Image of chemistry

Moreover, new biomimetic materials generate new perspectives on nature and artefacts that could help change the public image of chemistry. The development of synthetic materials - synthetic dyestuffs in the late nineteenth century and synthetic textiles in the twentieth century - has been celebrated as the triumph of artificial over natural products. In contrast to synthetic materials of the plastics era, composite materials (though still artificial and even more artificial than the conventional plastics) have turned the chemist s attention back to nature. 

The term industry refers to positions adopted by large trade associations, which comprise several companies that express potentially different views. One outcome of the Public Images of Chemistry in the 20th Century conference held in Paris, France, in September 2004, was that industry could improve its reputation by more openly recognising the risks as well as promoting the benefits of chemicals [177],... 

While this volirme cannot of course cover the full complexity of the issue, it does however provide for the first time an in-depth imderstand-ing of the historical origin and development of the public images of chemistry. Keeping in mind the gradual differences and interactions, the volume is divided into three parts devoted to popular images, self-images, and mediated images of chemistry in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 

Many of the chapters are based on contributions to two conferences The Public Images of Chemistry in the 20th Century by the Commission for the History of Modem Chemistry (CHMC) in Paris, France, 17-18... 

September 2004 and a session on Contexts of Popularization at the 5th International Conference on the History of Chemistry in Lisbon, Portugal, 6-9 September 2005. Additional papers have been invited to complement the scope. Most of the chapters have been published before in 2006 and 2007 in serious of special issues of the journal HYLE International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry (www.hyle.org). Putting them all together now, we can firmly say that this is the first comprehensive volume on the public image of chemistry. 

On his return from Great Britain in 1837, and in association with the project of writing a book on agriculture, Liebig suddenly started an energetic campaign. His idea was to communicate a new image of chemistry... 

When in August 1965 several worried public relations officers from the Dutch chemical industry gathered in The Hague to consider the deteriorated public image of chemistry, their concern was not without precedent. Perhaps without realizing it, they tackled an issue the historical foundation of which was put in place a full century before. As we all know now, the results of their publicity campaigns have been rather futile, or even counter-productive. In Eibert Bunte s Leven met chemie ( Living with Chemistry ) of 1968, the old story of the utility and necessity of chemistry was repeated for the umpteenth time. Not much later student numbers in chemistry started to drop dramatically, and they have... 

It is against this mixed image of chemistry that Morrison s book must be read. The genesis of Man in a Chemical World started with one of the most significant attempts to promote and Americanize chemistry undertaken by the American Chemical Society (ACS). For the 1935 conference, the ACS chose as their theme the tercentenary of chemical industries in America. (Morrison 1937, p. x) This offered an excellent platform to promote chemistry as an important American industry. The official poster (Figure 1) for the tercentenary showed a native in loin-... 

THE VISUAL IMAGE OF CHEMISTRY PERSPECTIVES FROM THE HISTORY OF ART AND SCIENCE... 

Although chemists are photographed and sketched in some other poses, that pose is by far the most dominating public image of chemistry on the Internet and in cliparts according to our previous work (Schummer Specter 2007). 

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