FRom the editor
Executive Director
Roland Andersson, MCIC
Editor
Jodi Di Menna
news editor
Tyler Irving, MCIC
art direction & Graphic Design
Krista Leroux Kelly Turner
contributing editors
Peter Calamai Tyler Hamilton Tim Lougheed
Society NEws
Bobbijo Sawchyn, MCIC Gale Thirlwall
Marketing Manager
Bernadette Dacey, MCIC
Marketing Coordinator
Luke Andersson, MCIC
Circulation
Michelle Moulton
Finance and Administration Director
Joan Kingston
Membership Services Coordinator
Angie Moulton
Editorial Board
Joe Schwarcz, MCIC, chair Milena Sejnoha, MCIC Bernard West, MCIC
Editorial Office 130 Slater Street, Suite 550 Ottawa, ON K1P 6E2 T. 613-232-6252 | F. 613-232-5862 magazine@accn.ca | www.accn.ca
Advertising advertising@gordongroup.com 613-288-5363
Subscription Rates Go to www.accn.ca to subscribe or to purchase single issues. The individual non-CIC member subscription price for 2012 is $100 CDN. The institutional subscription price for 2012 is $150 CDN. Single copies can be purchased for $10. ACCN (Canadian Chemical News/ L’Actualité chimique canadienne) is published 10 times a year by the Chemical Institute of Canada, www.cheminst.ca.
T
he fundamental purpose of any good magazine, in my view, is to make people think. To relay information? Sure. To entertain with good storytelling? Certainly. To report on important developments? Absolutely. But ultimately, if we can engage a community of readers in a dialogue on a relevant and topical subject, we’ve been successful. That’s why our “Letters to the Editor” pages are so important. This is where we can publish your points of view. Your comments help us to keep the discussion alive with the rest of our readership, who, we know from experience, very much want to read what their peers have to say in response to the stories we publish or about something happening in the subjects we cover. Lately, we’ve been getting several letters: insightful, thought-provoking, articulate letters. We couldn’t be more thrilled. You can read three of the most recent letters we’ve received on pages six and seven of this issue. Keep the e-mails to the editor coming! We’ll print your ideas and in this way help connect you to your fellow readers. In this issue we attempt to provoke your thoughts with a report by expert story teller Anita Lahey. She writes about a company in New Brunswick that illustrates how small enterprises are increasingly taking on the high-risk early stages of pharmaceutical research. In our Q and A, we talk to Gerry Wright about how our approaches to creating antibiotics are shifting in the face of resistant strains of bacteria. We then move on to the question of how combustion engine designs are evolving in the age of biofuels. Hope you enjoy the read!
Recommended by the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC), the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC), the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE), and the Canadian Society for Chemical Technology (CSCT). Views expressed do not necessarily represent the official position of the Institute or of the Societies that recommend the magazine.
Change of Address
circulation@cheminst.ca Printed in Canada by Delta Printing and postage paid in Ottawa, Ont. Publications Mail Agreement Number: 40021620. (USPS# 0007–718) Indexed in the Canadian Business Index and available online in the Canadian Business and Current Affairs database.
Write to the editor at magazine@accn.ca
ISSN 0823-5228
Visit us at www.accn.ca September 2012 CAnadian Chemical News 5