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화학과 과학 기술 발달사 (Chemistry & Technology Milestones) 권두언
A GIANT LEAP TO IMPROVE THE PUBLIC IMAGE OF CHEMISTRY
My most heartfelt congratulations to the Korean Chemical Society and its President, Professor Choon Ho DO for the outstanding achievement of developing this book, the next evolutionary step of an exhibit, created ten years ago for improving the public image of chemistry. The Korean Chemical Society recognizes that the message of the original exhibit must reach wider population through creating this book for general availability in schools and libraries. The lack of recognition of the numerous achievements of chemistry is a worldwide major concern. The public is continuously bombarded by the occasional side effects of certain chemical discoveries without giving credits for the hundreds of benefits without which we would be back to the Stone Age. This degrades the image of chemistry with the population, creates negative legislations, decreases funding for research and, in addition, frequently steers young people away from selecting chemistry as their profession. This work is very educational not only for adults but also most importantly to students. One of the problems for the reluctance of studying chemistry in high school that many students are not aware about its benefits and frequently consider it as an esoteric subject. In Hungary and Israel, they are experimenting with starting to teach chemistry first by explaining how chemistry benefits our everyday life, before talking about atoms and molecules. This results in more interest. Today’s students will be the general public of tomorrow and this will create a positive attitude toward chemistry and automatic increase in selecting chemistry as a profession. However, regardless of whatever profession they choose, they will have a balanced view and not taken in by sensationalist newspaper headlines chastising chemistry for occasional problems. Every action we take in our life has the possibility of some undesired effect. We chemists are ones who, when some chemical problems develop, immediately swing into actions and develop ways to provide the original benefits to eliminate the problems. We chemists are rightfully proud of our achievements, e.g. new compounds, structural determination, or a reaction mechanism and discuss it at among us various conferences. However, we are guilty of not talking about the hundreds of benefits of chemistry in a suitable language to the wider populace whose knowledge of chemistry is rather limited. Their main interest is what is the effect of chemical discoveries on their everyday life, not how we achieved it. The reaction conditions of the Haber-Bosch synthesis to manufacture ammonia leaves them uninterested, yet when they became aware of the fact that it provided agriculture with artificial fertilizer resulting in increased food production and decreased cost, they appreciate chemistry without understanding the process. To educate the public about the benefits of chemistry in their everyday life, the American Chemical Society made the first step to develop an exhibit for the 125th anniversary of the Society in 2001, during my presidency. A task force was created to collect the most important developments of the past 125 years together with their importance in our life. The members of this Task Force with Paul Anderson (DuPont Pharmaceutical) as it chair were Edward A. Chandross (Lucent Technology), John Cherry (U.S. Department of Agriculture), Jon Eklund (Smithsonian Institution), Bruce Finlayson (Univ. Washington, President, AIChE), Jeanette Grasselli Brown, (Ohio Board of Regents), L. Louis Hegedus (Atofina Chemicals Inc.), Ned D. Heindel (Lehigh University), Barrie Hesp, (Pfizer), Edwin P. Przybylowicz (Eastman Kodak), Robert Sievers (University of Colorado), Jeffrey Sturchio (Merck & Co., Inc.),Attila Pavlath, ex officio (2001 President) and Douglas Raber, ex officio (Steering Committee Chair.) The result of their work involving requests for worldwide suggestions was summarized and presented as an electronic exhibit. Four electronic boards displayed 79 examples in four areas: Energy & Transportation, Information & Communication, Health & Medicine and Food & Agriculture. On each of the four boards, the exhibit listed the chronology of the discoveries in the corresponding fields with a pushbutton for each development. Upon activation it displayed on a TV screen of the corresponding board the details of the discovery’s impact on human life. No chemical equations were included. The boards were displayed at the Fall ACS Meeting in Chicago at the 125th anniversary celebration. The purpose of this exhibit was to increase the public image of chemistry by conveying the importance of the discoveries to the average people without chemical background. The plan was that, after the Chicago meeting it will be moved around in the country to be exhibited in convention centers, museums and other establishments frequently visited by the general public. However, the bulkiness of the electronic exhibit created transportation difficulties. The Hungarian Chemical Society and the Hungarian ACS International Scientific Chapter came up with the idea of converting the original electronic exhibit to an easily transportable colorful poster exhibit. Prof. Veronika Nemeth of the University of Szeged (nemethv@chem.u-szeged.hu) volunteered to create it with the help of her graduate student Ms. Nora Rideg, both in English and in Hungarian. This started a worldwide campaign to publicize the importance of chemical developments in our life. The posters made in Power Point presentation, could be easily translated to various languages by replacing the original English text, while retaining the colorful artistic background. Presently, they are already translated at least into 25 languages and can be freely downloaded from www.chemistryinyourlife.org. At various countries, the exhibits are moved around the country and displayed in schools, museums, conventions centers and other places frequently visited by the population. This book is very valuable and plays a highly important role in promoting the public image of chemistry. Seven years ago the Hungarian Chemical Society took the initiative to create an important tool for this purpose by converting the electronic exhibit to poster display. The Korean Chemical Society made an even larger leap in this direction by this book. It could and should also be translated to various languages to provide chemists with an important tool in their talk to the public about the importance of chemistry. However, this is not the end of a worldwide effort to improve the public image of chemistry. While we should be proud for the creation of the poster and the book, we cannot sit on our laurel for carrying out a successful undeniably outstanding job. This is just the beginning! There is a logical next step in this continuous program of educating the public about the benefits chemistry. Chemistry was used our everyday life worldwide for centuries, even before we talked about atoms and molecules. There is a vast treasury in the cultural history of many countries, which contains various practical developments in medicine, agriculture and metallurgy. They were passed on during the time even if by mouth to mouth, though those who used them did not know the scientific explanations of their utility Nevertheless they knew that they were beneficial and working. Whether some superstition and folklore were also involved, it is immaterial. It is evident that chemistry was always an important factor in our life. The medicine men did not know that the bark of willow contained aspirin, but they utilized it as a painkiller. This book and exhibit demonstrate those development chemists made during the past 100-150 years. Collecting and organizing the cultural utilization of natural compounds throughout centuries should lay down the basis of another exhibit. This could be more easily viewed and appreciated by everyone regardless of his or her educational level. The Korean Chemical Society with Prof. Choon Ho DO’s leadership would be in an excellent position to start the process of collecting the necessary materials for this exhibit The education of the public must be continued by additional new ways. There will be always sensationalist attacks on chemistry for the slightest possible problems whether it is real or not. The best action is counteracting them in a positive way to show what would be our life without chemistry. During my Presidency, I proposed to create a Public Image of Chemistry Institute. Its charter should be continuous dissemination of the benefits of chemistry and educating the public about it. I renew my proposal; this is an action whose time has come now. Such institute can be a worldwide network; we do not have to have an actual building. The Internet gives us the opportunity to disseminate the information provided in these exhibits and book. The Korean Chemical Society can start organizing such network. I am sure that there would many volunteers to join this virtual Institute.
Attila E. Pavlath ACS President, 2001 |