Bill Gates' Chem Secret

*Update - I see CJ beat me to it!

Buried deep within a recent NY Times Magazine article, a humbling reminder that not all knowledge comes easily to billionaire tech scions:

source: Microsoft

"Without prompting, [Bill Gates] recounted getting a bad grade in an eighth-grade geography course (“They paired me up with a moron, and I realized these people thought I was stupid, and it really pissed me off!”) and the only C-plus he ever received, in organic chemistry, at Harvard (“I’m pretty sure. I’d have to double-check my transcript. I think I never ever got a B ever at Harvard. I got a C-plus, and I got A’s!”)."

I can't help but draw a connecting line to one of my fictional heroes, as ChemBark noted.

O-Chem is hard. I guess I'm lucky it made sense to me.

Perks

There's a pithy NY Times round-up of the free food and services NYC tech start-ups lavish on their employees. (SPOILER - they sound awesome):

"Within my first week of working at a start-up, I acquired a gut. The reason was obvious: there was free food everywhere, it was delicious and I was nervous . . .on Monday, warm cookies from the Upper West Side bakery Levain appeared in the kitchen. Buttercream cupcakes followed; apparently it was somebody’s birthday. (It is always somebody’s birthday.) At noon, employees gathered for a catered lunch of barbecue. Two hours later, a Pinkberry station rolled into the office with the full battery of toppings."

The author raises the stakes in each paragraph, moving from free food to beer, coffee, yogurts, fancy juices, then up to concert tickets, in-office manicures, nap times, and - I am not making this up - a room full of puppies.

Wowzers.

Back in my day (in *cough* late '90s small biotech), I distinctly recall watching the first Keurigs pump out decadent self-serve coffee pods, and thinking how lucky we were to have such a great gizmo. Later, I toured a boom-times GSK, noting agog the subsidized food, dry cleaning, in-house gym, etc.

My favorite quote from the article comes courtesy of tech titan Nolan Bushnell, Atari founder (emphasis mine):

"Mr. Bushnell of Atari, a veteran of the start-up world, was asked where he draws the line between 'productive perk' and 'wanton decadence.' His answer: Well, he doesn’t.

'I’ve often felt that it is somehow wrong to have an engineer spend any time at all scrubbing his own toilet,' he said. 'It sounds elitist, but these people are highly important to the economy and to the company. Offering maid service to them as a perk makes total sense.'"

Amazing. Would that all start-ups felt the same way.*

*By my count, I've scrubbed my toilet at least 40 times since starting at my current job. Par for the course. I've heard of start-ups with trash and mop duty, too. 

R.I.P. Jerome Horwitz, Medicinal Chemist

Multiple news outlets (NYT, SciAm, Karmanos) now report the passing of Jerome Horwitz, 93, a career medicinal chemist behind AIDS drugs such as AZT (1964), stavudine (1966), and dideoxycytidine (1967). Most obituaries focus on two facets from his life:

1. His invention of AZT, a drug so synonymous with AIDS treatment that it's been mentioned in raps, novels, and Broadway shows.
2. His perceived failure to patent his antiviral molecules, thus "costing" him and Wayne State University millions in revenue realized instead by Burroughs Wellcome (later GSK). 

First report of AZT, J. Org. Chem. 1964, p. 2076*

I want to take a slightly different tack on Horwitz's career. For my money, he met all the criteria for a successful career in organic chemistry. He published >100 articles and book chapters; not a one-trick nucleoside pony, Horwitz's work covered sterols, acridines, tetrazoyl ylides, epoxide rearrangements, and analogue development of anticancer drug XK469. He had a fifty-year career as a professor at two universities. His work led to (at least) three approved drugs.

He even has a statue installed at Detroit Medical Center.

Even more interesting, he accomplished nearly everything in his career while staying in one place: Michigan. He jumped outside (briefly) to Illinois for a postdoc at Northwestern, but all other schooling and professional work came from in and around Detroit. It's amazing to me, given how much I and others have moved around for a career in science, that his tenure in one metro area lasted for a lifetime.

*Side note: When I look up old papers, I enjoy seeing who else I recognize among the authors in the same issue. 1964 must have been quite heady - in the same issue with AZT, we have papers by Nakanishi, H.C. Brown, Bill Dauben, Alfred Blomquist, and John Baldwin.

Chemophobia Daily - NY Times (Again)

(This piece, by veteran Op-Ed columnist Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, ran yesterday. It has been the focus of backlash and ire, from chemists on Twitter and other fora (#chemicalschangeus, #BigChem). Below, I've done some choice editing: to increase the alarmist hype, I've cut unnecessary interstitial words, focusing solely on inflammatory verbs and scary scientific terminology. Remember, this is only a 790-word column!)

"Chemicals Affect Us increasing alarm very common hormone-mimicking chemicals grotesque effects widely used herbicide female hormone feminizes male animals male frogs female organs male fish produce eggs contaminated chemicals male alligators tiny penises

growing evidence linking class chemicals problems humans breast cancer infertility low sperm counts genital deformities early menstruation diabetes and obesity congenital defect hypospadias misplacement urethra suspects endocrine disruptors wreak havoc endocrine system

Endocrine disruptors everywhere thermal receipts canned foods, cosmetics plastics food packaging Test blood urine human breast milk cord blood newborn babies

failure tackle Big Chem regulate endocrine disruptors

scolded Food Drug Administration failure ban bisphenol-A common endocrine disruptor

government vigilant threats grocery stores mountains Afghanistan

Researchers warn endocrine disruptors trigger hormonal changes DES synthetic estrogen cause vaginal cancer breast cancer decades later daughters now banned.

Scientists tiniest variations hormone levels influence fetal development female twin masculinized exposed hormones. Studies aggressive sensation-seeking eating disorders

worry endocrine disruptors hormones swamping fetuses analysis Endocrine Reviews

Fundamental changes chemical testing safety determination protect human health analysis declares chief environmental scientist toxicologist

nation’s safety system endocrine disruptors broken

endocrine disruptors data conclude chemicals not safe human populations developmental biologist

Worrying research long-term effects chemicals higher levels common endocrine disruptor, PFOA overweight PFOA unavoidable everything solutions.

Big Chem sensationalist science blocked strict regulation adopted tighter controls endocrine disruptors

Uncertainties scientists endocrine disruptors overwhelmingly protect families

microwave plastic pesticides refuse receipts"

~Fin~

*RECAP: That's 229 words there (29% of the article), including negatively-connoted words like "grotesque," "broken," and "aggressive," and even a bonus allusion to the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan. Seven mentions of "chemical" (all negative), and a record 12 mentions of "disruptor."

And we wonder why there's so much extant public fear of chemicals?