Chemistry Centennial: A Time for Rejoicing and Reflecting
Ieditorially
Sentiment and science, usually not the most compatible of companions, combined to create a t the Centennial Meeting of the American Chemical Society in New York last month an occasion rich in memonies, heartening yet humbling in its recognition of achievement, and self-renewingin the hope and promise i t celebrated. Forgotten for the moment were the hitter differences over the meaning of professionalism, the effectiveness of education and the role of chemists in influencing public policy. For a few hours a t least characteristic reserve was abandoned, optimism reigned, and warmth, cheer and fellowship flowed in full measure. There were some truly moving moments -Glenn Seahorg's introduction of Linus Pauling at the Ceremonial Session on Monday tbat concluded with, "To celebrate the Centennial of ACS is in part to celebrate our speaker. I am privileged to introduce one of the great scientists and humanitarians of our century, our friend and distineuished colleaeue. - . Dr. Linus Pauling." -Henry Eyring's invocation at the Centennial Banquet, ". . . Heavenly Father, we ask thy blessing on our work and on o w country. . . .". -Mary Fieser's brave but sensible decision not to tell her husband Louis beforehand of the Monday session in his honor, not only because she and his ~hysicians knew he was too ill to attend, but also because no one hut she knew how impossible i t would have been to keep him a t home had he known. -Linus Pauling's description of how he got his start as a chemistry teacher (and how we almost lost him to another career) in an informal talk at a session of the Division of Chemical Education. (Pauling did not have funds to return to Oreeon Amicultural Colleee a t the " beginning of his junior year, hut shortly after school started in the fall. the colleee authorities offered him a position teaching analytGal chemistry laboratory, which fortunatelv he acce~ted.) -Postmaster ~ e n e r a l in jam in F. Bailar's presentation of albums of the chemistry commemorative stamp to President Ford (in absentia), to three top ACS off;cials and, ". . . one for my Dad." His Dad, as many know, is John C. Bailar, Jr., Past President of ACS and emeritus orofessor of chemistry a t the University of 11linois. The centennial meeting also was a time for remembering and reflecting, a time for looking hack to the beginnings and the accomplishments of chemists and chemistry in America. At the time ACS was organized, European chemistry had begun to flower. Mendeleev had just published his periodic table. van't Hoff bad just demonstrated the usefulness of the idea ot'ntoms arranged in three-dimensional space. Rankine had recently puhlished his important summary of the princinles of the science of enerretics that included the first and second laws of thermodynamics. Fresenius had just written his classic works on qualitative and quantitative analysis. Guldherg and Waage had just enunciated the law of mass action. Nobel ha& recently perfected dynamite. Dyestuffs, anesthetics, drugs, and the first plastics were being manufactured. The chief chemical constituents of food-carhohydrates, proteins, and fats-had been identified and were being studied. Respiration was recognized as having a chemical base, associated with the uptake of oxygen and the release of carbon dioxide. A century ago, chemistry in America was much more practical than theoretical, Charles F. Chandler, guiding spirit
in organizing ACS and ior dti years professor of chemistry at Columbia Universitv. made notahle contributions to sulfuric acid manufacture, tosugar and petroleum refining,and in the illuminating cas indusrrv. However, in 1876 J. Willard Gihbs' first studies of equilibrium in het&ogeneous systems were published, and Ira Remsen accepted the challenge of organizing the first chemistry department in America having as its primary mission the training of graduate students and the conducting of basic research. Remsen's denartment at Johns Hopkins finiversity was so successful that'hy the turn of the century more than half of the first-ranked chemists in the United States had been trained there. The record of American chemists and American chemistrv since 1900speaks to the world community every day and with a thousand voices. T o the chemists themselves.. its . oroudest and most arousing narratives begin with names such as Richards, Langmuir, Noyes, Conant, Lewis, Urey, Sumner, Nnrthrup, Stanley, Giauque, McMillan, Seaborg, Pauling, duvigneaud, Libby, Calvin, Block, Woodward, Mulliken, Wald, Khorana, Nirenberg, Onsager, Afinsen, Moore, Stern, Florv, and a hundred others. The program of the centennial meeting gives dramaticevidence that pride in the past is marched by dedication tooneoine work and commitment to the future. Included amone" topics of presented papers are: kinetics in the picosecond (10-12) range; thermochemical splitting of water; solar energy conversion; synthesis of anticancer drugs such as adriamycin; new syntheses of prostaglandins; the role of iron in human immunity; fourth generation pesticides; X-ray absorption soectroscoov. ... a new technioue for structure determination: environmental behavior of transuranium elements: artificial intellieence in chemical research: exoandine the ~eriodicuhle: stahleeadmiurn selenide electrodes to convert visible light electrical energy. In his opening address, Linus Pauling expressed the hope that in its next hundred years chemistry would work to relieve human suffering. He said he didn't think we could do much to assure human happiness, hut tbat the minimizing of suffering was a goal worthy of our finest effort. He indicated that despite our considerable scientific knowledge and technological ahilities, large numbers of people well might he exposed to greater, even intolerable, suffering unless we set our minds and our energies to avoiding it. He asked us to give our highest priorities to the chemistry of humanity. Pauling's thoughts and the images stimulated by the centennial events are cause for reflection. Chemistry is above all else a humanistic ouest-a search hv humans usine" human powers and devices for an understanding of the material world that will he useful and meaningful to the humans who inhabit that world. For those involved in the search, chemistry is not merelv the facts. theories. and technisues that constitute the science, nor even the personal struggles, frustrations, failures, and successes that characterize their work. It is the very principle by which they have found meaning for their lives and, in some cases, a significance that transcends death. Those discoveries that endure add to o w cultural heritage, enriching it for all generations to follow. The chemical heritage that we transmit to our fellow Americans and to our fellow citizens around the world on this occasion is rich but insufficient. The insufficiency resides not in knowledge alone, but in our failure to see to i t that what is known is used to minimize and not to increase human suffering. The centennial gives much cause for rejoicing. It also serves to focus attention on the obligations that lie before us. WTL
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Volume 53,Number 5, May 1976 / 269
