Raman reveals Raphael 

Chemical analysis of an unattributed portrait of the Madonna and Child, known as the de Brécy Tondo, has shown the Renaissance artist Raphael (1483-1520) could have painted it as a dummy-run for his famous Sistine Madonna, according to UK scientists publishing in Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry.  

Laser Raman spectroscopy on three flecks of paint taken from the de Brécy  canvas revealed the unknown artist used a lead-based yellow pigment called massicot (lead(ii) oxide); this was typical of the renaissance period, and used by Raphael, but fell out  of favour in the 17th century, the researchers say. 

Cleaner cars 

The European Commission (EC) has announced plans to limit new vehicles' emissions of carbon dioxide to 130g per kilometre by 2012. Commissioners hope that improvements to air conditioning and tyre technology, and increased biofuels use, could see the limit cut to 120g/km.  

Average car CO₂ emissions in 2005 were 162g/km. Car manufacturers called the new targets arbitrary and damaging, but environmental groups say they have not gone far enough. 

The proposals, together with penalties for failing to meet them, will be considered later this year.  

The US Environmental protection agency has cut the amount of benzene allowed in gasoline by 36 per cent, under rules which also set new standards for hydrocarbon emissions from vehicles and fuel containers. 

Nobel chemist dies 

Alan MacDiarmid, who shared the 2000 Nobel prize in chemistry for the discovery and development of electrically conductive polymers, died in Philadelphia, US, on 9 February 2007.  

Born in Masterson, New Zealand, on 14 April 1927, he taught and researched at the University of Pennsylvania for more than fifty years. With Hideki Shirakawa and Alan Heeger, he first discovered in the late 1970s that doping polyacetylene with iodine made a plastic which conducted electricity. 

Ready for Reach? 

With European Reach (registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals) regulations to be introduced in June 2007 (see Chemistry World, January 2006, p8), the Chemical Industries Association has announced an online 'ReachReckoner' tool, which indicates how much it might cost a manufacturer, importer or downstream user of chemicals to make each of their substances Reach compliant.  

The first postgraduate certificate in Reach management, run by the University of Hull, UK, comprising four modules and a company placement, takes its first course on 4 June 2007. 

Any way the wind blows

The world's first hybrid wind and gas joint energy scheme, the Ormonde Project, has been approved by UK energy minister Lord Truscott. The development by Eclipse Energy, off the coast of Cumbria, UK, is due for completion in 2010.  

It will generate up to 200MW of electricity, enough for 70,000 homes, with some power coming from a 30-turbine wind farm and the rest pumped when necessary from conventional offshore gas fields. 

Germany is the world's leading wind energy producer, with operational wind power capacity of over 20,000 MW. 

Cooling chemical fuels snowy spat 

Swiss winter sports event organisers, troubled by unseasonably warm temperatures, have caused an environmental stir by using chemical fertilisers to maintain their precious slopes.  

Organisers of the Lauberhorn downhill ski race used up to 1.5 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which cools snow, to prepare and protect the piste.  

Environmental researchers are now investigating the extent and effects of this practice, which has raised questions about effects on vegetation and contamination of waterways.  

Though legislation already bars fertilisers' use at high altitudes and on snow covered fields, no specific rules exist controlling the use of fertilisers on ski slopes, Daniel Hartmann from the Swiss Federal office for the environment 
told Chemistry World. 

Africa's largest HIV trial 

US and South African scientists have announced the launch of the first large-scale clinical trial of an HIV vaccine on the African continent.  

The trial will involve about 3000 participants in five selected sites in South Africa and is expected to last four years. 

The test vaccine, known as the MRKAd5 HIV-1 trivalent vaccine, has already been studied for several years in Phase I and II trials involving thousands of volunteers. 

The news comes as late-stage trials were halted in Africa and India of a microbicide gel, Ushercell, designed to prevent HIV infection in women. 

Testing the air  

The Royal Society has launched a major study investigating how ground level ozone, a pollutant and greenhouse gas, may affect air quality and possibly influence climate change in the 21st century. It will also consider the impact of the gas on human health and the environment. 

The report will be published at the end of this year; the deadline for submissions to an open call for evidence is 23 March 2007. For further information go to web site.

Hair dye allergies increasing 

Researchers writing in the British Medical Journal  have warned that allergic hair dye reactions are increasing as more people colour their hair.  

More than two thirds of hair dyes currently contain para-phenylenediamine (PPD) and other aromatic amines. During the 20th century, allergic reactions to PPD became such a serious problem that it was banned from hair dyes in Germany, France, and Sweden.  

Current European Union legislation allows PPD to comprise up to 6 per cent of the constituents of hair dyes on the consumer market, but no satisfactory or widely accepted alternatives are available for use in permanent hair dye, the scientists report. 

Fake drugs spotted 

A twist on Raman spectroscopy allows fake drugs to be detected even when encased in packaging, scientists reported in Analytical Chemistry.  

Previous Raman analyses had to be applied direct to a drug's surface; in spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS), an offset detector picks up photons that have travelled through the drug rather than bounced off the packaging. 

Adapted existing handheld spectrometers could find commercial use in the anti-counterfeit industry. 

Carbon dumps prized 

The UN maritime organisation has allowed greenhouse gases to be buried under the seabed in oceans across the world, under amendments to the London Convention on dumping waste at sea. Tore Torp, carbon dioxide storage adviser at Norwegian oil group Statoil, said the move relieved doubt for investors. 

British entrepreneur Richard Branson has launched a competition offering $25 million (£12.5 million) to anyone who can remove significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year for ten years without off-setting harmful effects.  

Climate predictions tightened 

The 2007 fourth assessment report from the Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) concluded it was 'very likely' (more than 90 percent probable) that current global climate warming was due to increased greenhouse gas emissions. 

Warming of 0.2°C per year for the next few decades could be expected; global temperatures would likely increase by 1.8°C -4°C, though greater extremes were possible. By 2100, sea levels would rise by 19-58 centimetres.  

Only data collected up to the end of 2005 were included in the assessment. Further sections from the report are expected later this year, on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability and on ways to reduce emissions or their impacts. A final report will be released in late 2007.  

Graphene drums up interest 

US scientists have created a one-atom-thick membrane that resonates like a drumskin. Reporting in Science, the researchers stretched a sheet of graphene (one layer of graphite) over a trench etched into a silicon dioxide surface.  

No sign of a nano-drumstick though: the scientists 'beat' the drum with a voltage or laser matched to the sheet's resonance frequency. The resulting graphene resonators were robust, inert, and extremely sensitive - suitable for mass, force and charge sensing.  

Tracking chemical incidents 

The first report on the modified Chemical incident surveillance system for England and Wales, published by the Chemical hazards and poisons division of the Health protection agency, shows 1040 chemical incidents recorded for England and Wales in 2005, compared to 871 the year before.  

Over a quarter of all incidents - reported most frequently in London and the south-east - involved chemicals as a product of fires. In residential properties, metals were frequently involved and mercury leaks accounted for one in six of these incidents.