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Developer of birth control pill brings literary insight to OSU

Carl Djerassi helped change the world by aiding in the development of the birth control pill in the early 1950s.

And while chemistry remains near and dear, today Djerassi is interested in studying and writing literature — an interest he brought to Oregon State University on Thursday with a multimedia-spiced public talk and dramatic reading at the LaSells Stewart Center.

Thursday’s talk and reading was part of the School of Writing, Literature and Film’s 2012 “Critical Questions” series.

Djerassi, 88, has written five novels, and several plays and nonfiction pieces, with much of his work termed as science-in-fiction and science-in-theater.

“Everything I describe has to be accurate and plausible,” Djerassi said, adding that the genres differ from traditional science fiction due to their authenticity.

So, rather than talking just science, Djerassi has explored the culture of scientists and the ethical issues involved in their work while aiming to break the stereotype of the asocial lab rat.

“It’s a very inside job,” he explained.

But it’s a job for which he’s well-suited: The realm of the laboratory is one Djerassi knows well.

Djerassi was conducting research at a pharmaceutical company in Mexico City when in 1951 he and his team developed a synthetic hormone that could be used in oral contraceptives.

After Djerassi’s team developed the hormone, it was then used to create the first oral contraceptive pill, called Enovid. The federal Food and Drug Administration approved the first version in 1957.

The 1965 Supreme Court decision Griswold v. Connecticut made oral contraceptives available to all married women in the United States; a 1972 decision, Eisenstadt v. Baird, made oral contraceptives available to all unmarried women.

Today, the birth control pill is used by about 100 million women worldwide.

Djerassi has won many awards for his scientific works, including the National Medal of Science in 1973. (OSU alumnus Linus Pauling won the same award the following year for his work in chemistry.)

Djerassi’s role in the development of the birth control pill puts him in an interesting spot in American culture; the widespread use of the pill is credited for allowing women to stay in school and work longer by giving them the ability to choose if and when to have children.

As a result, Djerassi has been interested in gender studies, and although he’s been a faculty member of Stanford University’s chemistry department for more than 50 years, he’s taught classes on and off for Stanford’s feminist studies department for 20 years. (He also credits his interest in feminism to his late wife, Diane Middlebrook, who chaired Stanford University’s feminist studies department for several years.)

More recently, Djerassi has been recovering from elective surgery on his left leg just two weeks ago. With his trip to Corvallis already scheduled, Djerassi wasn’t sure his doctors would recommend the surgery — but as it turns out, they were optimistic about his recovery.

“They said, ‘Absolutely, you can do this!’” he said.

Contact Gazette-Times reporter Gail Cole at 541-758-9510 or gail.cole@gazettetimes.com.

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Silicon, which is less electronegative than carbon or hydrogen atoms, can significantly alter the electronic characteristics of an organic molecule. Replacing the hydrogen atoms of an aromatic C–H group with silyl groups has emerged as an important strategy in industrial-scale chemical synthesis because these substituents can tune molecular reactivity, enabling construction of elaborate chemical frameworks. 

Chemists normally use transition metals such as platinum or rhodium to catalyze aromatic silylation reactions. But to achieve high conversions, these catalysts need to be mixed with additional hydrogen acceptor reagents, which can generate unwanted waste products, including alkanes. 

Hou and colleagues have pioneered studies into rare-earth metals, such as scandium, which have different catalytic properties to transition metals. Recently, they found that ‘half-sandwich’ scandium complexes, bonded on one side by a flat organic ring, showed unique activity and selectivity in the presence of carbon double bonds. This made investigations of unsaturated aromatic molecules a natural next step. 

When the researchers mixed a methoxy–benzene compound called anisole with the half-sandwich scandium catalyst and a phenylsilane, they found that the silyl group substituted onto the aromatic ring with excellent selectivity and yields (Fig. 1). Furthermore, the catalyst did not require hydrogen acceptor reagents, and generated only H2 gas as a by-product. Hou notes that this reaction is highly advantageous in terms of atom economy.

X-ray and spectroscopic measurements revealed that the working form of the catalyst, which contained a pair of ‘bridging’ hydrogen atoms, activated the reaction by coordinating the anisole’s methoxy group to the rare-earth metal. According to Hou, this relatively strong interaction directs silylation to occur almost exclusively at the position adjacent to the methoxy unit on the aromatic ring—a 'regioselectivity' that outshines that of transition metal catalysts, whose weak oxygen–metal interactions often produce an undesirable mix of silylation isomers.

The team will continue to explore new approaches to improving catalytic sustainability and selectivity by tapping into the extraordinary properties of rare-earth metals.

More information: Oyamada, J., et al. Scandium-catalyzed silylation of aromatic C–H bonds. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 50, 10720–10723 (2011).

Takimoto, M., et al. Scandium-catalyzed regio- and stereospecific methylalumination of silyloxy/alkoxy-substituted alkynes and alkenes. Journal of the American Chemical Society 131, 18266–18268 (2009).

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Trace elements in stars may influence the evolution of habitable zones around them where life as we know it might dwell, scientists now find.

Stars are made nearly entirely from hydrogen and helium gas. Still, traces of heavier elements — which astronomers call metals, even if they are not what one normally think of as metals — can be found in stars as well, either inherited from the remains of older stars or forged via nuclear fusion.

Scientists can detect what elements a star possesses by looking at its light, which comes in a wide variety of wavelengths, some visible, many invisible. The wavelengths of light that matter emits often comes in specific clumps or lines, which can act like a fingerprint, revealing the identity of the material in question.

By looking at the wavelengths or spectra of light from nearby dwarf stars as part of searches for alien worlds, or exoplanets, researchers have with high precision determined the abundance of certain elements for more than a hundred of these stars, with more to come. Now researchers suggest variations in the compositions of these stars could impact the habitable zones around them.

What scientists call the habitable zone of a star  is defined by whether liquid water can survive on a planet's  surface, given that life exists virtually wherever there is liquid water on Earth. Too far from a star, and the lack of light makes a world too cold, freezing all its water; too close to a star, and all that blazing heat makes a world too hot, with its water eventually all boiling off.  [Gallery: A World of Kepler Planets ]

Finding the habitable zone

Normally scientists figure out the habitable zones of stars by seeing how hot the stars are. This involves looking at their brightness and color. Computer models now suggest that variations in a star's elemental composition might alter its long-term behavior, significantly affecting the location and lifetime of its habitable zone.

“I was expecting some subtle changes in our stellar evolution models in terms of the surface temperature and brightness — I was not looking for such a dramatic change in the lifetimes of the stars,” said study lead author Patrick Young, a theoretical astrophysicist and astrobiologist at Arizona State University.

Scientists typically measure the abundance of heavy elements in a star relative to the iron content in its atmosphere, as iron is a common element and its spectrum is relatively easy to measure. Past research found that abundances of various heavy elements could vary by more than a factor of two given otherwise similar star types.  [Video: Kepler Reveals Lots of Planets: Some Habitable?]

Young and his colleagues generated computer models for how variations in levels of eight elements — carbon, oxygen, sodium, aluminum, magnesium, silicon, calcium and titanium — might affect the behavior of F, G and K stars, those most similar to our sun. Metals in a star can alter its evolution by affecting how opaque its plasma is.

“The persistence of stars as stable objects relies on the heating of plasma in the star by nuclear fusion to produce pressure that counteracts the inward force of gravity,” Young explained. “A higher opacity traps the energy of fusion more efficiently and results in a larger radius, cooler star. More efficient use of energy also means that nuclear burning can proceed more slowly, resulting in a longer lifetime for the star.”

Elements of stars

The scientists found that calcium, sodium, magnesium, aluminum and silicon had small but significant effects on a star's evolution. Higher levels of these elements resulted in cooler, redder stars.

Oxygen also proved especially important because it could dramatically alter the lifetime of a star's habitable zone.

“The habitable lifetime of an orbit the size of Earth's around a one-solar-mass star is only 3.5 billion years for oxygen-depleted compositions but 8.5 billion years for oxygen-rich stars,” Young said. “For comparison, we expect the Earth to remain habitable for another billion years or so, for about 5.5 billion years total, before the sun becomes too luminous. Complex life on Earth arose some 3.9 billion years after its formation, so if Earth is at all representative, low-oxygen stars are perhaps less than ideal targets.”

Moreover, the presence of oxygen was linked with ultraviolet radiation, which is known to damage cells. “A star that is otherwise like the sun in iron abundance and mass but relatively scarce in oxygen could produce twice as much of the cell-damaging radiation that causes skin cancer and is sometimes used for sterilization,” Young said.

Young did note that habitable zones are a rather nebulous concept, since they depend on the atmosphere and geological evolution of a planet, making it tricky to draw any conclusions about the lifetime or extent of habitable zones.

“This is why we concentrate on the stellar modeling,” Young said. “We can provide input to any climate model other researchers wish to use. For illustrative purposes we have chosen a simple, conservative prescription, not too optimistic or pessimistic.”

Pinning down alien planets

A better knowledge of where a star's habitable zone really lies could influence which exoplanets astrobiologists end up studying more and which they end up ignoring because they lie outside habitable zones.

“Kepler has already detected worlds in the current habitable zones of their stars and planets smaller than Earth, and there are dozens more candidates that await confirmation,” Young said. “Detecting a planet with life will be a difficult proposition at best, requiring too many resources to observe indiscriminately. With this information we can narrow down our search to planets that are not only currently in their habitable zones, but have been and will remain there for long enough to potentially develop complex life.”

The composition of a star can also influence the composition of its planets. Two important considerations are the carbon-oxygen and magnesium-silicon ratios of stars, which can affect whether a planet has certain magnesium- or silicon-loaded clay minerals such as magnesium silicate (MgSiO3), silicon dioxide (SiO2), magnesium orthosilicate (Mg2SiO4), and magnesium oxide (MgO). Clay minerals seem to be a good surface to create key components of life, such as the lipid membranes of cells.

“This is why one of the targets of the Mars Science Laboratory will be phyllosilicate clays in Gale Crater,” Young said. “Some clays are better than others, and the magnesium-silicon ratio in part determines the type of clay formed.”

Variety of cosmic elements

Variations in the compositions of stars could also lead to planets that have different elemental combinations dominating, such as a planet with mostly carbon-based rock as opposed to our silicon-based Earth. “We'd expect tectonics and volcanism to be very different on a planet whose crust is dominated by graphite and silicon carbide than on Earth.”

Certain elements within a star also strongly line up with the abundance of radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium, which are key in determining how molten the interior of planets are, Young said. Molten planetary interiors are key to plate tectonics, which in turn may be important to the evolution of life on Earth.

Young noted that some of the elements they would like to look at are very difficult to observe. For instance, “we want to find trace elements that are important to terrestrial-style life like molybdenum and phosphorus,” he said. “I am conducting other research to find abundant elements that we could use as proxies for finding enhancements in those trace elements because they are produced in the same conditions inside stars or stellar explosions.”

The researchers are now analyzing the elemental abundances seen in 600 stars that are targets of exoplanet searches.   They are also producing a much larger set of stellar evolution models for different mass stars and compositions.

“We will be producing a list of what we consider the best 100 targets for habitable planet searches based on a number of criteria including those presented in this work,” Young said.

Young and his colleagues detailed their findings Jan. 11 at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.

This story was provided by Astrobiology Magazine, a web-based publication sponsored by the NASA astrobiology program.

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St. Mary's puts the chemistry in baking

CHICAGO — Pulling on the same end of the rope.

It's a line certainly not originated by the White Sox, but Aaron Rowand invoked it enough during the unforgettable 2005 season that it might as well have been trademarked by the franchise.

So what does it mean in the context of baseball? Well, there's no tangible statistical category to follow such as OPS, OBP or WAR. For a team fighting for a chance to compete, though, that feeling of togetherness might be as crucial as any powerful cleanup hitter or lockdown eighth-inning reliever.

“More important than any stat you can put on paper,” second baseman Gordon Beckham said during his weekend SoxFest appearance. “If your team is close and they want to play for the other person, it's almost like you are brothers.

“If you play for the brother next to you and locker next to you, then you are not playing for yourself. You are playing for them and their respect and their honor. If everybody does that and worries about somebody else besides them, they will play to their abilities.”

At first glance, this theory sounds a bit like a cover-up for teams lacking the talent to match Major League Baseball's elite. The White Sox seem to be that team on paper, with bounce-back years from Beckham, Adam Dunn, Alex Rios and Jake Peavy more than necessary for the White Sox to make a run at the Tigers, Yankees, Rangers and Angels of the world in the American League.

Don't for a second believe that a strong feeling of camaraderie or group tunnelvision totally can make up for subpar on-field performances. Then again, that feeling often helps turn a very good team into one of championship caliber.

Let's take a trip back to the 2005 White Sox, as an example. From the very beginning, this was a group feeling as if it knew something nobody else in baseball really understood. The players supported each other, and the more pundits outside Chicago doubted their staying power — even with a 27-9 or 74-39 record — the more it galvanized them as one unit with a common goal.

Players from the '05 team such as Joe Crede, Chris Widger, Pablo Ozuna, Cliff Politte and Neal Cotts appeared at the Palmer House Hilton during SoxFest, earning rousing ovations for their every move and giving White Sox fans time to reminisce about the greatest season of their lives. Being around that championship mettle also can have an effect on the 2012 team, according to Crede.

“They see that warm ovation, and it's a motivating factor I would think for any player to want to be able to get to the situation we got into in '05,” Crede said. “For me as a player, going into other cities and seeing some of the former players of their World Series teams, you notice it. I'm hoping that we do the same for those guys, and I would really love to see those guys do well and win another one here and experience what we experienced.

“You can't describe how great of a feeling it was to experience the parade and everything that happened after it. It's a feeling you wish upon a lot of these White Sox players to have for them. There seems to be a great group of young guys here who are very energetic.”

Ozzie Guillen stood at the helm of that remarkable 2005 team, which led from season's start to finish, won 110 total games and lost only once in 12 postseason contests during one of the most overlooked title runs in recent memory. Guillen didn't need to give any rah-rah speeches to fire up that group, but when tenuous situations arose, such as the Indians cutting a 15-game deficit on Aug. 1 to 1 1/2 as late as Sept. 24, he managed to keep everyone together with retirement talk if the White Sox went all the way.

Nobody really knows the intangibles Robin Ventura will bring as a manager, other than the All-Star third baseman looking to be a players' type of leader. But as a group, these 2012 players seem focused on winning baseball and nothing more.

“Team chemistry and the way you feel about each other, and your coaching staff included, goes a long way,” Peavy said. “Guys can rally around that, and I certainly expect this bunch to be this way. For the most part, this bunch cares about each other. There aren't really cliques on this team, and having a guy like Robin to bring all that together … I think added motivation goes a long way.”

“During the timeframe you have to play the game or prepare for the game, that's what you do, instead of worrying about off-field stuff,” White Sox bench coach Mark Parent said. “As you've seen in this last four or five days, there are a lot of guys who like each other, which is important. We have guys who want to perform better. They are anxious to get started.”

Comparing the 2012 team to the '05 squad isn't really fair to the present team or respectful to the best squad in franchise history. Then again, doubters seemed to exist in '05 until Orlando Palmeiro's final groundout, so a '12 group pulling from the same end of the rope is excited about what could happen this season.

“Our team has to have a real sense of pride and only worry about what we are doing, not what anybody else says,” Beckham said. “No outside stuff, just us in that locker room. It's got to be about this White Sox team. We want to do it for the fans, but we've got to have a tight-knit group.

“I'm convinced that's the only way you can win games. If you don't have that special bond, you are not going to be who you want to be. You have to have that 'it' factor. You know, I'm excited about this year because I think we have some new things going on that are going to be really good and help us get to that point.

“Last year, we had all these big expectations, but we didn't do anything. We don't have as many expectations on us this year, but we have the same expectations as a team to win.

“So why not go out and have fun? This is a game. It's not supposed to be so built up, so hyped up that you can't go out and have fun. I want to get back to it, and I know a bunch of guys want to get back to it.”

Scott Merkin is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Merk's Works, and follow him on Twitter @scottmerkin. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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Last season, building chemistry was the underlying theme of the Heat’s season. There was very little between LeBron James and Dwyane Wade during that 9-8 start — the two stars took turns watching each other, not playing off of each other. That started to change as the season wore on and into the playoffs and things looked better — until they ran into the ultimate chemistry of the Dallas Mavericks.

This season chemistry is not a problem. Never been better.

So says LeBron James, speaking to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. (Hat tip to Eye on Basketball.)

“It is at an all-time high right now, honestly,” James said of the chemistry between the two. “It is just a chemistry that we have. Last year was a blueprint for us. It is not like we look for each other more than others, it kind of just happens.

“We’re two of the fastest guys in the league when it comes to a break and it is kind of pick-your-poison with the defender, either allow me to get a dunk or allow D-Wade to get a dunk. We are two unselfish players. If a guy is open, we pass it.”

Chemistry and winning are inexorably linked in the public mind — winning teams have chemistry, losing teams do not. That deduction often comes after the fact. In the Heat’s case, the chemistry with Wade and LeBron always seems to be better when they have better players around them that forces defenders to make choices rather than focus solely on them. No doubt LeBron and Wade are more comfortable with each other on the court now than they were a year ago at this time, but the up-tempo style of play and better surrounding cast are a part of that equation, too.

It’s that whole equation that should have other teams concerned.

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LeBron says chemistry at ‘all-time high’ with Wade

MILWAUKEE, Wis.—

   The tag-team approach is back. And now no one is talking about LeBron James or Dwyane Wade being better by themselves. Not when they're playing this well in tandem. Not after these past three games.

   With Wade back from the sprained right ankle that kept him out for six games, James and Wade have regained their common stride in victories against the New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls and New Orleans Hornets, part of the five-game winning streak the Heat carry into Wednesday's game against the Milwaukee Bucks.

   “It is at an all-time high right now, honestly,” James said of the chemistry between the two. “It is just a chemistry that we have.  Last year was a blueprint for us.  It is not like we look for each other more than others, it kind of just happens.

   “We're two of the fastest guys in the league when it comes to a break and it is kind of pick-your-poison with the defender, either allow me to get a dunk or allow D-Wade to get a dunk. We are two unselfish players. If a guy is open, we pass it.”

   There has been plenty of ball movement between the two over the past three games, with nine Wade assists for James baskets and five James assists for Wade baskets.

   Many of those passes have resulted in spectacular plays.

   Mostly it's been Wade-to-James that has provided the ultimate theatrics.

   “If there was one guy that I've thrown the most lobs to in my life, it's been LeBron, from All-Star games, to Olympics, and obviously playing with the Heat,” Wade said.

 ”I kind of have a feel for when he's coming. I hear him trucking out of the corner of my ear. I see him and he's the kind of guy that you can just throw it up and he'll get it.”

   Then Wade gets to witness.

   “He makes you look good,” Wade said. “Just trying to reward him for running hard.”

   James said he has a similar feel.

   “We both know,” he said of the open-court feel for each other, “also knowing the game and knowing what is going on.

    “When a guy like D-Wade has a good rhythm, you have to keep feeding him.”

    Right now, the going is particularly good.

     ”It is a residual of all these games and that even goes back to last year,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We played over 100 games and we had those few extra months, we were able to get much more comfortable with each other and get on the same page.

    “Those guys are such high-IQ players, it was a matter of time before they learned how to play off each other.”

   Or, in this latest case, re-learned.

   “They understand what our keys to success are: We have to defend. We have to play off misses. And that gives us an opportunity to play out in the open court,” Spoelstra said. “They have been very explosive with that.”

   Spoelstra said the two can be particularly explosive when he can keep their minutes down, which he did in Monday's rout of the Hornets. That becomes easier with the bench playing well recently, particularly forward Mike Miller.

   “We have depth right now, now that we are healthy,” Spoelstra said. “We can take them out and put in other guys to really put the pressure on.”

On the outs

    The last time the Heat played the Bucks, veteran swingman Stephen Jackson was coming off a one-game benching for failing to make it to the shootaround the previous game against the New York Knicks.

    Now Jackson, the mercurial scorer, is coming off another benching, held out of the Bucks' Monday victory over the Detroit Pistons because of what coach Scott Skiles said was a rotation decision.

   Jackson said Monday was the first time he had been held out of a game when healthy and not being disciplined.

   Factoring in is the recent upgraded play of Bucks guard Shaun Livingston, who previously had a brief stint with the Heat. Livingston has started the past seven games in Milwaukee's backcourt alongside Brandon Jennings.

iwinderman@tribune.com. Follow him at twitter.com/iraheatbeat

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LeBron says chemistry with Wade, 'at an all-time high'

Last season, building chemistry was the underlying theme of the Heat’s season. There was very little between LeBron James and Dwyane Wade during that 9-8 start — the two stars took turns watching each other, not playing off of each other. That started to change as the season wore on and into the playoffs and things looked better — until they ran into the ultimate chemistry of the Dallas Mavericks.

This season chemistry is not a problem. Never been better.

So says LeBron James, speaking to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. (Hat tip to Eye on Basketball.)

“It is at an all-time high right now, honestly,” James said of the chemistry between the two. “It is just a chemistry that we have. Last year was a blueprint for us. It is not like we look for each other more than others, it kind of just happens.

“We’re two of the fastest guys in the league when it comes to a break and it is kind of pick-your-poison with the defender, either allow me to get a dunk or allow D-Wade to get a dunk. We are two unselfish players. If a guy is open, we pass it.”

Chemistry and winning are inexorably linked in the public mind — winning teams have chemistry, losing teams do not. That deduction often comes after the fact. In the Heat’s case, the chemistry with Wade and LeBron always seems to be better when they have better players around them that forces defenders to make choices rather than focus solely on them. No doubt LeBron and Wade are more comfortable with each other on the court now than they were a year ago at this time, but the up-tempo style of play and better surrounding cast are a part of that equation, too.

It’s that whole equation that should have other teams concerned.

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LeBron James says chemistry with Dwyane Wade, 'at an all-time high'