Editorial pubs.acs.org/accounts
Holy Grails in Chemistry, Part II Editorial for the Accounts of Chemical Research special issue on “Holy Grails in Chemistry”. • Uncovering the molecular basis of thought and memories. The commentaries that follow touch on these topics and more. If, at some point in the future, we realize all these Holy Grails, will our quests then become less holy, our gods less divine, and the mysteries of the Universe less awesome? Time will tell, but likely new Holy Grails will emerge to continue to inspire.
“quest for perfection” is the present-day interpretation of a Holy Grail, which at other points in history has been either a sacred cup at the Last Supper, a mysterious Arthurian vessel holding miraculous powers, or a magical cauldron of Celtic origin. In this special issue of Accounts of Chemical Research, we continue our celebration of the 50th anniversary of the journal by asking 42 leading scientists to describe a Holy Grail in their field of chemistry and to comment on progress and approaches to the perfect answer to an important question. Inspiration for this issue comes from the similarly titled March 1995 issue of Accounts that featured an editorial by Allen Bard, Richard Zare, George Whitesides, and past-Editor Fred McLafferty. They quoted Linus Pauling on the centrality of Chemistry; he said that “Every aspect of the world todayeven politics and international relationsis affected by chemistry.”1 This, and its reverse (chemistry is affected by politics!), is still true today. Issue 3 of volume 28 included eight articles on topics such as photosynthesis, catalysis by design, prebiotic chemistry, room-temperature superconductors, and the nature of the transition state. Tremendous strides toward these Holy Grails have been made in the past two decades, but none are completely solved problems. The goal of the 2017 issue is to outline global challenges that should draw younger scientists into the broad fields of molecular sciences. After all, what can be more important than understanding the fundamental building blocks of matteratoms and moleculesand finding ways of manipulating them to the benefit of Earth and its inhabitants? “Always work on important problems!” was the memorable quote of my postdoctoral mentors and friends.2 It is the same advice that I pass on to younger colleagues today. Accordingly, the Senior Editors and I compiled, invited, and handled the reviewing of these 42 commentaries on significant unresolved questions and lofty goals in chemistry, and it is our hope that these pages will inspire readers to find creative new solutions to current challenges. Many of the Holy Grails are longstanding ones. My own top ten choices would include the following list: • The conversion and storage of solar energy in a sustainable fashion with minimal adverse impact on the planet. • The atomic scale manipulation of matter toward the synthesis of anything and everything. • Perfect catalysts. • Abundant clean water and air. • Understanding the origins of life. • The Star Trek tricorder to diagnose every malady. • Wonder drugs that conquer even infectious disease. • Understanding the “dark matter” of DNAthe 99% that is noncoding. • New-age materials that are flexible, wearable, and biocompatible.
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© 2017 American Chemical Society
Cynthia J. Burrows, Editor
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University of Utah
AUTHOR INFORMATION
ORCID
Cynthia J. Burrows: 0000-0001-7253-8529 Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
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REFERENCES
(1) Pauling, L. Chem. Eng. News 1984, 62, 54. (2) Lehn, J.-M.; Osborn, J., Strasbourg, France, Personal communication, 1983.
Published: March 21, 2017 445
DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.7b00102 Acc. Chem. Res. 2017, 50, 445−445
