Museum of Science and Industry

It's National Chemistry Week (October 21-27)! All week long, we'll be giving the spotlight to this branch of science, our way of tipping our hat to the chemistry around us. We'll start the week off by first jumping right to the end.

Get into the spirit this Saturday by coming to our National Chemistry Week celebration. Just for middle- and high-school-age guests, professional chemists will be leading Junior Science Cafés on topics like fingerprints, energy sources and conversions, blood splatter analysis, and the chemistry of flavoring beverages. (If you're not able to visit us in person, be sure to check National Chemistry Week's website for other events going on all week around the country.)

Earlier this month, the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was announced by a member of the Nobel Chemistry committee suddenly shouting "Boo!" at the assembled audience. Why? More than just that quirky Swedish humor, it was to give the audience a first-hand experience of the chemistry topic at hand. It was research about, in part, the body's reaction to danger for which the two American scientists were being honored. (More specifically, their work on G-protein–coupled receptors, which help cells interpret signals from throughout the body, and are targeted by nearly half of all pharmaceutical drugs. So it's a pretty big deal.)

So, Happy National Chemistry Week everybody! At some point this week, be sure to take a moment and--

BOO!

Did you feel those G proteins?

National Chemistry Week Celebration at MSI October 27, 2012 at MSI.

Two American Scientists Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry