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Letters to the editor

Capturing carbon in Alberta

With oil and gas as its major industry, Alberta, among all Canadian provinces and territories, suffered the most severe impact in terms of gross domestic product decrease from the oil price collapse and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, according to the Alberta government. As a former Alberta resident for 15 years, I am delighted to read that the Alberta government’s carbon policy and sequestration infrastructure have successfully attracted a significant amount of investment from international chemical giants (C&EN, Jan. 24, 2022, page 19), potentially giving huge benefits to the residents there, as well as improving the global environment in general. More specifically, Alberta’s policy and facilities will encourage large carbon dioxide emitters to commit to and invest for the net-zero-emission targets of their businesses. The captured CO₂ can also have many beneficial applications. For example, it can be injected underground to achieve enhanced oil recovery for Alberta’s oil and gas extraction. What’s more, the investments flowing into Alberta will certainly help create more jobs for the local people and boost Alberta’s economy in the meantime.

Chunli Li
The Woodlands, Texas

Insulin’s history

I was very surprised to see your omission of the work of Frederick Banting and John Macleod in your article “Insulin’s Second Century” in the Jan. 31, 2022, edition of Chemical & Engineering News (page 26). Banting and Macleod received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for the discovery of insulin” in 1923. Absence of their picture in the timeline was particularly glaring.

It is interesting and noteworthy that Banting believed that his laboratory assistant, Charles Best, had been unfairly ignored by the Nobel committee, and he shared the monetary prize with Best. The omission of Best has been a controversy in recent years. Macleod did the same with his collaborator, biochemist James Collip, who assisted with the production of insulin after its discovery.

William Richardson
Montgomery, Alabama