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Conversations with the brightest chemical minds.
Visit https://www.thermofisher.com/chemistry-podcast/ to access the extended video version of this episode and the episode summary sheet, which contains links to recent publications and additional content recommendations for our guest. You can also access the extended video version of this episode via our YouTube channel to hear, and see, more of the conversation!
Visit https://thermofisher.com/bctl and use the code S4_BCTL in August, StyTun3d in September, BrgChem2Lif in October, or AlwysL3rning in November, to register for your free Bringing Chemistry to Life T-shirt.
Chemistry is often perceived as inaccessible and challenging, but there is one fundamental chemical construct that everybody knows – the periodic table of the elements. The periodic table is a chemical icon, that has transcended the boundaries of the chemical sciences to somehow become familiar, almost a staple in several aspects of everyday life. It is the foundation of every chemist’s knowledge, but not many understand its deeper meaning, let alone its history and philosophical significance.
This is an exciting and unusual episode with one of the biggest names in chemistry, Eric Scerri, historian and scientist and the biggest living expert of the periodic table of the elements.
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.
Our greatest season finale yet!
Visit https://www.thermofisher.com/chemistry-podcast/ to access the extended video version of this episode and the episode summary sheet, which contains links to recent publications and additional content recommendations for our guest. You can also access the extended video version of this episode via our YouTube channel to hear, and see, more of the conversation!
Visit https://thermofisher.com/bctl and use the code PaoloRKS in July, or S4_BCTL in August, to register for your free Bringing Chemistry to Life T-shirt.
Some chemists just see the world around them in a different way. Where you see a pen, they see the polymer structure of its plastic body and the complex formulation of the ink. Where you see a building, they see the composite materials that make it and think about how the nano-scale structure of those materials define their macroscopic properties. Where you see a juicy burger, they see the proteins and complex chemicals that make its taste and texture so attractive.
In a nutshell, this is how Cate Levey sees the world around her. It’s a fascinating perspective that has taken her professional path down some paths less traveled. Engineered wood products, plant-based meat products, and carbon-negative aggregate for concrete have nothing to do with each other if you don’t look at things the way she does. To her they are they are all composite materials, where understanding and altering the chemistry at the nano, or sub-nano scale allows her to alter macroscopic functional properties to make amazing things happen. It’s where chemistry meets material science and where the science can really change the world around us.
Cate explains some of her groundbreaking work, but also offers a fresh perspective on how to pursue a career in science, following a true passion, and taking unbeaten paths.
Visit https://www.thermofisher.com/chemistry-podcast/ to access the extended video version of this episode and the episode summary sheet, which contains links to recent publications and additional content recommendations for our guest. You can also access the extended video version of this episode via our YouTube channel to hear, and see, more of the conversation!
Visit https://thermofisher.com/bctl and use the code PaoloRKS in July to register for your free Bringing Chemistry to Life T-shirt.
Moving from a linear economy, where things are made, used and discarded, to a circular one, based on recycling and reuse, is one of the most important and difficult challenges for our society. Cracking this problem and moving to a more sustainable way of living, while maintaining or even improving living standards, is key for the future of our planet.
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 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.
An old technology might be the key to change this landscape. Electrochemistry is going through a renaissance and it’s a very promising tool to recover nitrogen and put it back into the economic circle. In our discussion with Matthew we discuss some breakthrough and novel electrochemical approaches, electrocatalysis in particular, and how they can impact the economy of developed and under-developed countries.
Visit https://www.thermofisher.com/chemistry-podcast/ to access the extended video version of this episode and the episode summary sheet, which contains links to recent publications and additional content recommendations for our guest. You can also access the extended video version of this episode via our YouTube channel to hear, and see, more of the conversation!
Visit https://thermofisher.com/bctl and use the code CoolCh3mShirt in June to register for your free Bringing Chemistry to Life T-shirt.
We embrace this rare opportunity to sit and chat freely with someone who has lived and breathed the technical and business sides of the chemicals market for the last 40 years. Simon Pearce is a Senior Product Manager in Thermo Fisher Scientific and a man of a thousand stories.
Join us for this entertaining and eye-opening journey into the origins of chemical diversity, a bit of history on the British chemicals market, and a first-hand account of changes and constants in the work over time. We cover a lot of ground in this interview, from the early days of compound screening libraries, to the mindset of managing a complex product portfolio. We speak about serendipity, the power of making the most of opportunities, and how chemistry looks different when framed by business requirements. As it’s often the case, it’s about humans interacting with each other, the people behind science, and the people behind the market. It doesn’t get more “Bringing Chemistry to Life” than that.
Visit https://www.thermofisher.com/chemistry-podcast/ to access the extended video version of this episode and the episode summary sheet, which contains links to recent publications and additional content recommendations for our guest. You can also access the extended video version of this episode via our YouTube channel to hear, and see, more of the conversation!
Visit https://thermofisher.com/bctl and use the code Scienc3Fwd in May to register for your free Bringing Chemistry to Life T-shirt.
The modern revolutions of electronics and biotechnology are changing the world in dramatic ways. The incredible progress of electronics is changing the world external to our body, while biotechnology/genetics is promising to change it “internal” to our bodies. While these two revolutions have not quite met, chemistry is what could link them up.
Imagine completely novel materials for interfacing electronics and the human body in a harmonious way. Be bold and open to new ideas, such as organic electronics with little or no use of semiconductors. Bio-electronics that can self-assemble, biodegrade after use, and leave no toxic trace behind. Imagine what this could mean for new generations of medical devices, diagnostic medicine, as well as robotics and other applications.
Exploring these ideas takes an inquisitive, enthusiastic, and creative polymer chemist with ambition, vision, a passion for science communication, and an incredible drive to succeed. Helen Tran is all of this and more. She speaks about her science and her desire to give back as much, or more, than she has received. Hear her views on the importance of mentorship and how having fun doing meaningful work remains a simple, powerful way to achieve something meaningful in life.
Visit https://www.thermofisher.com/chemistry-podcast/ to access the extended video version of this episode and the guest content sheet, which contains links to recent publications and additional content recommendations for our guest. You can also access the extended video version of this episode via our YouTube channel to hear, and see, more of the conversation!
Visit https://thermofisher.com/bctl and use the codes below to register for your free Bringing Chemistry to Life T-shirt (April = BCTLshirt, May = Scienc3Fwd).
Among the various chemical disciplines we have discussed so far, astrochemistry is by far the most surprising. And Chris Shingledecker is a surprisingly charming member of this relatively new and growing scientific niche. He’s managed to naturally balance his passions for chemistry, born from a chemical set received as a gift in his childhood, and for astronomy, that grew in him during middle school. This is a great story of someone who took his education and professional path in his own hands and gave it the shape he wanted to follow his interests and passions.
Chris is now living the excitement of a new science. So many things to understand and explain given such fast progress in the field. We learn about what a young discipline astrochemistry is, where until three or four decades ago it was thought chemistry could not occur in outer space, and hear how Chis and his colleagues are quickly showing that chemistry beyond the boundaries of planet Earth is in fact extremely rich, diverse, and complex.
This is a fascinating discussion about the story and the future of astrochemistry, a jump into new ideas about the origins of life on our planet and hypothetical other worlds.
Visit https://www.thermofisher.com/chemistry-podcast/ to access the extended video version of this episode and the episode summary sheet, which contains links to recent publications and additional content recommendations for our guest. You can also access the extended video version of this episode via our YouTube channel to hear, and see, more of the conversation!
Visit https://thermofisher.com/bctl and use the code BCTLshirt to register for your free Bringing Chemistry to Life T-shirt during March 2023.
Many discussions have that “ah ha moment” making them memorable. It doesn’t happen often that you get half a dozen of these moments in less than an hour. It’s conversations like this one that make running this podcast worthwhile and really fun.
Lesley Yellowlees, Professor of Inorganic Electrochemistry at the University of Edinburgh, first woman President of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and uber-accomplished chemistry 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 the experience, learnings, achievements, but also challenges and failures of one of the most influential chemists of today.
We speak about electrochemistry, its long history and recent popularity, but also about the importance of fundamental research in fueling progress as well as scientists’ responsibility in communicating the value of science to the general public. All of this from someone that has been a pioneer in her field and dedicated herself to be the first of many, rather than a one-and-only. What Lesley Yellowlees has done, and continues to do, to level the opportunities for women and other underrepresented groups in STEM is regarded as a milestone in the history of the field of chemistry. And she reminds us, there is still a lot of work to do!
Visit https://www.thermofisher.com/chemistry-podcast/ to access the extended video version of this episode and the guest content sheet, which contains links to recent publications and additional content recommendations for our guest. You can also access the extended video version of this episode via our YouTube channel to hear, and see, more of the conversation!
Visit https://thermofisher.com/bctl and use the code Chem2Life to register for your free Bringing Chemistry to Life T-shirt during March 2023.
This started with a TV in the background showing Brazil playing Croatia in the World Cup quarter-finals, and ended with Brazil’s surprising defeat, to the dismay of our guest, Brazil-born Gabe Gomes. In the middle, the most approachable conversation you’ll ever hear about computational chemistry.
Gabe tries to solve real world problems using computers and it’s almost a paradox that such an extroverted, fun guy, in love with music and speaking so much about people, ends up investing his life in machine learning algorithms. Yet it takes courage, creativity, and daring to go in new directions and seek the next big problem at the interface of scientific disciplines.
Chemistry is a complex multivariate problem and resolving this complexity is the key to the fundamental understanding we need to advance the discipline. Gabe is a wonderful chaperone in our journey to discover how automation and optimization can be used not to replace chemists, but to free them to apply their skills where in matters most. Gabe is the living demonstration that computers and humans can be part of the same discourse.
Visit https://www.thermofisher.com/chemistry-podcast/ to access the extended video version of this episode and the episode summary sheet, which contains links to recent publications and additional content recommendations for our guest. You can also access the extended video version of this episode via our YouTube channel to hear, and see, more of the conversation!
Visit https://thermofisher.com/bctl to register for your free Bringing Chemistry to Life T-shirt.
This is a big one. When one of the most influential chemists of a generation gives you a full hour of his time, you can say your chemistry podcast has made it!
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.
The “green shift” towards sustainable processes in chemistry and engineering is the revolution than we can’t afford to miss. We do not need any more evidence. The silliness in the way we do things is in front of our eyes, we just need to be willing to look and see it.
When we make 1000 kilograms of waste per kilograms or product, there is no future. When we keep producing, using, and discharging in a linear way, there is no future. When governments and private companies don’t embrace environmental responsibility as part of their performance metrics, there is no future.
Paul and his co-author Urvashi Bhatnagar have written The Sustainability Scorecard – How to Implement and Profit from Unexpected Solutions to outline the green chemistry principles that show the way to a sustainable future in chemistry. The pursuit of sustainability offers what they call “unexpected solutions;” leaps forwards that make new processes not only more sustainable, but also more efficient, cheaper, and more profitable. There are many great examples, with many more to come.
Disrupt or be disrupted.
Visit https://www.thermofisher.com/chemistry-podcast/ to access the extended video version of this episode and guest content and resources, which includes links to recent publications and additional content recommendations for our guest. You can also access the extended video version of this episode via our YouTube channel to hear, and see, more of the conversation!
Visit https://thermofisher.com/bctl to register for your free Bringing Chemistry to Life T-shirt.
We open Season 4 with a unique double interview with Dr. Steven Townsend (Vanderbilt University) and Dr. Frank Leibfarth (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). These are our original two guests from Season 1 of this series!
Steve Townsend and Frank Leibfarth are two of the best chemists of the current generation as well as being incredibly charismatic and fun humans. With that said, this episode is a bit different in that it was a fun moment of connection and entertainment where we discuss things on the fringe of chemistry, tongue in cheek. As it happens, it became much more than that, a journey into personal history, motivation and drive, stories and reflections on great chemists of the past and present, and much more. The human element behind the science takes center stage in this episode for certain. One not to miss.
Amanda is a wife. A mother. A blogger. A Christian.
A charming, beautiful, bubbly, young woman who lives life to the fullest.
But Amanda is dying, with a secret she doesn’t want anyone to know.
She starts a blog detailing her cancer journey, and becomes an inspiration, touching and
captivating her local community as well as followers all over the world.
Until one day investigative producer Nancy gets an anonymous tip telling her to look at Amanda’s
blog, setting Nancy on an unimaginable road to uncover Amanda’s secret.
Award winning journalist Charlie Webster explores this unbelievable and bizarre, but
all-too-real tale, of a woman from San Jose, California whose secret ripped a family apart and
left a community in shock.
Scamanda is the true story of a woman whose own words held the key to her secret.
New episodes every Monday.
Follow Scamanda on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Amanda’s blog posts are read by actor Kendall Horn.
