News: - Chemists Make Superstar Reaction More Accessible - Corals Switch Skeleton as Seawater Changes - Ancient Pigment Reveals Secrets about Unusual State Of Matter - Mercury Atomic Clock Keeps Time with Record Accuracy - Associations/Resources

Editor's Choice: - Air- and Water-Stable Palladium Catalyst - Environmental and Analytical Reference Standards - HDPE Bottles for ACS-Grade Acids and Solvents - Chemicals and Laboratory Products

Corals Switch Skeleton as Seawater Changes
Leopards may not be able to change their spots, but corals can change their skeletons, building them out of different minerals depending on the chemical composition of the seawater around them.

Postdoctoral fellow Justin Ries and his collaborators say this is the first known case of an animal altering the composition of its skeleton in response to change in its physical environment. The aquatic animal's sensitivity to such changes poses questions about its evolutionary history, as well as the future of the ecologically important coral reefs that it builds, Ries said, especially at a time when seawater is changing in response to global warming and the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. more>>>

New Digital Microscope… Total Solution for R&D and Pharmaceutical Applications The new Keyence VHX-500 Digital Video Microscope is the most versatile microscope system available. Features include an 18 MPixel handheld camera, available zoom lenses up to 5000X, and a depth-of-field 20X greater than conventional microscopes. Advanced performance features include fast 3-D Image Composition, real-time, on-screen measurement functions with 3-D Profiling, topographic displays, a 160 GB hard drive, CD/RW and LAN. The VHX-500 lets you observe, record or transfer still or moving images anywhere. Download Details>>>

Ancient Pigment Reveals Secrets about Unusual State Of Matter
More than 2,000 years ago, craftsmen in China created a fiery-violet pigment from barium-copper silicates that historians now call Han purple. Once prized by artisans for painting such icons as the Xi'an terra cotta warriors, the pigment is now finding new fans in the world of physics and may help guide future research into high-temperature superconductivity, quantum computers and other materials at the forefront of technological research.

Using extremely strong magnetic fields--800,000 times that of the Earth's--and temperatures close to absolute zero, researchers converted Han purple into an unusual state called a Bose-Einstein condensate. more>>>




Mercury Atomic Clock Keeps Time with Record Accuracy
An experimental atomic clock based on a single mercury atom is now at least five times more precise than the national standard clock based on a “fountain” of cesium atoms, according to a paper by physicists at the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

The experimental clock, which measures the oscillations of a mercury ion (an electrically charged atom) held in an ultra-cold electromagnetic trap, produces “ticks” at optical frequencies. Optical frequencies are much higher than the microwave frequencies measured in cesium atoms in NIST-F1, the national standard and one of the world’s most accurate clocks. Higher frequencies allow time to be divided into smaller units, which increases precision. more>>>

Air- and Water-Stable Palladium Catalyst Sigma-Aldrich’s PEPPSI-IPr (Pyridine-Enhanced Precatalyst Preparation Stabilization and Initiation) is an air- and water-stable palladium catalyst suited for intermolecular cross-coupling reactions, aminations and intramolecular heck transformations. more>>>

Environmental and Analytical Reference Standards Crescent Chemical’s updated environmental/analytical reference standards catalog features over 4000 pesticides, herbicides, metabolites and pollutants manufactured under the ISO 9001 quality system. In addition, more than 300 new products have been added, such as additional metabolites, stable isotopes, food and pharmaceutical standards. more>>>

HDPE Bottles for ACS-Grade Acids and Solvents Mallinckrodt Baker’s High-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles offer safe packaging for proprietary acids and solvents. The bottles provide a safety-conscious, cost-effective solution to rising chemical costs in the analytical laboratory market. more>>>

Chemicals and Laboratory Products Spectrum Chemicals & Laboratory Products’ 2006-2008 catalog features a comprehensive listing of chemicals, laboratory supplies and equipment selected from more than 200 top manufacturers. The 2000-page catalog has been reconfigured for ease of use without sacrificing any of the content or selection. more>>>