One scientist showing appreciation of another in the comments section of a journal.
We often don't think of the social aspects of a scientific life, but in fact, all human strengths and flaws, particularly those involved simply with personality are there. It is a pleasure to work with most scientists, but it is also true that some are oppressive cranks with a nasty edge, including, to be sure, arrogance, contempt and, in many cases, a sense of malignant superiority and dismissiveness.
Of course, most people can display these flaws from time to time; I'm hardly immune myself.
At the end of most issues of scientific journals there'll often be short section in which comments on previous papers are offered. This is particularly true of ACS Journals, which tend to dominate my reading.
Often these comments are critical of the published paper under discussion, sometimes highly critical, even to the point of barely disguised hostility, even contempt.
I was very pleased to see one today that praised a paper and then simply asked for more information.
It's here:
Comment: The Novelty of a Two-Step Aromatization Process (Pulkit Bajwa, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 2021 60 (10), 4189-4190)
An excerpt:
...A design of experiments strategy was briefly mentioned in the beginning of section 3.2 of this article. Statistical analysis was not provided in the Supporting Information. Variations in reaction conditions may significantly change the outcome of the reaction. As explained in the other study(2) interactions between factors generally provide additional important information. Was this true for this two-step study? Statistical details such as main effects, interactions, or contour plots could reveal more information on this topic, particularly the second step. Therefore, I would like to ask for more information on statistical analysis and answers to questions that are asked above. Researchers would be interested in this information, which will certainly add value to the current study. Perhaps it would encourage engineers and scientists to conduct more detailed studies on aromatization of hydrocarbons from renewable sources and coke characterization, and use statistical data for optimization.
"Design of Experiments," often abbreviated as "DOE" is a statistical approach to evaluating parameters in a process to understand how these parameters interact to delineate a path to a desired outcome.
After these kind remarks, the authors of the paper under discussion replied:
Reply to “The Novelty of a Two-Step Aromatization Process” (Swapnil Fegade, Brian Tande, Alena Kubátová, Wayne Seames, and Evguenii Kozliak Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 2021 60 (10), 4191-4191)
Further information about the statistical work performed during the study is available in Fegade(1) appendix C which contains all of the raw statistical data generated as well as additional statistical results from the Minitab program. These details were not included in the paper due to publication space limitations. Additional details can also be found in a patent by Seames and Tande.(2)
I can certainly appreciate when scientists "greatly appreciate" each other and be helpful to one another.
Science is a very human activity, and it's a joy when science can include graciousness. This is not always possible, but when it is, and is exercised, I certainly applaud it.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I don't favor big carbon dioxide dumps - I am for closed cycles for everything for carbon sequestration, CCS, "carbon capture and storage," but I am very, very interested in CCU, "carbon capture and utilization."
Aromatic hydrocarbons are some of the most important compounds in the chemical industry. The "BTEX" to which the comments refer stands for "benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene." All of these compounds are constituents of a product of which I do not approve, gasoline, with which most people are familiar. The percentage to which they are components plays a huge role in the "octane" rating. (The "Prop 65" warnings on gas pumps in California refer to the carcinogenicity of benzene, as a major constituent of gasoline.)
Ethyl benzene can be dehydrated to give styrene, from which Styrofoam, polystyrene and other products. The notorious phthalates in many polymers are aromatic hydrocarbons. Polyurethanes are often made using the aromatic compound toluene diisocyanate.
Aromatic hydrocarbons are constituents of many drugs, for example lipitor, and thus are important synthetic intermediates.
They are also an important class of solvents and extraction agents.
One could write volumes on the importance of aromatic hydrocarbons in our lives, and in fact volumes, many of them have been written.
Here's one: 
Aromaticity and Other Conjugation Effects
One of the authors of this book, Roald Hoffman, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for showing that a particular set of chemical reactions known as "cycloadditions" involved transient aromatic effects.
The word "aromatic" in chemistry refers to a particular physical feature of molecules, in which electrons are delocalized from being closely related to particular atoms in a ring. The number of electrons in this situation must be 2n+2 where n is an integer, 0, 1, 2... etc. Molecules in a ring that have 2n electrons without the +2, are "anti-aromatic." Aromatic molecules are highly stable, antiaromatic molecules are highly unstable.
I hope this helps.
I got an 'A' in Organic Chemisty in college, man! One of my favorite classes.
Just wondering about this process being discussed in the paper.
So basically it's more a 'closed-loop means' in the sense of being able to create these useful compounds from carbon sources we've ALREADY extracted from the ground, as opposed to making them by pulling previously-sequestered carbon from the ground to make them, which is the more typical current means, correct?
Basically it's making what are typically 'petroleum products' via a type of recycling instead?
I guess this isn't that actual article, but just being referenced by the commenter ... “Novel Two-Step Process for the Production of Renewable Aromatic Hydrocarbons from Triacylglycerides”.
That's what I was asking about.
