Kickstart: 'The beauty of chemistry,' the Solvay Prize and a Nobel

When researcher Katalin Karikó was named a Nobel Prize winner for physiology or medicine early this month (along with Drew Weissman), it wasn't just her work in mRNA research — leading to the COVID-19 vaccine — that made news stories. News coverage also noted her insistence on pushing forward with her ideas even when told her work wasn't valuable enough, leading to four demotions at the University of Pennsylvania before she left the faculty.

But even before the Nobel honor, Karikó had won recognition from the materials industry.

In 2022, she received the Solvay Prize, a global award for major scientific discoveries with the potential to shape tomorrow's chemistry and help human progress, sponsored by plastics supplier and chemical company Solvay SA.

"I think about all of the chemistry I learned and all of the teachers who showed me the beauty of chemistry," Karikó said in a video posted on Solvay's website.

"I was successful even 20 or 30 years ago when nobody recognized me and nobody gave me a prize. I was very happy without any prize because the real success is in the day after day, solving problems in the laboratory and getting a solution," she said.

Karikó was the second woman to win the Solvay Prize. The first woman to win it, Carolyn Bertozzi, a chemistry professor at Stanford, also has a Nobel. She won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2022 and the Solvay Prize in 2020.

A stray dog that got his head stuck in a large plastic snack jar has a new name, Cheeto, and now is in search of a new home.

The pup, estimated to be less than two years old and likely some combination of breeds including German shepherd, was first sighted on a trail camera with the container stuck on his head. He was trapped in it for at least three days.

Last Stop Rescue & Sanctuary, a small rescue site in Carleton, Mich., removed the jar in a video posted on its Facebook page. Rescue owners Tom and Sue Walsh say the dog is underweight and was infested with fleas and ticks. Last Stop is covering Cheeto's vet bills while seeking a permanent home for the dog.

It's nearly time for the 2023 annular solar eclipse. Do you know where your eclipse glasses are?

Saturday's eclipse is referred to as a "ring of fire" event because the moon won't completely block out the sun. People living in a narrow band of the U.S. — stretching from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Coos Bay, Ore. — will see the outline of the sun behind the moon. The event will start at about 10:30 a.m. Central time on Oct. 14. A partial eclipse will be visible elsewhere in the U.S.

A larger total eclipse will pass over the U.S. on April 8, 2024.

American Paper Optics, a maker of eclipse glasses in Bartlett, Tenn., told the Memphis Commercial Appeal it hopes to sell 75 million pairs of glasses between the two eclipse events. But if you haven't had a chance to nab one of those pairs yet, you can use eclipse glasses purchased for the 2017 eclipse. The website eclipse2024.org notes that ISO guidelines for eclipse glasses remain the same, so glasses made since 2015 will work as long as they're not damaged.