Chemists Celebrate the Earth Day

Chemists Celebrate the Earth Day is ACS's annual event that focuses internationally on environmental topics, such as clean air, water and energy, to illustrate the positive role chemistry plays in the conservation of the Earth.

As far as you know water plays the most important role on the planet. To celebrate Earth Day, the American Chemical Society (ACS) will feature three scientists whose work has been to keep water safe, clean, and available for future generations. Focus on objects including elementary and middle school students, the "Chemists Celebrate Earth Day" series pays attention on some important tasks that chemists and chemical engineers do every day.

Some truths about American Chemical Society (ACS)

The American Chemical Society is a non-profit organization run by the United States Congress. ACS is considered as the largest scientific society in the world with more than 161,000 members and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through a variety of databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C. and Columbus, Ohio.

• Tech Toys exchange: With PhD Aydogan Ozcan working at UCLA, Ozcan uses devices daily and turns them into powerful mobile laboratories. He has changed a cell phone into a blood analyzer and bacteria detector, and now he's built a device that turns a cell phone into a water tester. It can detect mercury that is very harmful even at very low levels.
• All about Drought: With Collins Balcombe of the US Bureau of Reclamation: Balcombe's job is to keep your drinking water safe and find new ways to reuse the water we flush every day so it doesn't go to waste costs, especially in areas that don't get a lot of rain.
• Purifying Our Water: With Anne Morrissey, PhD, Dublin City University: We all take medicine, but did you know that sometimes the medicine isn't in our bodies? Anne Morrissey had to figure out how to remove potentially harmful drugs from the water supply, and she's doing it using one of the most abundant things on the planet: sunlight.

How to celebrate American Chemical Society

On April 22nd, students are invited to participate in two nationwide contests celebrating Earth Day. The contest is sponsored by the world's largest scientific organization, the American Chemical Society (ACS).

"Recycling - Chemistry Can!" is the theme for the competitions and activities that will be hosted by the Association's local Divisions in communities around the country during the Earth Day.

Entries for haiku and video competitions must be received by ACS by April 10th to be considered. Refer the website http://chemistry.org/earthday for more details about contests and other activities relating  to Earth Day.

A competition open to students in grades K-12 and involved a "very short, three-line, haiku poem of 17 syllables or less. participants should submit an illustrated haiku poem based on the theme" Recycling - Chemistry Can!” which must reflect some aspect of recycling chemistry such as the processes or uses of recycled materials.

Furthermore, there is another contest for college students to produce a video that is illustrates the topic of chemical recycling well. Videos will be judged on originality, creativity, and theme combination.

The competitions are part of a special community-based ACS program, Commemorating Earth Day Chemists (CCED), which unites ACS's local division, businesses, schools and individuals within the community communicating the importance of chemistry to quality of life.

Among other Earth Day activities planned this spring by many of ACS' 189 local divisions across the country are organizing recyclable material collection sites at malls local trade, coordinates recycling projects and beautifies community parks, and sponsors battery or recycled electronics sales days.

The American Chemical Society is not only the largest scientific organization in the world but also a nonprofit organization run by the United States Congress and a global leader in providing access to relevant research chemistry through a variety of databases, peer-reviewed journals, and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C. and Columbus, Ohio.