In the hypercompetitive markets for advanced materials and processes, industries are turning to computational tools to gain and keep an advantage. It’s no longer enough to solve today’s problems using today’s materials—businesses are looking to tomorrow’s materials, markets, regulations, sustainability, and consumer demands.
Many interacting factors go into finding the sweet spot between single-purpose greases for every application and a few multipurpose greases that don’t quite fit any application.
In the hypercompetitive markets for advanced materials and processes, industries are turning to computational tools to gain and keep an advantage. It’s no longer enough to solve today’s problems using today’s materials—businesses are looking to tomorrow’s materials, markets, regulations, sustainability, and consumer demands.
One way to synthesize complex organic molecules is to assemble them from fragments of simpler molecules using a metal catalyst. Chemists can choose from a wide variety of readily available starting materials, and a single operation can form molecules with multiple sites for making stereoisomers (mirror-image molecules). …
Published October 19, 2022, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 42, 19205–19206
Dendralenes highly branched molecules with multiple carbon−carbon double bonds have become versatile and economical synthetic building blocks. The first general synthetic route to [3]dendralenes, which contain 3 double bonds, was reported in 2019, and extensive research on these compounds has been published since then. …
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 43, 19649–19650 (Published October 25, 2022)
Artificial cells are synthetic agents that mimic live cells, useful as biological models or technological platforms for healthcare and bioprocessing. Like their living counterparts, artificial cells often feature internal compartments separated by membranes, which are necessary to sustain cell-like functionalities. …
JACS Spotlights, Published September 21, 2022, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 38, 17317–17318
Artificial intelligence offers a wealth of resources for solving complex problems, but accurate predictions and understandable results still require human participation.
Now that the coronavirus is all over the news, I’m hearing a lot about companies and employees setting up their telecommuting strategies. A lot of it sounds as though they are trying to reinvent the wheel. Here’s some unsolicited advice from a work-at-home veteran. In 2013, I started doing freelance writing and editing, joining a small army of kindred souls who work remotely as a matter of routine. None of what I’m telling you here is new—it’s all basic stuff that you need to know if you’re new at working from home.
First off, attitude matters. Work is work, and wherever
you’re working from, you still need to keep up the quality and deliver things
on time. If you have a separate room that you can use as an office, so much the
better, but it’s not an absolute requirement. Avoid setting your workspace up
in your bedroom if possible, because you don’t want to be looking at a pile of
unfinished work when you’re trying to fall asleep at the end of a long day. I
work from a corner of my living room, and when I’m at my desk, my mind says,
“you’re at work now.”
Setting Up Your Space
Figure out in advance what office supplies you’re going to
need. Unless your employer specifically says it’s OK to raid the supply room,
you’re better off stocking up from the local office supply store. Depending on
the type of work you do, you’re likely to need pens, printer paper, and printer
ink (in a form that fits your home printer, of course). It’s better to have
those things in advance so you’re not running around town trying to find that
one specific printer cartridge half an hour before that signed contract is due.
A decent chair is a must for preventing back and neck
problems. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but don’t just power through that lower
back pain. Pay attention to what your body is telling you, and if it’s griping,
get up and walk around for a bit. Even if your body isn’t griping, get your
eyes off that screen and get your legs and arms moving several times a day as a
matter of routine. If you spend hours at a stretch slouching on a saggy couch
with your eyes glued to your laptop or tablet, it’s going to come back and bite
you in the long run.
You’re going to need a decent internet connection, so get
that set up in advance, before you have to rely on it. Make sure that whatever
computer or tablet you’re going to be using will run the software you need to
get the job done. If you’re bringing your work laptop home with you, make sure
you have room to set that up on your desk, along with all the other stuff
that’s already there.
Depending on the nature of the work you do, you might also
need a reliable phone connection. That can be an internet service like VOIP or
an actual land line phone. Don’t rely on your cell phone unless you have really
amazing, reliable reception in your work area and your phone is charged up at
all times. My work often involves recording interviews for articles I’m
writing, and I use an AI service to transcribe the recordings afterwards. I
have a 1980s-vintage Princess phone plugged into a FIOS line. The sound quality
is great, and it never cuts out on me.
If you’re going to be doing conference calls or video
conferences, set things up well in advance—don’t
wait until the last minute. Do a test run with a friend or colleague to make
sure that you know how to use the software and your connection actually works.
For a video conference, make sure that the part of you that appears on screen looks
professional. Hair combed, no R-rated T-shirts. Check yourself out on the
monitor to make sure the lighting is OK. You don’t want to look like something
from a horror movie, but you also don’t want so much sunshine coming through
the window that it wipes out your face.
Even if you’re just
doing audio, try to keep the background noise at a minimum. No vacuum cleaners,
noisy dishwashers, or blasting stereos. Plan to send the kids and pets to
another room instead of trusting that they can contain themselves for the
duration of the call.
Navigating Your Day
Now that your workspace is all set up, let’s get back to the
attitude. It really helps to get dressed to go to work every day. You don’t
necessarily need the business suit (unless you have a really important video
call), but somehow, staying in my jammies or sweatpants all day doesn’t trigger
the “I’m at work” message in my mind. The morning shower, clean jeans
and a knit top, and a healthy breakfast all help me get into the groove when I
sit down at my desk.
Time management is especially important, especially when
you’re not surrounded by busy co-workers. Finding the right balance between
grinding yourself to a nub and goofing off all day takes a bit of practice.
Your remote schedule probably won’t be exactly the same as your office schedule,
but once you hit your groove, you can get a lot of things done.
In one article I read, a manager went on and on about how
much time his remote employees spent playing online games and checking their
social media accounts. Apparently, he spent much of his day tracking their
every move, which doesn’t strike me as a particularly productive use of his
time. Obviously, you don’t want to turn into a total slacker at home, but I’m
guessing that even when you’re in the office, you take a break now and then.
Making the transition to remote working requires a bit of an adjustment period
where you try things out to see what works and what doesn’t.
I keep a small whiteboard with a list of projects and
deadlines—it feels great to put a big red check
mark through items as I finish them. Also, I keep a work diary (it’s an
ordinary spiral-bound notebook) where I jot down things that I need to remember
to tell my clients, issues to resolve, and anything else I need to deal with
each day. I write down the time I start and stop on each project, even for
clients who aren’t paying me by the hour. Not only does this give me a
realistic sense of the level of effort a particular type of project requires,
it keeps me from going down a rabbit hole and spending too much time on a task
that really doesn’t require that level of effort.
Now that I’ve been at this for a while, my schedule is more
customized toward helping me get things done. It takes me a while to get up to
speed in the morning, so I start the day doing small, but necessary things like
checking email, billing clients, and reviewing what I need to work on that day.
Once I have some momentum going, I launch into the more demanding tasks. I
always take a lunch break, but the timing varies depending on what I’m doing
(and when my stomach tells me it’s time). I deal with the mid-afternoon slump
by going out for a walk, getting my shopping done (the stores are never crowded
then), or doing a bit of housework—anything
that gets me moving around and away from the screen. Then I come back and work
some more. The schedule varies—there’s one
particular 4:30 PM yoga class I especially like—but I do have a schedule. If
I’m still going strong at 8PM, that makes up for the long walk I took at 3PM.
The main point is to get things done when they need to be done.
Keep Calm and Carry On
If you’re not used to working from home, you can expect to
hit a few glitches. You can reach out to your more experienced telecommuter
friends for advice, but just know that you can’t anticipate everything. You
might need to postpone certain things until you’re back in the office, or you
might need to find a less than perfect work-around. It’s not the end of the
world if your cat hacks up a fur ball on the rug while you’re in the middle of
a conference call with a client.
Stay in contact with your friends and co-workers. Chances are, they are also getting used to this new, more socially isolated situation we’re dealing with right now, and luckily, the virus doesn’t spread through internet connections. Whatever happens, we will all find a way to get through this.
