Category → Ripped from the Pages At last week’s American
Chemical Society meeting in New Orleans, a group of chemists
came together to discuss the latest and greatest in alcohol. No,
this wasn’t on Bourbon Street. And karaoke, to-go cups, and
beaded necklaces weren’t involved (as far as I know). This
week’s issue of Chemical & Engineering News features a column I
wrote about one of the session’s presentations. Neil C. Da
Costa, a researcher at International Flavors & Fragrances, in
New Jersey, entertained the audience with tales of the
hurricane, that rum-based drink the Big Easy is famous for. I
featured Da Costa’s studies of the hurricane because of the soft
spot I have for the cocktail: The first time I drank one was
during my undergraduate years at, you guessed it, my first
national ACS meeting. But I gave short shrift to other
“Chemistry of the Bar” presentations. One particularly
interesting talk was given by Jerry Zweigenbaum, a researcher at
Agilent Technologies, in Delaware. Along with Alyson E. Mitc