First used to reduce air pollutants in car exhausts, it was recently found to pollute groundwater supplies. Now MTBE is being banned in many states, although the chemical might not be as harmful as we think. This talk will focus briefly on the wide variety of enhancement drugs used by professional athletes and trainers,and the controversy that surrounds their use. It will also discuss the controversy surrounding androstenedione, and its link to the anabolic steroid testoterone. And Smell the Benzyl Acetate.
Fragrances play a major role in society.
Everyday, we reach for products that are filled with different scented chemicals and which allow us to smell more pleasant. For example, benzyl acetate is one of the major players in a variety of perfumes. These are just some of the questions that I will be focusing on during my presentation. Combinatorial chemistry, a new advancement in creating molecules in large masses and then rapidly testing them for desirable properties, has exploded within the scientific community over the past ten years. Though combinatorial chemistry's potential has centered around new drug discovery, future applications such as new materials discovery and computational chemistry are being explored.