Wilder 'Chemistry' from 1880

What was the first mention of "Chemistry" in the journal Science?

You might think, given that Science started in 1880, that an author would first refer to 19^th-century champions such as Perkin or Wöhler. Perhaps they'd write of new fuels for transportation, electrochemistry, or the advent of large chemical industries such as BASF or DuPont.

None of these. On page 4, issue 1, famed comparative anatomist and professor Burt Wilder writes:

"A Bit of Summer Work: Notwithstanding the number of 'Summer Schools of Science' to be in operation this season, many teachers are likely to pass the vacation at a distance from the facilities afforded by organized laboratories. How shall they employ their time?  

. . .the teacher who hopes to make his instruction each year more thorough than the last, will be pretty sure to spend the remaining month or two in the search of help from books, and, while regretting the vagueness of the information thus obtained, may seldom think of making it more real by personal observation. 

Now it is true that in some branches of science this may require appliances not readily obtained. This is the case with Chemistry and Physics, and some parts of Natural History. But Botany and Entomology may be pursued almost under any circumstances, and I venture to suggest that at least one kind of anatomical work may be carried on with but a slight amount of apparatus."

Wilder's cure for teachers' potential summer slacking? Purchasing "a very sharp knife, and a pair of 'wire-nippers'..." - all the better to study the (freshly-dissected) brains* of cats, sheep, dogs, and rabbits. He closes his essay with this potentially tongue-in-cheek phrase:

"If this is done, by the end of summer the teacher will have become better able to appreciate the peculiarities of the human brain when one comes in his way..."

*Pssst! Did you need instructions for that? Wilder generously provides an address at Cornell where one can obtain hectograph (printing by means of aniline dyes and gelatin plates) copies of cat dissection protocol.

WWWTP? Goes to the Movies

Source: Samuel Goldwyn Pictures

Better Living Through Chemistry, an upcoming indie film, has garnered a bit of buzz for its all-star cast (Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Ray Liotta, Jane Fonda) and its somewhat unconventional focus: the leading man plays a drug-addled pharmacist. Apparently, in a post-Breaking Bad world, we chemists can claim top billing only when we're busily breaking the law.

I'm sure that the title alone causes old DuPont ad execs to roll over in their marbled graves.

For you chemists in the audience, there's yet a better treat. Check out the promo poster (right). Credit, I suppose, goes to some graphical artist at Samuel Goldwyn for sticking the actors' faces inside modified Haworth projections, and for attempting to use wedges and dashed lines to lend some stereochemical flavor.

But yikes, the doodles! There's random "CH2" and "N2O" groups hanging out in space, a scrawled-out "atom" with a heart as a valence electron (cute), and even some sort of equation at the bottom, in which, apparently, (CH2 + CH3) / (CH2 + CH3) = LOVE.

The tagline for this wild pharmaceutical romp?
"Happiness Has No Formula."

Grab your popcorn, kids.

What Do You Call Yourselves?

In the "hot-potato" game of Pharma jobs, it's not uncommon to work with a whole new cast of people every 5 years or so. I recall one such summer, where I watched the director and two lead chemists change around in just 3 months!

"Hi, I'm a GSKer."
"Really? I'm Ex-BMS!"

As you mix and match with refugees from layoffs, mergers, or plant closures, you encounter chemists from many different backgrounds. Perhaps they came from a rigid corporate hierarchy, or perhaps they were "pseudo-academics." Maybe they had legions of secretaries and associates, or maybe they were "armies of one" at a small start-up. But one thing everyone has?


A cute euphemism for where they used to work.


The Old "Ex-" (Most common): Ex-Pfizer, Ex-Merck, Ex-Lilly, Ex-BMS.


"-Ers": DuPonters, Merckers, GSKers, Genentechers*


"-Ites": Amgenites, Pfizerites


Engineers: Dow.


Geography Quiz: Sometimes, chemists will tell you they're from Nutley, Wilmington, or La Jolla, and expect you to intuit their former employers.


"Initials Only" Club: J&J, BASF, B-I, AZ.


Readers, I must be missing several. Have you heard any good ones?


Update, 3/8, 2:35AM - Chemjobber suggests "Pfizer alumni," and a Twitter respondent says the preferred internal term is "colleague."

An anonymous commenter suggests "BioGoners" for Ex-Biogen employees.


*(Yes, I checked all of these out on Google, and all have >150 hits, except "Genentechers" (76), which I usually hear via FiercePharma)

Orange Juice: Full of Vitamin C, Fiber, and....Carbendazim?

NPR reports that the US FDA recently detained several shipments of orange juice imported from Brazil. The agency received a December 2011 tip-off from a juice company (Minute Maid, via parent company Coca-Cola) that the imports contained low concentrations of the fungicide carbendazim. While this amount is unlikely to harm anyone, FDA indicated in its letter that the EPA hasn’t established safe levels for the compound in juice, and thus considers it an unlawful additive.

Carbendazim, a benzimidazole (a two-ringed aromatic structure with two nitrogens) metabolite of benomyl, was first prepared as a discrete compound by DuPont in the early 1960’s. It’s approved in several other countries to treat black spot, Dutch elm disease, powdery mildew, and a host of other fungal diseases. The fantastic NIH resource Toxnet tells us that carbendazim is a “Group C Possible Human Carcinogen,” but given how many different standards exist for this metric, what does that mean?

Diving deeper into the data, carbendazim appears to be both a teratogen (meaning it impairs fertility or embryonic development), and causes chromosomal aberrations; both effects appear at relatively high doses that you wouldn’t drink in a single glass of OJ.

The unspoken fear here may be long-term exposure. Consider other recent reports on the ability of PFC’s (perfluorinated compounds, like the long-chain PFOS found in Scotchgard) to decrease vaccine response. Or, read the never-ending list of maladies brought on by exposure to phthalates, omnipresent plasticizers known to cause endocrine disruption. Health risks from accumulated compound may prompt the FDA’s proactive stance towards even tiny amounts of this fungicide in imported juice.

Surly Chemist Soapbox Moment – Both NPR reports refer to their subjects as “chemicals” sometimes as early on as the article’s title! The connotation for this word is overwhelmingly negative, which should be apparent from the “chemical-free” movement and the interchangeable use of “chemical” with toxin, poison, or contaminant. Doesn’t chemistry already have image problems?

Here are a few chemical synonyms for the next go-around: compound, moiety, substance, entity, additive, species, or molecule. None of these are perfect for every situation, but any would be preferable over the catch-all, “chemical.”