Where I live, a local radio station has a format called "Bummer Free Fridays". Upbeat, happy songs, no reporting on local bad news, only good news stories. I love this idea. So to emulate that tradition today, I have a fun chemistry-related video to share with our readers.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) Web community site for nanoscience and nanotechnology researchers and enthusiasts — ACS Nanotation — launched a second installment of the NanoTube video contest and yesterday we ran across this entry that made all of us at Sigma-Aldrich grin with delight.

UNC-Charlotte's Nanoscale Science PhD Program & Chemistry Dept released their NanoGirls video: "You look like a girl from Sigma-Aldrich". We like it! Thanks guys!!

Written by Dr. William Sommer, product line manager for Catalysis 

Aldrich had the pleasure to welcome Professor Ei-ichi Negishi, from Purdue University, last September in Milwaukee. Professor Negishi talked about the ZACA catalyst and the different applications associated with it. This is a 7-part video that lasts approximately 1 hour.

http://tr.im/rLY0

 If you want to see more of these types of webcasts, please leave a comment or contact us at chemblogs@sial.com

Enjoy, your feedback is welcomed

President Obama gave a speech earlier this week at the National Academies of Sciences. He mentioned that substantial funding was included in the stimulus package for research and education programs to spurt interest in sciences from students. President Obama also promised to make it a national imperative to improve the level of US students in maths and sciences. This program goal is to get US students in the top of international benchmarks in maths and sciences.

The science community, and in particular Chemistry, offers a number of blogs of interest. This morning I ran across two I thought our ChemBlogs readers might be interested in.

The first, from Rich Apodaca, a chemist and software developer in San Diego, California. His blog is Depth-First and the recent posting is Scientific Blogging: Ignore It and Be Ignored? His post discusses various ways in which scientists are connecting, and asks the reader if they can afford to sit on the sidelines as the world changes around them.

The second post was from my good friend Professor Jean-Claude Bradley of Drexel University. His UsefulChem Blog is regular reading for me. Jean-Claude poses the question Is it becoming dangerous to NOT blog?

This makes me wonder, what do you, our readers think about blogging and science? Do you blog? Please post your comments and take part in the dialogue.