David Pittman

fix-a-flat: A combination of liquefied propellant and tire sealant helps STRANDED MOTORISTS

IT’S ONE OF a driver’s worst nightmares. You hear or feel a pop under your car while driving down the highway. You stop, get out, and inspect, only to see a tire is flat. Great. What now? If you aren’t in a position to change the tire, or never learned how, there’s a solution: spraying an inflator and sealant into the tire from an aerosol can. The handy product is best known under the brand name Fix-A-Flat. For all its instant gratification, this product is remarkably simple. It uses a liquefied propellant to inflate the tire while a latex emulsion foams to plug the leak. Although a gas at room temperature, the propellant becomes a liquid when compressed into the can, explains Jiafu Fang, senior product development scientist for Shell Global Solutions, which has owned the Fix-A-Flat brand for close to a decade. When released from the can, the propellant evaporates. The propellant in ...

FAMILIAR PRODUCT, DIFFERENT USE: Firms are hoping new environmental regulations will spark greater SODIUM BICARBONATE demand

MANUFACTURERS OF sodium bicarbonate, the white powder typically found in the yellow box at the back of the refrigerator, are anticipating a jump in use for a very different application. Makers of the common household compound, also known as baking soda, expect coal-fired power plants and other industrial facilities to embrace it as a means of treating harmful air emissions such as sulfur dioxide. Sodium bicarbonate neutralizes the gases in the same way it reacts with acid in a person’s stomach. Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency set the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for sulfur dioxide at 75 parts per billion over a one-hour period. Until that takes effect in 2012, the current standard is 500 ppb for a three-hour window, says Chad Daniel, senior environmental scientist with Stanley Consultants, an engineering and environmental services firm in Iowa. Modifications to the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants and other environmental regulations set ...

SWEEPING CHANGES FOR CONGRESS: MIDTERM ELECTIONS: Republicans gain House, trim Democrats’ Senate majority

IN ONE OF THE NATION’S most expensive and divisive elections, the Republican Party took over the House of Representatives, gaining at least 60 seats and an advantage of 239 to 186. When C&EN went to press, the outcome of 10 seats was still undecided. In the Senate, the Democrats retained the majority by a slim margin, 52 to 46, with two seats undecided. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) retains the Senate helm, but Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will be replaced as Speaker of the House by Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). House committee leaderships for next year are currently in flux as senior Republican members jockey for control. A key decision for Republicans is who will chair the powerful House Energy & Commerce Committee, with jurisdiction over climate, energy, and pollution laws. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), an oil industry backer and EPA critic, is the committee’s top Republican and former chairman. However, Barton ...

SPACE EXPLORATION PLAN UNDER FIRE: Congress continues to question NASA’S NEW PLAN for human space exploration

DURING A RECENT Senate hearing concerning the future of human space flight, National Aeronautics & Space Administration Chief Charles F. Bolden Jr. recalled a heated November 1962 conversation between President John F. Kennedy and then-NASA administrator James E. Webb. Kennedy, who receives much of the credit for helping land the first man on the moon, asked Webb whether NASA’s top priority was a lunar landing. “Administrator Webb said ‘No,’” Bolden recalled during his testimony before the Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee in a May 12 hearing. “It’s science. It’s technology development.” The debate from nearly 50 years ago holds relevance today as President Barack Obama proposes moving the agency away from a destination-driven focus to one of developing technology that will enable deeper space travel. The recent Senate hearing looked at not only concerns about the future of space exploration, but also the impact of this new direction on scientific research at ...

MATTHEW PLATZ TAKES THE HELM: HEAD OF NSF CHEMISTRY DIVISION sees science as the way to tackle society’s problems

AS A POSTDOCTORAL student at the University of Chicago, Matthew S. Platz applied for his first National Science Foundation grant in 1978. NSF accepted Platz’s proposal to study reactive intermediates, and since that time—a span of more than three decades—the New York City native has received nearly

CHANGING THEIR WAYS: As students continue to flock to drug development, CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENTS ADAPT their programs

5.5 million from NSF in a constant stream of support. The physical organic chemist now is moving from receiving federal research money to doling it out as he takes over as director of the Division of Chemistry at NSF. The term, which started on Oct. 1, is a one-year commitment that can be renewed for up to four years. “NSF has been very good to me, very supportive of me, and I hope I can pay that back somewhat,” Platz told C&EN last month in his new office at the agency’s headquarters in Arlington, Va. The 59-year-old comes to NSF from Ohio State University, where he moved up ...