Chemical engineering professor Karen McDonald and her team have received funding to develop plant-based methods for producing FDA-approved drugs in under 24 hours for use in deep space. The proposal, “A Plant-Based Platform for ‘Just in Time’ Medications” is one of six to receive of a two year, $800,000 Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) grant from the Baylor College of Medicine.

A new study from UC Davis found that the louder people talk, the more airborne particles they emit, making loudness a potential factor in spreading airborne diseases. The study, led by chemical engineering Ph.D. student Sima Asadi in professor William Ristenpart’s group, looked at particle emission during speech as a function of loudness, among other factors.

For chemical engineering professor Greg Miller, whisky is serious business. A licensed distiller and whisky enthusiast, his new book Whisky Science: A Condensed Distillation is the culmination of a five-year search for the science behind the spirit, bringing together 300+ years of history, chemistry and distillation methods.