Photochemical smog systems: effect of dilution on ozone formation

Dilution of a photochemical system containing hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen can lead to higher ozone concentrations than are observed in a static system. This effect was observed in an outdoor smog chamber with a hydrocarbon mix simulating urban systems.     

Self-Assembled Smectic Phases in Rod-Coil Block Copolymers

Rod-coil block copolymers are self-assembling polymers that combine the physics of orientational ordering of rodlike polymers and the microphase separation of coil-coil block copolymers. Several new solid-state morphologies were observed in a series of anionically synthesized model poly(hexyl isocyanate-b-styrene) rod-coil diblock copolymers examined by transmission electron microscopy and selected-area electron diffraction. The rod-coils formed smectic C-like and O-like morphologies with domain sizes ranging from tens of nanometers to almost 1 micrometer. Both structural and orientational changes were found for increasing rod volume fractions. In addition, some morphologies exhibited spontaneous long-range orientational order over many tens of micrometers.     

Scientist quits NIH over fetal rules

Citing unacceptable federal restrictions on human reproductive research, fertility researcher Dr. Gary Hodgen is leaving the National Institutes of Health for the Eastern Virginia Medical School, where much of the work on in vitro fertilization in the United States is being done. Virtually no IVF research is conducted at NIH, since all government-supported efforts in this controversial area must first be reviewed in proposal form by a non-existent federal ethics committee. NIH's caution in fostering research on IVF and with human embryos is frustrating scientists and driving them into the private sector, where their work is unregulated.