USELESS CHEMICAL KNOWLEDGE Pure knowable chemical knowledze i s so vast that, if acquired, it could not be recorded and a place for all of it i n books could not be found in the solar system. Only basic and applied chemical facts are of value.
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Because the literature of chemistry has increased in volume so that no one can even glance through all of its pages and no one can read or learn more than a small percentage, or more than a small fraction of a per cent. of its mass, it becomes of interest afld profit to make certain separations of knowable chemistry which all will admit is useless, from the smaller part which is useful or is otherwise of basic theoretical importance. As an illustration of knowable but useless chemical knowledge, we can select from the hundreds of organic series one fundamental structure which can yield an enormous number of homologs and isomers. For example, let us consider triphenylmethane as the starting material and let us, theoretically, prepare all of its R-substituted derivatives, of which only fourteen compounds have been prepared prior to 1920. If R is substituted for one to fifteen hydrogen atoms in the rings, especially if the attachments to the rings of the respective R's yield asymmetrical carbon atoms, and if each ring is made unsymmetrical and unlike, thus making the methane carbon atom unsymmetrical, the number of homologs and isomers will be enormous. For example, if the ortho positions in the rings constantly hold hydrogen, methjl, and ethyl, respectively, and the other twelve positions are substituted by R's t h b , when R can equal any of ten different alkyl groups containing more than two atoms of carbon, it can be calculated that more than eight quadrillion compounds are possible. Let us assume that only one quadrillion compounds are formed when ten R's are used. The basic principles of the science indicate that any one of these compounds, hence every one could be prepared and most of their properties can now be predicted. If they were to be prepared, here is material for a million annual doctor's theses for a million years. Assuming that a quadrillion compounds were prepared and each were described on only one page, 12 X 12 inches, in books containing 1000 pages to one inch of thickness and also assuming that the books were packed in line, then their length would be equal to 627 great circles of the earth. At the rate of 42 miles a day, it would require more than 1000 years to walk past a linear mass of these books. Merely to think of each of the compounds, a t the rate of one per second during 24 hours of the day, chemists would require a grand total of 31,000,000 years. The average cost of research necessary to manufacture analytical masses of these compounds would exceed $100 per compound and the average cost per page of hooks would exceed $1. The aggregate cost to prepare and de1075
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1932
scribe the quadrillion compounds would be many times greater than the all-time wealth of man. Hence it is visionary and impracticable t o attempt to acquire all this mass of knowable and pure science. Indeed, the great bulk of this knowledge is absolutely useless. However, if this is not convincing, let us consider other R-substituted derivatives of triphenylmethane. Chemists can easily conceive and depict 100 or 1000 different alkyl groups, therefore values of looL5and 1000's are obtainable. On the basis of enough books could be imagined to fill more than 2112volumes of the earth. There is,therefore,in the solar system no safe abiding place for all these books. The 1000'6 value would supply enough books to fill the volumes of billions of stars.
"Be admonished: of making many books thefe is no end." However, since we are considering only one type of compound of one series (Series No. 487), it must be admitted by organic chemists that all possible homologs and isomers of all series on single pages in books would fill the space of the universe, provided astronomers will set some limit to space. Needless t o say, no such monopoly by a division of one science would be tolerated by our colleagues of the sciences and arts who, in their compilations, correlations, and controversies concerning these compounds, could increase the pages of literature many fold. The conclusion is inevitableall pure science is not useful. Though most scientists recognize tbat knowable knowledge is divided into the useful, the basic, and the useless, nevertheless all scientific literature contains a preponderating mass of perfectly useless knowledge and the percentage of the useless becomes larger as theories, bolstered by observations and experiments, become obsolete. As only a column or a monument here and a temple there survive from the wreckage of past civilizations, so, much of the product of science is of relatively little permanency and value. The tide of new knowledge, in some 30,000 journals, flows in many times a year to inundate, stifle, and chill tbat which we seriously or facetiously term our scholarship and there are no indications that the flood will ever cease. And what is to be done? Here are admitted underlying conditions-the volume of knowable knowledge is infinite and the money available for research is very limited. On the one hand, it must be remembered that our present mingled mass of useless and useful knowledge has been acquired a t great expenditure of money and man power, and, on the other hand, it must be remembered that the economic value of some of the acquired useful knowledge has exceeded many fold the all-time costs of the laboratories of the world. Nevertheless, it must be recognized that some of the studies undertaken by our
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scientists, though seemingly interesting and worth while, have proved to be only so interesting and worth while as working out crossword puzzles. Usually scientists in universities have been permitted to pursue research along any line that fancy leads. And great have been the results achieved. Also in the past i t was thought that the productive research worker was possessed of special talents, and that the light of research was so rare, so feeble, or so intermittent that every encouragement must he given to keep it burning. The army of present-day successful research workers demonstrates that our chemical education can develop unlimited research workers. During the past century the laboratories of universities produced substantially all of the new theoretical and applied chemistry. During the past thirty years, industry itself has taken over most of the practical and some of the theoretical development of the sciences. The universities are thus engaging, less and less, in the development of useful chemical knowledge. Today the necessity of practical research has developed a condition of the most highly competitive effort of the human mind; and that scientist, or that university or that industry whose research is not practically organized, directed, and pursued will be "lost in shallows and in water." Viewed in a practical manner, it can he concluded that only creative chemistry, that is, chemistry that contributes to the betterment of industry and civilization is worth while and this portion of knowable chemistry itself is so large that its exhaustive exploitation daes not seem t o be possible. As long as money available for research is limi$ed, and it will always be less than is desired, it seems that administrative officers of universities would insist that such money be spent for products which are worth while. Advocacy of this principle, however, may be termed academic heresy. However, is it not true that we must often fail or acquire negative data or produce that which is of little or no value, and if it is dignified on the printed page, the rest of the University staff-without reading it-evaluates it as research?
