Chemical Society Atlanta Meeting March 26-30 Covers Health, Environment

Main Category: Conferences
Article Date: 27 Feb 2006 - 19:00 PDT

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A compound with its roots in your backyard that could fight bird flu, the use of nanoparticles to clean up contaminated soil and a potential new treatment for life-threatening infections - these are a few of the findings chemists will present at the 231st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Atlanta, March 26 - 30. Chemists will present research in health, medicine, food, agriculture, energy, materials, nanotechnology, biotechnology, green chemistry and the environment.

The meeting will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center, 285 International Blvd., NW, and surrounding hotels. More than 12,500 scientists are expected to attend and more than 8,000 presentations are scheduled. The American Chemical Society is the world's largest scientific society.

Meeting highlights include:

*How to improve America's economic competitiveness, innovation and science education will be explored in a Presidential Symposium and Reception, "Ensuring the Future: Sustaining & Strengthening Basic and Applied Research" on Sunday, March 26. ACS President E. Ann Nalley, Ph.D., is leading an ACS effort to secure more support for innovation and competitiveness programs on Capitol Hill.

*On Tuesday, March 28, a related Presidential symposium on "Workforce of the Future: Filling the Science Pipeline,"� will look at America's role as the global leader in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM. Speakers will identify problems in the educational pipeline and recommend steps that schools, government and businesses can take to ensure all students are equipped with the necessary skills to participate in an increasingly STEM-oriented "flat world."� The Division of Professional Relations will host this symposium.

*A three-day program by the Division of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, "Sweetness and Sweeteners," Monday, March 27 - Wednesday, March 29, will focus on new developments in natural and synthetic sweeteners. A recent advance in understanding how taste buds work has been called a key to creating new sweetening products.

*The capture of greenhouse gases, most notably carbon dioxide, will be examined in a symposium Monday, March 27 - Tuesday, March 28.

*Persistence of arsenic in Third World drinking water and ways to combat this major public health hazard will be highlighted in presentations Sunday, March 27 - Tuesday, March 28.

*Discovery of new elements, including a paper on how researchers synthesize elements, will be featured in a three-day program on advances in nuclear science Tuesday March 28.

*A two-day symposium, Sunday March 26 - Monday March 27, will demonstrate how radioactive dating in archeology provides new insights into Biblical history and cultural practices.

*A presentation on using nanoparticles to combat the side effects of chemotherapy will be given on Sunday, March 26.

*A study showing that an extract from a popular herb may fight food poisoning will be presented on Monday, March 27.

*A study about a new appetite suppressant in a key ingredient of pesto will be presented on Tuesday March 28.

Embargoed news releases will be available on EurekAlert! at: http://www.eurekalert.org/acsmeet.php and other science news Web sites about a week before the ACS national meeting starts on March 26. The ACS News Service will post the releases, once an embargo is lifted, at http://www.chemistry.org/news

For media registration and meeting information go to: http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/acsdisplay.html?DOC=news_serviceacs_media_reg.html

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The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization, chartered by the U.S. Congress, with a multidisciplinary membership of more than 158,000 chemists and chemical engineers. It publishes numerous scientific journals and databases, convenes major research conferences and provides educational, science policy and career programs in chemistry. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

Contact: Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
American Chemical Society

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