Chemist Jim Hutchison of University of Oregon in Eugene this morning wanted to emphasize how research on green chemistry, while taking up time and money in the short turn, can yield cheaper techniques that won't foul the soil, air, or water.
So he showed the following two pictures to, ahem, drive the point home. 
"I used this one for a company in Oregon, and they didn't get it," he said of the figure of the left. The golf analogy applies, he explained, because Tiger Woods decided in early 2004 to overhaul his swing--and he lost the following 10 majors as he readjusted. "For the whole time he is doing, that he sucks," said Hutchinson. In April 2005, though, Tiger returned with a vengeance, winning the Masters, and the rest is history.
Hutchinson's analogous big win? Gold nanoparticles ...
The traditional way of making one variety is superexpensive (One firm charges $300,000, Hutchinson said) and requires diborane, an ultratoxic chemical that can spontaneously ignite. Plus, making a gram of the stuff requires more than a kilogram of benzene, also nasty. So three years ago, Hutchinson devised a much cleaner way to make the particles that costs only $500 per gram--although it took a while to figure out.
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