JLC Turns Three!

Original Art Credit: Jon Lam (@tyrannos00r)

Wow, everyone. I feel so honored and humbled that you visit my tiny little corner of the Internet sometimes.

Thank you for your continued support and online interactions.

And now, some Salient Factoids from Year 3!
(Year 1 recap | Year 2 recap)

Stats:

Pageviews: 724,000+
Total Posts: 458
Total Tweets (ongoing): 16,900+
Blog Carnivals: 1 #RealTimeChem

(Could it be that ChemCarnivals have dropped out of favor? Or am I just not playing along like I should be?)

Podcasts (4): Collapsed Wavefunction's Bad Science in the Movies, Chemjobber's Start-up Adventure, Calcium Redux, Plagiarism Roundtable

(I still owe you guys those chemical pronunciations...I haven't forgotten!)

Elsewhere: Carrie Arnold of Science Careers asked me about grad school. Still pinch-hitting at Food Matters. I spoke with reporters from Nautilus and Chemistry World, but I've not yet seen their stories.

R.I.P. The Haystack, my first blogging home.

Recurring Themes: Cool reactions (hydrogenation, peroxides, Pauson-Khand, cyclobutanones, ghostly copper); start-ups, #MegaPharma, faculty moves, corrections, #chemjobs, activism, stock photo WWWTP?, book reviews, cool structures

Start-up, Year Two

As my tiny company hovers on the brink of non-existence, I recently passed my second-year employment anniversary. Here's how the numbers shake out for 2013:

(Year One Stats)

Time
"Standard" 40-hour work weeks: 2
45-60 hour weeks: 46
60+ hour weeks: 4
Total hours where I've been the only employee in the facility: >300
Weekends worked: 4
Holiday + vacation + sick days used: 29
Paycheck snafus: 3

Chemistry
Total Reactions Run (2011-2013): >850
Synthesized compounds evaluated in disease models: 10
Total NMR Experiments (2011-2013): >1,150
Total Papers Downloaded (2011-2013): >2,200
Total Inventory Chemicals: 380
Fume Hood Failures: 3
Total boxes of gloves used (2011-2013): 23

People
Turnover (2011-2013): 70%
Company Interviewees: 7
Happy Hours: 1

Biz Dev
Grants Submitted: 12
Teleconferences: 63
Conferences / Events: 14
Slide Decks constructed: 36
Presentations: 5
Total Business Cards Distributed (2011-2013): 400+ 
Total Reimbursed Mileage (2011-2013): 3,100+

Ephemera
Total Purchase Orders (2011-2013): 317
Continuing Ed / Training Classes: 20 hours
Holiday Parties: 0

JLC Turns Two!

Credit: Nat Geo

(I won't be here to update on July 15, so I'm a bit early!)

Once again, my heartfelt thanks go out to each and every person who clicked here over the past 363 days.

This past year's been full of ups and downs, as #phdlife in start-ups often is. Blogging keeps me both excited about and engaged in science communication...and provides a welcome respite when things at work get too crazy. 

Of note, 2013 has seen an explosion in new chemblogging talent. I'm stoked to watch our combined efforts start to get real recognition in the wider world and in the general public.

Salient Factoids from Year 2:
(Year 1 recap)

Stats:
Pageviews: 276,000+
Posts: 218
Total Tweets (ongoing): 11,700+
Blog Carnivals (7): #ChemSummer and #FoodChem (hosted by CENtral Science), #KCNBirthday (hosted by BRSM), #ChemCoach, #ChemMovieCarnival, #BRSMBlogParty, #RealTimeChem

Podcasts: 14 (Thanks to Matt, CJ, Dr. Rb, Ethan, and Deb!)
Stu, you're in the queue...

Elsewhere: Blog Syn (5), The Haystack (2), Chemistry Blog (2), Chemjobber (1), Sceptical Chymist (2)
(*July 2012 - July 2013. Want a guest post, or want to guest post? Email me at seearroh_AT_gmail_DOT_com)

Recurring Themes: Reproducibility, Pop Culture Chemistry, Plagiarism, WWWTP?, Food Chemistry, Catalysis, Blog Philosophy, Wordle, Chemophobia, Tech Funding, Enthusiasm, Cool Structures, Faculty Moves, Football, Surveys, Star Trek, Friday Fun, Hand-drawn

Friday Fun - Startup: Year One

I mentioned before that I work for a tiny company; we're bigger than 'virtual,' but smaller than the Dirty Dozen. Recently, I passed my first anniversary at this gig, and, inspired by Alison Frontier's "Not Voodoo" site, I decided to recap our wild and woolly first year. All stats refer to myself only, unless otherwise specified.

"How about...Saturday?"
Credit: 20th Century Fox

Time
"40-hour" work weeks: 3
40-60 hour weeks: 43
60+ hour weeks: 6
Weekends worked: 5
Holiday + vacation + sick days used: 24

Supplies Used
9" pipettes, boxes: 12
Teflon tape rolls: 1
Dow Corning grease tubes: 1
Scin vial flats: 5
NMR tubed purchased: 10
NMR tubes "acquired": 23
Boxes of gloves: 14
Gloveboxes: 1
Syringe needles: 500+
Broken Erlenmeyers: 15

New vendor accounts: 17
Purchase Orders: 186

People
Turnover: 50%
Facility visitors: 130+
Business Cards Distributed: 150+
Group Lunches: 48

Milestones, 1958
Credit: Columbia

Happy Hours: 2

Milestones
Reactions Run: 455
Grants Submitted: 3
Papers Downloaded: 1,500+
Inventory Chemicals: 200+
Books purchased: 5
Multi-gram batches of API delivered: 2

Ephemera
Auctions: 25
Trips up to the roof for repairs: >10
Waste pickups: 5
(Small) Explosions: 2
Lost power: twice
Trucks rented: 11
Continuing Ed / Training Classes: 48 hours
Visits by elected officials: 1
Lab coats destroyed: 2
Hot plate malfunctions: 7
Facility alarm tripped: once
Reimbursed Mileage: 1,600+

Cups of coffee brewed, between everyone: 1,400+

#Chemjobs: Fellowship Freefall

Back in graduate school (*cough* ages ago), I distinctly recall looking forward to the annual announcement of the Division of Organic Chemistry (DOC) Graduate Fellowships. The competitive awards, which require advisor recommendations, essays, and a pretty slick research record, granted the lucky few a full year's stipend along with travel funds to attend the National Organic Symposium.

When I clicked for the 2012-2013 crew, I felt something was missing...where's all the fellowships? I counted only eight grantees. Not to condemn them; their research certainly merits the award, but didn't the DOC used to give out a whole pile more?

In a word: yes. Here's the historical data for the grantees, taken from this website. 

Talking points:

1. Lines, lines: It's not an accident that the trend mirrors the overall economy generally, and employment in Big Pharma specifically. Note the huge uptick in awards between 1997 and 2001, when the average was ~18 per year. Boom times. It's since settled down to just about 8 annually, around the average of the recession-era '80s.

2. Visits: Those last seven years (2006-2012) match the corresponding decline in corporate recruiting (see MIT, Harvard graphs via Chemjobber).

3. Strange birds: Since graduate school enrollment has dramatically increased, at the same time as fellowships have decreased, these awards become even more prestigious, if only by dint of rarity.

4. Peak Perfection: Let's look at the top year: 1997, when 19 fellows were named. Who sponsored the awards? Take a trip down memory lane...

Wyeth-Ayerst

Abbott

Pfizer

DuPont Merck

Hoescht-Marion Roussel

Org Syn (x 3)

Organic Reactions

Boehringer Ingelheim

Zeneca

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Procter and Gamble

Pharmacia-Upjohn

Eli Lilly

Smithkline Beecham

Merck Research

Rohm and Haas

Schering-Plough

Wow, how many of those guys even exist anymore? Contrast this list with the 2012 crop:

Merck / Division of Organic Chemistry

Org Reactions / Org Syn

Genentech

Boehringer Ingelheim

Org Syn (x 2)

Amgen

Troyansky (family endowment)

Pretty slim pickins.

5. Winners? Losers? Some auspicious names have been missing from the DOC Fellows' list in recent years: Harvard, MIT, Scripps? Actually, the trend improves for state schools, with 5/8 in 2012 going to the public universities. Compare this to 1995 ("boom times"), when the list included Harvard (x 2), Stanford (x 2), Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, MIT, Yale, USC, Chicago, and the publics represented by Berkeley (x 2), Wisconsin (x 2) and Utah.

Note: Thanks to Chemjobber for the inspiration.
Update (11/8/12) - Fixed USC, not a public uni! Thanks, Anon commenter...also Chicago..

JLC Turns One!

Alitta virens (sandworm)
Credit: A. Semenov, White Sea Biological Station

Heartfelt thanks go out to each and every person who clicked over here in the past 366 days (leap year!).

No new post today; I'm going to take the day off to celebrate. How does one celebrate a blog's birthday? Maybe an ice cream cone with a candle stuck in the top, or a cupcake with a sparkler?

Here's a few salient factoids from my first year "full-time."

Year One Stats:
Total Pageviews: 74,000+
Total Posts: 125
Tweets: 3,414
Blog Carnivals: 2

Total Time Blogging: 500 h, ~6% of the last year.

Posts Elsewhere*: The Haystack (26), Chemistry Blog (4),  Chemjobber (3), Totally Synthetic (2), Sci Am (2), Newscripts (2). 
(*May 2011 - July 2012. Want a guest post, or want to guest post? Email me at seearroh_AT_gmail_DOT_com)

Recurring Themes: Chemophobia, Skepticism, Cartoons, Space Dinos, Arsenic Life, Structure Mishaps, Food Chemistry, Catalysis, Pop Culture Chemistry, Blog Philosophy, Arts & Crafts

Trending Up

I've been pleased to see blog traffic picking up in the past few months (Thanks!).

For those unfamiliar, most blog toolkits show graphical representations of hits against time, so you can tell when certain posts gain readership by distinct "blips" on the trendline. The chemblogosphere has coined several punny, tongue-in-cheek epithets for increases that result from specific sites. Here's a few I've heard bandied about:

Reader Submission: Found Chemistry,
Hendersonville, NC

The "Lowe Lift"
The "ChemBark Crush"
The "Chemjobber Jump"
The "Slate Slam"
The "Reddit Rise"
The "Bora Bump"
The "Zimmer Zing"

With my pithy phrasing cap on, may I suggest a few more?

The "Wavefunction Wobble"
The "B.R.S.M. Blast"
The "CENtral Science Cuddle"
The "TotSyn Trifle"

Readers, have I missed any?

State of the (Scientific) Union

Pres. Obama presents Peter Stang with Nat. Medal of Science
Source: Getty Images

Did folks tune in to watch President Barack Obama present the 2012 State of the Union tonight?

Out of sheer curiosity, I downloaded the text to both the 2011 SoTU (Winning the Future) and the 2012 speech (An America Built to Last). Now, I’m no political pundit or news analyst - I’m a scientist. So, I thought an interesting game might be to see how certain scientific themes grew or shrunk over the past 365 ¼ days.

Here’s the breakdown I tallied:
(# of mentions per word in the text)

Oil – 2011: 2, 2012: 10

Energy – 2011: 9, 2012: 23

-------

Biotech / Biomed / Biofuel – 2011: 3, 2012, 0

Tech / technology – 2011: 12, 2012: 9

Science / scientist – 2011: 7, 2012: 2

Engineering – 2011: 3, 2012: 1

Research – 2011: 9, 2012: 4

Development – 2011: 1, 2012: 2

Nuclear – 2011: 5, 2012: 3

College / Universities– 2011: 12, 2012: 15

Chemical – 2011: 0, 2012: 1 (Unfortunately, it was used in a negative connotation)

Math – 2011: 3, 2012: 0

Health – 2011: 8, 2012: 5

Is there a take-home message to counting up words and relating them to the direction of the country? Perhaps not. Thematically, the two speeches were different: 2011 was more forward-looking and focused on education, business, and terrorism; while 2012 dealt with global politics, congressional reform, and taxes. 

But there exists notable declines in most science-related topics from last year’s speech to this one. Except, of course, on topics where economics and science often cross – substantial mentions of oil and energy.