Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions
ACS’s award winning saga of chemistry for life — chemistry that truly matters.
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Global Challenges Chemistry Solutions, launched in 2008, received a coveted Gold Medal as the best podcast in the national awards competition sponsored by Association TRENDS, the national newspaper for associations.
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Global Challenges continues in 2009, with updates to each of our 12 topics. Submit suggestions on new research to feature in the updates to m_woods@acs.org.
Current Episode
Promoting Public Health: Sandcastle worm’s secrets could yield new medical adhesive
October 26, 2009
 The sandcastle worm uses its natural glue to make a protective home from beads of zirconium oxide in a lab. University of Utah scientists have developed a synthetic version of this adhesive for possible use in repairing fractured bones. Credit: Fred Hayes High-resolution version Watch a narrated video of the sandcastle worm building a home in a lab using bits of silicon. |
Summary
Scientists have copied the natural glue secreted by a tiny sea creature called the sandcastle worm in an effort to develop a long-sought medical adhesive needed to repair bones shattered in battlefield injuries, car crashes and other accidents. Russell Stewart, Ph.D., and colleagues duplicated the glue that sandcastle worms (Phragmatopoma californica) use while building their homes in intertidal surf by sticking together bits of sand and broken sea shells. More… |
Previous Episodes
Confronting Climate Change: “Green” roofs can help fight global warming
How would you like to do your part in helping to slow down global warming? If you live in the city and you like fresh veggies, herbs and flowers, how about planting a garden on your roof? “Green” roofs, those increasingly popular urban rooftops covered with plants, could help fight global climate change, scientists in Michigan are reporting. More…
Confronting Climate Change: Smoke to soak up future oil spills
Experts estimate that people dump more than 200 million gallons of used oil each year into sewers, streams and backyards, resulting in a problem that has plagued wastewater treatment plants for decades. But an answer might be found in a material sometimes referred to as “frozen smoke.” More…
Promoting Public Health: Redefining DNA: Darwin from the atom up
DNA — made up of the four chemical letters of life A, T, C, and G — is the blueprint for every organism that ever swam, flew, crawled or walked on earth. Now, four billion years of evolution later, a few bold scientists have created a new genetic blueprint — with some profound applications. More…