Chemical Education Today
Editorial
Exploring Invisible Frontiers
Protein Data Bank
On Monday, June 26, 2000, U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (via video hookup) celebrated the achievement of what Clinton called “the most important, most wondrous map ever produced by humankind”—the map of the human genome. The announcement was made in the same White House room in which Thomas Jefferson and Meriwether Lewis presented to the public the discoveries (and a map) of Lewis’ and William Clark’s momentous exploration of the American frontier. The symbolism of the venue and the many parallels between exploring a continent 200 years ago and exploring the nanoscale worlds of chemists and molecular geneticists today were explicitly evident. The success of the human genome project contains at least three important lessons for those of us who teach chemistry. The first is that those of our students who enter careers in research or development are very likely to end up working in interdisciplinary groups. More than 1000 scientists from five countries (China, France, Japan, the UK, and the USA) and from a far larger number of disciplines (many flavors of biology and chemistry, physics, computer science, engineering, and many more) participated directly in creating the genome map. Still more were involved indirectly, and the prior work of an even greater number provided the scientific and engineering background without which exploration of the human genome could not have been contemplated. It is important that the education we provide enhances students’ abilities to communicate and work effectively with others whose backgrounds are not the same and in some cases may be completely foreign to their own experience. Second, a signal achievement such as mapping the human genome is not an end, but rather a beginning. Just as the maps and knowledge that came out of the Lewis and Clark expedition stimulated imagination, further exploration, and eventually development of a continental United States, the human genome map can be expected to stimulate much greater scientific progress. For example, once DNA sequences have been deciphered, it becomes productive to ask about the structure and function of each of the proteins coded by the DNA. This could be done by cloning the DNA sequences, generating proteins, crystallizing the proteins, and determining structures. But so many proteins are involved that a reasonable pace would be on the order of tens of thousands of protein structures every year. Current methods of crystal growing and structure determination cannot achieve such a rate, and opportunities abound for those who have the creativity to come up with new methods and enjoy the excitement of exploring and mapping molecular structures and functions. A major goal for teachers at all levels ought to be to convey to students that kind of excitement, and to help students develop the knowledge and creativity that will be
required for the next successful foray into the unknown. The potential for new discoveries and the opportunities for young scientists in chemistry have never been greater. The third thought that occurred to me regarding the genome project is that modern frontiers and real adventures
Just as the maps and knowledge that came out of the Lewis and Clark expedition stimulated imagination, further exploration, and eventually development of a continental United States, the human genome map can be expected to stimulate much greater scientific progress.
often involve the very, very small world of atoms and molecules. This is certainly true in molecular genetics and many other areas of biology. And it is true in materials chemistry and nanotechnology. See the article on pages 1114–1115 and a recent government report (http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/ EOP/OSTP/NSTC/html/iwgn/IWGN.Worldwide.Study/ toc.html). Chemical analysis and chemical synthesis on microchips, atomic-scale circuitry in nanoprocessors millions of times smaller than today’s microprocessors, and electronic devices based on carbon nanotubes are only a few of many examples of exciting innovations that our students might help to perfect. A lot of today’s action involves molecules, atomicscale structure, and their relation to properties and uses of materials—biological or inanimate. Let’s make certain that our students are as aware of this as we are. The success of the human genome project reminds us that every so often we ought to step back from our day-today duties and view with wonder the myriad possibilities that chemistry presents. Chemistry is a wondrous frontier that should stimulate students’ intellect and imagination. Perhaps our course titles should be more like “Adventures in the Nanoworld” or “Stalking the Self-Assembled Structure”. This would reflect the excitement and exploration that await students who participate actively in the study of chemistry. Of course, such titles would require living up to. Otherwise students might feel shortchanged. With or without catchy titles, courses that capitalize on the molecular-scale maps that new scientific explorations constantly present to us are what our students ought to have.
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 77 No. 9 September 2000 • Journal of Chemical Education
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