The final night of the 2026 ACS Chicago Fall Meeting

1. In August 2026, the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall Meeting will be held at McCormick Place in Chicago. On the fourth day of the conference, I realized—clearly and vividly—that after nearly five months of intense work, I was finally about to enjoy a week’s vacation. I would soon embark on a road trip with my partner, who, like me, had worked nonstop—weekdays and weekends alike—for fifty days straight. Our destination mattered less than the act itself: an intentional pause, a mental reset, a recalibration of life’s rhythm. I welcomed this day—a day imbued with meaning and anticipation by our human perception of time’s passage—only to be met instead by illness. That day’s high temperature reached 27°C—hinting faintly at autumn, yet still feeling like late summer overall. Rather than stealing a moment of rest amid the chaos, I had simply surrendered: escaping from three consecutive days of grueling conference schedule (6 a.m. to 10 p.m.), I ducked into a random Starbucks on the street and ordered hot coffee and a breakfast burger. I knew Chicago housed a Starbucks Reserve store—but lacked both the energy and the desire to undertake even that one-kilometer pilgrimage. I sat outside—not inside the air-conditioned, softly music-laced café—carefully avoiding the lichen-like pigeon droppings scattered across the pavement, speckled with feathers and teeming with lethal Cryptococcus neoformans and the vomit of last night’s inebriated patrons. It was a weekday in Chicago—a city defined by its dense concentration of Art Deco skyscrapers and crisscrossing bridges and rail lines—making the entire urban landscape resemble a traumatic brain injury: building-hairs piercing through gauze-like elevated tracks, harboring millions of us microbes, all dressed nearly identically. Among these pedestrians—who, absent formal dress codes, would gladly wear short sleeves while clutching their blazers and hurrying past—I sat (more precisely, *below* them, since I was seated on the ground), steadier than the pigeons startled into flight, duller than the monotonous office workers. Wearing a sweater, sipping hot coffee, shivering. My body suddenly felt heavy, inert—as if I’d just returned from a space station mission. Sunlight dappled through the trees, burning my skin in patches; yet my skin felt alien, detached. I ran a low-grade fever. Fortunately, I’d shown no symptoms until yesterday—meaning I’d only been infected by others, not infecting anyone else. 2. That day, it wasn’t until I boarded my return flight from the ACS Fall Meeting in Chicago that the captain’s delayed announcement informed us our plane had been canceled due to thunderstorms in Philadelphia. My labmate Brock and I rebooked for the next morning’s 7 a.m. departure—and, looking back now, naively underestimated the challenge—decided not to seek another hotel but instead to spend the night inside the airport terminal. In reality, I was running a fever, alternating between chills and waves of heat—mostly chills. My warmer clothes were packed in checked luggage, now separated from me by security checkpoints, as distant and inaccessible as a stranger’s suitcase. As night fell, shops in the terminal gradually closed one by one, lowering their shutters like prison cell doors. At the last shop open until midnight, I spent nearly $20 on an ultra-thin polyester blanket—paper-thin, literally thinner than life itself. (The same—or even higher-quality—blanket sells for just $4 at IKEA.) Only after the entire building had fallen silent did I realize how utterly useless it was against America’s aggressive air conditioning—and my feverish body: like a single sheet of paper facing a hailstorm of bullets.

Detailed introduction to the American Chemical Society (ACS) database and access methods

I. Introduction The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a professional organization dedicated to the field of chemistry. It is the world’s largest scientific society for chemistry, a global leader in chemical industry development, and one of the world’s most authoritative sources of scientific information. ACS holds two large-scale annual meetings covering all subdisciplines of chemistry each year, along with numerous smaller, specialized symposia. It serves as the primary professional home for chemists, chemical engineers, and related professionals worldwide. ACS publishes a vast array of scientific journals and databases, hosts major research conferences, and provides education, science policy guidance, and career development resources in chemistry. It also offers scholarships to students and awards over $20 million annually in funding for chemical science research. Through identifying innovative solutions, ACS advances public health, protects the environment, and contributes to economic growth. Moreover, ACS plays a leadership role in educating and communicating—both to policymakers and the general public—the vital importance of chemistry in everyday life. II. Historical Development (A) The Predecessor: The American Chemical Association In 1876, the American Chemical Association—the precursor to the ACS—was founded in New York City to foster communication and collaboration within the chemistry community, provide academic support to chemists, and promote the advancement of chemical science. (B) The Present: Renaming to the American Chemical Society From the 19th century through the mid-20th century, the ACS grew steadily, evolving into a pivotal organization in the field of chemistry, with ever-increasing membership and regional chapters. In 1979, the American Chemical Association officially changed its name to the American Chemical Society (American Chemical Society, abbreviated ACS). This renaming marked the beginning of a new developmental phase and further expanded the Society’s global influence in the chemical sciences. III. Products and Services (A) ACS Journals ACS publishes numerous scholarly journals. Since their inception, ACS journals have upheld the highest editorial standards, delivering peer-reviewed, cutting-edge chemical research to academia, industry, and government institutions. These journals are not solely for white-coated scientists holding flasks of colorful liquids: from disease therapeutics to advanced materials, the research published by ACS is as unique and diverse as the scientists who read it. ACS publications impact virtually every scientific discipline—including medicine, nanoscience, engineering, environmental science, computer science, telecommunications, and physics. 1. Flagship Journal: Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) The flagship journal, the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), was first published in 1879 and has since become a century-old institution. Initially issued biweekly, it transitioned to a semi-weekly format in 1967 and is now published weekly. Its content includes communications (short reports) and full-length articles spanning all areas of chemistry. JACS is widely regarded as the most authoritative journal in the global chemistry community and among the most influential interdisciplinary chemistry journals. For many chemists, publishing even a single paper in JACS remains a lifelong aspiration.

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