(American Chemical Society) This week on Reactions we head to Portland, Oregon, and learn how blacksmithing is just as much chemistry as it is an artform.

(University of Texas at San Antonio) The National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering has awarded The University of Texas at San Antonio a five-year, nearly $1.3 million grant to create the Enhancing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Educational Diversity (ESTEEMED) Program.

(Colorado State University) Every year, a staggering amount of organic waste including uneaten food, yard clippings and manure is dumped into landfills, occupying precious land while producing methane and other gases that pollute the atmosphere. A multi-institutional, CSU-led team has been awarded $5.1 million from the Department of Energy to tackle the organic waste problem with key improvements to a seasoned but unprofitable technology called anaerobic digestion.

(University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine) Patients with a high risk of dying after surgery, including those with multiple chronic diseases, benefit from undergoing general or vascular procedures at a major teaching hospital as opposed to a non-teaching hospital, according to a study from researchers at Penn Medicine and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

(University of Freiburg) Linguists and literary scholars from the universities of Freiburg and Bielefeld present two new works from the Samica book series.

Teachers in the nation's third-largest school system are fighting for salary increases, class-size caps, and a written commitment for more nurses, social workers, and librarians—as well as investments some say are outside the scope of collective bargaining.