1. The American Chemistry Society’s Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions Podcasts by Argiris Malapanis
In 2008, the American Chemistry Society (ACS) began a series of instructive podcasts designed to create
and sustain a conversation about the practical applications that the field of chemistry might provide to
the questions of the 21st century. So far, the series consists of more than a dozen short presentations
on the current state of scientists’ research and how they think it will be applied to satisfy the needs of
human society.
The most recent addition to the series offers the interested listener a brief point of entry into the
development of cheap and reliable paper-based diabetes tests. With type-2 diabetes cases on the rise in
the developing world and healthcare facilities in those countries expensive or out of reach, the
availability of such a test in rural parts of India or China, for example, could mean that a disease with
serious long-term health repercussions will no longer go undiagnosed.
This is just one example of the work being done by chemists to solve problems in innovative ways. Those
interested in hearing the series should visit the press room on the ACS’s site at www.acs.org.
Argiris Malapanis is graduate student at the University at Albany, State University of New York in
nanoscale science and engineering.