ACS Sacramento Section 66th Annual Meeting and Steak Barbecue
Co-sponsored by the Chemistry Department of University of the Pacific & the San Joaquin Valley Chapter of Sigma Xi, the Research Society SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 2015 Chemistry Department, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA Lecture topic: “Stellar Explosions and New Planets: Frontier Research at UC’s Lick Observatory” Presenter: Alex Filippenko Professor of Astronomy University of California, Berkeley About the Speaker: Alex...
Earth Day Illustrated Poem Contest for Grades K-12
Following the success of last year’s National Chemistry Week poem contest, we invite all young poets to enter our next illustrated poem contest celebrating Earth Day. The theme is “Climate Science – More than Just a Weather Report”. Please help us spread the word by sharing the attached flyer with a local school, or maybe one that your child or grandchild attends. Deadline for entries is April 20th. Contact Cindy Castronovo at...
Photo Gallery: R. Bryan Miller Symposium At UC Davis
Photo Gallery from the R. Bryan Miller Symposium at UC Davis on March 5th and 6th, 2015
Volunteer to be a middle school science fair judge at SES – April 7th
The Sacramento School of Engineering and Sciences Middle School science fair needs volunteers to help out as judges for the projects. The school is located at 7345 Gloria Drive in the Pocket area of Sacramento. There will be approximately 200 projects from 7th and 8th graders in a variety of subjects. Judges will be expected to arrive at the School by 3 PM on Tuesday, April 7th. There may be a non-mandatory informational/training...
Chemistry on the Silver Screen Held at Three Locations
The Webinar “Chemistry on the Silver Screen” was held at three locations in the Sacramento Section, a first! Between all three locations, there were a total of 60 attendees. Sacramento City College hosted the largest contingent with 27 people, followed closely by Delta College with 20, and UC Davis with 13. One of the presenters was Donna Nelson, President-Elect of the ACS and former science advisor for the show Breaking...
Upcoming Chemistry Magic Show for UCD Chemistry Club
The Chemistry Club will participate in the annual Picnic Day on April 18, 2015. There will be four Magic Shows at 10:30am, 11:30am, 1pm, and 2pm. Tickets are first come first serve, with people lining up as early as 6:00am. The Chemistry Club at UC Davis provides outreach shows and demonstrations to schools, community groups, and UC Davis students. The annual audience of Chemistry Club events exceeds 2000 participants, ranging from 5...
SCC Chemistry Club at Club Day
This year at Club Day, SCC Chemistry Club wowed the general student population at SCC once again with the ACS booth. The main attraction of the booth this year was the “Blue Bottle Reaction”, which is known for its color changing properties, going from blue to clear, and back to blue if shaken. To make this solution, Sodium Hydroxide and Glucose were dissolved in water with a little bit of Methylene Blue, which is an...
Discoveries: Could an HIV drug beat strep throat, flesh-eating bacteria?
With antibiotic resistance on the rise, scientists are looking for innovative ways to combat bacterial infections. The pathogen that causes conditions from strep throat to flesh-eating disease is among them, but scientists have now found a tool that could help them fight it: a drug approved to treat HIV. Their work, appearing in the journal ACS Chemical Biology, could someday lead to new treatments. Douglas A. Mitchell and colleagues...
March 5-6, 2015: R. Bryan Miller Symposium at UC Davis
ACS Sacramento is proud to be a sponsor of the 2015 R. Bryan Miller Symposium, which will be two full days this year. Speakers include (pictured above from left to right) Chi-Huey Wong of Academia Sinica Taipei, Kendall Houk of UCLA, Sheila David of UC Davis, and Laura Kiessling as the Plenary Speaker from UC Berkeley. The following is from the UC Davis Department of Chemistry web site: March 5 – 1st Annual Rare Disease...
Webinar: Chemistry of the Silver Screen
Join us Tuesday February 24th at 4pm Pacific time to learn how chemists and chemistry have influenced movies and TV shows like Breaking Bad, Gravity, Battlestar Galactica, and Eureka. Science is finding a bigger place on the silver screen and in our living rooms. But what’s behind this new attraction and how is Hollywood influencing the public’s view? Tune in for a discussion on how Hollywood is working to incorporate science and...
Mastering the Art of Scientific Publication: The Webinar Series
Preparing Your Manuscript: Part 1 February 11, 2015 at 8:00 a.m. PST / 9:00 a.m. MST / 11:00 a.m. EST / 16:00 GMT Preparing Your Manuscript: Part 2 March 4, 2015 at 8:00 a.m. PST / 9:00 a.m. MST / 11:00 a.m. EST / 16:00 GMT “As new researchers generate their first results, they face the challenge of mastering the art of scientific publication in order to present their results and to draw attention to their new scientific findings....
Synthetic Chemist to Semiconductor Engineer
I never thought I’d finish grad school. At least that’s what I thought as my last year at UC Davis dragged on. My peers around me were acquiring impressive post-docs around the world and I tried to be interested in what everyone else was interested in. However, I had decided long before my last year in grad school that my time in academia would be limited to my Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry. Instead, I wanted to work for...
SCC Chem Club Spring 2015 News
The SCC Chem Club welcomed in the spring semester with newly-elected President Jasmine Hakim-Elahi and a fun, messy, explosive experiment with Mentos and different kinds of soda. During the meeting, an outreach to Davinci Junior High on February 26th was organized, as well as a potential field trip to the Miller Symposium with the Honors Chemistry class and CRC Chem Club on March 5th and 6th. Buttons and new t-shirt designs are being...
UC Davis Chemistry Club News Spring 2015
The Chemistry Club at UC Davis provides outreach shows and demonstrations to schools and community groups throughout the year. In addition, the Club has increased outreach to Chemistry students at UC Davis, including final exam review sessions, information and networking sessions, seminars, fundraising, and social activities. These activities have received positive feedback from students and we strive to continue reaching out to...
American Association of Chemical Teachers
Welcome to a new program, AACT, American Association of Chemical Teachers, started in collaboration with the ACS, for Chemical Teachers, Chemical Educators, and those interested in Chemical Education. This is a program that we should support as individuals and as the Sacramento ACS Section. Read more about what it is, who should get involved, how to get involved and how this helps chemical education on all educational level. Contact...
Winners of the National Chemistry Week Illustrated Poem Contest 2014
The Sacramento Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) is proud to announce the winners of its 2014 Illustrated Poem Contest, part of the celebration for National Chemistry Week (NCW). The theme for this year’s contest was “The Sweet Side of Chemistry: Candy”. First celebrated in 1987, NCW always includes October 23, known by chemists as “Mole Day”. A “mole” of atoms in chemistry is...
FELLOWS – Who in the Sacramento ACS Section should be nominated for selection as a 2015 ACS Fellow?
Last month, we were able to report to the Sacramento ACS Section that two of our members had been selected as 2014 ACS Fellows. We know that there are others in the section that have the degree of excellence in their professional activities and achievement in their ACS related activities to be selected as 2015 ACS Fellows. The information has just been released on www.acs.org/fellow for nomination of ACS members for the 2015 honor of...
Discoveries: Smart keyboard cleans and powers itself — and can tell who you are
In a novel twist in cybersecurity, scientists have developed a self-cleaning, self-powered smart keyboard that can identify computer users by the way they type. The device, reported in the journal ACS Nano, could help prevent unauthorized users from gaining direct access to computers. Zhong Lin Wang and colleagues note that password protection is one of the most common ways we control who can log onto our computers — and see the...
Students at DaVinci Junior High See Rainbows and Learn About Chemistry
As part of National Chemistry Week, seventh grade students at DaVinci Junior High School in Davis, CA saw rainbows everywhere they looked when students from the Sacramento City College (SCC) Chemistry Club came to visit. The scientific question posed to the students was “What is the nature of fluorescent light? Is it just like sunlight?” Each student in two of Ms. Barnes seventh grade science classes was given a paper...
Connect With a Chemist
“Connect With a Chemist” is an opportunity to meet with fellow members of the Sacramento Section in an informal setting. As chemists, we have quite a bit in common–I’m reminded of the bumper sticker “Honk if you passed P-Chem” that I’ve seen on a few cars over the years. I always honk. To kick off the first two events in this series, the coffee is on us- at least for the first few chemists that...