Editorial pubs.acs.org/cm
Materials ScienceA New Era for Chemistry Enormous Societal Challenges, Complex Global Problems most of the sciences in its potential to impact society.”4 Whitesides maintains that the new opportunities for chemical science and engineering (“chemistry”) are in fact much broader in scope and complex and require us to think about integration, complex systems, and that we have to teach students skills to solve problems that do not yet exist. He assembled a list of the new classes of problems chemists need to solve (Table 1),
I am biased. I admit it. I am immersed in the area of materials chemistry and have the honor of seeing great science come in every single day. From a fundamental standpoint, I greatly enjoy reading about the latest developments in materials science, but also appreciate the applied materials chemistry that enables me to carry a powerful smartphone everywhere (thank you for lithium ion batteries, liquid crystal display, nanoscale integrated circuitry). I take great solace imagining a truly cleanenergy-based future built upon solar energy-derived fuels and electricity generated via photovoltaics, and I relish the promise of biomaterials for tissue interfacing and in vivo medical applications, thus improving healthcare around the globe. I can see reasons for the Nobel Prize to be awarded to a materials person every single year, notably to John Goodenough and Stanley Wittingham for lithium ion batteries, George Whitesides and Dave Allara and Ralph Nuzzo for self-assembled monolayers, Mildred Dresselhaus for thermoelectrics and carbon-based materials, and Louis Brus and others for bringing us quantum dots, among many contenders. Take the example of lithium ion batteriesin much of the developing world, lithium ion battery-powered mobile phones have dramatically increased connectivity, leapfrogging the necessity of telephone landlines, and are an important tool to alleviate poverty in the rural poor.1,2 On this morning of the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, I was of course pleased for the winners as it is obvious that an in-depth understanding of DNA repair is critical for elucidating the biochemistry of life (if DNA is not stable, how do organisms manage to maintain it?), as well as applications to understand, and address, mechanisms of cancer. No question this research is important from both fundamental and applied perspectives. But, I would have been ecstatic had it been John Goodenough and Stanley Wittingham, as the impact of the lithium ion battery on the developing world is so clearly profound. As mentioned earlier, I am biased, and maybe the answer is to not worry about what the Nobel Prize committee thinks and simply appreciate, and support, the fantastic work in materials science that is growing rapidly around the globe. I also consider it likely that our old fashioned concept of chemistry as being assembled upon the pillars (or worse, “divisions”) of inorganic chemistry, analytical chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, etc. is out-of-date, no longer helpful, and more of a hindrance. Where do materials chemistry and nanoscience, for instance, fit within these older constructs? The answer is, in none of them, and in all of them. I was reminded3 of a very recent, highly thought provoking essay by George Whitesides, which appeared in May of 2015, entitled “Reinventing Chemistry”.4 As Whitesides eloquently argues, the post-World War II era of chemistry, a “very easy time for chemistry”, has ended, and our core disciplines have drifted “more toward ‘iteration’ and ‘improvement’, and away from ‘discovery’”. This drift is unfortunate, as “...the issue is not that society has run out of problems for chemistry to solve. In fact, I would argue the opposite, that chemistry may now be the © 2015 American Chemical Society
Table 1. George Whitesides’ List of Imperative Problems That Need Solving by Chemistsa
a
Reproduced with permission from ref 4. Copyright 2015 Wiley-VCH.
some of which are “urgent necessities”,4 which need to be addressed immediately to ensure our long-term survival. Note that none of these problems can be neatly squeezed into one of the traditional subdisciplines, or divisions, of chemistry. Whitesides concludes by stating that chemists need a new vocabulary, and that by aggressively throwing ourselves into these bigger questions, we will have a much better answer to the question of what chemists do. Making a “better glue” is no longer a compelling answer, whereas “We change the way you live and die”, is. As can be seen in Table 1, materials chemistry Published: October 27, 2015 6899
DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.5b03936 Chem. Mater. 2015, 27, 6899−6900
Chemistry of Materials
Editorial
is central and essential to many, if not most, of the areas listed. If that is not a motivation to do research on materials, then I do not know what issaving the planet, and humanity to boot, is more important than a prize.
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Jillian M. Buriak, Editor-in-Chief
AUTHOR INFORMATION
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) Bhavani, A.; Won-Wai Chu, R.; Janakiram, S.; Silarsky, P. The Role of Mobile Phones in Sustainable Rural Poverty Reduction; World Bank Report. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/ EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLO GIES/Resources/The_Role_of_Mobile_Phones_in_Sustainable_ Rural_Poverty_Reduction_June_2008.pdf. (2) Sife, A. S. S.; Kiondo, E.; Lyimo-Macha, J. G. Contribution of Mobile Phones to Rural Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction in Morogoro Region, Tanzania. EJISDC 2010, 42, 1−15. (3) Thanks to Edwin Chandross for the reminder at exactly the right time. (4) Whitesides, G. M. Reinventing Chemistry. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 3196−3209.
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.5b03936 Chem. Mater. 2015, 27, 6899−6900
