EDITORIAL ‘There was no more to see,’ they said ‘than the s u n above the spars.’ W h e n soon the world s p u n half around and lo, there were the stars.” ALICETOWSLEY Every research objective experiences the sense of entrapment. Fortunately for the sake of personal sanity, there is the ubiquity of hope. Lagniappe for today’s sermonette! Given adequate staff and facilities, suppose you are assigned the task of finding an improved, practical resin series for new polymer coatings. Where will you start? The library /patents/computer 1brainstorming/ Beilstein/ Chem. Abstracts/ ACS meetingidowsing rod? Talk to colleagues. Examine your own past experiences. Think of all the gooks you threw away while you were looking for crystals. Enthusiastically and optimistically, search the literature for flask residues and gooks which others discarded. Sail through the chemical gooks and the gobbledegook. Much of research has the quality of papillon and Fledermaus (or I might have said simply “butterfly”) technology: [Search a likely prospect. Go on to the next]. As a patent examiner knows or tries to prove, every invention is a conspiracy to hitchhike a free ride from an earlier investigator who in his turn rode piggyback on another’s result. An example from actual experience is appropriate. The complexity and rarity of signal detection in coatings research offer one case study taken from the history of the important epoxy resin series: In 1932 a chemist in Germany prepared a low-molecular-weight form of an epoxy resin precursor, to which he added ethylene diamine. The research objective was to discover water-soluble resins for textile treatment for which these products, while not suitable, were carefully described in patents: Ger. If 676,117; 12/11/34. By 1938, Pierre Castan laid another foundation stone in describing anhydride crosslinking of epoxy resins and the specific use in dental prosthesis (Swiss Patent $211,116; 8/31/40). I do not know whether Dr. Sylvan Greenlee subsequently considered these publications as signals, but by some sequence of clever thought, planning, and experiments he did make a most valuable contribution (U. S. # 2,456,408; 121 14/48) by esterifying epoxy resins with drying oil acids to produce new polymer coatings whose properties and value are applauded and used on an international scale. My thesis is firm: Ergo, the tools and raw materials for great discoveries are available years in advance of the ability of the human mind and spirit to detect the appropriate inferences for next-step advances. Those among us who feel successful in the profession of discovery-in-chemistry are rewarded by the thrill of the chassk. Some have claimed that the chase is more rewarding than the kill. Cheerful thought for a sunny spring morning! The old is good not just because it’s past, Nor is the new supreme because we live with it; And never yet a man felt greater joy Than he could bear or truly comprehend. Your task it is, amid confusion, rush and noise T o grasp the lasting, calm and meaningful, and finding it anew, to hold and treasure it.
PAUL HINDEMITH in “Das Posthorn”
Ind. Eng. Chem. Prod. Res. Develop., Vol. 10, No. 2, 1971
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