American Chemical Society launches 2013 edition of popular Prized Science video series

WASHINGTON, July 25, 2013 —Developing ways to treat cancer patients with drugs that kill only cancer cells and that have fewer side effects is one of the topics in the premiere segment of the 2013 season of a popular video series from the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society. The videos are available at http://www.acs.org/PrizedScience and on DVD.

Titled Prized Science: Peter Stang on Building Molecules, the first episode of the 2013 series features the research of Peter J. Stang, Ph.D., winner of the 2013 ACS Priestley Medal. He is a professor at the University of Utah and is the editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The Priestley Medal is the highest honor of the ACS, and it recognizes Stang's pioneering work building molecules with "self-assembly." The video compares that approach to a Lego® set, but one in which the blocks come together by themselves, the way nature assembles everything from microbes to people. Stang's research group uses self-assembly to build new medicines that can target a drug only to cancer cells.

Next in the 2013 series is an episode of Prized Science featuring Shirley Corriher, winner of the ACS 2013 James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public.

Other upcoming episodes feature:

  • Greg Robinson, Ph.D.: F. Albert Cotton Award in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry
  • Tim Swager, Ph.D.: ACS Award for Creative Invention
  • Esther Takeuchi, Ph.D.: E. V. Murphee Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry
  • Isiah Warner, Ph.D.: ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry

ACS encourages educators, schools, museums, science centers, news organizations and others to embed links to Prized Science on their websites. The videos discuss scientific research in non-technical language for general audiences. New episodes in the series, which focuses on ACS' 2013 national award recipients, will be issued periodically.

The 2013 edition of Prized Science features renowned scientists telling the story of their own research and its impact and potential impact on everyday life. Colorful graphics and images visually explain the award recipient's research.

Source: American Chemical Society