Stereo Chemistry – Details, episodes & analysis

On average, from 2011 to 2021, academic labs generated around 4,300 metric tons of hazardous waste each year. One of the largest lab-used solvents discarded is dichloromethane and more than half of that waste ends up burned. In today’s episode, policy reporters Krystal Vasquez and Leigh Krietsch Boerner dive into the processes academic labs use to dispose of said waste, the consequences of new EPA regulations around dichloromethane, and what solutions academic institutions are coming up with to accommodate these new rules.

C&EN Uncovered, a project from C&EN’s podcast, Stereo Chemistry, offers a deeper look at subjects from recent stories. Check out Krystal’s story on the new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations regarding dichloromethane at https://cenm.ag/dcmregs and check out Leigh’s story about solvent waste disposal in academic laboratories at https://cenm.ag/wastedisposal.

Cover photo: Lab solvents C&EN July 15th cover photo

Subscribe to Stereo Chemistry now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

A transcript of this episode will be available soon at cen.acs.org.

Credits

Executive producer(s): Gina Vitale, David Anderson

C&EN Uncovered host: Craig Bettenhausen

Reporter(s): Krystal Vasquez, Leigh Krietsch Boerner

Audio editor: Ted Woods

Copyeditor: Bran Vickers

Episode artwork: Will Ludwig

Music: “Hot Chocolate,” by Aves

Contact Stereo Chemistry: Contact us on social media at @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org

Tragedies in the communities of Flint, Michigan, and East Palestine, Ohio, continue to affect residents 10 years and 1 year on, respectively, from the initial events. Residents of both cities continue to rebound and rebuild despite ongoing issues revolving around the toxic chemicals that were introduced to their towns through human decisions.

C&EN physical sciences reporter Priyanka Runwal traveled to both Flint and East Palestine to speak with residents about how they are recovering, how the actions of their representatives have fallen short, and their hopes to return to something of a “normal” existence in the future.

C&EN Uncovered, a project from C&EN’s podcast, Stereo Chemistry, offers a deeper look at subjects from recent stories. Check out Priyanka’s cover story on Flint after 10 years at cenm.ag/flint; Check out Priyanka’s cover story on East Palestine at cenm.ag/eastpalestine

Cover photo: Residents of Flint, Michigan, march arm in arm as they demand justice and accountability for their community 10 years from the beginning of the water crisis.

Subscribe to Stereo Chemistry now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

A transcript of this episode will be available soon at cen.acs.org.

Credits

Executive producer: Gina Vitale

C&EN Uncovered host: Craig Bettenhausen

Reporter: Priyanka Runwal

Audio editor: Ted Woods

Copyeditor: Bran Vickers

Story editor: Laura Howes

Episode artwork: Brittany Greeson

Music: “Hot Chocolate,” by Aves

Contact Stereo Chemistry: Contact us on social media at @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.

Be they powered by fossil fuels, batteries, or hydrogen, cars are here to stay. So what can be done to make tires greener? In this episode of Stereo Chemistry, C&EN reporters Alex Scott and Craig Bettenhausen look at where the rubber meets the road, literally. Scott examined efforts to make tires more sustainable in a recent cover story for C&EN. He found people working on the movement and fate of tiny specks of tire-and-asphalt dust in the environment as well as large-scale efforts to shift to biobased and recycled raw materials when making new tires.

C&EN Uncovered, a project from C&EN’s podcast, Stereo Chemistry, offers another look at subjects from recent cover stories. Read Scott’s May 29th, 2023, cover story about how the tire industry is pushing to become more sustainable at https://bit.ly/42MMseA.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://bit.ly/3Kw5gID.

Credits

Executive producer: Gina Vitale

C&EN Uncovered host: Craig Bettenhausen

Cover story reporter: Alex Scott

Audio editor: Mark Feuer DiTusa

Story editor: Michael McCoy, Ariana Remmel, Laura Howes

Copyeditor: Sabrina Ashwell

Show logo design: William A. Ludwig

Episode artwork: Pyrum Innovations

Music: “Hot Chocolate” by Aves

Contact Stereo Chemistry: Tweet at us @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.

When two wastewater treatment facilities in Baltimore, Maryland, broke down in early 2021, the surrounding waterways began filling up with sewage. In this episode of Stereo Chemistry, C&EN business reporter Craig Bettenhausen takes the pod to visit the Back River Plant and Patapsco Plant in the Chesapeake Bay watershed to demystify how these facilities treat wastewater and take a deep dive into the chemistry behind enhanced nutrient removal systems. Chemical engineers, environmental advocates, and infrastructure experts explore what happens to aquatic ecosystems when wastewater treatment systems fail–and share their perspectives on reimagining wastewater as a chemical treasure trove in the future.

Listen to our bonus episode with Kerri Jansen here: cenm.ag/jansen-podcast

A transcript of this episode is available at https://cenm.ag/treatment.

Credits

Producers: Ariana Remmel, Kerri Jansen; Writer: Craig Bettenhausen; Audio editor: Mark Feuer DiTusa; Story editors: Ariana Remmel, Gina Vitale, Chris Gorski, Mike McCoy; Copyeditor: Sydney Smith; Show logo design: William A. Ludwig; Episode artwork: Craig Bettenhausen; Music (in order of appearance): "Refuge" by Walz, "Lunch Time" by Avner Kelmer

Stereo Chemistry’s longtime host Kerri Jansen is stepping down from her role as executive producer of the podcast. Jansen has been with Stereo Chemistry since it began in 2018, and has played an integral role in the production of C&EN’s flagship podcast. In this bonus episode, Jansen talks with C&EN’s interim coeditors for audio & video, Ariana Remmel and Gina Vitale, about some of her favorite episodes from the Stereo Chemistry archives.

A transcript of this episode is now available at https://cenm.ag/jansen-podcast.

Listen to some of Kerri’s favorite Stereo Chemistry episodes:

How helium shortages have changed science

Lithium mining’s water use sparks bitter conflicts and novel chemistry

Nobel laureates Frances Arnold and Jennifer Doudna on prizes, pandemics, and Jimmy Page

A world without Rosalind Franklin

Why chemists are excited by exascale computing

There’s more to James Harris’s story

Credits

Producers/hosts: Ariana Remmel, Gina Vitale; Audio editor: Ariana Remmel, Mark Feuer DiTusa; Story editor: Michael McCoy, Krystal Vasquez; Copyeditor: Brianna Barbu; Logo design: William A. Ludwig; Episode artwork: Shutterstock/C&EN Staff; Music (in order of appearance): “Deer Dance” by Ian Post, “Hot Chocolate” by Aves, and “Sunbeam” by EFGR.
Contact Stereo Chemistry: Tweet at us @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.

Carbon capture and sequestration is the trapping of CO2 emitted by industrial processes and depositing it beneath the Earth’s surface. Spurred on by tax credits offered by recent federal legislation, companies are racing to implement the technology in geologically suitable locations such as in Louisiana.

However, the community around Lake Maurepas, Louisiana, has resisted efforts by Air Products to greenlight such a project under the lake. In this episode, C&EN reporters Craig Bettenhausen and Rick Mullin discuss the fears of the community around the implementation of carbon capture and sequestration around Lake Maurepas and the response from Air Products.
C&EN Uncovered, a new project from C&EN’s podcast, Stereo Chemistry, offers another look at subjects from recent cover stories. Read Mullin’s April 2nd, 2023, cover story about carbon capture and sequestration around Lake Maurepas at https://bit.ly/3W4lbCE.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://bit.ly/uncoveredlakemaurepas.

Credits

Executive producer: Gina Vitale

C&EN Uncovered host: Craig Bettenhausen

Cover story reporter: Rick Mullin

Audio editor: Mark Feuer DiTusa

Story editor: Michael McCoy, Ariana Remmel

Copyeditor: Michele Arboit

Show logo design: William A. Ludwig

Episode artwork: Julie Dermansky

Music: “Hot Chocolate” by Aves

Contact Stereo Chemistry: Tweet at us @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.

UPDATE

The episode description was updated on May 18, 2023, to include words that were accidentally omitted in the sentence about geologically suitable locations. The example location of Louisiana was originally missing.

Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries are cheaper, safer, and longer lasting than batteries made with nickel- and cobalt-based cathodes. In China, the streets are full of electric vehicles using this technology. But LFP never caught on as a chemistry for electric vehicle batteries in North America. In this episode, C&EN reporters Craig Bettenhausen and Matt Blois talk about the promise and risks of bringing lithium iron phosphate to a North American market.
C&EN Uncovered, a new project from C&EN’s podcast, Stereo Chemistry, offers another look at subjects from recent cover stories. Read Blois’s Jan. 30, 2023, cover story about lithium iron phosphate at http://bit.ly/3nbMkpK.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://bit.ly/3lzGtKy.

Credits

Executive producer: Kerri Jansen

C&EN Uncovered host: Craig Bettenhausen

Cover story reporter: Matt Blois

Audio editor: Mark Feuer DiTusa

Story editor: Michael McCoy
Copyeditor: Sabrina Ashwell

Show logo design: William A. Ludwig

Episode artwork: David Girai Photography

Music: “Hot Chocolate” by Aves

Contact Stereo Chemistry: Tweet at us @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.

Researchers reported finding microplastics in drinking water nearly 5 years ago, prompting California lawmakers to require monitoring of the state’s drinking water for the tiny particles. But in 2018, there were no standard methods for analyzing microplastics. So California regulators reached out to chemists and toxicologists from all sectors to develop those methods. They also sought assistance in developing a health-based limit to help consumers understand what the monitoring results mean for their health. In this episode of Stereo Chemistry, we will hear from some of the scientists leading those groundbreaking efforts.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://bit.ly/41g6uPa.

Credits

Executive producer/host: Kerri Jansen

Writer: Britt Erickson

Audio editor: Mark Feuer DiTusa

Story editors: Jyllian Kemsley, Michael McCoy, Ariana Remmel

Audience editor: Dorea I. Reeser

Copyeditor: Sabrina Ashwell, Heather Holt

Logo design: William A. Ludwig

Episode artwork: Shutterstock

Music (in order of appearance): “The Process” by Kevin Graham, “Goodness Gracious” by Louis Adrien

Contact Stereo Chemistry: Tweet at us @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.

At Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a supercomputer named Frontier has broken the exascale computing barrier, meaning it can calculate more than a million trillion floating-point operations per second. In this episode, C&EN reporters Craig Bettenhausen and Ariana Remmel discuss how Frontier works and what that kind of power could mean for computational chemistry.

C&EN Uncovered, a new project from C&EN’s podcast, Stereo Chemistry, offers a deeper look at subjects from recent cover stories. Read Remmel’s Sept. 5, 2022, cover story about exascale computing at https://bit.ly/3RkPjr6.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://bit.ly/3HNK1S0.

Credits

Stereo Chemistry executive producer: Kerri Jansen
C&EN Uncovered host: Craig Bettenhausen
Audio editor: Mark Feuer DiTusa
Copyeditor: Sabrina J. Ashwell
Additional review: Dorea Reeser, Manny I. Fox Morone, Michael Torrice
Episode artwork: Matt Chinworth
Music: "Hot Chocolate" by Aves

Contact Stereo Chemistry: Tweet at us at @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.

In this bonus episode of C&EN’s Bonding Time, we hear from 2022 chemistry Nobel laureates Carolyn Bertozzi and K. Barry Sharpless, who shared the prize along with Morten Meldal for their work on click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry. After a November symposium honoring the US-based Nobel awardees at the Embassy of Sweden in Washington, DC, the two chemists discussed their long history of collaboration, how winning the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has changed their lives, and how they hope to use the spotlight to break down barriers within science.

A transcript of this episode is available at bit.ly/3BiU3GZ.

To learn even more about this year's Nobel-winning science, listen to our October bonus episode about the prize at bit.ly/3iJ1iSc.

Credits
Executive producer/host: Kerri Jansen
Writer: Gina Vitale
Audio editor: Mark Feuer DiTusa
Story editor: Michael Torrice
Copyeditor: Sabrina Ashwell
Logo design: William A. Ludwig
Episode artwork: Laura Morton (Bertozzi); Sandy Huffaker (Sharpless)/C&EN
Music: “Street Dreams” by Julian Hartwell

Contact Stereo Chemistry: Tweet at us @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.