Meeting with George Ewart- ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries)

ICI logo- founded in 1926 as the
product of four companies merged.

Through conversation with one of my mother's work contacts about A levels and future interests, it transpired that her father worked in a company called ICI -Imperial Chemical Industries- a chemical company founded in Britain in 1926 and for much of it's history has been the largest manufacturer in Britain. As I am thinking about the future and what types of things you can go on to do with degrees from university in things like chemistry, biochemistry and biomedicine, this seemed like a great opportunity to question what exactly her father did and his general path through life. She told me that he had studied Chemistry at Glasgow University and after he graduated he had been involved with ICI, at first being employed with a more chemistry-centric role to his work, but later rising through the company until he became the Managing Director of ICI's overseas unit in India.
She also explained that he was extremely enthusiastic about encouraging young people into chemistry and related fields, and would be more than happy to have a meeting with me. Of course, this seemed like an amazing opportunity, and so I jumped at the chance to meet Mr. Ewart and ask him about his career and see if he would answer any questions I had about the career path I might want to choose.
Before I met Mr. Ewart I had done some more reading around about ICI and what it specifically is involved in: the company was the result of a merger between four substituent companies; Brunner Mond, Nobel Explosives, united Alkali Co. and British Dyestuffs Corp. In its early days, it was competing with other large chemical firms such as IG Farben and DuPont and it's original base was in Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees, not far at all from where I live. It has contributed to many industrial processes and been key to developing new chemical products, things like:

Pthalocyanin

  Dulux Paint colour pigments (with DuPont in 1932)

  Pthalocyanin(1929), a blue/green dye used in artist's paint and even    used in a large proportion of CDs

  Perspex (1932) and Polyethylene (1937) of course you've heard of these

Terylene polymer

  Terylene (1941) a polymer used   about 30% for bottles and 60%   for fabrics (also known as PET)

  Crimplene (1950) a fabric   material resistant to creases

it also branched out into more Pharmaceutical products, creating ICI pharmaceuticals in 1957 under which things such as Halothane (1951) was produced, an anaesthetic agent. Inderal (1965) a beta blocker, Tamoxifen (1978) was a drug used to combat breast cancer by being an inhibitor of the processes enabling breast cells to grow, therefore it is especially used for men with breast cancer. Between these years it had also been developing many successful Pesticides, such as primiphos-methyl, primicarb, brodifacoum and lambda-cyhalothrin.

 Various changes in ICI's CEOs skyrocketed it's profits and in 1970-75 it was Britain's largest Exporter, and began to make huge business moves such as Acquiring Atlas Chemical industries in America and BNS (British Nylon Spinners) as well as selling other parts of it's company. ICI was included in the FTSE100 while this buying and selling continued until it found itself in debt of £4 billion, at which point it sold its chemical commodities, £1 bn to ICI Australia, and £3 bn to DuPont in 1997. After this, it was taken over in 2006 by AzkoNobel with an initial bit of £7.2 billion, however this was later increased to £8 billion and accepted by ICI. It still has bases in Stockton-on-Tees, Redcar & Cleveland, Manchester, Slough, Ayrshire and Hertfordshire.

Picture of George Ewart
taken for Indian news.

I also managed to find some news from India about Mr. Ewart's division, specifically that the Indian division of ICI was involved in rubber chemicals and explosives, particularly the formation of Nitroglycerine. It employed around 7,100 people at the time.

George and I had a great couple of hours of conversation, as he took me through his career path from his various experiences of great things and memories from Glasgow university where he studied, to his particular memories of his first roles in ICI, where he travelled to many eastern european countries to be the middle man between the chemical producers back in the UK and the sales teams for the consumers in these countries, therefore his role in these positions was to decide on particular prices, as he had knowledge of the costs, processes and yields of these chemical reactions. This gave him confidence in the business sides of things, and he encouraged me to open my mind to travelling to different countries to build experience in foreign places.
He asked me what A levels I was taking and how I was getting on with them. I Replied that I enjoyed both Biology and Chemistry the most out of my four (Bio, Chem, Physics and Latin) and was wondering where in particular he thought might be a good area to focus for the future sorts of fields within the chemistry/biology world to which he replied that he thought biochemistry and biomedicine were probably the most up and coming sectors, due to the newly available technology we are leaning how to utilise. Of course when he was young, chemistry was all the rage, without biology having caught up for example, Crick and Watson only discovered the specific structure of DNA in 1953, and so much more was need to be discovered before the corporations could successfully build business in fields relating more heavily to biochemistry and biomedicine technologies.
Another interesting point raised during our discussion was the idea of being accepted into a company to work, and them sponsoring me through university in order to take me back and have me working in the company with a degree. I have searched around for this sort of opportunity however most companies do not seem to offer this, at least not openly. It was fantastic to have met and had a long and meaningful conversation George, as I hope he will be a useful contact in the future, and continue to be a source of inspiration to me.

The Changing Periodic Table

(colours are off in this post and i don't know why- technical malfunction!)

When using Google today to search for a belated present for my dad, I saw the Google icon was a periodic table, with Dmitri Mendeleev holding a cube marked S 32, as it is his 182nd birthday. As I have a keen interest in chemistry and the father of chemistry, if ever there was one, was Mendeleev, I decided to learn about him and his table and thought would share some of what I found.

At the time, chemistry was a much more mysterious subject, with around 60 elements known, but not put into a specific order other than by their atomic weights. Mendeleev and other scientists noticed that although they were ordered by weight, the similar chemical properties of the elements were not at all ordered; for example lithium, sodium, and potassium were all reactive with water to similar degrees and in similar ways, but were separated by about 7 or 17 places, or that similar compounds were formed when Flourine, Chlorine, Bromine and Iodine were used, but again were too far apart to show that they were linked when put into order of atomic weight.

Monument in St.Petersburg to Mendeleev depicting
the periodic table

Mendeleev worked tirelessly to attempt to find a pattern, or a way of organising the elements that showed clear trends, even writing out the names numbers and characteristics on small cards and arranging them in different ways until he came to the conclusion that he was missing cards. Not too dissimilar from that feeling of annoyance when you don't have all the pieces to the puzzle you're trying to complete, Mendeleev left gaps in his arrangement and predicted the properties the elements yet to be discovered. He was so certain of himself that he even published a paper arguing with the observations of french chemist Paul Francoise Lecoq about an element Lecoq had discovered called Gallium in 1875... and he was correct having never seen nor worked with the element.

The periodic table is one of science's crowning achievements, a catalogue of the universe's atomic building blocks. 
(NOTE: I do not know why, but the text will not conform to the usual blue colour in the next few paragraphs)
Some of my favourite elements include:

Caesium- beautiful but dangerous

Caesium, from the latin caesius, meaning ,right blue, because of the coloured compounds it forms. It is a beautiful light champagne/gold colour at room temperature but is also extremely explosive in water and many other solutions due to its ability to give away an electron, forming Caesium hydroxide, a strong baseIt's also even the definition of the second in atomic clocks which measure how many billions of billions of times it vibrates.

Carbon because of its versatility in life, from capsaicin to benzene, from morphine to chlorophyll they are all dependant on carbon and the whole subject devoted to it, organic chemistry, is fascinating just because of the apparent similarity of molecules which can then actually be entirely different from each other.

Mercury and Gallium, the only two liquid metal elements at room temperature (or just above) both are fascinating to play with, even if most of their chemistry is more limited than some other elements. One of the most poisonous and dangerous compounds ever found, dimethylmercury, an organometallic, is pretty scary, though. (only 0.01ml can be absorbed though the skin and kill in weeks)

Gallium- fun to play with

Of course there are new advancements being made with the periodic table all the time, especially with discovering the new elements like Uub, Uut, Uuq etc. just a few weeks ago elements 115 and 113 were confirmed in Japan and Moscow simultaneously using massive particle accelerators, firing atoms of calcium and americium (40+95) to make Uup or Ununpentium (Un-1-un-1-pent-5-ium). Unfortunately very  few atoms might be synthesised this way and all isotopes decay into helium nuclei (alpha radiation)in between 16 and 220 milliseconds, but have faith: an 'island of stability' has been predicted in which we might be able to create atoms which don't decay so fast that we might actually be able to do some real chemistry with!

Darker block corresponds to longer stable isotopes, as you can see at around 122 there may be some stable isotopes

My speculation:

The remnants of Ubu or Ubb?

This possible atom would probably be a new member of the alkali earth metals or the alkali metals, so I predict somewhere in the near future there might be something new to throw in water or make some strong hydroxide with! (although this is highly unlikely due to tiny tiny amounts made in particle accelerators. It will probably have the symbol Ubu 121 or Ubb 122 (Unbiunium and Unbibinium respectively) Ubu will probably have the largest radius of any atom. I wonder if any of these elements have been created before in supernova explosions, but are just so short lived that we would never detect them of course. I suppose we will see in time if I am right or totally wrong writing this now..

Science behind Spiciness

Whether for pain or pleasure, at some point in your life you will probably have eaten a hot chilli. Having lost a bet at lunch, It makes a great forefit for any competition between school friends.

While my mouth was on fire after eating a "birds eye" chilli I wondered exactly what it is about chillis which causes such a reaction, so I decided to do some research on it.

The tongue has a multitude of different receptors for different flavours and sensations, including one called "TRP-VR1" (Vanilloid Receptor 1) which detects  actual heat- if you were to eat something which has a high temperature these receptors are activated, letting a flood of ions through a protein channel, travelling through the nervous system and reaching the brain, which interprets the signal as "ouch", and so pain is felt.

Capsaicin

The active ingredient in any chilli is a molecule called capsaicin- C₁₈H₂₇NO₃. This molecule binds to the receptor, forming a waxy layer over it and signals it to open the protein channels making your brain feel heat pain on your tongue or wherever the capsaicin contacted. (The eyes, inside of the nose and other mucous membranes also contain these receptors, which is why getting any in your eyes or up your nose hurts all the same) the waxy nature of capsaicin from its hydrocarbon tail means it is non soluble in water, explaining why water does nothing to help wash away or cool down the mouth.

Bird's eye chilli

There is a scale to measure the "heat" of a chilli called the Scoville scale, devised by an American pharmacist, Wilbur Scoville in 1912 (whose birthday happens to be toady). In the test to determine how hot a chilli is, a panel of at 5 "expert taste testers" eat an exact weight of dried chilli dissolved in alcohol to extract the capsaicin and then are given a sugar water drink until at least 3 of the 5 agree there is no heat left. Of course the test is no perfect and often has varying ranges for the same chilli due to the human perception of when there is any heat left. The scale graduates in 100s of Scoville heat units (SHU). At the lowest end is a bell pepper, at 0 SHU and paprika at 100 SHU. Nice heat you might find in a mild tesco curry would be around 500 to 1000 SHU. Above 20,000 SHU is usually not considered to be a nice heat on its own, like Tabasco sauce. Hot supermarket curries may have 100,000 SHU. The birds eye chillis we buy and use in school are about 200,000 to 300,000 SHU. When I eat them my eyes and nose stream and I can't feel my mouth for a good 15 minutes, past this point there is only discomfort. My uncle
used to keep some naga chillis which are 750,000 SHU, and I have seen videos of people who do the most ridiculous chilli challenges online  using the famed "ghost pepper" which comes in at 1,000,000 SHU. The hottest pepper officially ever grown was the Carolina reaper, achieving a painful 2,200,000 SHU- about 10 times as hot as the ones I have had. 

The Carolina Reaper

But all of these chillis have extra flesh and other chemicals in them which hold off the heat of pure capsaicin. The chemical is used in higher concentrations in pepper spray, which comes in at 5,000,000 SHU. Pure crystal capsaicin  is pretty awful stuff, peaking at between 15,000,000 to 16,000,000 SHU. This kind of heat can just blow your head off-and has been made illegal in the United Kingdom as of 2013. 

Chillis make these chemicals as a defence mechanism, as most animals are affected by it, and wouldn't ever dare eat it again after the painful ordeal. Farmers who try to breed the hottest chillis tend to make harsh environments, apparently sometimes even cutting off branches of the plant in an effort to make them "feel as if they are being eaten, so they make their chillis hotter" I have heard stories about some chilli farmers verbally abusing their plants in an effort to make them hotter, although I don't really see the science behind it. 

Birds are one of the few animals which are not affected by hot peppers because they don't possess any TRPVR1 receptors. 

In nature there are compounds made by specific plants which actually do a better job than capsaicin can do on your receptors. 

Euphorbia poissonii, a highly toxic plant grown in Nigeria contains a chemical called Tinyatoxin, which clocks in at 5,300,000,000 SHU- over 300 times hotter than pure capsaicin, and 1000 times hotter than law enforcement grade pepper spray. Nigerian farmers reportedly use the plant's fluids as a pesticide.

Euphorbia Poisonii

Above: Tinyatoxin-(5,300,000,000 SHU)

Below: Resiniferatoxin-(16,000,000,000 SHU)





Even Tinyatoxin's heat pales in comparison to the King of chemical heat: Resiniferatoxin. Although the only difference between it and Tinyatoxin is the ether group on the carbon ring on the right side of the diagram this chemical is the ultra active analog of capsaicin, making the police's pepper spray seem harmless. It weighs in at 16,000,000,000 SHU of course this and Tinyatoxin's Scoville heat ratings have been estimated based on chemical analysis, because as little as 10 grams of it is a fatal dose, overloading the nerves which signal pain, and giving respiratory failure. Very very small mixtures of these chemical, although it seems illogical, have been used as effective pain medication due to numbing effects and are even being used in treatment of Peripheral neuropathy, to help nerve pathways refire.

 Left: Euphorbia Resinifara

Resiniferatoxin is found in Euphorbia Resinifera- a type of little cactus in north Morocco. As if spikes weren't enough to keep animals away from a cactus! I think I'll stick to the bird's eye chillis...

Pharmacogenomics & Stem Cell Banking- Dr. Nick Hole

I attended this lecture by Dr. Nick Hole on the 16th of November

 Above: Undifferentiated stem cells as seen under a microscope

This lecture's title interested me, as I have been told that the future's medical procedures may rely on genetics and stem cells and it is a much talked about subject and increasingly interesting. Dr Hole organised everyone who attended the lecture into 4 groups to understand how the ethics and business sides of stem cell banking may work in the future. The basic idea we were given was that all stem cell banking would be made legal by the government, and that each group must give their opinions on how the process should proceed. The groups were acting as the NHS, the private stem cell bank, a group of parents who wish to use the service and a pro-life group.

 Being in the private stem cell bank, our team's job was to be able to offer a different service to the NHS. We agreed would be targeted towards parents who may wish stem cells to be taken from bone marrow and embryonic stem cells at an annual cost until used with a few specific guarantees in place: that we would keep the stem cells safe and available at any time, that the stem cells are only available to the particular family who donated them, they will not be shared to anyone else. This was almost the opposite to the NHS who agreed that they would offer this service of donation to everyone, there would be total anonymity when donating (like a blood bank) and that the stem cells could not be kept under the specific conditions to keep them fresh so must be renewed every few months due to the cost of deep freezing for extended periods of time. The family group agreed that they would pay around £100 annually per person for a proportion of healthy stem cells to be frozen in the event that they or their future child may have a need for them, the pro life group were of course debating on the use of the our company's embryonic stem cells, believing all human life is sacred, and banking the stem cells lacked humanity and killed people, however our group countered that the government had passed law that allowed embryonic stem cell banking and it was an entirely optional process which a family could take part in which may save a future child or family member- (of course the pro-life group was comprised entirely of 6th form scientists who were more likely to view stem cell banking as a good idea)

The next topic that was brought up by Dr. Hole was the use of genes and the future of medicine in recombinant DNA technology, coding and altering genomes to find new drugs, which may be biologically synthesised. Cyclin genes control most of the growth and division, and are conserved throughout evolution. By synthetically regulating where genes are expressed we can regulate almost anything about any eukaryotic cells- around 210 types with 25,000 genes between them. This prompted Dr. Hole's question: can redevelop bespoke drugs by coding one's genome which are specific to that individual? In a way this process has already begun on a simple level, with synthetic biologists engineering microbes to produce useful molecules and biofuels. there is no large input of energy to synthesise these compounds, they are generally far greener and less industrial methods of producing desired compounds also. 

Diagram of the Telomeres

Genes govern everything about our body. Telomeres are repeat sequences of chromosomes which accumulate mutations. These telomeres naturally shorten with age and as you get older this is one reason why cancer becomes more likely, the cancer cells don't 'commit suicide' because of telomerase, an enzyme which actually repairs the cancer cells and allows them to continue dividing rapidly and dangerously  when repairs to the telomere begin to fail. Genetic alterations could vastly change the way these parts of our genes function, and anti cancerous telomerase drugs are being produced. Dr. Hole predicted that over 4000 genetic diseases could be cured with new drug sequences- the very day I was in this talk, I had an allergy test, where small pins coated with with allergens were pricked onto my skin to see which of them produced antihistamine reaction and left a bump on my skin, in the future the nurse would have my Genome coded and find the relevant gene which caused the antihistamine reaction to be released to the grass pollens which I am allergic to!

    Artemisinin

Craig Venter coded an entire genome of 'Mycoplasma Mycoses' - a 1.08 million long sequence and inserted this genome into an empty cell... which began to divide and grow, proving specific genetic cloning may be possible, and along with it complex alterations, known as designer organisms. for example, a malarial combatting drug called artemisinin may be coded for in terms of genes, and then these gens inserted into bacterial cells which produce the drug and has a much higher yield than obtaining it from plant which requires separation from other unwanted compounds. The only downsides to these genetic 'cures' is that the long term effects are not known.

The future of medicine will most likely incorporate stem cells and genetics, and it is an interesting take to view genetics as we currently view drugs.

Formation of an embryo- Dr Ian Keenan

I attended this lecture on the 24th September from Dr Ian Keenan from Newcastle university. 

The pre-birth section of human life is something which is mostly glossed over in the GCSE and most of the A level courses, even though it is a very important and interesting time in life. At GCSE the entire process was called "fertilisation period" and at A level the most detail we go into is just that the embryo grows from a ball of cells into a foetus and then a neonate. Dr Keenan's talk explained some of the processes behind making you from two haploid cells.

Gastrulation is the period of fertilisation following the blastula where the entire embryo is a "hollow cup" shaped structure with three layers of cells; the outer layer (ectoderm) will later be formed into the central nervous system, the middle layer (endoderm) will mainly consist of muscle tissue and the inner layer will form vital organs. 

This is also the time that the embryo forms it's body axes (cranial, dorsal, ventral, proximal, distal etc) with a particular family of genes controlling the process.

The embryo then plays a molecular "pass the parcel" as Dr Keenan put it, using an analogy of retailers and large companies distributing goods to model the way genes are first expressed to signal growth and begin to form a foetus: the customer orders online from a large company like Amazon, requesting a package. Amazon is an online retailer which models the signalling proteins BMP Shh FGF and Wnt, in organisers in the cell. 

left: FGF protein, used in embryonic formation and also used to heal wounds, because both processes need to form new cells.

To get to the customer, the package must travel on roads which are signalling pathways in the embryo. The package itself is a phosphate group (PO₄) transported by a kinase- an enzyme which catalyses the transfer of this phosphate group like a courier. To enter the correct part of the body the courier must press the "doorbell" which is a transcription factor in the targeted cell, delivering it to the customer, a gene. 

The talk by Dr Keenan made me realise how important this stage of life really is, that without it we would still be just a ball of cells in complete disorder, and that this tells our body where to grow muscle, bone, skin and organs. I found it very interesting to learn more than the A level course offers, and in particular this links to the chapters we have completed on protein synthesis so far, how complex and specific they are to perform these certain functions.