A Future in Chemistry

Many more preparations of fine chemicals from renewables have been worked out, and even more are being developed. The following sections present several examples that catch the eye. Examples that are now an integral part of modern chemistry, with a future in which the use of chemicals that are harmful to the environment will be avoided and where novel processes will minimize the amounts of waste products. 

The number of those who study chemistry has so much increased in recent years, that only a small part of them will find a future in education and the large majority will have to work in technical institutions. The conference of the professors of chemistry, which has lately been held in connection with the proposed elevation of the Polytechnic to the level of the University, has led the chemistry professors of the country to the opinion that the main principles of technical chemistry are of the greatest importance for the chemists who constitute the universities. 

An important question, which all countries, but especially emerging and developing countries, need to face, is Why teach chemistry It is suggested there are four separate developmental components (a) enhancing democratic development, (b) supporting economic development, (c) promoting skills development, and (d) the need for cultural development. All have a place in chemistry teaching, but a democratic emphasis is clearly more appropriate for all students irrespective of their future career plans. 

Most observations in chemistry come from ex periments If we do enough experiments we may see a pattern running through our observations A /aw is a mathematical (the law of gravity) or verbal (the law of diminishing returns) description of that pattern Establishing a law can lead to the framing of a rule that lets us predict the results of future experiments This IS what the 1870 version of Markovnikov s rule is a statement based on experimental observations that has predictive value... 

Into the late 1940s, Nobel Laureate Robert S. Mulliken, a physical chemist at the University of Chicago, maintained a skeptical view regarding the future of applying the theories of physics to solving practical problems in chemistry (4,5). Subsequentiy, Mulliken (5) related that... 

The National Research Council Report Opportunities in Chemistry published in 1985 (called the Pimentel Report ) described a survey of the state of science and technology in chemistry and made recommendations concerning future opportunities. One of the recommendations proposed the following ... 

The final chapter in this volume by Alexander Sadimenko (University of Fort Hare, South Afiica) continues a series by this author on the organometaUic chemistry of heterocycles, of which 0,S monoheterocycles and N,P,Si,B monoheterocycles were published in volumes 78 and 79, respectively. The organometaUic chemistry of pyrazole is so broad that the present overview does not include the polyfunctional, chelating frameworks containing pyrazolyl units, which are typified by the pyrazolyl borate derivatives. These will be the subject of a future chapter. 

Louis F. Fieser (1899-1977) was born in Columbus, Ohio, and received his Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1924 with James B. Conant. He was professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr College and then at Harvard University from 1930 to 1968. While at Bryn Mawr. he met his future wife, Mary, then a student. In collaboration, the two Fiesers wrote numerous chemistry texts and monographs. Among his scientific contributions, Fieser was known for his work in steroid chemistry and in carrying out the first synthesis of vitamin K. He was also the inventor of jellied gasoline, or napalm, which was developed at Harvard during World War II. 

Chapters were planned on Structural chemistry of solids NMR and ESR Carbon acidity Syntheses and uses of isotopically labelled compounds and on Pyrolysis in this volume, but did not materialize. We will try to fill these gaps in a future supplementary volume. 

Radical chemistry has undergone something of a renaissance in recent years. The phenomenon of CIDNP has played an important part in this. The growing interest in the role of radical processes in biological systems may stimulate the application of CIDNP in even wider fields in the future. The development of a practical device for radiofrequency amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation (RASER) may well be one such application. 

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