AFP UK

US President Joe Biden and Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis observed a political truce during the visit to areas hit by Hurricane Ian

President Joe Biden flew over the devastation left by Hurricane Ian in Florida on a politically charged trip Wednesday that marked a truce with bitter Republican critic and potential 2024 opponent, Governor Ron DeSantis.

The Democrat, accompanied by First Lady Jill Biden, boarded a helicopter at Fort Myers for an aerial inspection of the havoc wreaked in one of the worst storms ever to hit the country.

“Everything — this historic and titanic, unimaginable storm ripped it to pieces,” Biden said in a speech after witnessing the destruction. “You’ve got to start from scratch.”

Authorities say at least 76 people — more than 100 according to US television networks citing local officials — died in Hurricane Ian.

The Category 4 storm flattened whole neighborhoods on the Sunshine State’s west coast, knocking out power for millions of people, then weakened before tearing into South Carolina and up the East Coast.

For Biden, who visited hurricane-hit Puerto Rico on Monday, the Florida trip also had an inescapable political dimension, taking him into the stronghold of both DeSantis and Biden’s scandal-plagued predecessor in the White House, Donald Trump.

The Democrat, who says he wants to seek a second term despite already being the oldest man ever in the job at 79, could realistically end up facing a rematch with Trump in two years or a challenge from the up-and-coming DeSantis.

DeSantis has been a caustic critic, as he builds his brand of muscular right-wing politics in a bid to replace Trump as the biggest name in the Republican party. Biden has returned fire, painting DeSantis as part of what he says is an increasingly extreme right.

The hurricane, however, has prompted a ceasefire, with phone calls between the two men and acknowledgement from DeSantis that the federal government was quick to provide assistance.

“Mr President, welcome to Florida. We appreciate working together,” DeSantis said at the damaged waterfront neighborhood of Fisherman’s Pass.

Biden returned the warm words, saying DeSantis had “done a good job.”

“We have very different political philosophies, but we’ve worked hand in glove.”

– ‘Above politics’ – for now –

Biden’s main goal, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, is to check that “the people of Florida have what they need.”

In addition to getting briefings from federal emergency management chief Deanne Criswell and DeSantis, Biden met small business owners and local storm survivors.

In his remarks he emphasized togetherness — something rarely celebrated in today’s gladiatorial Democrat vs Republican politics.

“This is the United States,” he said in his remarks, stressing the word “united.”

Biden’s visit to Puerto Rico earlier in the week covered similar ground, although there he was updated on recovery from Hurricane Fiona, which hit the island last month.

Again, Biden stressed the unity message, telling the Caribbean territory — which often feels overlooked by the mainland and the federal government — that “all of America’s with you.”

The disagreements with DeSantis, however, are many and will likely resurface as soon as Floridians recommence a semblance of their previous lives.

DeSantis opposed Biden on his Covid-19 policies during the pandemic, accusing the president of overreach. He has likewise made himself the standard bearer of the conservative backlash to growing tolerance for LGBT issues — something Biden has championed.

Another right-wing Florida Republican who often comes under fire from Biden, Senator Rick Scott, was also present for the visit. But again, Biden held his tongue.

The visit was “above politics,” Jean-Pierre said.

“There will be plenty of times, plenty of time to discuss differences between the president and the governor. Now is not the time.”

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the a Dragon spacecraft lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, bound for the ISS

A SpaceX rocket carrying a Russian crew member blasted off from Florida Wednesday on a voyage that carries significant symbolism as war rages in Ukraine.

Anna Kikina, the only female cosmonaut in service, is part of the Crew-5 mission, which also includes one Japanese and two American astronauts.

“Let’s do this,” said Nicole Mann, commander of the Crew Dragon capsule and the first Native American in space, shortly before liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at noon.

Docking is scheduled for Thursday at 4:57 pm Eastern Time (2057 GMT).

Two weeks ago, an American astronaut took off on a Russian Soyuz rocket for the orbital platform.

The long-planned astronaut exchange program has been maintained despite soaring tensions between the United States and Russia since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

Ensuring the operation of the ISS has become one of the few remaining areas of cooperation between the United States and Russia.

In a post-launch briefing, Sergei Kirkalev, head of the human space program at Roscosmos, hailed the occasion as the start of a “new phase of our cooperation,” evoking the historic Apollo-Soyuz mission of 1975, a symbol of detente at the height of the Cold War. 

Kirkalev, a former cosmonaut respected by his American colleagues, has been on something of a charm offensive after the last head of Roscosmos, Dmity Rogozin, earlier this year threatened to withdraw cooperation and let the ISS crash over US or European territory.

While Russia has announced plans for its own station, analysts believe it would be difficult to build in the next few years, and withdrawing from ISS would effectively ground Moscow’s civilian space program.

– Fifth female cosmonaut, first Native American – 

Kikina, 38 and an engineer by training, is the fifth Russian female professional cosmonaut to go into space.

“I hope in the near future we have more women in the cosmonaut corps,” the Novosibirsk native told AFP in August.

The Soviet Union put the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963, nearly 20 years before the first American woman, Sally Ride. Since then, the United States has flown dozens more women.

It is also the first spaceflight for American astronauts Mann and Josh Cassada, but the fifth for Japan’s Koichi Wakata.

Mann is the first indigenous woman to go to space with NASA. According to her NASA biography she is registered with the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes.

She holds a Master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford, served as a test pilot in the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet, and flew 47 combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

– ISS future unclear – 

Kikina is the first Russian to fly with Elon Musk’s SpaceX which, along with Boeing, has a “taxi service” contract with NASA.

Musk himself waded into the conflict by proposing on Twitter a peace deal that involved re-running, under UN supervision, annexation referendums in Moscow-occupied regions of Ukraine and acknowledging Russian sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula. 

The post enraged Ukrainians, including the country’s envoy to Germany, who responded with an expletive. 

Tensions between Moscow and Washington have increased considerably in the space field after the announcement of American sanctions against the Russian aerospace industry, in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia announced this summer that it wanted to leave the ISS “after 2024” in favor of creating its own station, albeit without setting a precise date.

Kirkalev declared Monday he hoped to extend that date. 

On Wednesday he went further still, telling reporters: “We are thinking about building (a) new space station. We start preliminary design of it. 

“And there is no final decision yet but we are going to keep flying International Space Station as long as our new infrastructure will build.”

The United States, for its part, wants to continue operating until at least 2030, then transition to commercially run stations.

As things stand, the ISS cannot function without joint cooperation, as the US side is responsible for power and life support and the Russian side for propulsion and maintaining orbit.

While the pipelines are not currently in operation, they both still contained natural gas, which is largely made up of methane

Leaks from the Nord Stream gas pipelines released some 70,000 tonnes of the powerful greenhouse gas methane, researchers said Wednesday, less than previously thought. 

The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which connect Russia to Germany, had already been at the centre of geopolitical tensions for months as Russia cut back gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation against Western sanctions following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Then last week massive gas plumes were spotted in the Baltic Sea above the pipelines in what NATO has said appeared to be an act of sabotage. 

Although they were not in operation, they both still contained gas, which spewed up through the water and into the atmosphere.

Researchers from France’s Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission said they were “surprised” that data from monitoring stations across Europe led them to conclude that 70,000 tonnes of the planet-heating gas methane had been released.

Other estimates, based on the amount of gas thought to be in the pipes and the pressure levels, had led to estimates several times higher, they said. 

Scientists have expressed concerns about the climate and environmental impacts of the leaks — which have largely stopped — but stressed that the amounts of methane involved were a tiny fraction of global emissions.

“These are important figures,” said Philippe Ciais, a researcher at the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences, who led the latest French research. 

He added that the amount of methane estimated to have been released was equivalent to two percent of French carbon emissions or the emissions of Paris for an entire year. 

“This is not good news, but not a climate bomb,” said Philippe Ciais, underlining that these initial findings would need to be verified by other modelling work. 

Methane is responsible for roughly 30 percent of the global rise in temperatures to date, even though it is far less abundant in the atmosphere than CO2.

– Gas plumes –

The researchers used readings from stations of the European observation network Icos, which monitors the fluxes of atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. 

The data was then modelled according to some 10,000 scenarios to come up with the estimates for the leak. 

With the winds, the fumes first rose towards southern Sweden, then turned west where they were detected passing over parts of Norway and the United Kingdom. 

Later the wisps of methane were faintly registered at the tip of western France in Brittany. 

Ciais said it was unclear why the leak would be smaller than previously assumed. 

One theory would be that there might have been less gas in the pipes than previously thought, he said, or that more than expected was dissolved in the sea water, which is normal in less powerful gas pipe leaks. 

The readings showed emissions peaked on September 27 and then began to subside, with a smaller surge on October 1. 

All of the four leaks were off the Danish island of Bornholm, two located in nearby Sweden’s exclusive economic zone, and the two others in the Danish one.

The Swedish coastguard on Monday said it could no longer observe gas emanating from the leak on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, but bubbles from a smaller leak could still be seen above Nord Stream 2 on Monday afternoon.

Natural gas is composed primarily of methane. 

This is about 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide on a century-long timescale — although it only lingers in the atmosphere for about a decade, compared to hundreds or thousands of years for carbon dioxide.

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden flew over storm damaged areas of Florida, but the visit also has a tense political aspect

President Joe Biden made a politically charged visit Wednesday to inspect the aftermath of deadly Hurricane Ian in Florida while striking a united front with bitter Republican critic and potential 2024 opponent, Governor Ron DeSantis.

The Democrat, accompanied by First Lady Jill Biden, boarded a helicopter at Fort Myers for an aerial inspection of the havoc wreaked in one of the worst storms ever to hit the country.

“They will survey the damage, receive an operational briefing on ongoing recovery efforts, and thank federal, state and local officials working around the clock,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said aboard Air Force One flying down from Washington.

Authorities say at least 76 people —  more than 100 according to US television networks citing local officials — died in Hurricane Ian.

The Category 4 storm flattened whole neighborhoods on the Sunshine State’s west coast, knocking out power for millions of people — with hundreds of thousands still waiting for electricity to be restored Tuesday — and then weakened before tearing into South Carolina and up the East Coast.

For Biden, who visited hurricane-hit Puerto Rico on Monday, the Florida trip also has an inescapable political dimension, taking him into the stronghold of both DeSantis and Biden’s scandal-plagued predecessor in the White House, Donald Trump.

The Democrat, who says he wants to seek a second term despite already being the oldest man ever in the job at 79, could realistically end up facing a rematch with Trump in two years or a challenge from the up-and-coming DeSantis.

DeSantis has been a caustic critic, as he builds his brand of muscular right-wing politics in a bid to replace Trump as the biggest name in the Republican party. Biden has returned fire, painting DeSantis as part of what he says is an increasingly extreme right.

The hurricane, however, has prompted a truce, with phone calls between the two men and acknowledgement from DeSantis that the federal government was quick to provide assistance.

The visit is “above politics,” Jean-Pierre said ahead of the trip.

“There will be plenty of times, plenty of time to discuss differences between the president and the governor,” she said. “Now is not the time.”

– Disaster briefing –

Biden’s main goal, Jean-Pierre said, is to check that “the people of Florida have what they need.”

In addition to getting briefings from federal emergency management chief Deanne Criswell and DeSantis, Biden will meet small business owners and local storm survivors, then give televised remarks.

He will “confirm his commitment to the people of Florida as they recover and rebuild,” Jean-Pierre said.

Biden’s visit to Puerto Rico earlier in the week covered similar ground, although there he was updated on recovery from Hurricane Fiona, which hit the island last month.

Again, Biden stressed the unity message, telling the territory — which often feels overlooked by the mainland and the federal government — that “all of America’s with you.”

The disagreements with DeSantis, however, are many and will likely resurface as soon as Floridians recommence a semblance of their previous lives.

DeSantis opposed Biden on his Covid-19 policies during the pandemic, accusing the president of overreach. He has likewise made himself the standard bearer of the conservative backlash to growing tolerance for LGBT issues — something Biden has championed.

Another right-wing Florida Republican who often comes under fire from Biden, Senator Rick Scott, was also due to meet the president during his visit.

Barry Sharpless, one of three winners of this year's chemistry Nobel for click chemistry

The Nobel Chemistry Prize was awarded to three scientists on Tuesday for their work on click chemistry, a way to snap molecules together like Lego that experts say will soon “change the world”.

But how exactly does it work?

Imagine two people walking through a mostly empty room towards each other then shaking hands. 

“That’s how a classical chemical reaction is done,” said Benjamin Schumann, a chemist at Imperial College, London.

But what if there was lots of furniture and other people clogging up the room?

“They might not meet each other,” Schumann said.

Now imagine those people were molecules, tiny groups of atoms that form the basis of chemistry.

“Click chemistry makes it possible for two molecules that are in an environment where you have lots of other things around” to meet and join with each other, he told AFP.

The way click chemistry snaps together molecular building blocks is also often compared to Lego.

But Carolyn Bertozzi, who shared this year’s chemistry Nobel with Barry Sharpless and Morten Meldal, said it would take a very special kind of Lego.

Even if two Legos were “surrounded by millions of other very similar plastic toys” they would only click in to each other, she told AFP.

– ‘Changed the playing field’ – 

Around the year 2000, Sharpless and Meldal separately discovered a specific chemical reaction using copper ions as a catalyst which “changed the playing field” and became “the cream of the crop”, said Silvia Diez-Gonzalez, a chemist at the Imperial College, London.

Copper has many advantages, including that reactions could involve water and be done at room temperature rather than at high heat which can complicate matters.

This particular way of connecting molecules was far more flexible, efficient and targeted than had ever been possible before.

Since its discovery, chemists have been finding out all the different kinds of molecular architecture they can build with their special new Lego blocks.

“The applications are almost endless,” said Tom Brown, a British chemist at Oxford University that has worked on DNA click chemistry.

But there was one problem with using copper as a catalyst. It can be toxic for the cells of living organisms — such as humans.

So Bertozzi built on the foundations of Sharpless and Meldal’s work, designing a copperless “way of using click chemistry with biological systems without killing them,” Diez-Gonzalez said.

Previously the molecules clicked together in a straight flat line — like a seat belt — but Bertozzi discovered that forcing them “to be a bit bent” made the reaction more stable, Diez-Gonzalez said.

Bertozzi called the field she created bioorthogonal chemistry — orthogonal means intersecting at right angles.

– ‘Tip of the iceberg’ –

Diez-Gonzalez said she was “a bit surprised” that the field had been awarded with a Nobel so soon, because “there are not that many commercial applications out there yet”.

But the future looks bright.

“We’re kind of at the tip of the iceberg,” said American Chemical Society President Angela Wilson, adding that this “chemistry is going to change the world.”

Bertozzi said that there are so many potential uses for click chemistry, that “I can’t even really enumerate them”.

One use is for developing new targeted medicines, some of which could involve “doing chemistry inside human patients to make sure that drugs go to the right place,” she told the Nobel conference. 

Her lab has started research on potential treatments for severe Covid, she added.

Another hope is that it can lead to a more targeted way to diagnose and treat cancer, as well make chemotherapy have fewer, less severe side effects.

It has even created a way to make the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease become fluorescent so it easier to spot in water supplies. 

Already, click chemistry has been used “to create some very, very durable polymers” that protect against heat, as well as in forms of glue in nano-chemistry, Meldal told AFP.

Wilson said other future applications include personalised medicines, antibacterial and antiviral drugs, brightening agents and more.

“I think it’s going to completely revolutionise everything from medicine to materials,” she said.

Ugandan medical staff treating Ebola patients at Mubende Regional Referral Hospital last month.

Sixty-three confirmed and probable cases have been reported in the Ebola outbreak in Uganda, including 29 deaths, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lamented that the outbreak, declared two weeks ago, was taking a deadly toll on health workers as well as patients.

There are six species of the Ebolavirus genus and the one circulating in Uganda is the Sudan ebolavirus — for which there is currently no vaccine.

“So far, 63 confirmed and probable cases have been reported, including 29 deaths,” Tedros told a press conference in Geneva.

“Ten health workers have been infected and four have died. Four people have recovered and are receiving follow-up care.”

The east African nation’s Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero said that a 58-year-old anaesthetist had died of Ebola early Wednesday, following the deaths of a Tanzanian doctor, a health assistant and a midwife.

– Candidate vaccines –

Tedros said the vaccines used successfully to curb recent outbreaks of the Zaire ebolavirus species in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) did not provide cross-protection against the Sudan ebolavirus.

“However, several vaccines are in various stages of development against this virus, two of which could begin clinical trials in Uganda in the coming weeks, pending regulatory and ethics approvals from the Ugandan government,” he said.

There are at least six candidate vaccines against the Sudan species, of which three have made it far enough to be tested on humans, producing so-called Phase 1 safety and immunogenicity data.

They could “proceed to be used in the field in a sort of ring vaccination campaign”, WHO’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said.

She mentioned a candidate vaccine from the University of Oxford and another from the Sabin Vaccine Institute, and said which one goes into trials may depend on which one actually has doses ready to deploy.

“Realistically it may take another four to six weeks,” she said.

Swaminathan said plans were also afoot for testing potential therapeutics.

– WHO sending specialists, resources –

The initial outbreak was discovered in the central district of Mubende.

There are gold mines in the Mubende area which attract people from across Uganda, as well as other countries, the WHO’s Africa regional office said.

“The mobile nature of the population in Mubende increases the risk of a possible spread of the virus,” it said.

Infections have since been found in Kassanda, Kyegegwa and Kagadi districts.

The WHO’s Geneva headquarters has released $2 million from its contingency fund for emergencies and is working with partners to support the health ministry by sending additional specialists, supplies and resources, Tedros said.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has vowed not to impose any lockdowns to tackle the disease, saying last week that there was “no need for anxiety”.

– Haemorrhagic fever –

Ebola is an often-fatal viral haemorrhagic fever named after a river in DR Congo where it was discovered in 1976.

Human transmission is through bodily fluids, with the main symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea.

Outbreaks are difficult to contain, especially in urban environments.

People who are infected do not become contagious until symptoms appear, which is after an incubation period of between two and 21 days.

Uganda has experienced several Ebola outbreaks, most recently in 2019 when at least five people died.

The neighbouring DRC last week declared an end to an Ebola virus outbreak that emerged in eastern North Kivu province six weeks ago.

The worst epidemic, in West Africa between 2013 and 2016, killed more than 11,300 people. The DRC has had more than a dozen epidemics, the deadliest killing 2,280 people in 2020.

rjm-burs/nl/pvh

Blast-off for the SpaceX Crew5 mission is set for noon from the Kennedy Space Center, with the weather forecast so far promising

A SpaceX spaceship blasted off from Florida Wednesday, headed for the International Space Station and carrying a Russian crewmate, in a voyage that carries symbolic significance amid the Ukraine war.

Anna Kikina, the only female cosmonaut in service, is part of the Crew-5 mission, which also includes one Japanese and two American astronauts.

“Let’s do this,” said Crew-5 mission commander Nicole Mann, the first Native American in space, shortly before liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at noon.

Two weeks ago, an American astronaut took off on a Russian Soyuz rocket for the orbital platform.

The long-planned astronaut exchange program has been maintained despite soaring tensions between the United States and Russia since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

Ensuring the operation of the ISS has become one of the few remaining areas of cooperation between the United States and Russia.

“When you each are flying other’s crew members, you know that you have a huge responsibility that you’re promising to the other country,” NASA associate administrator Kathy Lueders told reporters in a recent press conference.

“At a working level, we really appreciated the constancy in the relationship, even during some really, really tough times geopolitically.”

– Fifth female cosmonaut, first Native American – 

Kikina, 38 and an engineer by training, will become the fifth Russian female professional cosmonaut to go into space.

“I hope in the near future we have more women in the cosmonaut corps,” the Novosibirsk native told AFP in August.

The Soviet Union put the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963, nearly 20 years before the first American woman Sally Ride. Since then, the United States has flown dozens more women.

It is also the first spaceflight for American astronauts Mann and Josh Cassada, but the fifth for Japan’s Koichi Wakata.

Mann is the first indigenous woman to go to space with NASA. According to her NASA biography she is registered with the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes.

She holds a Master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford, served as a test pilot in the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet, and flew 47 combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

– ISS future unclear – 

Kikina will be the first Russian to fly with Elon Musk’s SpaceX which, along with Boeing, has a “taxi service” contract with NASA.

Musk himself waded into the conflict by proposing on Twitter a peace deal that involved re-running, under UN supervision, annexation referendums in Moscow-occupied regions of Ukraine and acknowledging Russian sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula. 

The post enraged Ukrainians, including the country’s envoy to Germany, who responded with an expletive. 

Tensions between Moscow and Washington have increased considerably in the space field after the announcement of American sanctions against the Russian aerospace industry, in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia thus announced this summer that it wanted to leave the ISS “after 2024” in favor of creating its own station, albeit without setting a precise date.

The director of manned flights at Roscosmos, Sergei Krikaliov, declared Monday he hoped the Russian government agrees to extend participation in the ISS after 2024.

The United States, for its part, wants to continue operating until at least 2030, then transition to commercially run stations.

As things stand, the ISS cannot function without joint cooperation, as the US side is responsible for power and life support and the Russian side for propulsion and maintaining orbit.

Two Americans and a Dane have won the Nobel in chemistry

A trio of scientists from the United States and Denmark won the Nobel Chemistry Prize on Wednesday for laying the foundation for a more functional form of chemistry where molecules are linked together.

Americans Carolyn Bertozzi and Barry Sharpless, together with Denmark’s Morten Meldal, were honoured “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry”, the jury said.

Bertozzi is the only woman among the seven Nobel laureates honoured so far this year, with women vastly under-represented in the history of the prizes, especially in the science disciplines.

The chemist — who as an undergraduate at Harvard played keyboards in a band called Bored of Education with future Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello — is only the eighth woman to win a Nobel Chemistry Prize, out of 189 recipients.

Speaking to AFP, Bertozzi conceded she didn’t have the musical talent of her former bandmate.

“So I think I chose the right path. Especially today,” she said.

Benjamin Schumann, a chemist as London’s Imperial College and former student in Bertozzi’s lab, however said she was still known as “the rock star of sciences”.

The award marks the second Nobel for 81-year-old Sharpless, who won in chemistry in 2001. 

Only four other individuals have achieved the feat of winning two Nobel Prizes, including Polish-born Frenchwoman Marie Curie, who won the chemistry prize in 1911 after first winning the physics prize in 1903.

– Like Lego –

Click chemistry “is an elegant and efficient chemical reaction that is now in widespread use,” the jury said in a statement.

“Among many other uses, it is utilised in the development of pharmaceuticals,for mapping DNA and creating materials that are more fit for purpose,” it added.

Sharpless, a professor at Scripps Research in California, “started the ball rolling” and “coined the concept of click chemistry” around 2000, the jury said.

Afterwards, Sharpless and Meldal, a professor at the University of Copenhagen, independently of each other, presented “what is now the crown jewel of click chemistry: the copper catalysed azide-alkyne cycloaddition”.

The process allows chemists to “snap” molecules together “with the help of some copper ions”, which among other things allow for the production of new materials.

It is possible to click in substances that conduct electricity, capture sunlight, are antibacterial, protect from ultraviolet radiation or have other desirable properties, it said.

“The discovery that we did was more or less by serendipity” Meldal told AFP, calling his win a “big surprise”.

Speaking to reporters, the Danish professor said the application of click chemistry could be likened to Lego — the iconic plastic blocks that also hail from Denmark.

“You can make a house or bike or car or whatever functionality you want. By combining differently these building blocks… in chemistry, we do the same thing,” Meldal explained.

– ‘A new level’ –

Bertozzi, 55, a professor at Stanford in the United States, was highlighted for then taking “click chemistry to a new level”.

“She developed click reactions that work inside living organisms. Her bioorthogonal reactions take place without disrupting the normal chemistry of the cell,” the jury said.

Her research is now being used to investigate how these reactions can be used to diagnose and treat cancer.

“I’m absolutely stunned, I’m sitting here and I can hardly breathe,” Bertozzi told reporters via telephone, minutes after the announcement.

Silvia Diez-Gonzalez, a chemist who works on click chemistry at Imperial College, London, welcomed the win.

“Thank goodness” that the days of women not being allowed in chemistry labs are over, she told AFP, though “there is a lot of bias still out there”.

“I want to believe that it’s just a matter of time that as women and non-white people get more opportunities to achieve their potential, then eventually the recognition they get will be spread more widely.”

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the Nobels in the science disciplines, has refused to introduce quotas despite the dearth of women laureates.

Goran Hansson, then-secretary general of the academy, told AFP last year after all of the science nods went to men, that it wanted every laureate to be accepted “because they made the most important discovery, and not because of gender or ethnicity”. 

The lack of women laureates “reflects the unfair conditions in society, particularly in years past but still existing”, he acknowledged.

burs-jll/po/jmm

Two Americans and a Dane have won the Nobel in chemistry

A trio of chemists from the United States and Denmark who laid the foundation for a more functional form of chemistry where molecules are snapped together on Wednesday won the Nobel Chemistry Prize.

Americans Carolyn Bertozzi and Barry Sharpless, together with Denmark’s Morten Meldal, were honoured “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry”, the jury said.

Bertozzi is the only woman among the seven Nobel laureates honoured so far this year, with women vastly under-represented in the history of the prizes, especially in the science disciplines.

The chemist — who as an undergraduate at Harvard played keyboards in a band called Bored of Education with future Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello — is only the eighth woman to win a Nobel Chemistry Prize, out of 189 recipients.

The award marks the second Nobel for 81-year-old Sharpless, who won the chemistry Nobel in 2001. 

Only four other individuals have achieved the feat of winning two Nobel Prizes, including Polish-born Frenchwoman Marie Curie, who won the chemistry prize in 1911 after first winning the physics prize in 1903.

She was followed by American Linus Pauling who won for chemistry in 1954 and peace in 1962. American John Bardeen won the physics prize in 1956 and 1972, and Britain’s Frederick Sanger won the chemistry prize in 1958 and 1980.

– To make drugs, map DNA –

Click chemistry “is an elegant and efficient chemical reaction that is now in widespread use,” the jury said in a statement.

“Among many other uses, it is utilised in the development of pharmaceuticals, for mapping DNA and creating materials that are more fit for purpose,” it added.

Sharpless, a professor at Scripps Research in California, “started the ball rolling” and “coined the concept of click chemistry” around 2000, the jury said.

Afterwards, Sharpless and Meldal, a professor at the University of Copenhagen, “independently of each other, presented what is now the crown jewel of click chemistry: the copper catalysed azide-alkyne cycloaddition”.

The process allows chemists to “snap” molecules together like Lego bricks “with the help of some copper ions”, which among other things allow for the production of new materials.

“If a manufacturer adds a clickable azide to a plastic or fibre, changing the material at a later stage is straightforward,” the Nobel committee explained.

It is possible to click in substances that conduct electricity, capture sunlight, are antibacterial, protect from ultraviolet radiation or have other desirable properties, it said.

While there is widespread application of his research, Meldal said he was “very surprised and very proud” to receive the honour.

“There are so many good discoveries and developments in the world, it’s incredible to be in this situation,” Meldal told Swedish public radio.

– ‘A new level’ –

Bertozzi, 55, a professor at Stanford in the United States, was highlighted for then taking “click chemistry to a new level”.

“She developed click reactions that work inside living organisms. Her bioorthogonal reactions take place without disrupting the normal chemistry of the cell,” the jury said.

Her research is now being used to investigate how these reactions can be used to diagnose and treat cancer.

“I’m absolutely stunned, I’m sitting here and I can hardly breathe,” Bertozzi told reporters via telephone, minutes after the announcement.

Silvia Diez-Gonzalez, a chemist who works on click chemistry at Imperial College, London, welcomed the win.

“Thank goodness” that the days of women not being allowed in chemistry labs are over, she told AFP, though “there is a lot of bias still out there”.

“I want to believe that it’s just a matter of time that as women and non-white people get more opportunities to achieve their potential, then eventually the recognition they get will be spread more widely.”

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the Nobels in the science disciplines, has refused to introduce quotas despite the dearth of women laureates.

Goran Hansson, then-secretary general of the academy, told AFP last year after all of the science nods went to men, that it wanted every laureate to be accepted “because they made the most important discovery, and not because of gender or ethnicity”. 

The lack of women laureates “reflects the unfair conditions in society, particularly in years past but still existing”, he acknowledged.

This year’s laureates will share the Nobel award sum of 10 million Swedish kronor (more than $910,000), and will receive the prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testament.

Ugandan medical staff treating Ebola patients at Mubende Regional Referral Hospital last month.

Sixty-three confirmed and probable cases have been reported in the Ebola outbreak in Uganda, including 29 deaths, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the vaccines used to curb recent outbreaks in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were not effective against the type of Ebola virus circulating in Uganda.

And he lamented that the Uganda outbreak, declared by the government two weeks ago, was taking a deadly toll on health workers.

“So far, 63 confirmed and probable cases have been reported, including 29 deaths,” Tedros told a press conference in Geneva.

“Ten health workers have been infected and four have died. Four people have recovered and are receiving follow-up care.”

The east African nation’s Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero said that a 58-year-old anaesthetist had died of Ebola early Wednesday.

“The late Margaret (Nabisubi) is the fourth health worker we have lost in the current Ebola outbreak,” the minister said on Twitter, following the deaths of a Tanzanian doctor, a health assistant and a midwife.

– Candidate vaccines –

Tedros said: “When there is a delay in detecting an Ebola outbreak, it’s normal for cases to increase steadily at the beginning and then decrease as life-saving interventions and outbreak control measures are implemented.”

But he added: “The vaccines used successfully to curb recent Ebola outbreaks in the DRC are not effective against the type of Ebola virus that’s responsible for this outbreak in Uganda.

“However, several vaccines are in various stages of development against this virus, two of which could begin clinical trials in Uganda in the coming weeks, pending regulatory and ethics approvals from the Ugandan government.”

Tedros said the WHO was supporting the Ugandan government in its response to the outbreak, which has been reported in four districts.

Since the initial outbreak was discovered in the central district of Mubende, infections have been found in Kassanda, Kyegegwa and Kagadi.

The UN’s health agency has released $2 million from its contingency fund for emergencies and is working with partners to support the health ministry by sending additional specialists, supplies and resources, Tedros said.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has vowed not to impose any lockdowns to tackle the disease, saying last week that there was “no need for anxiety”.

Uganda had confirmed 10 deaths, with Museveni specifying that 19 other probable Ebola cases had also died, but said they were buried before they could be tested for infection.

– Haemorrhagic fever –

Ebola is an often-fatal viral haemorrhagic fever named after a river in the DRC where it was discovered in 1976.

Human transmission is through bodily fluids, with the main symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea.

Outbreaks are difficult to contain, especially in urban environments.

People who are infected do not become contagious until symptoms appear, which is after an incubation period of between two and 21 days.

There is currently no licensed medication to prevent or treat Ebola, although a range of experimental drugs are in development. 

Uganda, which shares a porous border with the DRC, has experienced several Ebola outbreaks, most recently in 2019 when at least five people died.

The DRC last week declared an end to an Ebola virus outbreak that emerged in eastern North Kivu province six weeks ago.

The worst epidemic, in West Africa between 2013 and 2016, killed more than 11,300 people. The DRC has had more than a dozen epidemics, the deadliest killing 2,280 people in 2020.