Short Takes – 2-8-23

The Quest to Find Rectangles in a Square. NYTimes.com article. Okay, this is a bit nerdy, but…. Pull quote: ““What makes a problem lovely?” she said. “That’s a tricky one.” For Dr. Hart, it helps if the problem is easy to describe, and easy to play with — “you can get your hands dirty straight away with simple examples.” And if it “becomes deliciously complex and challenging.””

Toxic gases connected to Ohio train derailment cause concern. ABCNews.go.com article. Pull quote: “Whatever chemicals are in the air, gases largely dissipate fairly rapidly when out in the open, said George Gray, a public health professor at George Washington University. “Sunlight can change that, the movement of air can change that, temperature can change that.””

Toxic Chemical Cleanup Continues After Train Derailment. ChemicalProcessing.com article. Pull quote: “An episode of Process Safety with Trish & Traci discussed whether transporting dangerous cargo via trains is the right way to go. “If it is, then I think we need to make sure that the appropriate maintenance is done,” says Trish Kerin, director of the ICheme Safety Centre. “… let's maintain it appropriately and monitor it and have the assurance that it's actually going to function the way we need it to so that we can continue with safe operation. So, it really is just those fundamental process safety principles, which is interesting because we're talking about trains. Something you wouldn't necessarily associate with process safety principles.””

How to automate your lab. ChemistryWorld.com article. And nary a warning about cybersecurity matters. Pull quote: “It makes sense to use automation to run your chemistry more quickly, but simply doing the same work faster is of limited benefit. Instead, imagine the new possibilities you could work on with robots at your disposal. Automation and miniaturisation allow chemists to do certain types of chemistry much more effectively, although it takes up-front planning and a mindset switch to design higher-throughput sets of experiments compared to a linear progression between one or a few reactions at a time. With appropriate equipment, there is little difference in setup time and effort to run 24 sets of conditions versus 48, so the ‘free’ extras can be used to explore around your reactions for little extra cost.”