Chemistry

Merck & Co. will be one of four companies receiving the first American Business Ethics Awards. Merck will be honored for its longstanding commitment to the research, development and manufacture of pharmaceutical products, its efforts to make medicines available to those who need them, and for providing an outstanding working environment for its employees. The award is given by the American Society of Chartered Life Underwriters and Chartered Financial Consultants and Forbes Magazine, which will profile the companies in its March 28 issue.

Just light a match and blow some lycopodium powder into the flame. Voila! Fire suspended in midair. It looked easy, if a bit frightening. Tanya Pugh wasn't sure she wanted to try it. But she walked to the front of the room, cupped the chemical in her right hand and held up a match. Then she blew. Like magic, the fire appeared. And this time Pugh, a junior at Hatboro-Horsham High School, was the magician. "I thought I'd get burned," she said afterward. "But I didn't. " It all happened to the "oohs" and "ahs" of the student audience at Hatboro-Horsham High School, and was the exact reaction the presenters had hoped for. It's not easy to get high school students interested in chemistry, especially at 8 a.m. That's the job of the science road show presented by Susquehanna University undergraduates, who introduce the process of oxidation-reduction through magic tricks, mixed with a bit of stand-up comedy.

ICE ON the streets formed quickly, so I'm led to believe the city didn't get enough salt down under the snowfall. Briny treatments don't cut the mustard when it's cold. It's going to be a long weekend and a rough Monday. For this second major hit, I'm thinking a C-minus for Mayor Nutter. Frank Graff, Philadelphia

"I think chemistry is probably the single most influential ingredient in developing success. " - Rollie Massimino Think of chemistry and you think of test tubes and bubbling cauldrons. You think of mad scientists brewing smoking concoctions in their labs. You think, of course, of the miracle of diet soda. You probably don't think of sports. You probably don't think of that mysterious ingredient that glues together collections of athletes from Medicine Hat and San Pedro and Brooklyn and somehow lifts them to the heights.

Talent will take you a long way on the basketball court. But without good team chemistry, talent may not be enough to take you the distance. Solebury is a team that usually is blessed with a good amount of talent, but this year's edition has chemistry, talent, and an unselfish attidude that make the Spartans a force to be reckoned with. That chemistry and talent was evident Saturday night when the host Spartans (5-2) defeated Wilmington (3-9), 86-60. It was a balanced scoring attack by Solebury, led by 6-foot, 6-inch senior Rob Windsor, who netted 22 points and had 12 rebounds.

Charles Barkley huffs and says he is tired. He is tired from the grind of two-a-day practice sessions in training camp, a burden that will end soon, but not too soon for Barkley. "A lot of teams only practice once a day now," Barkley said, "but we have to practice twice a day because we have 10 new guys every year and it takes two hours just to learn everybody's name. " A year ago, Barkley knew the names in the starting frontcourt, and spoke of the sturdy play of Rick Mahorn and the steady influence of Mike Gminski.

Downingtown basketball coach John Walker is the first to acknowledge his team's shortcomings. "We don't have a lot of depth or height or amazing speed, and we don't have any incredible athletes," Walker said. But Walker is also quick to point out his team's biggest strength, an elusive ingredient he calls "chemistry. " That chemistry, combined with tight defense, good shooting and crisp ball movement, carried the Whippets to a 64-63 victory over West Chester East in a key Ches-Mont League matchup Tuesday night.

In modern mythology, the piano bar - a staple of B-movie lore and noir novelization - is a lonely place, a dank environment where the detritus of society go to soak sorrows in sour mash while listening to rickety versions of "Melancholy Baby. " Pianist Ted Gerike and the habitues of the Society Hill Hotel on the corner of Third and Chestnut Streets don't know that one. "You know, in 20 years of being here five nights a week, I've never played 'Piano Man,' " jokes Gerike, 67. The hotel (doubling as bed & breakfast as well as bar/eatery)

The astounding thing about the Chicago Bulls - who are making a mockery of the rest of the NBA - is that going into the season, they had many of the same questions about themselves that others did. But when a team jumps out to a NBA-record 29-3 start and has a legitimate shot at becoming the league's first 70-victory team, potential concerns tend to get placed on the back burner. So for the last 2 1/2 months, while the Bulls have blown through the league, there have been no stories about Michael Jordan losing a step, Scottie Pippen arguing with management or Dennis Rodman acting like a space cadet.

Ethel Guy always wanted to be a scientist, but was told, "Girls don't do that. " And, said the Swarthmore resident, "Like a fool, I believed that. " Thus, her bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry had gone primarily unused, and she had spent most of her time since college raising her children. So, when Guy moved to this area from West Virginia 13 years ago, she was "casting about for something to do," she said. By chance, Guy saw a newspaper article about a program at Rosemont College that offered female chemists the chance to update their skills.

A Rutgers University student is in dire straits for a common foible - failing to back up stuff on the computer. Five years of the student's doctoral research disappeared last week. It had been kept on a laptop that was stolen April 19 from a university chemistry building in New Brunswick, N.J. With his thesis defense looming, the chemistry doctoral student put up fliers around campus offering to pay $1,000 to get his research back. "If you stole my laptop and now you are reading this letter, I would like to say that you can keep the computer and I would like to pay you money for my data under D drive.

James J. Markham, 84, of Glenside, a chemistry professor and former associate dean of sciences at Villanova University, died Thursday, April 4, of a heart ailment at home. Dr. Markham's long association with Villanova began when he enrolled there in 1946 to study chemistry. He graduated in 1950, and returned to the campus as a lecturer on Sept. 1, 1952. He was named an assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences in 1957; he rose to become associate professor four years later.

After three cooking lessons with 11-year-old girls at St. Martin De Porres in North Philadelphia, it was time to add some chemistry to the skills they were learning in the convent kitchen. Not the periodic table, mind you, but the magical alchemy of baking. And what is more exciting than baking pizza from scratch? Because the dough is made with yeast that takes hours to rise, I brought some that already had risen, as well as ingredients so the girls could make some themselves. "Are we actually making the dough?"

It was not unusual for Robin Hochstrasser to summon his graduate students to his lab at 9 p.m. to hear the eminent chemist's latest idea for an experiment. The unspoken expectation was that they would already have some results when he met again with them at 9 o'clock the next morning. More often than not, they did - propelled by Dr. Hochstrasser's enthusiasm and intellect, said former student William A. Eaton. Dr. Hochstrasser, who died Wednesday, Feb. 27, at age 82, is to be honored in a memorial ceremony at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 4, in the Harrison Auditorium of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 3260 South St. The Scottish-born professor joined the Penn faculty in 1963 and earned wide acclaim for developing laser-based techniques to study interactions between molecules.

IN A PERFECT high school basketball world, the older guys lead their younger counterparts, everyone gets along and the team stays intact. But at Delaware Valley Charter this season . . . That guy transferred. These guys were banished. And a couple more walked/stormed out of the gym. Luckily for coach Jason Harrigan and the other remaining players, Da-Shon Giddings did not allow himself to be sidetracked by the negativity. That's not how he rolls and everyone is eternally grateful.

Mike Gault knew he wanted to go to pharmacy school, but as a Gloucester County College student, he knew his school did not have a pre-pharmaceutical program. So he created his own ad hoc program, and left the school in 2011 with 81 credits, just a physical-education class or two short of an associate degree in chemistry. Gault and John Covotta, a 2012 graduate, returned this week to share their stories with professor Robert Rossi's organic chemistry classes. "Me and Mike are doing pretty well compared to the rest of the class," Covotta, 20, of Mount Laurel, said Thursday.

The day after an incident at a Villanova University chemistry lab sent 29 people to the hospital and led to the evacuation of a building, investigators were still unsure Wednesday why the students fell ill. About 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, students in a freshman chemistry class at the Mendel Science Center were conducting a routine experiment when a student fell ill, university officials said in a statement. Initially, classmates thought she was having an asthma attack. The student left the lab, and a faculty member went to help her but began feeling faint herself, officials said.

At least one student was sent to a hospital Tuesday afternoon following a leak of chemical gas into the air in a Villanova University science center. The leak occurred about 2:30 in a third-floor chemistry laboratory in the Mendel Science Center, where freshman chemistry students were synthesizing esters - chemical compounds, a staff member said. A student became ill, and classmates initially believed she was having an asthma attack, police said. Then her nose began to bleed, and other students felt faint and nauseated, and experienced tightness in their chests, police said.

The day after an incident at a Villanova University chemistry lab sent 29 people to the hospital and led to the evacuation of a building, investigators were still unsure Wednesday why the students fell ill. About 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, students in a freshman chemistry class at the Mendel Science Center were conducting a routine experiment when a student fell ill, university officials said in a statement. Initially, classmates thought she was having an asthma attack. The student left the lab, and a faculty member went to help her but began feeling faint herself, officials said.

Several Eagles players said Monday that a lack of effort, leadership, and chemistry in the locker room contributed to the team's worst season since 1998. Players hinted at the problems at times during the year, but they were more outspoken Monday. When quarterback Michael Vick was asked whether it bothered him that players did not play as hard as he did, he did not hold back. "Yes, it does," Vick told reporters. "I give 110 percent effort. Body scarred up all year, hurt, bruised, get up after every hit and still keep trying to fight and push.