ChimiaPub Date : 2024-09-25DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2024.594
Antonio Togni
{"title":"Orchestrating Relevance - Critique of a Questionable Trait of Modern Science Communication.","authors":"Antonio Togni","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2024.594","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2024.594","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This essay critically analyzes the widespread phenomenon of claiming relevance when reporting original research. Specific examples from an area of method development in organofluorine chemistry demonstrate that the pursuit of worthiness of the corresponding research is mainly justified by putting forward a broad general industrial context that could potentially benefit in form of applications. However, it is deliberately ignored that such applications are in the vast majority of cases highly improbable or objectively unrealistic. Notwithstanding that scientists are nowadays often explicitly forced to orchestrate relevance, be it by researchfinancing institutions and/or journals' reviewers, it is argued that this is, from the point of view of research ethics at least, problematic.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"78 9","pages":"594-600"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142342655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChimiaPub Date : 2024-09-25DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2024.610
Christian J Leumann
{"title":"The Multiple Challenges of Handling Scientific Integrity in the Swiss Higher Education System.","authors":"Christian J Leumann","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2024.610","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2024.610","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Scientific integrity is the most important aspect that higher education institutions have to take care of, as it conveys credibility and acceptance of science to the public. Although science has a very powerful built-in self-regulation process for detecting and correcting scientific misconduct, there is a need for clear guidelines that have to be adapted on regular intervals to the rapidly changing world caused by scientific developments themselves. Outlined here are recent advances in how Switzerland increases awareness and transparency of scientific misconduct and how it handles cases of misconduct to improve the quality of science.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"78 9","pages":"610-612"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142342657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChimiaPub Date : 2024-09-25DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2024.584
Edwin C Constable
{"title":"Why Integrity? Why Now?","authors":"Edwin C Constable","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2024.584","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2024.584","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article introduces scientific and research integrity, with a particular emphasis on its implications for the active chemical community in Switzerland. It attempts to equate research integrity to good scientific practice and presents this as benefiting the researcher, the institution, and the discipline. The concepts are developed, and current and future challenges are identified.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"78 9","pages":"584-588"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142342658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChimiaPub Date : 2024-09-25DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2024.601
Olimpia Mamula Steiner, Andrea Anja Bumann
{"title":"The Code of Ethics for Chemists between Universal Moral Values and Local Reality.","authors":"Olimpia Mamula Steiner, Andrea Anja Bumann","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2024.601","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2024.601","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In an increasingly globalized world, threatened by resource depletion, global warming and pollution, scientists in general and the chemists in particular are obliged to rapidly integrate ethical values into their work. This article shows that the codes of ethics are a valuable aid in this process. Two real life examples are highlighted. The first one concerns a misbehaviour situation from an academic, while the second one presents the entangled political, economic and legal implications brought about by the pollution by polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) of the landfill La Pila, in the canton of Fribourg. Ultimately, the article underscores the collective responsibility of scientists, policy makers and economical players to uphold ethical excellence, for the benefit of the whole society and of everyone.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"78 9","pages":"601-605"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142342656","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChimiaPub Date : 2024-09-25DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2024.581
Edwin C Constable
{"title":"Editorial.","authors":"Edwin C Constable","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2024.581","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2024.581","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"78 9","pages":"581"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142342652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChimiaPub Date : 2024-08-21DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2024.483
Robin A Fairhurst
{"title":"Adventures with the β<sub>2</sub>-adrenoceptor Receptor: A Career Long Interest in Agonising One of the Most Widely Studied GPCRs.","authors":"Robin A Fairhurst","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2024.483","DOIUrl":"10.2533/chimia.2024.483","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Drug discovery is a multi-disciplinary effort in which groups with expertise in a range of areas combine in a unified way to achieve a common goal: to deliver a clinical candidate to evaluate a hypothesis for improving human health. As a medicinal chemist this environment has provided multiple opportunities to be involved in cross-discipline interactions that have been both rewarding and led to outcomes that would not have been possible without an intimate interdisciplinary curiosity. Within this article I aim to share some of my experiences with the β2-adrenoceptor that have fostered such synergistic relationships with several disciplines, but in particular with in vitro pharmacologists looking at different ways to stimulate this G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). This interest now spans over a quarter of a century and has been intertwined with the delivery of three clinical candidates.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"78 7-8","pages":"483-498"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142104819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChimiaPub Date : 2024-08-21DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2024.476
Alain De Mesmaeker
{"title":"A Search for Biologically Active Compounds for Potential Pharmaceutic and Agronomic Applications.","authors":"Alain De Mesmaeker","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2024.476","DOIUrl":"10.2533/chimia.2024.476","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Summarized here are some aspects of my research activities in Ciba-Geigy Central Research Laboratories (1985-1996), in Novartis and Syngenta Crop Protection Research (1997-2020). I have followed the chronological order of these research activities covering only published data.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"78 7-8","pages":"476-482"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142104818","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChimiaPub Date : 2024-08-21DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2024.468
Eric Eichhorn, Boris Schilling, Agnes Bombrun, Fridtjof Schroeder
{"title":"Sustainable (-)-Ambrox Production: Chemistry Meets Biocatalysis.","authors":"Eric Eichhorn, Boris Schilling, Agnes Bombrun, Fridtjof Schroeder","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2024.468","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2024.468","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>(-)-Ambrox, the most prominent olfactive component of ambergris, is one of the most widely used biodegradable fragrance ingredients. It is traditionally produced from the diterpene sclareol chemically modified and cyclized into (-)-ambrox. The availability of the new feedstock (E)-β-farnesene produced by fermentation opened new routes to (E,E)-homofarnesol as a precursor to (-)-ambrox. Combining the chemical transformation of (E)-β-farnesene to (E,E)-homofarnesol and its enzymatic cyclization with an engineered Squalene Hopene Cyclase provided a new sustainable route for the production of (-)-ambrox at industrial scale. Compared to the traditional synthesis from sclareol, the new and innovative route from (E)-β-farnesene improves atom and step economy, reduces waste production, solvent and energy consumption.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"78 7-8","pages":"468-475"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142104824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChimiaPub Date : 2024-08-21DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2024.518
Colette M Sullivan, Lea Nienhaus
{"title":"Exploring Sensitized Photon Upconversion - From Past to Present.","authors":"Colette M Sullivan, Lea Nienhaus","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2024.518","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2024.518","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The conversion of low energy photons into high energy photons via triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA) photon upconversion (UC) has become a promising avenue for furthering a wide range of optoelectronic applications. Through the decades of research, many combinations of triplet sensitizer species and annihilator molecules have been investigated unlocking the entire visible spectrum upon proper pairings of sensitizer and annihilator identities. Here, we reflect upon the seminal works which lay the foundation for TTA-UC originating from solution-based methods and highlight the recent advances made within the solid state primarily focusing on perovskite-based triplet generation.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"78 7-8","pages":"518-524"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142104823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChimiaPub Date : 2024-08-21DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2024.513
Janis M Zakis, Simone L Kuhn, Joanna Wencel-Delord, Tomas Smejkal
{"title":"Do we really need ligands in Ir-catalyzed C-H borylation?","authors":"Janis M Zakis, Simone L Kuhn, Joanna Wencel-Delord, Tomas Smejkal","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2024.513","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2024.513","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Direct borylation of C-H bonds is a privileged strategy to access versatile building blocks and valuable derivatives of complex molecules (late-stage functionalization, metabolite synthesis). This perspective aims to provide an overview and classification of the catalytic systems developed in this fast-growing area of research. Unexpected selectivity differences between two established directed-borylation systems have been discovered using high-throughput experimentation highlighting the importance of classical control experiments in catalysis research.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"78 7-8","pages":"513-517"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142104820","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}