Chemistry attitude toward

Bamberger s arguments were based mainly on classical organic chemistry, e.g., formation of derivatives, whereas Hantzsch was already using physicochemical methods. It took Bamberger 18 years to abandon his negative attitude towards the diazoate stereoisomerism (Bamberger and Baudisch, 1912). 

Rutherford s attitude toward chemistry was stereotyped by his jokes and barbs occasionally directed at his chemical colleagues. The later Manchester physicist P. M. S. Blackett recounted the famous crack, "All science is either physics or stamp collecting, "63 and it was said that Rutherford chafed at receiving the 1908 Nobel Prize in chemistry, rather than in Physics. In a lecture in which he described his theory of the nuclear atom, he joked that the "nucleus is a round, hard objectjust like Professor Perkins head."64 However, Rutherford expressed great respect for his chemist collaborator Frederick Soddy and for other chemists, as well. 

Now, the author of this book may lay claim to being a humble student of both Chemistry and what may be generalised under the terms Mysticism and Transcendentalism and he hopes that this perhaps rather unusual combination of studies has enabled him to take a broad-minded view of the theories of the alchemists, and to adopt a sympathetic attitude towards them. 

To determine how best to present green chemistry to students, it would be best to look at attitudes. A study reports on the relationship between attitudinal factors and student academic success in first-year chemistry courses. The study includes a comparison of attitudes toward chemistry of first-year medical students at two universities. Students from these two institutions differ considerably with respect to educational backgrounds. In the investigation, attitudes toward science (particularly chemistry) were correlated not only with students academic achievement, but also with personal demographic data, such as matriculation results, parents educational level, and location of high school. The students responses to an opinion survey suggest a substantial relationship between attitudes and academic achievement. The results also suggest that academic achievement in chemistry is more dependent on attitudes toward science than aptitudes of students (Cukrowska et al., 1999). 

Women students had been admitted since 1886 by the antecedent institutions of University College, Sheffield.72 Yet, as elsewhere, co-education did not necessarily imply that women students were accepted as equals. Attitudes towards the women chemistry students at Sheffield seem to have evolved from bemusement by their male colleagues in the early years through to hostility as the 20th century progressed. 

Crowfoot was not promoted to Reader until 1957, and, even then she was not provided with modern lab facilities until the following year. The academic pinnacle of success, an endowed chair, was offered to her in 1960, but it was provided by the Royal Society, not the University of Oxford. Worldwide recognition of her work on the determination of the structures of biochemically important molecules came in 1964 with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. However, indicative of the attitude towards women scientists, the news was announced by the Daily Mail newspaper as Nobel Prize for British Wife. 63... 

Recognizing that external pressures are forcing academic Chemistry departments to abandon their traditional relaxed attitudes toward safety, we have attempted to construct the safest building possible with the available funds. This alone will not guarantee accident- and hazard-free operation, however. The faculty, administration and staff must support and encourage safe practices. In this spirit, the University in 1977 established a campus-wide safety committee to assist and advise departments and the various support services when questions on safety arise. 

Such beliefs can easily be discarded by a student if he keeps a broken mirror at his home and finds to his satisfaction that it has not created any type of disharmony in his home. Similarly, other superstitions and misbeliefs can be tested and easily discarded by a student of chemistry. Various researches carried out in the field have drawn the same conclusion i.e, by practical survey and study of such common beliefs, students have developed permanent mind-sets or attitudes towards such superstitions. 

Contrast chemistry. (I mean classical chemistry, not work conducted in chemistry departments that is really physics.) It is very concrete, having to do with what various familiar substances are made of. As far as I know, it is untouched by politics at least I have not heard of Marxist chemistry or feminist chemistry. The classical chemical equations are the best-confirmed and most robust theoretical generalizations known to science, and they dramatically explain myriads of striking macrophenomena. No working chemist would think of denying that familiar substances are composed of molecules, which, in turn, are very uniform and regular constellations of atoms, or that atoms are tiny subvisible particles. It would be hard to take an instrumentalist attitude toward hydrolysis. 

According to Bohn, the study of chemistry was fundamental to perfecting all the other arts and sciences. No one who wished to be successful in medicine could ignore chemistry, and the real professors of natural philosophy in our age, he noted, were men of the body who understood the texture, nature, and structure of the body s various parts. Most of all, however, the universality of chemistry consisted in the fact that it alone displayed the means by which mixed bodies were dissolved and their textures transformed. Chemistry could thus alter the innate properties of bodies and direct them into other things. It is incredible, says Bohn, how much power the chemist has. It was this noble and excellent part of philosophy that Bohn had loved. . . since boyhood. What he really loved, however, was the power to make things different than they were before, to force nature, as it were, into different shapes and structures, and from that to learn what was fundamental to her construction. In this, as we shall see, Bohn shared an important attitude toward the creation of knowledge that had recently been expressed in a more philosophical setting as the experimental method. 

There is no correct to study chemistry. Your study technique will be decided by your current level of chemical knowledge, the time you have available, your strengths as a student, and your attitude toward the subject. The following is a list of suggestions... 

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