connect seven

The roundup of German pieces published in September and October includes worms (separately) damaging books and plastic bags, the benefits of fish oil and cannabis, the networks of microglia in the brain and chemists' families, including the family of my PhD supervisor whose father worked with Haber, who invented the synthesis of ammonia, about which there is also an article. Obviously, you can buy fish in plastic bags and even catch it yourself using those very same caterpillars as bait, and cannabis probably influences the microglia in some ways, so everything is connected to everything else. Phew.


Stickstofffixierung: Ammoniaksynthese bei Zimmertemperatur?
Chemie in unserer Zeit Volume 51, Issue 5, October 2017, p 294
Access via Wiley Online Library


Abbau von Polyethylen: Kontroverse um Raupen und PE
Chemie in unserer Zeit Volume 51, Issue 5, October 2017, p 294
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Netzwerk Leben: Mikroglia – Wächter im Gehirn
Chemie in unserer Zeit Volume 51, Issue 5, October 2017, pp 298–299
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Ausgeforscht: Verjüngungsrausch für Senioren
Nachrichten aus der Chemie
Volume 65, Issue 9, September 2017, page 975
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Ein Genschalter für Essgewohnheiten
Nachrichten aus der Chemie
Volume 65, Issue 10, October 2017, pages 989–991
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Chemie als Familientradition
Nachrichten aus der Chemie
Volume 65, Issue 10, October 2017, pages 1036–1038
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Ausgeforscht: Dem Bücherwurm auf der Spur
Nachrichten aus der Chemie
Volume 65, Issue 10, October 2017, page 1075
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smelly socks

here comes the round-up of German pieces published in March and April, including serious science on zinc fingers and f-group chemistry, and slightly less serious stuff on champagne and smelly socks.


f-Gruppen-Chemie: Opposition erwünscht
Chemie in unserer Zeit 51, 138-139
restricted access

Netzwerk Leben: Zinkfinger gegen Fremd-DNA
Chemie in unserer Zeit 51, 82
restricted access


Ausgeforscht: Große Blasen, kleine Blasen
Nachrichten aus der Chemie vol 65, p411
restricted access

Ausgeforscht: Socken mit Katalysator
Nachrichten aus der Chemie vol 65, 511
restricted access

licence to smell

The slightly belated roundup of German pieces published in April (there were none in March, I think) includes the whiff of dead people as well as the underappreciated sense of smell of living people, a dead chemist who could have become Bond, the rise and rise of vegetarian mycoprotein products (such as Quorn (TM)), a potential treatment for cataracts, and the question why elephants rarely get cancer.

Wir können besser riechen als wir denken
Chemie in unserer Zeit 2016, 50, 140-143.
Abstract and restricted access to full text

See also my feature in English, which is now on open access.

Grauer Star: Aggregate aufgelöst
Chemie in unserer Zeit 2016, 50, 83.
Abstract and restricted access to full text

Netzwerk Leben: Die Notbremse
Chemie in unserer Zeit 2016, 50, 88-89.
Abstract and restricted access to full text

Mykoprotein als Fleischersatz
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 2016, 64, 403-405.
Abstract and restricted access to full text

Beinahe Bond
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 2016, 64, 446.
Abstract and restricted access to full text

Ausgeforscht: Ätherisches Nachleben
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 2016, 64, 487.
Restricted access to full text

Asifa Majid from Radboud University Nijmegen has studied the smell lexicon of hunter-gatherer societies in South Asia. The photo shows her sampling the smell of wild ginger during a field trip to the Jahai in Malaysia. (Photo: Niclas Burenhult, Lund University, Sweden.)

caterpillars and cats

In the roundup of German pieces published in January/ February, we encounter Lewis Carroll's hookah-smoking caterpillar, sticky mussels, tortoiseshell cats and lignin:

Rohstoffquelle und Ballast
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 64, 17-18
open access

Ausgeforscht: Chemische Schwärmereien
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 64,207

Biomaterialien: Der Unterwasser-Klebstoff der Muscheln
Chemie in unserer Zeit 50, 14-15.
Abstract and restricted access to full text

Netzwerk Leben - Das Genom: Ein Chromosom wird ausgeschaltet
Chemie in unserer Zeit 50, 72-73
Abstract and restricted access to full text
(new series of short articles on the network nodes of the genome, starting with Xist and X-inactivation)

Chemie in unserer Zeit (also known as ChiuZ) has just entered its 50th year, so there are also some celebrations and reflections going on in the issue - although strictly speaking the round birthday is at the end of the 50th year, but hey, let's celebrate anyway ...

Update 16.8.2016: The genome of the nicotine resistant caterpillar Manduca sexta (tobacco hornworm / Tabakschwärmer) featured in Chemische Schwärmereien, above, has now been published.