Breeding chemists in Giessen

The factors that contributed to Liebig's success in founding a research school at Giessen have been well known since the publication of Jack Morrell's seminal paper in 1972. Here the familiar Liebig-Giessen story is re-centred in a local geographical and historical context. Historical and political factors played a role in calling Liebig to Giessen and in ousting the existing chair holder, Zimmerman. Working in partnership with the government, Liebig's developed pharmacy teaching as part of the state's plan of modernization. Liebig's success necessarily led to the expansion of the laboratory after 1833. Comparisons with Buff's and Hundeshagen's attempts to do for physics and forestry what Liebig achieved in chemistry show that the encouragement of private enterprise was a key feature of the Hessen-Darmstadt government's strategy for the modernisation of the university.     

How hydrides misled chemists

Hydrogen-containing molecules are simple enough to be attractive subjects in experimental diffraction and spectroscopic studies and in quantum computations. Yet, the inferences about molecular structure and force fields originally drawn from studies of these subjects were significantly flawed. In recent developments the original models of structure invoked, such as hybridization, have been superseded. The reasons for this are briefly reviewed. What has emerged to account for molecular geometry, prevailing even over the popular VSEPR theory, is a model of geminal nonbonded interactions.     

Bioanalytical challenges for analytical chemists

Analytical chemistry contributes significantly to the life sciences through developing measurement techniques that provide quantitative chemical information. Developments in biological research present new challenges for analytical chemistry and call for revolutionary methods and new thinking. Dana Spence outlines here some key and unique challenges encountered when making measurements on samples of a biological nature, supported with real examples from his own research.     

Education and training of Analytical chemists in Yugoslavia

Summary There are twenty chemistry departments at Yugoslavian universities and polytechnics with as many chairs of Analytical Chemistry. The individual courses show considerable differences with regard to their extent and content. The share of Analytical Chemistry is not uniform and taken as a whole not adequate. However, improvements are under way. Details of the main courses and teaching plans are given.Presented at Euroanalysis III conference. Dublin, August 20–25, 1978     

Information requirements for chemists in the pharmaceutical industry

The principal information needs of chemists in the pharmaceutical industry center around a substance, methods used for its characterization, its reactions, its physicochemical and biomedical properties, and its metabolic fate in biological media. Novelty searches for a specific chemical are critical because of the need for patent protection for product candidates. Chemical relatives are important, necessitating substructure searching. Therapeutic neighbors may give insight into its biological mode of action. The phases of drug discovery and development are used to indicate the diversity of the information needs of chemists and to emphasize the dual process of generation and use of information.     

Climate change and our responsibilities as chemists

For almost all of 4.5 billion years, natural forces have shaped Earth’s environment. But, during the past century, as a result of the Industrial Revolution, which has had enormous benefits for humans, the effects of human activities have become the main driver for climate change. The increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide caused by burning fossil fuels for energy to power the revolution causes an energy imbalance between incoming solar radiation and outgoing planetary emission. The imbalance is warming the planet and causing the atmosphere and oceans to warm, ice to melt, sea level to rise, and weather extremes to increase. In addition, dissolution of part of the carbon dioxide in the oceans is causing them to acidify, with possible negative effects on marine biota. As citizens of an interconnected global society and scientists who have the background to understand climate change, we have a responsibility first to understand the science. One resource that is available to help is the American Chemical Society Climate Science Toolkit, www.acs.org/climatescience. With this understanding our further responsibility as citizen scientists is to engage others in deliberative discussions on the science, to take actions ourselves to adapt to and mitigate human-caused climate change, and urge others to follow our example.     

Dissolved oxygen: the electroanalytical chemists dilemma

Electroanalytical chemistry has been plagued for decades with the problems associated with dissolved oxygen. Dissolved oxygen is electrochemically reduced at potentials less negative than ?0.05 V vs. standard calomel electrode (SCE) and, therefore, interferes with detection of many species when using reductive voltammetry. Historically, electroanalytical chemists have taken the view that dissolved oxygen should be removed from the sample solution in order to overcome the interference problems. However, there are drawbacks associated with this approach, particularly when dealing with flowing solutions. More recently an alternative approach, the development of voltammetric methods which are not so prone to dissolved oxygen interference, has been taken by various workers.