S c i e n c e has reached its full majority working apart in mysterious laborain the minds of all men. In the broad tories, a n d occasionally running forth domain of human endeavor, butcher, baker, a n d candlestick maker now view science as a vital a n d necessary element of daily life. As a landmark i n human history, the foundation for full public awareness of science was laid down with the control of nuclear energy. T h e capstone of recognition a n d acceptance was cemented on October 4, 1957, with the literal appearance of Sputnik I. This man-made moon stirred the final, d e e p thoughts a n entire society must feel before something new becomes significant in a culture. Sputnik I stirred these thoughts, a n d men began looking a t the works of science with a new perspective. T h e y saw the biochemical science behind the reduction of beef prices with tranquilizers given i n the feed lots a n d railroad yards. T h e y saw the scientist i n the Salk vaccine victory over polio. T h e y saw the interplay of nuclear a n d missile technology i n the Nautilus undersea crossing of the Narth Pole, utilizing advanced navigation gear from a guided missile system. This very year has been pivotal for sheer technical drama a n d for its profound impact on the minds of men. T h e public is calling upon science with greater a n d greater directness to serve the material a n d social needs of our society. We a r e beyond the time w h e n the average citizen thinks of scientists as akin to bright children,
with a shiny new creation that comforts-r frightens. T h e relationship is now basically different. And this new mature partnership of science a n d society promises much a n d demands much for the years ahead. Science a n d scientists are ready to bear these larger responsibilities. T h e wide field of p u r e a n d applied science is now linked together so well that we can utilize the whole fabric of technical knowledge to gain a material objective, We have demonstrated this t r u t h i n the recent development of highly complex technologies that draw upon virtually every field of modern science. Their significance is even more pointed when we recall that these systems were not accidents, b u t were deliberately constructed on existing knowledge. T h e Golden Anniversary Lectures that follow were commissioned to mark a n occasion significant i n the history of the American Chemical Society. T h e authors of these articles are informed experts: Their immediate purpose is to suggest new technical developments that can be achieved within the next 10 years with basic knowledge now in hand. Their broader goal is to document the great creative power of modern science a n d technology, a n d to encourage its utilization for the higher purposes of mankind-an endeavor i n which every reader of these pages can contribute. DeWitt 0.Myatt
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Energy Sources Prologue to Engineering Advances
WITHOUT
abundant energy, modern engineering is unthinkable and advances in engineering are impossible. Only 20 years ago we had an extraordinary breakthrough in atomic energy, using uranium fission. We look forward to an enormous new source of energy in the fusion of hydrogen nuclei a t temperatures of the sun. We are still trying to solve the related problems of radioactivity and international control. Less spectacularly we also are trying to find ways to use the sun’s radiation. Solar energy is abundant, ample for our needs, gentle, and harmless, but diffuse and intermittent.
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INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERINO CHEMISTRY
I t deserves far more research effort than it has received. We can hardly expect to get energy more cheaply than we do now at a few tenths of a cent per kilowatt-hour from electricity and a few cents per million B.t.u. from coal, petroleum, and natural gas. Cheap electricity and fuel have done much to give the United States its industry and wealth. But there is an ever-increasing demand for more fuel and power in the United States and a rapidly growing demand in the countries that have not yet become industrialized. Not only our supplies, but world supplies, will diminish. Shale oil and lignite will be exploited. The chemist will convert solid coal into gas and liquid fuel,
but the price of fuel will increase and in the distant future become prohibitive. What are we doing now to prepare for fuel substitutes? Only with the assurance of an abundant supply of energy can we expect to have engineering advances in the future. We can have this assurance through the new materials, and the bold research which is familiar to chemists and chemical engineers. New Fuels One would think that gasoline furnishes as much energy in a small volume as could be needed. But it is not enough for requirements of outer space. All our past fuels have involved the oxidation of carbon- and hydrogen-containing substances, but now chemical reactions are needed which have larger heats of reaction per mole and smaller molecular weights, so that the heat per gram and the number of gaseous molecules produced per gram are both large. \.$’e turn to elements like hydrogen, lithium, boron, and fluorine. Particularly the boron hydrides are under intensive study. I n what other ways can we get fuels with greater energy? Theoretically, we can use fuels that already contain additional sources of energy. For example, hydrogen atoms burnt in air would give off heat corresponding to the heat of combustion of molecular hydrogen, 34,000 calories per gram, plus the heat or recombination of hydrogen atoms, 50,000 calories per gram. This gives a total of 84,000 calories per gram, which is more than ten times the heat of combustion of carbon per gram. Again, free radicals, such as CI-13, would give much more heat than methane when oxidized. Gaseous ions, too: will add their heat of ionization to any chemical reactions in which they take part. But tve don’t know how to stabilize and package in a small volume hydrogen atoms, free radicals, or ionized gases. This is a n important field for basic research. ‘There is a possibility of increasing the heat of reaction of solids by subjecting crystals to high energy, such as radioactivity, which displaces atoms within the lattice. We have measured the stored energy in certain “metamict” crystals, which have high uranium and thorium contents and complex lattice structures. They are so old geologically that the accumulated effects of alpha-particles have completely destroyed the crystal lattice. They show no x-ray diffraction pattern, but when heated, the atoms go back into place with evolution of heat and restoration of the x-ray diffraction pattern. When some of these crystals are heated or react chemically, they evolve over 100 cal. per gram. This is still too small to be
