Chemistry Season 1 Episode 1 Free Download
Facunda Ganesh
This episode is the first in a series of solo podcasts where I present my assessment of the most critical chemical analyses a winemaker needs to understand. It's a peek inside the chaotic jungle that is my harvest-season brain and the attempts to organize sugar's conversion to alcohol during harvest, when winemaking decisions are most critical. If there was a straight-forward and precise working ratio of sugars to ethanol, this would be a simple, 60-second podcast. Approach this as my quest to identify the variables that affect primary fermentation's numerical outcome, the tools available to a contemporary winemaker, the value and costs of each tool, and the limits of their ability to yield accurate measurements. Not every winemaker would agree with my thoughts presented here, so use this as one of many resources to gain proficiency in wine chemistry.
Join Dr. Paolo Braiuca, Director of Global Market Development at Thermo Scientific Chemicals, as he chats with some of the most fascinating and influential scientists in the world. Learn about their personal stories, notable contributions and the enthusiasm for discovery that unites them all. Covering various fields and industries, this is a podcast for anyone who wants to learn more about science and the brilliant minds advancing it. Don't miss an episode of this engaging and informative series.
Join us for a wonderful conversation where Paolo and Alan recount their shared history and the evolution of the catalysis field over recent decades. They discuss the evolution of homogeneous cross-coupling, biocatalysis, metathesis, and metallocene chemistry. Application of catalysis to fields as varied as pharmaceuticals and polymers is discussed, along with sustainability and other trends and dynamics in the field. Overcome your activation energy and join us!
The history and philosophy of chemistry are not common topics for Bringing Chemistry to Life, but this is an intriguing discussion that provides a deeper meaning and context to scientific research and chemistry in particular. In what may be our most thought-provoking episode yet, we explore the relationship between chemistry and physics and revisit concepts that have been lost by modern scientists. We discuss what an element really is and the fundamental discoveries and progress that have been made over the years to influence chemical understanding and the periodic table. All this can explain how modern science really works and perhaps how we can teach it better.
With Matthew Liu, we go back to topics discussed in Episode 6 of Season 1 to look at one of the most important chemical elements, nitrogen. Reducing atmospheric nitrogen to nitrates is fundamental to our modern world. Nitrogen reduction makes it possible to feed billions of people globally and it provides some of the most fundamental building blocks of modern chemistry. At the same time, it is one of the most energy-intense industrial processes, and its products, while essential and beneficial, eventually become environmental pollutants at the end of their lifecycle.
Lesley Yellowlees, Professor of Inorganic Electrochemistry at the University of Edinburgh, first woman President of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and uber-accomplished chemist with a never-ending list of academic and scientific achievements, needs no introduction. What needs attention is the many things she has to share, and her unique style of doing so. She is personable and makes a palpable connection between herself and her science by sharing her journey through her experience, learnings, and achievements, but also the challenges and failures of one of the most influential chemists of today.
This conversation with Paul Anastas (Yale University), the father of green chemistry, is an inspiration to think differently. He favors disrupting common rules and to stop accepting the status quo, given that the status quo is not sustainable.
This is a scientifically stimulating, and yet warming conversation. We span from solid phase material synthesis and characterization to coaching and mentoring young talent from underrepresented communities. A great way to close season 3!
Entrepreneurship in the blood, a fine mind, and a bold spirit makes for a life of successes and a great podcast episode as well! This is how we would describe Chern-Hooi Lim, a Malaysian chemical engineer who is thinking big and aiming to reshape the way we make molecules through the use of light. Chern-Hooi is an expert and innovator of photocatalysis. His organo-catalysts are a big departure from the more established precious metal-based ones and bring with them the promise of a new deal for synthetic chemistry.
This is a fascinating discussion about the present and future of chemistry. We discover how photocatalysis enables a new paradigm in chemistry, where we depart from fully reduced carbon sources and imitate nature in using oxidized carbon and light as the fundamental building blocks. We explore mild- condition Birch reduction, cross-coupling, and radical reactions.
This is a captivating discussion with an incredible character, that fascinates with his understated style as he introduces us to his chemistry and his ideas. In a classic Bringing Chemistry to Life way, we explore his personal and professional path, his research into macrolide antibiotics, and his novel approach to selectively targeting brain cancer.
Patrick Fier, from Merck, represents the perfect profile of a great process chemist. He makes the most of the incredible resources and the culture of innovation available at Merck. His chemistry is creative and intriguing, and he shows that unique mix of disruptive thinking and disciplined determination that is needed to design state-of-the-art chemical syntheses. His talent gave him the opportunity to lead the development of molnupiravir, the so-called COVID pill, one of the most promising antivirals used in severe coronavirus cases.
Alaaeddin is someone you can spend entire afternoons with chatting about life, experiences, and of course, science. His studies and career in chemistry brought him around the world, living, working, and studying in several countries, accumulating life learnings that made him the person and the scientist he is today.
Dr. Alsbaiee has worked in an industrial environment since his PhD and is not afraid of new challenges. His polymer chemistry background allowed him to work on some incredible applications, such as the materials of which turbine blades are made, or sophisticated methods to manufacture electronic microchips.
For decades chemists have challenged themselves to reproduce in the lab incredibly complex molecules that can usually only be extracted from plants or other highly evolved organisms. These are often painfully complex efforts from researchers to design and execute multi-step chemical synthesis, where consideration must be given to intramolecular interactions between multiple functional groups, as well as issues related to stability, configuration, and conformation. Yet this is how modern synthetic chemistry has evolved its toolbox of useful reactions, and how skilled chemists exhibit creativity in addressing some of the most complex scientific problems.
Paolo and Osvaldo discuss the present and future of catalysis, how a base metal such as iron could displace precious metal catalysts, and how the novel combination of computational and experimental chemistry offers synthetic organic chemists a promising way to fundamentally understand current innovations in modern organic synthesis. This episode tells an inspiring story of a real and modern American dream, achieved through personal development, hard work, perseverance, and talent. Osvaldo's tale is not just of a kid rising from humble beginnings to become an accomplished chemist and a role model for the younger generation. It is also very much a story of excellence in science.
This episode is a declaration of love for catalysis as a driver for innovation in organic synthesis. Paolo and Josep discuss creative new ways of usng some of the elements our Earth has given us, from making air-stable nickel zero (Ni(0)) complexes to using bismuth as a completely novel catalyst. This approach erases the biases brought about by an an overreliance on old, well-established concepts, thereby opening a box of possibilities.
Modern synthetic chemistry relies on a rich toolbox of chemical transformations, among which catalytic reactions play a prominent role. Yet, despite the many successes in this field, innovation seems to have slowed down, the range of activities confined to exploring the various forms and application scope of well-established catalysts based on a limited number of reliable transition metals.
In one of our most fascinating episodes yet, Paolo and Brett discuss astrochemistry. We learn how astrochemists, by scanning radio telescope spectra, are discovering hundreds of complex organic molecules in the spaces between stars and developing intriguing new theories on the origin of our chemical reservoir, the reasons for biological L-chirality, and how life could vary in different parts of the universe. We also learn how astrochemistry has driven the field of nanochemistry.
A polymer chemist by training, Rudy is a true multidisciplinary scientist at heart. His career path spans mitochondrial DNA sequencing, atomic force microscopy, NMR studies, and presently he is using his polymer chemistry skillset to help push the boundaries of nanoscale science at IBM. His work on surface chemistry and self-assembling polymers has helped him innovate the way microchips are manufactured, providing a brilliant example of different scientific disciplines working together to accelerate progress. Tune in to learn more about Rudy's diverse and exciting dream job.
After graduate school, Kevin took the entrepreneurial way and co-founded Pyran, a company focused on the production of useful commodity chemicals from renewable resources and already launched his first commercial product: 1,5-pentanediol, of course! His radical approach combines novel chemistry with the real-world and scalable implementation of a chemical engineering mindset. In this fascinating discussion, Paolo and Kevin discuss career choices, entrepreneurship as a credible option for chemistry graduates, the present and future of renewable resources, and the promise of a different chemistry for tomorrow.
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