid metal


Electrocatalysts play crucial roles in sustainable energyproduction, for example in fuel cells, metal–air batteries andwater splitting. At present, noble metals remain the mostefficient electrocatalysts, but high cost, scarcity andunsatisfactory durability impede their widespread application.Although transition metal oxides have proved to beexceptionally promising for electrocatalysis, their activity andstability must be improved to fulfill the requirements ofpractical applications. The research team of Professor ShizhangQiao at the University of Adelaide, in cooperation withAssociate Professor Tao Ling at Tianjin University, China, hasmade significant steps towards this goal by developing single-crystal cobalt oxide nanorods with catalytically activenanofacets as highly effective and durable electrocatalysts(Ling T., Yan D.-Y., Jiao Y., Wang H., Zheng Y., Zheng X.,Mao J., Du X.-W., Hu Z., Jaroniec M., Qiao S.Z. Nat. Commun.2016, 7, 12 876). The team demonstrated that oxygen vacancieson the nanofacets favourably influence the electronic structure

of cobalt oxide, promoting rapid charge transfer and optimaladsorption energies for intermediates of the oxygen reductionand evolution reactions. This work holds promise for enhancingthe electrocatalytic performance of transition metal oxidecatalysts through surface atomic structure engineering.

Graphene in space?

Better catalysts through atomic surface engineering

Addition of hydrogen to graphene alters thedelocalised p-electron structure, altering graphene’selectronic and magnetic properties. Chemisorption ofhydrogen on graphene is also believed to catalyse theformation of interstellar H2. Because the size ofgraphene is beyond the reach of chemically accuratecalculations, properties of hydrogenated andprotonated graphene can only be determined throughmore approximate quantum-chemical methods. Thesemethods can be benchmarked through the study ofsmaller model systems. A collaboration between thelaboratories of University of New South Wales’s TimSchmidt, the University of Melbourne’s Evan Bieskeand the University of Sydney’s Richard Payne and LeoRadom has examined the hydrogen-adduction andproton-adduction properties of the smallest polycyclicsubunit of graphene, the phanlenyl radical(O’Connor G.D., Chan B., Sanelli J.A., Cergol K.M.,Dryza V., Payne R.J., Bieske E.J., Radom L., Schmidt T.W. Chem.Sci. 2016, doi: 10.1039/C6SC03787A). Electronic spectra of twoelectronic states of 1H-phenalene and three electronic states ofits cation, recorded in the gas phase through resonant-ionisation and resonant-dissociation techniques, have beenexamined and assigned by advanced quantum-chemical

methods. This has allowed properties such as the ionisationenergy and the ground- and excited-state bond dissociationenergies to be determined. This work sheds light on thechemical species responsible for interstellar absorption features(diffuse interstellar bands).

research


The rotational barrier of ethylenic C=Cdouble bonds is known to be about65 kcal/mol. The transition state of therotation is formally a 90° twisteddiradical, which, if it were allowed toexist in that form, would be a tripletexcited state of the alkene. The group ofCurt Wentrup at the University ofQueensland, in collaboration with PeterComba at the University of Heidelberg,

Germany, has recently observed athermally populated, perpendicularlytwisted, triplet alkene diradical arisingfrom rotation about the central C=C bondin the sterically overcrowded bis-dibenzo[a,i]fluorenylidene (Wentrup C.,Regimbald-Krnel M.J., Müller D.,Comba P. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016,doi: 10.1002/anie.201607415). Theground state of this molecule is the

singlet, twisted at an angle of 52°, buteven at room temperature the 90°twisted triplet state is observable by ESRspectroscopy, with the amount increasingwith temperature. From the temperaturedependence, a singlet−triplet (S−T)energy splitting of only 9.6 kcal/mol wasdetermined, which arises from acombination of delocalisation in the psystem and steric destabilisation of theground state. The importance of thephenomenon is illustrated, for example,by Feringa’s use of overcrowded ethylenesin the construction of molecularmachines. At the other end of thespectrum, donor−acceptor substitutedalkenes (push–pull alkenes) can havevery low rotational barriers (less than5 kcal/mol) but very large S−T gaps(75 kcal/mol) as a result of lowering ofthe ground-state energy by the push–pulleffect, which increases the energyseparation from the triplet state.

Singlet fission fateSinglet fission is an electronic process wherein an excitedsinglet undergoes a spin-allowed transition to two triplets onneighbouring chromophores. The process, which is the reverseof triplet−triplet annihilation, was first observed in the 1960sbut has only recently become the focus of intense researchbecause of its potential application in photovoltaictechnologies. While the initial and product states are wellcharacterised in a wide range of molecular systems,considerable ambiguity remains as to the nature of intermediatestates. Recently, scientists from the University of New SouthWales, Columbia University and Brookhaven National Laboratory,USA, used laser spectroscopy and magnetic resonancetechniques to study the spin properties of photogeneratedstates in covalently bridged pentacene dimers (Tayebjee M.J.Y.,Sanders S.N., Kumarasamy E., Campos L.M., Sfeir M.Y.,McCamey D.R. Nat. Phys. 2016, doi: 10.1038/nphys3909). Theyobserved that a surprisingly long-lived quintet triplet−tripletpair state 5(T1T1) is generated upon dephasing of the 1(T1T1)state that is produced upon singlet fission. Moreover, they

showed that the population of coupled (T1T1) and localiseddecoupled triplets (2 × T1) can be engineered by modulating thelength of the covalent bridge between pentacene moieties. Inprinciple, control over these paramagnetic species hasapplications in fields ranging from organic optoelectronics tospintronics.

Alkene diradical with a twist

Compiled by David Huang MRACI CChem ([email protected]). This section showcases the very best research carried out primarily in Australia. RACI memberswhose recent work has been published in high impact journals (e.g. Nature, J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.) are encouraged to contribute general summaries,of no more than 200 words, and an image to David.

In 2013, the journal started a tradition of inviting the winnersof RACI awards, prizes and medals to contribute papers on theirwork to a special issue of Aust. J. Chem. This has now become ayearly event, and this year we have also included chemistry-related prizes and medals awarded by the Australian Academy ofScience. Thus, a total of 11 award papers are published in theDecember issue of Aust. J. Chem.

Joe Shapter (Flinders University) was the chief organiser ofthe very successful and smoothly run RACI Congress in Adelaidein 2014, which earned him a 2015 RACI Citation. He iscontributing a research paper with co-workers Z. Alhalili,D. Figueroa, M.R. Johnston and B. Sanderson: ‘Effect ofmodification protocols on the effectiveness of goldnanoparticles as drug delivery vehicles for killing of breastcancer cells’.

Ian Rae (Melbourne), winner of the 2015 Leighton MemorialMedal, writes a review on his involvement with the Montrealprotocol, entitled ‘Substance abuse: carbon tetrachloride andthe ozone layer’.

David Jeffery (University of Adelaide), winner of theAnalytical Chemistry Division’s Peter Alexander Medal,contributes an account on the complex chemistry of winearomas, entitled ‘Spotlight on varietal thiols and precursors ingrapes and wines’.

Anthony Weiss (University of Sydney) was the winner of theApplied Research Award. He is contributing a review onperspectives on the molecular and biological implications oftropoelastin in human tissue elasticity.

Colin Jackson (ANU), winner of the Organic Division’s RennieMemorial Award, presents a review with co-authors E. Sugrue,C. Hartley and C. Scott on the evolution of new catalyticmechanisms for xenobiotic hydrolysis in bacterialmetalloenzymes.

Lara Malins, formerly a PhD student at the University ofSydney under Professor Richard Payne and now a postdoc atUniversity of California, San Diego, won RACI’s 2015 Cornforth

Award for the best PhD thesis and contributes a highlight ontransition-metal promoted arylation: ‘An emerging strategy forprotein bioconjugation’.

Christopher Gordon Newton, the Organic Division’s inauguralMander awardee for the best PhD thesis in organic chemistry,then a student in Professor Sherburn’s group and now a postdocat the EPF Lausanne, is contributing a review together withE.G. Mackay on masked ketenes as dienophiles in the Diels–Alder reaction.

Jonathan George (University of Adelaide) was awarded theOrganic Division’s Beckwith Lectureship and contributes aresearch communication with co-workers K.K.W. Kuan andA.M.C. Hirschvogel: ‘A biomimetic synthetic approach to thefrondosins’.

Chengzhong (Michael) Yu (University of Queensland) won theLe Fèvre Memorial Prize (issued by the Academy and presentedby the RACI). He contributes a research paper with co-workersC. Lei, L. Zhou, C. Xu, X. Sun and A. Nouwens on binder-freeTiO2 monolith packed pipette-tips for the enrichment ofphosphorylated peptides.

Denis Evans (ANU) is the 2015 winner of the David CraigMedal of the Academy of Science and presents a research paperwith co-workers Stephen Williams and Debra Bernhardt on aderivation of the Gibbs equation and the determination ofchange in Gibbs entropy from calorimetry.

Jeffrey Reimers (University of Technology Sydney andShanghai University) is the 2016 winner of the David CraigMedal of the Academy of Science and presents an accountentitled ‘David Craig Medal 2016: putting Craig’s legacy to workin nanotechnology and biotechnology’.

Planning has started for a special issue based on the2016 Awards and Prizes. All research-oriented awardees areinvited to contribute a paper, account or review by 1 June 2017(www.publish.csiro.au/nid/54/aid/206.htm).

Curt Wentrup FAA, FRACI CChem

aust j chem


Celebrating RACI and Academy of Science awards

Errata

On page 18 of the October issue, the year of ClaytonLockett's execution should have been stated as 2014,rather than 2009.

On page 13 of the November issue, the reference tosilicon should have been to selenium.

knowledge-oriented

CharlesDarwingave usmore

than On the originof species. He

invented sciencetourism. What elseshould we call a five-

year voyage aboard asailing ship with stops in

over 20 ports of call? On shore, Darwinroamed the local countryside,collecting thousands of souvenirs. Hecalled them ‘specimens’. He evenwrote a travel memoir that was hugelypopular at the time and remains inprint.

Today, we can do something similar.The Royal Geographical Society,PolarTREC and WiseOceans are just afew of a growing number of tourproviders willing to help us realise ourinner Indiana Jones.

To see what is on offer, I wentexploring on the Earthwatch Institutewebsite and quickly found anarcheological expedition in Mongolia.If I signed up, I would be working

under the direction of expertarchaeologists, helping them excavateartifacts left behind by the inhabitantsof the Ikh Nart oasis as early as9000 years ago. At the campsite, Iwould be staying in a traditionalMongolian yurt where a cook preparesmeals and I could try traditionalMongolian baked goods and eveningmeals, including fermented mare’smilk and a Mongolian barbecue.

For a growing number of people,this is a fun way to spend a few weeks.Mind you, these trips are not cheap.Two weeks on the Mongolia dig isUS$3000 – but it is a bargaincompared to some of the more exotictours and expeditions.

If getting your knees in the dirt anddrinking mare’s milk are impractical ora bit too extreme for your taste, thereare more traditional tour formats with astrong scientific theme. In the comingyear, Australian Geographic TravelWith Us is offering expeditions to theKimberley Coast, an Aboriginal Art AirTour, a Southeast Asia Expedition and(my favourite) In Shackleton’sFootsteps.


There’s no reason toleave your scientificcuriosity at homewhen you take aholiday, says Terry Clayton.

The

traveller

Yuriy Chaban/iStockphoto

Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition of1914–17 was one of the more colourfulepisodes in a tradition that began inthe 1700s with the explosive interest inscience and reason we now call TheEnlightenment. Along with trade andconquest, scientific curiosity became anew motive for exploration. Darwin’sBeagle comes about halfway down along list of scientific voyages aboardmilitary vessels that begins withHMS Dolphin in 1764 and continues tothis day. Take Australia’s Department ofthe Environment and Energy and theirongoing program of scientific researchunder their Antarctic Division.Unfortunately, they don’t offer tours, butthey do have a terrific website, givingus all the opportunity to be armchairShackletons.

Touring has its own long tradition.Part of the Enlightenment experiencewas the Grand Tour. Aristocratic youngmen were routinely packed off with aknowledgeable guide and tutor toabsorb the classical roots of Westerncivilisation in the capitals of Europeand, no less importantly, to meet andgreet their fellow aristocrats. Thosewith a genuine thirst for knowledgecould network with the great minds ofthe day. The tradition declined with thegrowth of rail and steamship travel andwhen Thomas Cook introduced masstourism with the Cook’s Tour.

Mass tourism today has becomethe mainstay of more than a fewnational economies and has splinteredinto scores of submarkets catering toevery imaginable interest. You canpursue your interests in sciencethrough agri, atomic, eco, geo ornature tourism. Sadly, there is nochemical tourism.

Or is there? Tourism doesn’t have to mean

‘holiday’, not if you think of it as‘knowledge-oriented travel’. If youtravel extensively for work, considercombining business and pleasure. Justcheck with your tax accountant whatyou can claim.

Few trips combine business andpleasure better than the professionalconference. You may already know thewebsitechemistry.conferenceseries.com,which lists upcoming conferencesaround the world by country and topic.

Just for fun, let’s see what’s on inFrance.

In 2017, there will be no less than29 international chemistry conferencesin Paris alone. The World Congress onNatural Products Chemistry and


A 1932 statue of Sir Ernest Shackletonstands outside the London headquartersof the Royal Geographical Society.Michel Wal/CC BY-SA 3.0

Whatever themonth, if you aretravelling to somedistant shore, itmakes sense toextend your trip aday or two to takein a bit of cultureand a dash ofscience ...

A resources tour in the Pilbara, south of the Kimberley region in Western Australia, is afascinating insight into Australia’s iron ore mining industry. Stuart Woollett

Research sounds like it has wideappeal. That’s in October. It is a bitcool and wet in October, but it is offseason, so you will get better pricesand shorter queues anywhere youventure beyond the conference venue.

Whatever the month, if you aretravelling to some distant shore, itmakes sense to extend your trip a dayor two to take in a bit of culture and adash of science as I did when I onceattended a conference in Townsville. Ipresented a paper, I learned a lot, andI met new colleagues with whom Istayed in contact for some timeafterwards on a professional basis. Itwould have been a huge lostopportunity to travel all that way fromBangkok and not visit one of thewonders of the natural world, the GreatBarrier Reef. I stayed on one more dayfor a snorkelling tour and consider it agreat investment.

Years later, on my way through Paristo a science meeting in Montpellier, Iarranged two extra days in Paris to visitthe Louvre and the Jardin des Plantes,

France’s main botanical gardens. Thatwas November and the Louvre waspractically deserted. At the Jardin desPlantes, there just happened to be alecture on entomology that day. I am notparticularly interested in entomology,and I understood about every fifth wordof the lecture, which was in French ofcourse, but I do love history. The thrillwas to be sitting in a lecture that waspart of a series dating back to the timeof Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte deBuffon, the man who became curator ofthe gardens in 1739.

These little layovers were well worththe extra personal expense – and no,you are not skiving off if you do themon your own time and at your ownexpense. You may even be able toclaim a tax deduction for the cost ofattending seminars, conferences oreducation workshops that are clearlyconnected to your work activities. Thiscan include formal education coursesprovided by professional associations.Check the Government of Australiawebsite for details.

Even if you can’t add any time toyour trip, it’s not unusual to have thebetter part of a day waiting for yourflight home. What better opportunityfor a quick trip to some of the world’sgreat science museums.

Science museums have beenaround for ages. The Natural HistoryMuseum in London was established in1881 and the Academy of NaturalSciences in Philadelphia goes back to1812. Closer to home is Te PapaMuseum in Wellington. While notstrictly a science museum, it has hugecollections of fossils andarchaeozoology, plant and birdspecimens, not to mention the largestgiant squid specimen in the world.Most major cities have a science ornatural history museum. All you needto do is type ‘science museums’ inyour browser, or go to the Wikiscience tourism site, and that takescare of what to do before departuretime.

Few of the museums or sciencecentres I have visited in person or


Beginning in the mid-17th century, the developing idea of travelling for curiosity’s sake wasrealised in the form of the Grand Tour of Europe (a typical route is shown). Scientificinstruments were among the many souvenirs of these adventures. Szarka Gyula/CC BY-SA 3.0

Launching points

Try these search terms in your browser:• Science museums in Australia • Scienceworks Melbourne• Questacon outreach travelling

exhibitions• World’s best science centres • World’s best museumsWiki Science Tourism has a good list oflaboratories worldwide that host opendays.

The Australian Nuclear Science andTechnology Organisation offers tours,kids’ school holiday workshops, scienceconferences and other public events.

CSIRO hosts an annual ScienceBootcamp, offers tours and events, andhas a discovery centre in Canberra.

Science- and nature-oriented tours: • Royal Geographical Society• PolarTREC• WiseOceans • Earthwatch Institute• Australian Geographic Travel With Us

virtually have displays or activitiesspecifically about chemistry. I see ahuge opportunity here for chemistryeducation. Many museums andscience centres have travelling roadshows and are looking to developexciting displays.

Also on the lookout for exhibitionsis the soon to be opened Nobel Centerin Sweden. Museum directors fromaround the world, including thedirector of the Australian Centre for theMoving Image in Melbourne, met thisyear to discuss future exhibitions.

And, finally, there is the chemistry oftourism itself.

Tourism can be a great economicboon to a city, region or country, butthere is growing concern about itssocial and environmental costs. In herrecent book Tourism and oil, SusanneBecken, Director of the Griffith Institutefor Tourism at Griffith University,discusses the impact of oil prices ontourism.

Becken’s book looks mainly ateconomic implications, but it is a goodjumping off point for chemistry. Forexample, any assessment of tourism-related environmental impacts onwater, air, soil or waste products wouldbenefit from inexpensive and easy-to-use rapid chemical test kits. UKtourism researcher Louise Twining-Ward teamed up with New ZealandAid, Samoa Visitors Bureau and theSouth Pacific Regional Environment

Facility to publish an Indicatorhandbook (bit.ly/2eiKVpt) that listseight environmental concerns. Onlyone, water quality, comes with achemical test.

For inspiration, we could look atmobile and web-based apps likeiStreem, a resource that predicts theconcentration of chemicals used in‘down-the-drain’ cleaning products, orthe Good Fish mobile app you can useto guide your choice of sustainablyharvested seafood. Imagine the impactof even a small percentage of travellersrefusing to order the fish because itdoesn’t show up on the sustainablyharvested list.

Australia is host to eight millionvisitor arrivals every year. About halfcome for holidays and the rest forbusiness, education and visitingfriends and relatives. In 2015, visitors

spent $36 billion in Australia, anaverage of about $4500 per visitor.Adding a ‘knowledge’ orientation totourism would not only bring in a fewextra dollars, it would help maketourism more sustainable.

The UN has declared 2017 to be theInternational Year of SustainableTourism for Development. Three of theSustainable Development Goals (8, 12and 14) explicitly address tourism.Conspicuous by its absence ischemistry. Now would be a good timeto fix that and, in the process, raiseawareness of the recently publishedDecadal Plan for Chemistry.

I can see it now: the GrandAustralian Chemical Trail.

Terry Clayton is a freelance commercial writer,blogger and educator with a wide range of interestsin the physical sciences and humanities. See more ofTerry’s work at www.terryerle.com.


The architects’ impression of a Nobel Center exhibition space. © David Chipperfield Architects

Most popular science centres by number of visitors1 Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, Paris 5 000 0002 Science Museum, London 2 700 0003 Shanghai Science and Technology Museum 2 500 0004 National Science and Technology Museum, Taiwan 2 050 7905 Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago 1 605 0206 Pacific Science Center, Seattle 1 602 0007 Museum of Science, Boston 1 600 0008 Science City, Kolkata 1 522 7269 Ontario Science Center, Toronto 1 509 912

10 Deutsches Museum, Munich 1 500 000

Adding a‘knowledge’orientation totourism would notonly bring in a fewextra dollars, itwould help maketourism moresustainable.

Ronald J. Clarketraces thedevelopment ofbiophysicalchemistry and itsemergence inAustralia.

IIt appears that Australianuniversities and funding bodiesare increasingly coming toappreciate interdisciplinary

research. This is reflected in part bythe number of interdisciplinary centresestablished in recent years; forexample, the Bio21 Institute(Melbourne), the ARC Centre ofExcellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics(Adelaide) and the Australian Institutefor Nanoscale Science and Technology(Sydney).

However, interdisciplinary researchin Australia isn’t new. For more than60 years, Australia has had a traditionof research in biophysical chemistry, atruly interdisciplinary field,overlapping biology, physics andchemistry. At its centre is the solving ofbiological problems, and striving fordeep understanding based onmathematical theories and principlesfrom the physical sciences.

Significant advances must still bemade within areas of pure physics,chemistry or biology, and experts forspecific fields will always be essential.However, many research problems,particularly those related to livingsystems, cannot be solved byapproaches limited to one discipline.Physics, chemistry and biology eachhave their own languages, but to solvean interdisciplinary research problem,communication across disciplines isrequired and scientists able to speakthe languages of other disciplines playa crucial role.

Consider the major developmentsthat have occurred in science over thepast 100 years. The first half of the20th century can be said to belong tophysics, through the development ofquantum theory and the revolutionarychange in our view of matter andenergy that it introduced. Over thesecond half of the 20th century,


Australia’sbiophysical chemistrytraditioniStockphoto/v_alex

biology was dominant, with thediscovery of how genetic informationis stored within DNA and thedevelopment of gene technology. Thisbroad generalisation appears to leaveout chemistry altogether, but this isn’tactually so. Nowadays it is impossibleto imagine any first-year universitychemistry course without quantumtheory. It represents a fundamentalfoundation of chemistry, providing anexplanation for structure and bondingand ultimately chemical reactivity.

Modern biology is in fact molecularbiology. From the word ‘molecular’, thecore role of chemistry is clear. Tounderstand the development ofbiophysical chemistry, let’s reflect onthe origins of molecular biology andhow the shift in emphasis betweenphysics and biology occurred in themid-20th century.

Physicists played a large part in thefounding of molecular biology. In 1932,the Danish physicist Niels Bohr gave alecture entitled ‘Light and Life’ at aconference in Copenhagen. There,Bohr expressed the opinion that thenew idea of the complementary wave–particle nature of matter might bemirrored by a complementaryrelationship in biology, and, analogousto Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle,there could be a limit on ourunderstanding of life itself.

At this lecture was a young Germanphysicist, Max Delbrück (Nobel Prizein Physiology or Medicine, 1969).Delbrück was so influenced by Bohr’slecture that he devoted the rest of hiscareer to biology and the search forthe theoretical limit in ourunderstanding of life. In 1935, hepublished his first biological researchpaper, in which he and hiscollaborators showed that geneticinformation could be mutated ordestroyed by X-ray damage, leading tothe conclusion that the information wassomehow encoded within a moleculepresent within each living cell.

Although Bohr’s influence onDelbrück was certainly decisive forthe origins of molecular biology, an

even more pivotal character in the driftfrom physics to biology was ErwinSchrödinger, the founder of wavemechanics. After Schrödinger fled theNazi government of Austria, he took upa professorship in Dublin, where in1943 he held a series of lectures(subsequently published) entitled‘What is Life?’. Schrödinger expressedhis views on how genetic informationmight be encoded within livingorganisms. First, Schrödingerpublicised the work of Delbrück,which hadn’t yet received muchattention. Second, he suggested thatgenetic information might be storedwithin an aperiodic molecular crystal,surprisingly close to the markconsidering that a gene was then stillan abstract term.

The effect of Schrödinger’s book onthe development of molecular biologywas profound. In their biographies,both Watson and Crick acknowledgeits influence on their careers. The factthat it was written by a founder ofquantum theory held in such highesteem in the scientific community

contributed greatly to its impact. Thetiming of the book could also hardlyhave been better. As World War IIended and scientists everywhere sawwhere atomic physics had led (i.e. tothe atom bomb), many lost interest inphysics and were looking for otherfields of research. Schrödinger’s bookgave legitimacy for hordes of physicalscientists to move into biology, whichled to the burgeoning of the fields ofbiophysics and biophysical chemistry.To mention one example, WalterMoore, who held the Chair of PhysicalChemistry at the University of Sydneyfrom 1974 to 1983, actually worked onthe Manhattan Project, but turned hisattention to biological molecules (e.g.myelin) after the war.

Another who was profoundlyinfluenced by the atom bomb wasLinus Pauling, who became a powerfulpeace activist. Pauling madesignificant contributions to molecularbiology through discovering thea-helical and b-pleated sheetconformations of protein structures.His earlier work was in X-raydiffraction, quantum chemistry and thenature of chemical bonding. In hiscase, one couldn’t say his move intobiology was influenced by the war, forhe’d started researching proteins in themid-1930s. Nor could one say he wasinfluenced by another scientist. ForPauling and for many others, then andsince, the motivation to tacklebiological questions was most likelythe innate drive to search for greaterchallenges, or the flight from boredomor monotony. Pauling had beenstudying small molecules since the1920s. For him, it was a naturalprogression to turn his attentions to themore complex molecules of nature.

Another significant physicist in thedevelopment of molecular biologywhose motivation parallels Pauling’s isthe Australian-born Lawrence Bragg.Together with his father, William Bragg,he studied X-ray diffraction of crystalsand discovered the relationshipbetween diffraction patterns and theatomic spacing within a crystal lattice.


Although Bohr’sinfluence onDelbrück wascertainly decisivefor the origins ofmolecular biology,an even morepivotal character inthe drift fromphysics to biologywas ErwinSchrödinger, thefounder of wavemechanics.

It is well documented that LawrenceBragg had a lifelong interest in biology,in particular shells, which he collectedas a boy on Adelaide’s beaches.

In light of his childhoodexperiences, it seems natural thatBragg would eventually grow tired ofstudying X-ray diffraction patterns ofmineral crystals and would wish toturn to biological macromolecules. AsDirector of the Cavendish Laboratory,University of Cambridge, 1938–53, heplayed a crucial role in providing thescientific environment that enabled histeam of outstanding scientists to solveboth the first three-dimensional proteinstructures (Perutz and Kendrew) andthe double-helical structure of DNA(Watson and Crick). Their successesattracted many others to tackle thecomplexities of biological molecules,including Hans Freeman at theUniversity of Sydney, whose team in1977 solved the structure of the proteinplastocyanin.

So physicists, both intentionallyand unintentionally, contributedgreatly to the rise of biology in themiddle of the 20th century. Partly dueto the impact of Schrödinger’s book,the mechanism by which geneticinformation is stored and transmittedwas one of the hottest topics of thetime. However, Schrödinger was of theopinion that physics alone could notprovide the solution, as is clear fromthe following quote from What is life?:‘Indeed, I do not expect that anydetailed information on this questionis likely to come from physics in thenear future. The advance isproceeding and will, I am sure,continue to do so, from biochemistryunder the guidance of physiology andgenetics.’ As Schrödinger predicted,chemical investigations provedcrucial.

Denis Oswald ‘Doj’ Jordan can beconsidered the founder of Australia’stradition in biophysical chemistry.Jordan was in the thick of research onDNA in the late 1940s and early 1950s.In 1939, he was appointed as assistantlecturer at University CollegeNottingham. There he gained his PhDbased on research, totallyunsupervised, of electrokineticphenomena, and came into contactwith Professor J. Masson Gulland, anorganic chemist with a special interestin biological molecules and theapplication of physical methods. Since1931, Gulland had been researchingthe structure of nucleic acids. Nodoubt keen to have a collaborator witha physicochemical background,Gulland suggested that Jordaninvestigate the physical chemistry ofnucleic acids. This wasn’t an easy taskbecause of the difficulty in obtainingpure samples. Eventually, in 1947, theysucceeded in developing apreparation of pure DNA from calfthymus. What followed was a series ofthree ground-breaking studies inwhich they concluded that DNA was ahighly polymeric molecule stabilisedby hydrogen bonds between thebases, probably on adjacent chains.

Tragedy struck the same year whenGulland was killed in a train derailment.There’s no way of knowing whetherGulland and Jordan would have solvedthe double helical structure beforeWatson and Crick if their collaborationcould have continued. What is certain isthat the work they did accomplishtogether had a significant impact. In hisbook The double helix Watson wrote:‘But a recent rereading of J.M. Gulland’sand D.O. Jordan’s papers on the acidand base titrations of DNA made mefinally appreciate the strength of theirconclusion that a large fraction, if not all,of the bases formed hydrogen bonds toother bases. Even more important,these hydrogen bonds were present atvery low DNA concentrations, stronglyhinting that the bonds linked bases inthe same molecule.’

Following the death of Gulland,Jordan continued his studies on nucleicacids. After a year at PrincetonUniversity in 1948, he returned toNottingham and in 1953 was promotedto reader. By that time John Coates*had started as a PhD student underJordan’s supervision. In his ownbiographical memoir of Jordan, Johnreminisced: ‘In the late autumn of 1953Doj announced to his assembledresearch students that he had beenappointed to a chair and after a shortpause added “in Adelaide, SouthAustralia”. The appointment caused nosurprise but its location was quite


Denis Oswald ‘Doj’ Jordan. Courtesy University of Adelaide Archives

... LawrenceBragg had alifelong interest inbiology, inparticular shells,which he collectedas a boy onAdelaide’sbeaches.

*John Coates, who was the author’s PhD supervisor,died in June. His obituary appears on p. 34.

unexpected; indeed some, not Testcricket enthusiasts, had no idea whereAdelaide was!’

What motivated Jordan’sacceptance of the position asprofessor of physical chemistry at theUniversity of Adelaide is unclear.Jordan may have remembered thatGulland’s PhD supervisor, Sir RobertRobinson, was Professor of Pure andApplied Organic Chemistry at theUniversity of Sydney from 1912 to1915. That a stint in Australia didn’t dohis career any harm was clear,because in 1947 Robinson wasawarded the Nobel Prize forinvestigations on plant alkaloids.Jordan’s stint would last for the rest ofhis life.

In Adelaide, Jordan broadened hisresearch to encompass synthetic

polymers as well as natural polymers,but the overall themes of his researchremained, i.e. to understand thestability of the DNA structure anddetermine how the solution chemistryof polymers depends on their structureand stereochemistry. With time, Jordanbuilt up his new Department ofPhysical and Inorganic Chemistry intoone of the strongest and most active inAustralia. In 1963, he succeeded infinding funding for a new building,which in 1981 was named the JordanLaboratories in his honour. He wasvery active within the Australianchemical community, particularly theRACI. He organised the first nationalpolymer chemistry conference inAdelaide in 1957, which led to thefounding of the RACI Polymer Division.The Division’s highest award for

outstanding work in polymerchemistry is named the Batteard–Jordan Medal in recognition of hiscontributions to the polymer field inAustralia.

Through the PhD students Jordansupervised and their own subsequentstudents who continued to work in thefield and established their ownpersonal areas of expertise,biophysical chemistry has spreadthroughout Australia, with members ofacademic staff at the ANU, University ofTechnology Sydney, and theUniversities of Melbourne, Sydney,Queensland, Adelaide and SouthAustralia able to trace their academicancestry back directly to D.O. Jordan.

Ronald J. Clarke MRACI CChem is at the School ofChemistry, University of Sydney. The author thanksJenny Turner and Philip Kuchel for helpful discussions.


The Johnson laboratories, where Jordan worked at the University of Adelaide. Courtesy University of Adelaide Archives

PeriodicityThe biggest chemistry news so far thisyear has been the proposed naming ofthe four newest elements. The namesnihonium, moscovium, tennessine andoganesson have entered our lexicon,for elements 113 (Nh), 115 (Mc), 117(Ts) and 118 (Og). These wereproposed by their attributeddiscoverers, and by the time ofpublication should have been ratified(or rejected) by IUPAC.

Nihonium, named for Japan, wasproposed by the RIKEN NishinaCenter for Accelerator-based Sciencein Wako, near Tokyo.

Moscovium and tennessine, forMoscow and Tennessee respectively,were jointly proposed by thecollaboration of the Joint Institute forNuclear Research in Dubna, Russia,and the Lawrence Livermore NationalLaboratory in California, USA. Thesame collaboration proposed thenaming of oganesson in honour of YuriOganessian ‘for his pioneering

contributions to transactinoid elementsresearch’.

Coffee mug manufacturersworldwide have expresseddisappointment that elements don’tbetter lend themselves to spellingwords. ‘We need more elementvowels,’ said Joe Caffeine,spokesperson for the Coffee MugAssociation, ‘The caffeine moleculecan only take us so far.’

In an effort to stay relevant,mathematicians announced thediscovery of a new prime number, thebiggest so far: ‘We took the biggestnumber that we could think of, andadded one.’ But at just 22 million digits,chemists laughed off the ‘discovery’with the witty retort ‘Avagadro, ya mug’.

Meanwhile, chemists arecelebrating having reached the end ofour laboratory days. The periodictable is complete, everyone. We can allgo home now, maybe go out and get alittle sun (wearing sunblock … whichwe invented).


Dave Sammuttakes a light-hearted look atsome of this year’schemistryhighlights.

2016Celebratingchemistry

fotojog/iStockphoto

In space, no one can smellyour steamSince the Rosetta probe came closeenough to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, ongoing analysis usingdouble-focusing mass spectrometryand reflection time-of-flight massspectrometry has detected theexpected water, carbon monoxide andcarbon dioxide, but also key lifeingredients such as glycine and itsprecursors, and phosphorus, and keylife-ending compounds such ashydrogen cyanide.

With krypton and xenon alsodetected in 2016, some might say thepossibility of fugitive interstellarsuperbeing refugees has not beenabsolutely ruled out. I can just imaginea Federal Minister for Alien Affairs (yetto be appointed) responding: ‘I don’tcare if they can fly; no unauthorisedsuperbeing will ever be allowed onthis country’s soil. They can just stayairborne.’

Collectively, comet 67P has beendescribed as smelling of ‘rotten eggs,cat pee and bitter almonds’. Visitingastronauts are advised not to take offtheir helmets.

UK perfumers The Aroma Company,in collaboration with Open Universityscientist Dr Colin Snodgrass, havereproduced the comet’s aroma in2016, coming soon to a counter nearyou. Professional chemists have beenobserved carefully wafting the AromaCompany’s scent-imprinted cardswithin the safe confines of their fumecupboards.


... comet 67P has been described assmelling of ‘rotten eggs, cat pee andbitter almonds’.

For the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission, NASA provided part of the electronicspackage for the double-focusing mass spectrometer (pictured), which is part of the Swiss-built Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument.ROSINA is the first instrument with the resolution to separate two molecules that haveapproximately the same mass: molecular nitrogen and carbon monoxide. Clearidentification of nitrogen will help scientists understand conditions at the time the solarsystem was born. University of Bern/Lockheed Martin

117117

TsTsTennessineTennessine

(294)(294)

113113

NhNhNihoniumNihonium(286)(286)

114

FlFlerovium(289)

115115

McMcMoscoviumMoscovium

(288)(288)

116

LvLivermorium

(293)

118118

OgOgOganessonOganesson

(294)(294)Rdsmith4/CC-BY-SA 2.5 A. Savin/CC-BY-SA 3.0 Kremlin.ru/CC-BY 4.0

Nobel endeavoursOn the basis of the parental advice‘good things come in small packages’,the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry hasbeen jointly awarded to Jean-PierreSauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart andBernard L. Feringa ‘for the design andsynthesis of molecular machines’ (seep. 7). Given that the most sophisticatedmolecular machine developed so farhas been a ring and axle, pundits haveobserved that it seems overkill to behanding out prizes for literallyreinventing the wheel.

Feeling hot, hot, hotThis year has been a big one forclimate science. In March, it wasreported that global averagetemperatures had briefly spiked 2°Cabove the pre-industrial average. TheUniversity of Massachusetts Amherstreported that sea-level rises couldnearly double over earlier estimates inthe next 100 years. And the Max PlanckInstitute for Chemistry reported that infuture decades, the Middle East andNorth Africa could become so hot thathuman habitability is compromised.The more sarcastic residents of Dubaimight well respond: ‘Have you been tothe Middle East lately?’

In related news, reports of the firstsuccessful gene therapy to lengthentelomeres and thereby delay ageinghas caused some conservativepoliticians to sit up and take notice.With the possibility that they might livelong enough to be affected by climatechange, they are suddenly much lesskeen to debunk the scientificconsensus.


Sinai Peninsula, Middle East, as seenfrom STS-66 orbiter Atlantis. Climatescience predicts that increasingtemperatures in future decades willmake parts of the Middle East and NorthAfrica uninhabitable. NASA

In March, it was reported that globalaverage temperatures had briefly spiked2°C above the pre-industrial average.

Faster, stronger, greenerChemistry is of course fundamental toevery aspect of daily life, but this factwas brought to the world stage at the2016 Rio Olympics diving pool. Billedas the ‘Greenest Olympics ever’, theorganisers took the marketing hype toextreme levels.

The diving pool was slammed byGerman diver Stephan Feck assmelling like a ‘fart’. Australia’sswimmers were more sympathetic,combining the bleaching of theexcess chlorine added in responseto the crises with the residualalgae to put on a truly patrioticdisplay of green and gold.

RACI National Award winnersRACI congratulates all the RACINational Award winners who arecelebrating winning prizes for 2016.Full details will be published in theFebruary edition.

I would like to thank the RACI forallowing me to write for Chemistry inAustralia, and most particularly SallyWoollett (Editor) and CatherineGreenwood (Production Editor) for allof their hard work, guidance andpatience throughout the year.

Dave Sammut FRACI CChem is principal of DCSTechnical, a boutique scientific consultancy,providing services to the Australian and internationalminerals, waste recycling and general scientificindustries.


The water of the Rio Olympic diving pool turned green after 80 litres of hydrogen peroxide was mistakenly added to the pool during cleaning.The hydrogen peroxide neutralised the chlorine and allowed algae to bloom. Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil/CC-BY-2.0

Colin Raston


raci news

For his revolutionary drug developmenttechnologies, Professor Richard PayneMRACI CChem from the University ofSydney has been awarded the 2016Malcolm McIntosh Prize for PhysicalScientist of the Year.

Drugs based on proteins found innature have huge medicinal potential.Take stroke for example – the leadingcause of disability in Australians. Blood-sucking leeches, ticks and mosquitoes allproduce powerful anticlotting proteins toensure they get a good feed from theirvictims. But turning these proteins intodrugs is difficult and usually involvesmaking the proteins in mammalian orinsect cells, then harvesting and tryingto purify the protein.

Payne’s technologies bypass thosechallenges. Instead, he recreates theprotein in the chemistry laboratory,building it one amino acid at a time.Along the way, he can tweak the pureprotein to fine-tune its performance.

He has recreated the anticlottingagents found in ticks and modified themto make them into potent anticlottingdrugs that cause less bleeding thancurrently used anticoagulant therapies.These drugs are expected to enter pre-clinical assessment in the next year.

The complications and cost ofconventional drug discovery has meantthat new drugs that are desperatelyneeded to treat TB and malaria – twoenormous global health problems – havebeen slow to emerge.

Following support from the Bill andMelinda Gates Foundation for his PhD atCambridge, Payne is prioritising the useof his new technologies to tackle globalhealth issues. For malaria, he’sdeveloping modified versions ofgallinamide A, a peptide-based naturalproduct found in marine bacteria in theWest Indies, that have shown excellentresults at clearing a malarial infection invivo. He’s also working with compoundsfrom soil bacteria that show strongantibiotic effects and kill drug-resistantstrains of TB.

One-third of the world’s population(about two billion people) are thought tobe infected with TB. It kills more than1.5 million people per year and isbecoming resistant to most of the drugsused to treat it. Payne hopes that his TBdrug candidates will lead to new andeffective drugs within the decade.

Payne and his team have alsodeveloped the first fully synthetic cancervaccine candidates possessing all thecomponents required to stimulate animmune response for the eradication oftumours.

Certain proteins on cell surfaces aredecorated with sugar molecules. Payne

has shown that cancer cells produce moreof these sugar molecules and that theyhave different chemical structures fromthe molecules on normal cells. He’s madesegments of these sugar-derived proteinsand shown that they can generateantibodies that attack cancer cellsselectively. Work is underway to testthese potential vaccines in models ofpancreatic cancer and breast cancer.

Richard Payne is Professor of OrganicChemistry and Chemical Biology at theUniversity of Sydney. He is an AustralianResearch Council Future Fellow.

Science in Public

Richard Payne wins Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year

Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science/WildBear


Professor Gordon Wallace FRACI CChem has won the CSIROEureka Prize for Leadership in Innovation and Science.

Recognised for his work as an internationally renownedresearcher at the University of Wollongong’s ARC Centre ofExcellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), Wallace wascommended at the Eureka Prize gala dinner in Sydney, for hiscultivation of a research vision in the area of ‘intelligentpolymers’.

The Eureka Prizes are Australia’s most comprehensivenational science awards, presented annually by the AustralianMuseum to reward outstanding achievements in Australianscience.

Wallace said his Eureka Prize acknowledged the pioneeringwork undertaken by his collaborative team, in the use ofnanotechnology and additive fabrication in renewable energyand medical science.

‘This award acknowledges the ability of ACES and its partnersto take fundamental discovery to real applications,’ Wallace said.

‘It takes an integrated, cohesive and committed team toachieve this.’

‘A great team can make most people look like a goodcaptain.’

In his acceptance speech, Wallace thanked the people hehas worked with over his 30 years at the University ofWollongong.

‘Thank you to the hundreds of people I’ve worked witharound this country, especially those at ACES and the AustralianNational Fabrication Facility,’ Wallace said.

‘Thank you also to the community we work for. You can beassured that you have around this country, research scientiststotally committed not only to discoveries in the lab, but totranslating those discoveries to practical outcomes in the mosteffective and efficient way possible, so that we can all leadbetter lives.’

Natalie Foxon Phillips, University of Wollongong Media

Smart materials pioneer wins Eureka prize

Professor Gordon Wallace and a 3D printing polymer model of a brain, with colleague Dr Stephen Beirne. University of Wollongong

obituary


Biophysical chemistJohn Coates died on 10 June 2016 at the age of 83. He had adistinguished career in the Department of Physical andInorganic Chemistry at the University of Adelaide. John’scontributions to science were mainly in biophysical chemistry, afield in which he was a pioneer in Australia.

John was born in Ringstead in Northamptonshire, UK. Hestudied chemistry at Nottingham University and began his PhDwork in the early 1950s on the chemistry of DNA with thephysical chemist Denis Oswald ‘Doj’ Jordan, who together withJ. Masson Gulland, an organic chemist, had begun carrying outresearch on DNA a few years earlier.

When Jordan was appointed to a professorship in physicalchemistry at the University of Adelaide, John had to choosebetween emigration to Australia or changing his PhD topic andcompleting his studies under a different supervisor. John choseAustralia. He arrived in Adelaide in 1954 after a long seajourney as a ten-pound passenger. In fact, John arrived a fewweeks before Jordan, and, because of this, at the University ofAdelaide he was jokingly referred to as ‘John the Baptist’. Theaptness of this name was reinforced by an earthquake inAdelaide in the night of 1 March 1954. John woke up, realisedit was an earthquake, but, since he’d only just arrived, hethought this must be a regular occurrence, and so turned overand went back to sleep.

The only piece of equipment Jordan brought with him toAdelaide was a new analytical ultracentrifuge. John was a heavyuser of this instrument and became an expert in the applicationof analytical ultracentrifugation to biological systems. Togetherwith Jordan, John researched the effect of heat on the stabilityof DNA and the retardation of its chain melting by electrolytes.Such fundamental work provided a basis on which modernmolecular biology could be built, in particular the currentapplication of the polymerase chain reaction.

On his arrival in Adelaide, Jordan immediately gained twohonours students, Tom Kurucsev and Ted Treloar, who chose himas their supervisor purely on his reputation. Tom, Ted and Johnbecame good friends, and remained in contact for the rest oftheir lives. Ted later moved to Melbourne and became a memberof the academic staff in the Department of Physical Chemistryat the University of Melbourne, whereas John and Tom stayed inAdelaide and gained appointments in the Department ofPhysical and Inorganic Chemistry. In the 1980s, Tom and Johnserved successive terms as chairman of the department. From1968 to 1980, John also held the position of Foundation Masterof Kathleen Lumley College, one of the University of Adelaide’sresidential colleges, which provides a home for mostly overseaspostgraduate students.

In the 1970s, John switched the emphasis of his researchfrom ultracentrifugation to rapid reaction kinetics. John hadseveral stopped-flow systems, a temperature-jump spectrometer

and a pressure-jump apparatus built in the department’sexcellent workshops from designs he supplied. From the mid-1970s, he had a long and fruitful collaboration with theinorganic chemist Stephen Lincoln, an expert in NMRspectroscopy, in particular the kinetic application of lineshapeanalysis. Together, they published a series of papers on thekinetics of ligand substitution reactions of metal complexes. Atthe beginning of the 1980s they switched their attention to thechemistry of cyclodextrins and their inclusion complexformation. Their collaboration on the cyclodextrins continueduntil John’s retirement in 1993.

John’s published research was always of the highest quality,and included two Nature papers. He had a strong belief in thevalue of good solid science. Simply being first past the post wasnot his top priority. He was a real gentleman and it was a joy towork with him or under his supervision.

In the year before he retired, John’s first wife Claudia sadlydied after a long illness. Soon after her death he re-connectedwith Aileen, former wife of his friend Ted Treloar, who herselfhad been widowed for 13 years. They married shortly after and,together with Aileen, John was able to enjoy a long and happyretirement. John is survived by Aileen, his three children, Anna,Toby and Nick, and six grandchildren. He will be sorely missedby all who knew him.

Ronald J. Clarke MRACI CChem

The author thanks Associate Professor Toby Coates, Professor Stephen Lincoln andAssociate Professor Tak Kee of the University of Adelaide for providing valuableinformation.

John Hewlett Coates, 1932–2016

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from the raci


When I joined the RACI a few years ago, I did so with theexpress intention of giving something back to the nextgeneration of young scientists. So it has been my very greatpleasure to work with other members, and most particularly theNew South Wales Young Chemists Group (YCG) on a range ofinitiatives to maximise the value of membership for student andearly career members.

Here are some of the ideas that we have been working on inNSW.

NSW mentoring programStarting in 2015, we have been developing and growing theNSW RACI mentoring program. Through one-on-one mentoringrelationships, the aim is to develop the mentees’ skills andpreparedness for the job search, as well as to help them developtheir networks.

According to Graduate Careers surveys(www.graduatecareers.com.au), personal networks are alreadythe greatest source for locating career opportunities, even atthe graduate level (and building from there).

In the 2015 pilot, both mentees not only graduated withjobs, but they graduated with their dream jobs. Most of thementees in the 2016 program already have their jobs lined up,and the program is being expanded in 2017 with the aim ofhaving student members from each of the five main Sydneyuniversities, and hopefully the University of Newcastle as well.

Places will have already been allocated by the time this goesto print, but if you know of any student member who isparticularly keen, then they should still contact the NSW Branchoffice. We’ll find some way to be of help.

Lecture series: understanding the job marketOver the course of 2016, I have had the privilege of presentingvariations on the ‘Understanding the Job Market’ lecture series,singly or as part of careers events, at most of the majoruniversities in Sydney and Newcastle, and to an RACI careersevent in Brisbane. The lecture series focuses on understandinghow the job market works, and the specific tips and techniquesthat a young chemist can employ to distinguish themselvesfrom the crowd.

Finding a good job takes effort, but it is eminentlyachievable. If you understand the process, you can shavemonths off your job search.

The full lecture series is freely available on the RACI website,and I invite RACI members from any institution to get in touchwith me if you would like me to present (at no charge, ofcourse) to your students. This can be particularly useful towardsthe beginning of the year, when the students still have monthsahead of them to take advantage of the advice on networking.

Networking eventsDuring 2016, the NSW Analytical and Environmental Grouparranged a very successful event in conjunction with the YCG.By simply adding a 90-minute networking session to the end ofa symposium, we were able to bring together 80 students,researchers and commercial/industrial representatives for ahighly successful networking event.

I urge each and every RACI group across Australia to givethe idea some consideration. The incremental time and cost inthe event organisation was minimal. The incremental value toRACI’s young members was outstanding. This should be aregular component of our event preparation.

These are just three of the initiatives that we have beenworking on. However, most of these are focused on studentmembers, and we should also be devoting time to encouraging,supporting and engaging early career members. I encourageeveryone reading this article to get in contact with your localYCG or me (through the NSW Branch office). We want to hearfrom you with your ideas, if you want to get involved, and/or ifyou know of young chemists who could benefit from taking partin the programs.

Dave Sammut FRACI CChem is a member of the NSW Branch committee and theNSW Analytical and Environmental Group committee. His business, DCS Technical,has a dedicated pro bono budget set aside for initiatives to help and supportyoung RACI members.

By simply adding a 90-minutenetworking session to the endof a symposium, we were ableto bring together 80 students,researchers and commercial/industrial representatives ...

RACI NSW initiatives for young chemists

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www.rowe.com.au

Reference materials from all major worldwide sources including:NIST (USA), CANMET (Canada), SABS (South Africa), BAS (UK), Standards Australia, BGS (UK), BCR (Belgium), NWRI (Canada), NRCC (Canada), Brammer (USA), Alpha (USA), Seishin (Japan)

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CERTIFIED REFERENCE MATERIALS


New FellowAnthony W. (Tony) Addison was born inSydney in 1946. With him always curiousabout the behaviour of stuff, his interestin chemistry was possibly sparked by themysterious jars in his older brother’srather neglected chemistry set, whichcontained prettily crystalline and colouredsubstances, some of which had strangeodours or tastes (lead acetate!). At ManlyBoys’ High School, he had two skilledChemistry teachers, Don Johnson andAndy Watson. Remarkably, Watson hadbeen a geologist with Mawson’s 1911

Australasian Antarctic Expedition.Addison received his BSc(Hons-I) in Applied Chemistry in 1968

from the University of New South Wales, publishing his firstresearch article under the tutelage of Associate ProfessorD.P. Graddon. His PhD program was at the University of Kent atCanterbury, where he worked with Professor R.D. Gillard onrhodium compounds, further developing his interests in transitionmetal chemistry. In 1970, he went to Northwestern University inEvanston to work with Professor I.M. Klotz on an NIH-fundedpostdoctoral fellowship (1970–2). This was where he learnedabout the physical biochemistry of metalloproteins. AtNorthwestern, he and his wife Barbara met and they married in1972. He then took up an assistant professor position at theUniversity of British Columbia (1972–8). In 1978, DrexelUniversity Chemistry Head Professor J.G. Kay made Addison anoffer he couldn’t refuse and he assumed his position in theChemistry Department at Drexel in Philadelphia. Now a professorin the department for over 20 years, he previously served asassistant and associate head and also as head of the department.

Addison’s research endeavours reflect his curiosity and wideinterests. He and his co-workers have produced about120 research articles encompassing bioinorganic, organic andtransition metal chemistry, several of which are quite highlycited. They have also produced several articles on educationaltopics and experiments and 130 conference presentations.Addison has been co-author/co-editor of two books.

The Drexel undergraduates note his infectious enthusiasm forchemistry and he was a Christian and Mary LindbackDistinguished Teaching Awardee in 1987. Other honours includethe John van Geuns Fonds Lectureship at the University ofAmsterdam (1985) and the American Chemical Society’s UllyotService Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistryand of the American Chemical Society. He is also a member of theCanadian Society for Chemistry and the International EPR/ESRSociety. Addison has been actively involved with the ACS foralmost 20 years.

Tony and Barbara, parents of two sons, are now empty-nesters,residing in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. They have been activeadvocates for people with autism. Addison’s hobbies are reading,classical music, photography, wine and woodworking.

Big fat mythsMeerman R., Penguin Random House, 2016,paperback, ISBN 9781925324273, 304 pp., $34.99

In Big fat myths, self-professed ‘physics nerd’Ruben Meerman reveals an ancient, secret formulafor weight loss. Eat less, move more. Yes folks, it isthat simple. The diet gurus are going to hate thisbook.

Meerman began with one of those deceptivelysimple questions that so often lead to greatinsights: what happens to the fat we lose? Turnsout we don’t ‘burn it off’; we breathe it out in theform of good old H2O and carbon. We actually loseweight in our sleep at the rate of about nine milligrams of carbonper breath. Just how that happens is fascinating and some of themost engaging chemistry I have ever read.

Meerman busts just about every ‘rule’ of dieting. Sugar is notpoison and it doesn’t matter what you eat as long as you expelmore carbon than you ingest. People have gone on McDonald’s-only diets, Twinkie diets and potato diets and they all lost weight.And their blood tests all showed improvements as well. I did saythe diet gurus would hate this book.

Meerman begins ‘to get chemical’ in the chapter on fatscience. We start with Santorio Sanctorius of Padua, the ‘father’ ofmetabolic balance studies. Santorio suspended himself from abalance beam to measure his weight before and after eating. Acentury later, the natural philosophers (Boyle, Hooke, Black,Lavoisier, Priestley and others) figured out the basics ofrespiration and metabolism, unwittingly setting the stage for abillion-dollar-a-year diet industry.

Here is the real secret. Fat, like everything else in our physicaluniverse, is made of atoms. Sounds obvious, but not recognisingthis simple fact is the basis for much of the controversy in theongoing weight-loss debate. There are differences betweensaturated, unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, but thosedifferences don’t matter one iota if weight loss is your goal. AsMeerman says in his final chapter: ‘…all their diets will work, butonly on one condition: weight loss occurs if and only if less atomsgo into the body than out.’ Call it the ‘atomic diet’.

Meerman writes with vigour and wit and has a deft hand witha metaphor, which means those of us with little or no chemistrycan follow the plot and professional chemists can enjoy thescience.

Unfortunately, what should be an informative and highlyentertaining read is tragically marred by errors too numerous tocount. Typos, missing and wrong words, subject–verbdisagreements – this looks very like a draft manuscript. For theaverage reader, this is the verbal version of an obstacle coursethat quickly becomes annoying to the point where most readerswill, I fear, simply give up in exasperation. This is trulyunfortunate because Big fat myths is the most sensible thing Ihave yet read on the subject of dieting and weight loss.

Terry Erle Clayton

raci news books


Grunt, the curious science ofhumans at warRoach M., W.W. Norton and Co., 2016, hard cover, ISBN 9781780749778, 288 pp., $22

Even if you normally have a dislike of military science books,don’t be tempted to leave this book on the shelves. Grunt, thecurious science of humans at war is not focused on areas manymay associate with military science, such as weaponsdevelopment or perhaps the latest advances in militaryvehicles, manned or unmanned. Nor is the book focused on thescience identified while the author, Mary Roach, was embeddedwith a military unit, trailing troops into combat zones such asIraq or Afghanistan. Most of the book instead takes a light-hearted look at the individuals (the science boffins) behind thescenes in military research institutions throughout the US, andhow the science they have a passion for helps to improve theconditions for military service men and woman.

A scientific education is not mandatory to enjoy this book,as its intent is to inform and entertain the reader rather than toeducate. Humour, including the self-deprecating form, isfrequent throughout the book as Roach reminds us that she isjust an everyday person experiencing the largely hidden worldof military science. Roach’s writing style is fantastic at settingthe scene, allowing the reader to experience her observationsand thoughts, and can make even the most boring facility,military officer or white-lab-coat-wearing scientist appearinteresting. However, don’t think that all involved in militaryresearch are the stereotypical pocket-protector-wearingscientist. Just as the areas of science or medical researchdetailed in Roach’s book can be unusual or unexpected, so canthe background of those undertaking the work. So you may besurprised, for instance, to know that former swimwear andbridal gown designers are part of the team helping to improvemilitary uniforms.

Significant work has been undertaken to improve militaryuniforms as they have developed from just a mere outfit to acrucial system also required to hold countless gizmos and thebatteries used to power them. Refreshingly, the book does notget bogged down in boring details such as the 22 pages of theUS Government button specifications, focusing instead on boththe people and their work. Some of the more unusual parts of‘Second Skin’, the chapter devoted to the military uniform,include the impact clothing design can have on military snipersand the research underway to develop explosion-proofunderwear (spoiler alert: they aren’t really explosion proof).

While interesting, this book covers much more than justmilitary clothing. The book comprises 14 chapters covering adiverse range of topics, both historical and current. Preventingdiarrhoea for army troops, tackling fatigue in navy submarinersand the development of shark repellents for airforce pilotsforced to ditch over the sea are examples of topics discussed.However, the author devotes most attention to IEDs(improvised explosive devices). There are chapters that focus on

improving vehicle designs towithstand IEDs, as well as thedevelopment of a test dummy touse in place of cadavers toexamine the impact of IEDs onthe human body. Efforts underwayto repair the injuries sustained bytroops as a result of IEDs, such aspenis reconstruction andtesticular transplants, are alsodiscussed. The latter topic is notonly interesting due to themedical challenges but alsobecause of the politics.Previously, military command hasfocused only on getting troopshome alive and for a long timethis appears to have beenincorrectly deemed sufficient. Roach’s ability to set the scene,including the politics, makes each chapter feel more like issuesand challenges that could be discussed with colleagues overmorning tea, rather than a lecture or military propaganda.

While the researchers and their work are the basis of Roach’sobservations, her interactions also include those with militarypersonal. These interactions are interesting given they highlightthe sometimes less-than-perfect relationship that can existbetween military personnel and the scientist, unflatteringlyreferred to as ‘Chairborne Rangers’. While the scientist’s aim isto always assist, their lack of deployment experience cansometimes result in solutions that create other issues. Forexample, while minimising hearing loss, hearing protection canreduce a soldier’s ability to have a clear understanding of theirsurrounds, potentially placing soldiers’ lives in increaseddanger. And electronic gadgets, while providing a technologicaladvantage, often have the side effect of increasing the weightsoldiers must lug around in addition to the batteries, weaponsand ammunition they already carry.

There are many standout features of the book, including abehind-the-scenes look at military science from the researcher’spoint of view and the courage to discuss the less glamorousmilitary topics that will never be part of the next Hollywoodblockbuster. Perhaps most pleasing is the fact that Roach’swriting style renders the discussion of science entertaining andappealing to a wide audience, including those typicallyuninterested in science.

Michael Leist MRACI CChem

John Wiley & Sons books are now available to RACI members at a20% discount. Log in to the members area of the RACI website,register on the Wiley Landing Page, in the Members Benefits area,search and buy. Your 20% discount will be applied to yourpurchase at the end of the process.

Receive 25% off Elsevier books at www.store.elsevier.com (usepromotion code PBTY15).

Your RACI Member Benefits

Member Advantage is the ultimate benefit experience. Your RACI Member Advantage program offers you and your family unlimited use and allows you to save money on your everyday expenses. Access an extensive range of financial and lifestyle member benefits.

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How do I access my benefits? Your member benefits can be accessed by phone and online via the Member Advantage website. For your dining and entertainment benefits, simply show the Ambassador Card logo on the front of your membership card at the point of sale.

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Chemistry in Australia 39Dec 2016/Jan 2017

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e R&D Tax Incentive program is designed to help Australiancompanies offset the cost of undertaking their research anddevelopment (R&D) activities and provide much needed cash flow.

e incentive is a broad, industry-based program applied as a taxoffset, which can help decrease your tax liability and can be refundable.It is available to companies incorporated in Australia and is wellapplied across Australia’s chemical science industry sector.

Currently, applicants to the program are facing increasedcompliance scrutiny from both AusIndustry and the ATO,highlighting the need for companies undertaking R&D to developstrong tax compliance processes.

What are the changes to the R&D Tax Incentiverates? In August 2016, the government announced a reduction in the R&Dtax incentive benefit rates by 1.5%. e new rates, which apply from 1 July 2016, are:• 43.5% refundable tax offset for eligible entities with an aggregated

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Are my activities eligible?R&D activities are defined as being experimental in nature and theoutcomes of the activities must not be known in advance. R&D

activities follow a systematic progression of work from hypothesis toexperimentation to a logical conclusion. e activities must also resultin the creation of new knowledge in the form of new or improvedmaterials, products, devices, processes or services. ese activities arereferred to as core R&D activities. Any other activities undertakendirectly in support of such activities are also eligible R&D activities,and are referred to as supporting R&D activities.

What documentation do I need to be compliant?e program is a self-assessed program. However, as with any claim fora tax benefit, the onus to establish the entitlement to the claim restswith the taxpayer. at means that all expenditures and technicalactivities must be substantiated with documentary proof that theyactually took place as described in the registration document. Recently,a number of claimants for the R&D tax incentive have failed in theirclaims when audited because they could not adequately provideevidence of their activities or the associated costs, highlighting theimportance of maintaining documentation.

How do I register the R&D activities?All R&D activities must be registered with AusIndustry within10months of the end of the financial year in which they wereundertaken. It is important for companies to describe the activitiesaccurately and concisely in these registration forms and understand theeligibility definitions.

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grapevine

Italian bubbles for summerOur summer season is a good opportunity to explore some ofthe sparkling wines from Italy.

Prosecco has had great success in the Australian marketplace. It has spawned a range of Australian styles, especially inregions that have an Italian community, such as the King Valleyin Victoria. In Italy, Prosecco comes from the Veneto and FriuliVenezia Giulia regions. The grape is Glera, a white grape nativecultivar from the Prosecco region that is claimed to date backto Roman times. For many years, the cultivar was known also asProsecco, a name that it is still used in Australia as thereappears to be some reluctance to change to Glera.

The bubbles in Prosecco result from a secondaryfermentation. While the traditional method is used to someextent (i.e. secondary fermentation in the bottle followed bydisgorging of the yeast, topping up and re-sealing), the morecommon production method is secondary fermentation in apressure tank (the Charmat or Italian method), followed bypressure filtration to remove the spent yeast and then pressurebottling. The wines show a balance of acidity and sugar, with agood foam, but some less expensive examples tend to be over-sweet.

Spumante is an Italian term for sparkling wine in general,although it is commonly regarded as synonymous with thesparkling wines from Asti in Piedmont. The production of thesesparkling wines is by primary fermentation only. At some stageduring the primary fermentation, the wine is transferred to apressure tank, allowing the bubbles to be trapped. When thedesired balance of alcohol production and residual sugar isreached, the fermentation is stopped by chilling the wine tostop yeast activity. The use of refrigeration and othertechnological advantages has improved the overall quality ofthis wine style, although to my palate the acid/sugar balance isnot quite harmonious enough.

A variation on this approach is the Moscato d’Asti, a lovely,‘gently fizzy’ dessert wine. The pressed grape juice is kept colduntil required for fermentation, which is carried out in apressure vessel until 5% alcohol is produced with slightly lessthan two atmospheres CO2 pressure. The wine is chilled to stopthe fermentation and prepared for bottling, sometimes undercrown seal. This process is continued throughout the year,thereby ensuring that fresh product is always available. Alcohollabelling is intriguing because one can find ‘actual [sometimeseffective] alcohol content’ of 5%, ‘potential alcohol content’,which represents what would be obtained if all residual sugarwere fermented, and ‘total alcohol content’, which is the sum ofthe two. Moscato Bianco is the cultivar used, which is alsoknown as Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, a white cultivar that isrelated to ‘Brown Muscat’, the cultivar that makes the famedMuscat wines from Rutherglen.

The Trentino and Franciacorta regions of northern Italyproduce sparkling wines that, in many cases, rival those fromChampagne at similar price points. Trentino wines are based onChardonnay, while those from Franciacorta are commonly blendsof Chardonnay, Pinot Nero and Pinot Bianco. The two regionsare close to the southern slopes of the Alps and relatively farnorth in latitude at around 45.5–46°N. Production of thesparkling wines is generally by the traditional method of bottlefermentation, followed by disgorging and topping up. Ageingthe wines on lees post the secondary fermentation is a criticalcomponent of the character of these wines with 4–10 yearsageing for some wine styles. This, of course, is reflected in theprice. At a recent tasting at University House at the Universityof Melbourne, wines from these two regions and similar stylewines from Champagne were tasted blind. In several brackets,one of the Italian wines was picked as the preferred wine, withmost participants being surprised with their choice when thewines were revealed.


Geoffrey R. Scollary FRACI CChem ([email protected]) wasthe foundation professor of oenology at Charles Sturt Universityand foundation director of the National Wine and Grape IndustryCentre. He continues his wine research at the University ofMelbourne and Charles Sturt University.

What to tryI prefer the Brut style of Prosecco that has a maximum of12 g/L residual sugar. The Valdobbiadene Superiore Brut is agood way to go. For summer, a variation is Aperol spritz, a mixof three parts of Prosecco, two parts Aperol and one part ofsoda water with lots of ice.

Recently, I tried the Moscato d’Asti La Caliera 2015 fromBorgo Maragliano. The aroma is dominated by musk,reinforced with a floral violet character. The palate islingering and sweet, but not cloying. A great way to spend asummer’s afternoon is with La Caliera in one ice bucket andfresh fruit in another.

The Bellavista Franciacorta ‘Alma’ Cuvée NV Brut and theReserve 2010 Vintage Brut are two impressive wines with agood acid structure and palate length, delightful both as anaperitif and food wine.

The Trentino wines from Rotari, particularly the 2010vintage and the AlpeRegis 2009 are very exciting. Ferrarimakes a very pleasant, complex non-vintage style while thevintage wines are outstanding. The Giulio Ferrari vintage1999 is quite mind-blowing.

J.S. Anderson (1908–90) was professor of inorganic and physicalchemistry at the University of Melbourne (1954–9). He showedthe world, including his colleagues, a rather austere countenancethat mellowed only late in life. He was always referred to as ‘J.S.’,even by the authors of the biographical memoir published by theRoyal Society of London.

Anderson is best known for his research on the chemistry ofthe solid state, but for us undergraduates he gave a series ofwonderful lectures on coordination chemistry. He concentratedon the work of Alfred Werner and almost left us with theimpression that he’d been at Werner’s right hand while thegreat discoveries were being made in Zurich.

Backing up the lectures, I had a copy of Modern aspects ofinorganic chemistry by H.J. Emeléus and J.S. Anderson. Whenthe first edition was published in 1938, the authors were bothjunior staff members at the Royal College of Science in London,but by the time of the second edition, 1952 (the one I hadbought), they were professors respectively at Cambridge andMelbourne. They divided ‘the contents between them accordingto their separate interests’, and since Anderson had publishedon coordination compounds and Emeléus hadn’t, I am prettysure that it was J.S. who wrote the 100 pages or so on‘Coordination compounds and inorganic stereochemistry’. Hebegan with a description of the ammoniates of trivalent cobalt,such as Co(NH3)6Cl3 (I later made some in my home laboratory),then complex cyanides such as K4Fe(CN)6 and double salts,including alums such as NH4Al(SO4)2.12H2O.

Anderson’s lectures (nobody ever read the textbook untilyears later!) were my introduction to the idea that some ofgroups associated with the metal were tightly bound, whileothers like the ‘water of crystallisation’ were in an ‘outersphere’. Werner had laid it all out in his 1893 paper ‘Beitrag zurKonstitution anorganischer verbindungen’, Z. anorg. Chem.1893, vol. 3, 267–330. He adopted the coordination number todescribe bonding between metal ions and species such as

amines, dividing the metal–ammines into two classes, thosewith coordination number six (for which he proposed octahedralconfiguration) and those with coordination number four (squareplanar or tetrahedral). According to George Kauffman’s 1966biography of Werner, the idea came to him in a flash of geniusat 2 a.m. one night in 1892. Werner ‘proved’ it was anoctahedron by preparation of two isomers of cobalt complexesMA3B3, whereas hexagonal planar and trigonal prismaticconfigurations would have generated three isomers. It’s not aconclusive proof, but a later one was sound.

J.S. drew our attention to the consequences of bidentateligands occupying cis positions, in which case complexes M(A-A)3 and others should be resolvable. Werner achieved this in1911 with cis-chloro- and -bromo-amminebis(ethylenediamine)cobalt(III) salts. ‘After many abortive attempts, he succeededat last’ according to John Read, who did his PhD with Werner,working on coumarin and graduating in 1907. Read (1884–1963), who was professor of organic chemistry at Sydney(1916–22), had quite a bit to say about Werner in his book,Humour and humanism in chemistry (1961), pp. 262–84. Wernerwas thus first to demonstrate that stereochemistry was notlimited to carbon compounds and for his groundbreaking workhe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1913. Werner’slaboratory was enormously productive: it is estimated that thereare more than 8000 samples (Werner complexes) in the Wernercollection at the Chemisches Institut der Universität Zürich.

Alfred Werner was born at midnight on 12 December 1866 inMulhouse. Although of German nationality, on account of theGerman annexation of Alsace after the Franco-Prussian war of1870, Werner always felt that he was French but he took Swisscitizenship when he made his career in that country. He hadstudied at the ETH in Zurich (PhD 1891) and for the next fewyears worked mainly on organic chemistry, including a year inthe laboratory of Marcel Berthelot (1827–1907) in Paris.Returning, he took up a junior appointment at the University ofZurich where he was appointed to a chair in 1893 (extra-ordinarius) in succession to organic chemist Viktor Merz(1839–1904). By 1895, Werner was full professor and his careerin inorganic chemistry was under way.

From the turn of the century, Werner’s health was failing –too much alcohol, too many cigars, and not enough sleep/rest,according to Kauffman – but he kept up the pace through thewar years (Switzerland being neutral) until he died in Zurich on15 November 1919.

Since coordination compounds were the mainstay ofAustralian inorganic chemists through most of the 20th century,I’m sure that several generations will join me in saying happy150th, Alfred.


letter from melbourne

Ian D. Rae FRACI CChem ([email protected]) is a veterancolumnist, having begun his Letters in 1984. When he is notcompiling columns, he writes on the history of chemistry andprovides advice on chemical hazards and pollution.

Werner … adopted thecoordination number to describebonding between metal ions andspecies such as amines, dividingthe metal–ammines into twoclasses, those with coordinationnumber six (for which heproposed octahedralconfiguration) and those withcoordination number four (squareplanar or tetrahedral).

Happy birthday, Alfred

cryptic chemistry

Across1 Turned and spoke loudly. (7)5 Postures points of view. (7)9 It will not make a homogeneous

system. Baffling! (9)10 Best 40 Roman sounds. (5)11 Singular 19 Across organised

germanium. (5)12 A crystalline overlayer composed of

lithium iodide with tantalum,protactinium and xenon. (9)

13 Art meme review gives a currentmeasure. (7)

16 Rather in another’s place. (7)18 The first lady after dark. (3)19 Once canvas ranges . . . (7)21 . . . over spoiled molecules in which the

centres of positive charge do notcoincide with the centres of negativecharge . . . (7)

23 . . . astonished users drip instability. (9)

25 Sulfur combined with calcium-containing inorganic material to makea mucilaginous substance. (5)

27 Shortly under 10@1. (5)28 Process time charge after Orlando, for

example. (9)29 Take up sulfur estimates. (7)30 Mailed sulfur parcel to give the wrong

idea. (7)

Down1 As3H5 is near art work. (9)2 Greek pitch, sir, on toss. (5)3 Most awful guest with lithium

battery. (7)4 Unit of Spooner’s base scan. (5)5 Iodine, fluorine and sulfur pieced

together and set. (9)6 Compounds having the structure

R2C(OR’)2 champion salt manipulation. (7)

7 Fuel holds fabric dye. (9)8 H3Si- radical is absurd if you switch the

last two. (5)14 Friends hang around back den for

elements. (9)15 Reduce current stir re SOS turmoil. (9)17 Grasped saw. (9)20 Moth ran around a town in WA. (7)22 Units of four or five elements. (7)23 Presents man over at sodium seminar

introduction. (5)24 Conjure up scenario of armed

assault. (5)26 RN=CR2/I belongs to me. (5)

sudoku

Graham Mulroney FRACI CChem is Emeritus Professor of Industry Education at RMIT University.Solution available online at Other resources.

Australian Society of Cosmetic Chemists (ASCC 2017)3–5 May 2017, Sunshine Coast, Queenslandhttp://ascc.com.au

2nd European Organic Chemistry Congress 2–3 March 2017, Amsterdam, Netherlandshttp://organicchemistry.conferenceseries.com/europe

Solutions for Drug Resistant Infections3–5 April 2017, Brisbane, Queenslandwww.sdri2017.org

International Conference and Exhibition on PharmaceuticalNanotechnology 27–29 October 2017, Rome, Italyhttp://nanotechnology.pharmaceuticalconferences.com

10th Australasian Organometallics Meeting (OZOM10) 10–13 January 2017, Dunedin, New Zealandwww.otago.ac.nz/ozom10/index.html

8th International Conference on Advanced Materials andNanotechnology (AMN8)12–16 February 2017, Queenstown, New Zealandwww.amn8.co.nz


Difficulty rating: hard

The symbols for the nine elements mostabundant in the Earth’s crust are used. Yourchallenge is to complete the grid so that each 3 × 3 box as well as each column and each rowcontains all nine of these elements.

events

Graham Mulroney FRACI CChem is Emeritus Professor of IndustryEducation at RMIT University. Solution available online at Otherresources.

events

7th Heron Island Conference on ReactiveIntermediates and Unusual Molecules

The 7th Heron Island Conference onReactive Intermediates and UnusualMolecules was held on 9–15 July 2016 inthe tradition of the now iconicconference series, which started onHeron Island (Great Barrier Reef, offGladstone) in 1991. However, theseevents are part of a global series ofconferences on reactive intermediates,which started in Geneva in 1978.

The Heron Island Conferences enjoyan excellent international reputation ashigh-level scientific events bringingtogether people from a wide range ofareas such as reaction mechanism,

synthesis, computational chemistry,spectroscopy and catalysis. This varietyof fields, the provision of ampleopportunities for interaction and the factthat all delegates have all meals togetherhave fostered extensive discussion andnew international collaborations acrosschemistry disciplines.

The seventh conference had some80 delegates from all over the world, andthe plenary lectures – traditionally givenin the after-dinner sessions – werepresented by Herbert Mayr, Munich(ambident reactivity: a revision of theKlopman-Salem approach), Anna

Gudmundsdottir, Cincinnati(vinylnitrenes), Peter Schreiner, Giessen(tunnelling control of chemicalreactions), Michelle Coote, ANU(chemical-free catalysts), and HuwDavies, Emory (site selective andenantioselective C–H functionalisation of n-alkanes and terminally substitutedn-alkanes). In addition, some 60 invitedand contributed papers were presented,and, as always, the vibrant postersessions attracted all participants andfostered further, intense discussion.

In spite of the intense and high-levelscience, it is noteworthy that theseconferences are very family friendly, andmany speakers brought their familiesalong, including children of all ages. Thisis fairly unique among internationalconferences, creating a very specialatmosphere and showing that it ispossible to combine good science withgood family life. For many people comingfrom abroad, this would have been theirfirst and unforgettable exposure toAustralia. For the dozen Australian PhDstudents present, it was a fantasticexposure to a high concentration of top-level international scientists.

The conference was organised by CurtWentrup and Craig Williams, University ofQueensland, who are now planning theeighth conference for July 2019. Furtherinformation about dates, venue etc. willbe announced in due course.

Curt Wentrup FRACI CChem

Your advert could be here.For further information about advertising here or on our website, contact:Marc Wilson ◆ Gypsy Media Services ◆ 0419 107 143 ◆ [email protected]

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