An ode to chemistry
WE all know how important science is in addressing the multifaceted challenges faced by mankind. Yet many of us shirk anything that looks even a bit like science or scientific method. It is too complicated, way beyond our mental capacity. The magic word to enter the world of science is an abstract formula too daunting to attempt to learn. The result of such thinking is that our children and children’s children are deprived of the opportunity to study, appreciate and explore science. This translates to lost opportunities for individuals as well as for the entire nation, which seems to prefer to hobble along a path of pageantry and politics.
There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with pageantry and politics, but like in a chemical formulation, there should be a balance of ingredients. The Titanic sank so fast because its steel hull became “abnormally brittle and less impact-resistant” in the freezing water, contributing “to the size of the hole and the rapid sinking of the ship” (Capital Steel blog, 2012). The steel contained too much sulfur, oxygen and phosphorus, and too little manganese, nitrogen and silicon, making it 10 times more brittle than the steel used on modern ships.
The story of the Titanic is one of the many examples of the application of the science of chemistry that is discussed in “Foundations in Chemistry: A Systems-Based Approach” by Amelia H. Catarata Bojo. While “Foundations,” being an introduction to fundamental principles of chemistry, is primarily a book for students and instructors, its placing of chemistry in historical and societal contexts makes the book relevant to a general audience. Bojo’s mission is to show that while chemistry is indeed a challenging subject, its countless and profound direct and indirect impacts on human life and the course of history make it worth our time and effort.
Chemistry, writes Bojo, is “defined as the study of the composition, structure, properties and changes of matter, the laws that govern such changes and the energy involved therein.” Matter is “anything that occupies space and has mass.” It may sound abstract, but as the Titanic disaster showed, the consequences are very real.
Fritz Haber is one of the chemists who changed the course of history. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for synthesizing ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen. This made possible industrial-scale production of fertilizer, boosting agricultural production to feed the world’s growing population. Unfortunately, Haber is also remembered for his role in developing chlorine gas for use by Germany during World War 1.
In 1933, a law was passed prescribing the expulsion from government institutions of employees with Jewish ancestry. As director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry, Haber was forced to dismiss five of his staff. However, after having complied, the Nobel Prize winner chose to resign. “Holding a scientific post, my tradition demands from me that, when choosing my workers, I consider only their scientific merits and character, without asking about his or her race,” he wrote in his resignation letter (“The expulsion of Jewish chemists and biochemists from academia in Nazi Germany,” Ute Deichmann, 1999). Haber died in exile the following year. A Christian convert of Jewish ancestry, he could not have escaped subsequent, more violent, purges. Haber would never know that the gas he helped develop would be used by Germany to murder millions of Jews.
Back to the present. Bojo, in her discussion on the garbage problem — “a good study of the properties of matter and how matter changes or not” — points out the importance of knowing the properties of the materials we use in order that we can identify the dangers they pose when they are introduced into the environment. The science of chemistry has given birth to inventions from fertilizers, medicines, everyday household chemicals, and plastics to LCD screens, but many of these materials have toxic properties that become problematic when they react with other materials. Bojo reminds us that when we throw our garbage into the environment, “the environment throws the same garbage at human beings, though maybe in slightly different form.” Air pollution, leaching and microplastics are examples of such different forms.
Chemistry permeates our lives. “Since chemistry allows us to understand the behavior of matter and material systems, then it also allows us to understand this world,” Bojo writes. It allows us to understand the how, when, where, what and why of the
changes in materials that we “meet, use, and dispose of daily,” and therefore, “it allows us to view, manage or use things more intelligently.” To improve the quality of chemistry education, however, government must invest more in laboratories. Discoveries and inventions are the products of countless experiments and the scrutiny of their results. Hopefully, books such as “Foundations in Chemistry” can stimulate discourse and interest in science in general, chemistry in particular, and their importance to society, leading toward our government’s investing more in science.