ICIS Blogs : new scientist

Why unauthorised email use will make your feet hurt

ICIS Chemicals Confidential — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:05:17 GMT

From the number of forwarded emails the Blog receives, I think it's fair to assume that no-one reads the disclaimers at the bottom of emails. There's a report of a novel disclaimer entitled " We will shrink your shoes " in today's...(read more)

Cleaning up oil from tar sands

ICIS Chemicals Confidential — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:22:15 GMT

There's a good article in this week's New Scientist on " Can Oil from Tar Sands be Cleaned Up? " The answer it seems is yes. "Canadian tar sands contain an estimated 170 billion barrels of recoverable oil, second only to Saudi Arabia's...(read more)

Thanks for the Memories

ICIS Chemicals Confidential — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:18:53 GMT

Worried that you can't remember where you filed that email? Finding it hard to match names to faces at conferences, and lost without name badges? This week's New Scientist has a comfortingly upbeat article on " The five ages of the brain...(read more)

Do you ever get that sinking feeling?

Asian Chemical Connections — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:49:37 GMT

I am afraid I do when it comes to climate change and, as a result, don't always switch off lights when I leave rooms, don't always say no to unnecesssary plastic bags when I buy anything and will happily (and this could be the worst damage of...(read more)

More Rainy Weekends

ICIS Chemicals Confidential — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:13:55 GMT

It's no comfort in this washout summer to read that it's more likely to rain at weekends than in the week. Apparently man-made pollution during the week helps form clouds, resulting in extra rain at the weekends in summer, according to this article...(read more)

Can I have those coconuts, please?

Asian Chemical Connections — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:12:29 GMT

This article, by David Strahan, author of The Last Oil Shock, says that it would take three million coconuts to power one flight from London to Amsterdam on 100% biofuels. Some of the comments posted at the end of this excellent article, first published...(read more)

The danger of bogus science

Asian Chemical Connections — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:16:39 GMT

Believing what you want to believe (or pretending to believe in something because it's in your commercial interests) has always been a problem. But the stakes have never been higher than in the case of climate change. To yet again refer to the excellent...(read more)

Even the goldfish will get it

Asian Chemical Connections — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:50:10 GMT

Another great article in The New Scientist talks about a new system for mapping much more precisely the impact of climate change on eco-systems. Designed by The Nature Conservancy , the system - linked with Google Maps - will enable conservationists to...(read more)