Chemistry International
2002
Chemistry International
is the news magazine of IUPAC. News about IUPAC, its chemists, its publications,
its recommendations, its conferences and the work of its commissions
and committees is published bimonthly in Chemistry International.
Index
2002
Issues
No. 1 (January)
Science
and the Public: Learning for the Future
What
hinders the public from appreciating science more? Is the way that science
is taught today helping or making it harder for young people to evaluate
science-based issues?
In January
2000, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) set out to address these
important questions. The Society put in place a two-year initiativeScience
and the Publicto take a careful look at the schools and colleges.
No. 2 (March)
The
Bureau International des Poids et Mesures: Establishing Standards in the
Physical Sciences
In a
vault on the outskirts of Paris, a cylinder of platinum-iridium sits
in a safe under three layers of glass. It is the kilogram, kept by the
Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), which is the international
home of metrology. Metrology is the science of measurement, and it is
of fundamental importance to us all. It is essential for trade, commerce,
navigation, transport, communication, surveying, engineering, and construction.
It is essential for medical diagnosis and treatment, health and safety,
food and consumer protection, and for preserving the environmente.g.,
measuring ozone in the atmosphere.
No. 3 (May)
IOCD:
20 Years of Building Capacity in Chemistry in Developing Countries
The International
Organization for Chemical Sciences in Development (IOCD) is celebrating
the 20th anniversary of its founding by awarding the Pierre Crabbé-IOCD
Prize, in honor of its founder, the late Pierre Crabbé. Over
the years, Crabbé and his successors have managed to create and
maintain specific and practical activities, provide vital technical
services, and deliver promising results. Now rich with experience, this
organization is planning for the road ahead.
No. 4 (July)
XML
in Chemistry
Extensible Mark-up
Language (XML) is a powerful alternative to conventional binary file
storage and information exchange. As many scientific organizations and
companies delivering scientific products have implemented or are looking
at the use of XML, IUPAC decided to review and evaluate what could and
should be its role in advancing the use of XML in chemistry. In January
this year, the IUPAC Committee on Printed and Electronic Publications
(CPEP) organized a two day Strategic Meeting to assess the Union's position
and options. Hosted by the Unilever Cambridge Centre for Molecular Informatics
in the University of Cambridge Department of Chemistry, delegates from
all interested IUPAC Divisions gathered together with key players in
the field.
No. 5 (September)
Medicinal
Chemistry in the New Millennium
The
future of medicinal chemistry as both a pure and an applied science
has been considered relative to trends that are already having a significant
impact upon drug discovery and development. Such trends include pursuing
therapeutic efficacy, addressing 3-D structure within database settings,
assuring absorption, directing distribution, controlling metabolism,
optimizing elimination, and avoiding toxicity. As the exploration of
these topics proceeds by deploying combinatorial chemistry coupled to
high-throughput screening, medicinal chemistry will play a key role
in interpreting the underlying structureactivity relationships. This
will cause the overall process of drug discovery and development to
be knowledge generating. As fundamental knowledge accumulates across
all of these areas, virtual approaches will eventually become firmly
anchored to experimental and theoretical databases having validated
clinical predictability.
No. 6 (November)
PEDECIBA�Programa
de DEsarrollo de CIencias BAsicas
A
year ago, Uruguay became part of the IUPAC family, as the Chemistry
Area of PEDECIBA became an Associate National Adhering Organization
(ANAO). By becoming an ANAO, PEDECIBA provides a point of contact for
the chemists in Uruguay and the global chemistry community. CI asked
a Uruguayan member, Patrick Moyna, to review the origin of PEDECIBA
and the significant role of chemistry in the organization..