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Environment

The year in quotes

Look back at the stories C&EN told in 2016 through some of the year’s most powerful quotes.

December 15, 2016 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 94, Issue 49

We felt the explosion rattle the floor and walls eight floors up.

—Hannah Shelton, researcher, Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, on the explosion that took the arm of postdoc Thea Ekins-Coward

Kevlar, to my understanding, took 20 years to get from the red to the black. Wall Street just isn’t going to stand for that sort of thing today.

—Andrew Feiring, chemist for DuPont Central R&D from 1974 to 2006

The technique “allows the chemist to initiate the reaction of a single molecule and then see the bonding changes in that very same molecule.”

—Peter Chen, chemistry professor, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, on driving a reversible Bergman cyclization with scanning tunneling microscopy and visualizing the reaction with atomic force microscopy

"There are 20 million of us in the chemistry community, plus all the people they know. Imagine if we were all mobilized."
[+]Enlarge
Credit: Chemists Without Borders
—Bego Gerber, cofounder, Chemists Without Borders
Students collecting water from the new well at Teriail High School in Bangladesh.
Credit: Chemists Without Borders
—Bego Gerber, cofounder, Chemists Without Borders

My worry is that by the time we get something out the door, this outbreak will have already burned out.

—Sina Bavari, chief scientific officer, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, on developing a treatment for the Zika virus

Chemistry is not an exact science.

—Mario Andrada, Rio spokesperson, on the diving pool turning green at the Rio Olympic Games

The technique “allows the chemist to initiate the reaction of a single molecule and then see the bonding changes in that very same molecule.”
[+]Enlarge
Credit: IBM Research
—Peter Chen, chemistry professor, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, on driving a reversible Bergman cyclization with scanning tunneling microscopy and visualizing the reaction with atomic force microscopy
Several AFM images showing a molecule undergoing a reversible Bergman cyclyization.
Credit: IBM Research
—Peter Chen, chemistry professor, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, on driving a reversible Bergman cyclization with scanning tunneling microscopy and visualizing the reaction with atomic force microscopy

In the equality movement, we’ve gotten the door open, gotten ourselves at the table, and have conditioned younger people to expect equal treatment.

—Barbara Belmont, past chair, ACS Division of Professional Relations Gay & Transgender Chemists & Allies Subdivision

As scientists with a natural tendency to collaborate, we owe it to our society to try to build a bridge to understanding.

—Eliezer Rabinovici, physics professor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, on building trust among scientists in the Middle East

Some people have said these compounds redefine persistence.

—Jessica C. D’eon, chemistry professor, University of Toronto, on the stability of perfluorocarbons in the environment

"My worry is that by the time we get something out the door, this outbreak will have already burned out."
[+]Enlarge
Credit: Shutterstock
—Sina Bavari, chief scientific officer, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, on developing a treatment for the Zika virus
A gloved hand holding a vial full of mosquito larvae.
Credit: Shutterstock
—Sina Bavari, chief scientific officer, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, on developing a treatment for the Zika virus

Years ago, chemistry postdocs would get multiple job offers, but now getting one is a success.

—Liming Shao, chemistry professor, Fudan University

There are 20 million of us in the chemistry community, plus all the people they know. Imagine if we were all mobilized.

—Bego Gerber, cofounder, Chemists Without Borders

"Chemistry is not an exact science."
[+]Enlarge
Credit: Newscom
—Mario Andrada, Rio spokesperson, on the diving pool turning green at the Rio Olympic Games
A green pool at the 2016 Rio Olympics with people divers jumping in.
Credit: Newscom
—Mario Andrada, Rio spokesperson, on the diving pool turning green at the Rio Olympic Games

States know that science is where the jobs are.

—Lauren Posey, governmental affairs manager, American Chemical Society, on states’ responses to Every Student Succeeds Act, a new K–12 education law

Virtual reality enables us to compute and visualize in a seamless way.

—Amitabh Varshney, director, University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, on how the rise of virtual reality will change chemistry

This is a huge, serious threat, but it’s not primarily a technology problem. ... We have good methods for detecting explosives.

—David A. Atkinson, chief scientist for explosives detection research, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Chemists today don’t make catalysts—they buy, open the bottle, and let the genie do its magic.

—Victor Snieckus, organic chemist, Queen’s University, Ontario

The brain is just replete with interesting problems that chemists can help us understand.

—Stephen J. Lippard, chemistry professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on the role of chemistry in President Obama’s BRAIN initiative

The OLED display industry is at tipping point.

—David K. Flattery, business development manager for organic light-emitting diodes, DuPont

We need research funding to do with the mycobiome what was done with the microbiome. We don’t even know what 1% of the mycobiome is doing.

—Mihai Netea, fungus researcher, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences

Don’t just take for granted that all tattoo artists are good or all inks are good. You are also responsible for your own health.

—Jens Bergström, tattoo artist, Heavenly Ink Tattoo & Piercing, Åkersberga, Sweden

When we understand how the environment impacts our health, we can do something about it.

—Linda Birnbaum, director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, on the agency’s 50 years of research linking chemical exposures to health effects

We now have a zoo of aromaticity, and no matter which way you view it, we need to think about how we might use this new information.

—Alexander I. Boldyrev, cofounder and co-organizer, International Conference on Chemical Bonding


C&EN's YEAR IN REVIEW

Top Headlines of 2016

Top Research of 2016

Revisiting Research of 2006

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