Category Archives: Bohemian

Unhappy Chemicals

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We all have experiences with chemicals that stick in our memory. Experiences where we have witnessed just what chemical potential really means.  Proton or electron transfer can be downright frightening sometimes. Rude and abrupt phase changes or angry exotherms. Sometimes nature rages back at our feeble attempts to take the dragon out for a walk on a short leash.

I can name many exciting materials, but I think that chlorosulfonic acid is one of the more exciting and obnoxious substances that isn’t explosive or neurotoxic.  What are your favorites?

Thumpin’ the Good Book at 5000 Watts

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It’s Sunday and the airwaves are positively crackling with overmodulated, firebreathin’ preacher-men poundin’ the pul-pits and spreadin’ the good word. AM radio in particular is an interesting place to dial in some of the more colorful characters preachin’, witnessin’, and evangelizin’ the Gospel. 

Around these parts we have an AM station that specializes in the Messianic message that broadcasts on a low power transmitter over what they call the American Freedom Network.

Between phone-linked sermons (homilies for the survivalist, really) you’ll hear infomercials hawking colloidal silver cure-alls, dubious gold investments, nutriceuticals, and other market flotsam. For a time there was a fellow who was reading off seismic data and coordinates for earthquake enthusiasts. It appeals to that quiet voice in the back of your consciousness that urges you to move into a small cabin and become a hermit. I’m afraid that one day while driving I’ll have a deer crash through my windshield because I was distracted by this stuff.

When I hear these people talking about getting religion back into the public arena, or “bringing God back” into public life, I’m mystified.  Many of the religious talking heads are striking back at the recent popularity of skeptics like Dawkins, Shermer, or Harris. These fellows have made a cogent and thoughtful appeal to the use of analysis and reason. I doubt there are more atheists per capita today than before. But it is evident that atheists and agnostics are a bit more vocal in public today.

Despite their popularity, they represent a minority view of the physical reality of religious concepts.  Their ideas will certainly never catch hold in the USA as a majority view because our very brain architecture predisposes us to adopt a belief in the supernatural. Only a few people seem to be able to break away from this notion. They (we) will always be in a minority.

But I can’t help but conclude that when the call is made to “bring religion back” to public discourse, the intent of those making the call is perhaps not what the rest of us might conclude from their words.

Bringing back religion to the public arena is not meant to imply that we will openly examine religion. It is not a call for analysis. It is a call for devotion.  In my experience, the evangelical elite tend not to examine their belief system scientifically or analytically. Rather, they tend to approach it devotionally. This is the big difference between those who dwell under the religious magisterium and those who do not.

The call for public implementation of American-style religiosity through the framework of the public commons of the government does not simply mean that we would suddenly be free to pray in the post office. We already have that. You can stand in the post office and make a silent prayer anytime and anywhere you want. I have prayed to any supernatural being who would listen that my tax return would arrive on time. There is no consequence for uttering a tackful plea to the prime mover. Only the most clumsy, clueless authority would attempt to subdue an individual who was quietly praying.  Of course, if one were to handle serpents or chant in tongues, the constable may be summoned to quiet the commotion of those frightened by the spectacle.

What I think the evangelical impresarios really want is to hold services in the pubic commons. They want to make a show of their humility. They want expressions of devotion and ultimately alignment to their way of thinking. They want to see a universal protestant Jesus haunting that pervades every aspect of our lives. Preferably with a Southern Baptist twang.

Rendering the commons religious in some way is only a blueprint for social upheaval. It is worth recalling that the Puritans did not come to the new world for freedom of religion. They came for freedom from other peoples religion.

What could people mean when they suggest that we govern according to Gods law? If this picture looks like Deuteronomy, I’m moving to Canada.  What does Gods law say about the uniform building code or municipal zoning or the transport of hazardous goods or ten thousand other ordinances and statutes that have the most real impact on our lives?

I’m pretty sure that the bible is silent on most of the code that affects our daily lives. But you can bet that people will line up to tell us what the Almighty has to say about it.

Professor Irwin Corey

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Sunday morning and the poker is in the fire. Gotta love these 6 day per week jobs.

Enroute to other things (ETOT) I blundered into the website of Professor Irwin Corey. This guy dates from way back on the timeline.

Professor Corey is credited with numerous quips, among them-

“If we don’t change direction soon, we’ll end up where we’re going.”

“Wherever you go, there you are.”

“You can get further with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word.”

Corey’s schtick is parody of the egghead elite. He portrays a kind of daffy, absent-minded professor who is forever stuck in lecture mode. He stitches together impressive sounding language into a maze of dead ends leading to a hilarious rhapsody of non sequiturs.

There is probably no relation to the other professor Corey at Harvard.

Great Heaps of Crap

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It seems that no matter where you go, where there is settlement- houses, businesses, etc.- there is “stuff”. By “stuff” I refer to manufactured goods. How much more stuff can we keep accumulating? How many more packages, widgets, gadgets, doo-dads, and bits & bobs can we continue to accumulate on the surface of our world? Lets dispense with the formalities and just call it what it is- crap.

Our factories are banging out container ships of crap as fast as they can manage.  Satellite repeaters overhead strain under the load of electronic transfer of funds across the world. The oceans are churned into a lather by container ships steaming across the ocean sea to deliver the containerized crap to anxious dock workers who off-load it as fast as possible. 

To see the extent of the madness, all you have to do is to browse in the Official Gazette of the patent office.  Clever citizens are inventing new kinds of crap to deal with the unexpected problems with the older crap. Our hardware stores are full of such inventions.

At home we tried to institute the Principle of Conservation of Crap wherein for every 100 lbs of crap we brought home, 100 lbs of crap had to go … elsewhere. It failed.  Johnnie on the Spot missed the bus.

Th’ Gaussling is lamenting the situation only because I am acutely afflicted with the accumulation of technical crap.  Decades of chemical journals, magazines, several metric tons of books, NMR spectra from grad school, and tons of files of photocopies representing whole forests felled for the satisfaction of my pathological need to accumulate information. The whole thing is twisted. Think of the forest creatures, man.

Yet, I can’t bring myself to pitch that folder of Grignard mechanism papers or back issues of J. Med. Chem.  Maybe there should be detox centers where information addicts can go to get their lives back. 

High Purity Life

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The world of ppm and lower detection thresholds is a confusing labyrinth of assumptions, equipment quirks, and a place where you definitely can’t confuse accuracy with precision. All of those lovely 9’s queued to the right of the decimal place. I do so want to believe what I see. But so often they are from a tight cluster of bullets away from the bullseye.

For those who must tread in this arcane world, I can only recommend that you find a good analytical lab and get to know the analysts well.  They can fill you in on the sorry truth of sub-ppm detection and quantitation.

The trinity of ICP , quadrapole, and the Blessed Dynode allow access to the innermost ring of analytical hell.  At the sub-ppm level, most of the periodic table begins to stand out of the background. Once apparently pristine material, like a trailer park divorcee, suddenly reveals a sordid history.  Pick your method and stick to it. If you go nosing around with other methodologies, you may be in for a disheartening picture. 

My Dear Libertarian Friends

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Something I have learned while working alongside fundamentalist libertarians is this: Libertarianism is a political philosophy that seems to provide a framework for the justification of isolationism and selfishness. It is an economic theory that conveniently validates the inherent stinginess of its adherents. It has an appealing and complex theoretical basis. But like all economic theories, is idealistic and requires universal alignment by the population.

That being said, I agree that the US could use a healthy dose of libertarian pragmatism these days. Government is  far too big and too many resources are being channeled into foreign adventures while the national debt accrues.  Our elected leaders resemble an angry mob with a credit card throwing debt bombs.

But when I hear libertarians talk about their resentment at sharing resources in the form of taxation (or, being forced to share their resources), I can’t help but wonder what is really behind this restrained anger.  All of my libertarian friends have benefited enormously from the infrastructure provided by the pooling of resources. They drive to work on the interstate highways, fly safely in controlled airspace, benefit from the safety provided by the military, learned to read from public school teachers, use the system of currency for their wellbeing, flush their toilets thanks to public sanitary systems, eat safely thanks to the local health department (food safety is a big one), have drugs to treat their illnesses with the help of NIH, and on and on.

Of course there are problems with all of our public institutions, some of them quite serious. But the marketplace is just as prone to corruption as the government. I think that libertarians want to get off the merry-go-round and disconnect from the manditory and expensive socialization that keeps creeping into our lives. I do too sometimes. But it seems painfully obvious that our path to this point has not been all bad and our public institutions have contributed to our stability and well being.

All organizations work better under structural tension- the balance of forces. Libertarianism is a useful counterpoint to liberal socialization and conservative militarism. Like the three legs of a stool, these competing political influences can serve the betterment of our society and keep each other in check.

The WordPress Beer Minute

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This Beer Minute is brought to you by Th’ Gaussling and the code ffolk at WordPress.

Two half-decent Utility Beers I’ve run into lately are Samuel Adams Winter Lager and Stella Artois. Both are commendable lagers, best taken with a hearty meal and convivial friends.

Might I recommend a visit to the Stella Artois website? It is rather entertaining and interactive. 

This has been a Beer Minute brought to you by WordPress and Th’ Gaussling.

Chemical Market Echoes

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Perhaps the best decision Th’ Gaussling ever made was to stay clear of the pharma business.  In grad school (1980’s), the Standard Model for an ambitious organikker was to work hard in a good group and maybe, hopefully, with any luck, get an interview or two with the big pharma houses. The goal was to land a plum slot in drug discovery with Merck, Glaxo, Pfizer, or several of the other stars in the fabulous constellation of Big Time Drug Discovery.  [Cue Ethel Merman– “There’s no business like pharma business like no business I know !!”]

Most grad school friends have had great success in this field, some are already in director and VP positions. I’m very happy for them.  But I find that I have zero regrets about not going into the drug industry.  It’s not a slam, just a fact.

From my quiet perch behind the curtains, I get to watch a hundred stories play out. Many products that are mind numbingly boring to others are things I know to be the result of difficult and fascinating technology. Elementary things, like the ability to peel off a sticker from its backing is the result of highly engineered materials and processes.

One of the really curious things I see from time to time is what I call a chemical market echo.  Now and then someone will report some work at a conference wherein our product is featured as a key reagent or substrate. Shortly after the attendees get home, there is a flurry of requests for quotation from others in the field. These queries come in from around the world like echoes bouncing off distant objects.

I have seen this numerous times and I am presently in the middle of such a cycle. It is quite gratifying to know that your product has garnered a bit of interest. Unfortunately, penurious professors only order a few tens of grams at a time.

Echoes happen in other ways. If you are in the business of making odd things, a single query will come in from the end user followed by query echoes from others hoping to buy and sell to that single end user. Sometimes the echoes come from competitors hoping to do some sly competitive intelligence work, pretending to be a broker or end user. There are many ways to be lied to in business. All’s fair in love and war. And business is war.

Uncle Merck and Aunt Lilly

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According to the November 26, 2007 C&EN, Merck has for a second time engaged the Indian firm NPIL to develop cancer drugs for two targets that they have disclosed. Merck will have the option to buy rights to the compounds, providing they successfully get through Phase IIa of clinical trials. The article discloses that Eli Lilly has made a similar agreement.

It is disappointing to see companys like Merck and Lilly outsourcing their R&D. I do not intend to besmirch NPIL. They have obviously crossed a threshold in their own R&D activity that meets the standard of major league pharma. But I do believe that Merck and Lilly deserve some scolding for outsourcing R&D.

R&D is one of the remaining activities for which the US maintains a bit of an edge. It is our magic.  To accelerate the development of R&D expertise in India is to act against our self interest as a country. India will eventually develop this capability on their own- why help? Drug discovery is an art that should be jealously guarded by a company. To farm it out to a hard working developing country with lower overhead rates is ultimately foolhardy. Even though some particular art is protected, this activity is always stimulates a company.

Lucky India. They get to exploit advanced technology without having to have paid for 100 years of R&D. Instead of having to pay to develop synthetic chemistry, they can plug and chug with a newly educated populace and access to the literature.

And who paid for the universities and the NIH post-doctoral fellowships and the research assistantships for grad students who developed and published the technology and who became the scientists whom Merck hired? Take a guess.

Investors may reap near term gains and Merck may get a better market foothold in India. Some executives will look like bloody geniuses. The presidents and CEO will prattle on over brunch about bringing home shareholder value. But when R&D goes the way of garment manufacture and automobiles, these “heroes” will be retired to their gated community in Palm Springs. In the end, they have eroded the competitiveness of the USA in an aggressive and contentious market.

Thumbs down to Merck and Lilly.