Large scale cellulosic ethanol

According to a recent report, several companies are already producing large scale cellulosic ethanol. The news comes form a recent ethanol workshop attended by representatives of Coskata, Dupont/Danisco, Iogen, Lignol, Poet and PureVision.
the companies process around 1 ton of biomass per day, which is converted into 70-85 gallons of biofuels.

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Cosmetic formulas

Eckart America has many formulations for personal care products. They include ingredient lists and directions to make:

Eye shadow
Lipstick
Hair gel
Foundation
Skin lotion
Blush
Nail polish


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Free Chemical Engineering Journals

A user from the forum todoquimica (in spanish) supplied a list of chemical engineering publications that are freely avilable. They can be accessed through DOAJ (Directory of open access journals).

The journal names are listed below:


Journal of Chemical Engineering of Japan
Journal of Corrosion Science & Engineering
The Journal of Food Technology in Africa
Journal of Graph Algorithms and Applications
Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods
Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society
Journal of the Ceramic Society of Japan
Journal of the Chilean Chemical Sociaty
Journal of the Japan Petroleum Institute
Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
Journal of the Serbian Chemical Society
Polymer Journal
E-polymers
Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Quarterly
Platinum Metals Review
Oil and Gas Business
Polímeros
Journal of Water and Environment Technology
Ciência e Tecnologia de Alimentos
Electronic Journal of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Chemistry


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New material harder than diamond

Researchers from Bayerisches Geoinstitut, Universitat Bayreuth, Germany, created a substance denser and less compressible than diamond. It was obteined by compressing fullerene (c60) molecules at a pressure of 10 GPa and a temperature of 2200 degrees Celsius. Attempts to measure the micro hardness failed, since a diamond indenter was unable to make a dent in the new material. The material however was able to scratch the surface of diamonds. It is beleved that the new material would be more effective than diamond for tools and other industrial uses.

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Photos of industrial plants

Those who appreciate giant structures, tanks, piping and large abandoned buildings, may like these photographs. The plants are closed, unused or in the process of being teared down. Buildings include sulfuric acid plants, steel furnaces and others.

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Excellent laboratory website

Chemistry teaching websites are often of poor quality. That's not the case for Chemlab, the website of Darthmouth college's chemistry lab.
Laboratory procedures are clearly explained, as are some topics in chemistry. I highly recommend it to anybody teaching or concerned with the design of a chemistry teaching website.

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Origins of FORTRAN

I'd like to invite computer programming enthusiasts to view this video about the team that created the first version of the FORTRAN computer language. It's 12 minutes long and consists of interviews with the main protagonists of the story. The interviews reveal how excited they were of working on the (at the time) innovative project.

Even today, Fortran is one of the most widely used languages for numerical and scientific applications.

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