POLLUTION:
Cost of Abatement
NAS's Dr. Handler sees a program for the highly motivated young people
EDUCATION:
G.I. Bill in Reverse Dr. Philip Handler, president of the National Academy of Sciences, last week proposed an innovative National Youth Service Program which holds the promise of solving university financial problems while at the same time assuring advanced education to all regardless of family means. Under Dr. Handler's plan—a sort of G.I. Bill in reverse-the Federal Government would underwrite the education of students in any discipline who undertake education beyond the baccalaureate degree. In return, program participants on completing their studies would serve for two, three, or maybe five years in a national service, as teachers, for instance, in "disadvantaged areas." "I can think of no program," Dr. Handler said, "which would find a warmer welcome among the highly motivated young people of our time." Dr. Handler disclosed his plan in testimony before Rep. Emilio Q. Daddario's (D.-Conn.) Subcommittee on Science, Research, and Development at continuing hearings on a national science policy. Dr. Handler, along with Dr. George B. Kistiakowsky of Harvard University's chemistry department, gave the subcommittee a penetrating commentary on the current state of science affairs in the U.S. Dr. Handler said that while the national apparatus for conducting research and scholarship is "not yet dismantled, . . . it's falling into shambles. Morale of the scientific community," he added, "is lower than at any time since World War II." The fundamental reason for this is funding. So many projects have been deferred and funds cut that the 10 C&EN JULY 27, 1970
American lead in science is in jeopardy. Dr. Handler says he sees no reason to believe that the results of fundamental research to be performed in the future will be any less applicable to human affairs than were the results of yesterday. "I can only advocate support of all the competent research of which we are capable," he says. Dr. Kistiakowsky holds that segregation of all scientific research in one agency, the National Science Foundation, for instance, "would tend to erect impenetrable walls to the spread of scientific information." He favors, however, expanding the National Science Foundation to be the "patron of basic research." Dr. Handler urges continued coupling of research to the educational process. A rather large-scale program of formula grants to colleges and universities is needed, he says, to assure that their basic operations continue and to "put an end to the bootlegging of support for the academic endeavor through the back door of individual research grants and contracts." The formula program should not be substituted for the individual research grant system, however. Dr. Kistiakowsky adds that he too favors continuation of the research project grant policy, but would limit the grants to explicit research expenses. Both men would create an advanced professional degree in the sciences different from the doctor of philosophy, which would be reserved for those who intend life-long careers in scholarly investigations. The new degree would require little if any personal research. Universities with weak science programs, Dr. Kistiakowsky said, would be encouraged to grant this type of degree.
Ask an environmental engineer to tell you what the single most difficult obstacle to pollution abatement is and you are likely to get a monosyllabic answer—cost. Eventually, or so concluded participants at the Third Annual North Eastern Regional Antipollution Conference (ANERAC) in Kingston, R.I., last week, the economic barriers in solid waste disposal may be overcome by skillful application of the three R's of pollution control—recycling, reclamation, and reuse. The goal of the three-day conference sponsored by the college of engineering at the University of Rhode Island seemed to be to disprove an axiom basic to computer science: garbage in—garbage out. Notable success has been achieved, for example, in the reclamation of aluminum because of the metal's inherent high volume and resistance to corrosion, according to Reynolds Metals' Dr. Robert F. Testin (C&EN, March 2, page 14), and progress in the treatment of metallurgical waste with emphasis on the recovery of usable metal products was described by Monsanto's Dr. G. V. O'Connor. Dr. A. O. Converse of Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering presented an economic analysis of the acid hydrolysis of refuse. Students working with Dr. Converse had previously suggested that if kinetics of wood hydrolysis were applicable to hydrolysis of cellulosics in refuse, it might be economically attractive to produce ethanol by fermentation of sugars found in the hydrolyzate. Further work by Dr. Converse's group showed the kinetics to be somewhat different, but, nevertheless, sugars produced from hydrolysis of about 400 tons per day of refuse containing 5 0 # paper are competitive in price with sugars derived from molasses. A city with a population of about 160,000, Dr. Converse claims, could supply enough cellulosic-containing refuse to make sugar reclamation economically possible. Some members of Dr. Converse's group speculated that ethanol derived by fermentation could compete with ethanol derived from petrochemical feedstock. Cellulosic waste and municipal refuse free of metal and glass may be converted to oil or bitumen, according to Dr. H. R. Appell and colleagues at the U.S. Bureau of Mines (C&EN, Nov. 17, 1969, page 4 3 ) . Yields of approximately 407c of a heavy oil have been obtained from dry ash-free refuse at temperatures near 400° C. and pressures of carbon monoxide or steam of about 5000 p.s.i.g.
Dr. A. YV. Lawrence of Cornell University's school of engineering cited results of his work which demonstrate that activated carbon treatment of secondary waste water systems may be able to replace the aerobic biological procedures currently favored. The carbon systems appear to be economically competitive with more conventional systems.
Degradable Plastic Many scientists have researched the idea of a plastic that would degrade after it has been thrown aw7ay as litter. Now a British scientist has found a way of reducing a problem of the growth of plastics packaging. Prof. Gerald Scott and his coworkers at England's University of Aston in Birmingham have developed a degradable polyolefin. The U.K. scientists hit on a degradable polyolefin while studying how to make plastics more stable. Basically, the U.K. scientists have made powder of a typical polyolefin in packaging film through oxidative degradation catalyzed by ultraviolet light. But the film contains additives that for all intents and purposes make the plastic a new material, requiring evaluation of all the properties important in a packaging material that must be mass-produced and possibly used with foodstuffs. It will take a lot of funds and an intensive development program to get the material anywhere near the market place within two or three years, Prof. Scott tells C&EN. The University of Aston team uses a two-component additive system that absorbs UV light of 280 to 330 m^ wave length. The additive forms free radicals which add on oxygen, yielding hydroperoxy radicals. These in turn abstract a hydrogen atom from the polymer molecule, causing breakdown of the long chain backbone and thus degradation. The oxygen concentration in the polymer is not rate-controlling. Citing one typical experiment, Prof. Scott explains that a polyolefin packaging film crumbled to dust after an 80-hour exposure to a lamp whose intensity was about twice that of ordinary sunlight. In addition, the polymer itself can indicate when degradation is about to take place, Prof. Scott says. The freeradical mechanism that initiates degradation can also cause color changes in dyes included in the polymer. Thus packages and bottles made from the new plastic would change color on the shelf before breaking down. But sunlight inside stores would not be a problem because ordinary window glass cuts off UV light with a wave length shorter than 330 m^, Prof. Scott adds. Costs apart, a major problem in de-
THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK
veloping the discovery into a useful material will be producing additives that are nontoxic. In addition, the additives must be unaffected by plastics' fabricating techniques, such as extrusion and molding, and must not unfavorably affect the working properties of the plastic. And thus far the U.K. team has applied its system only to polyolefins. Polyvinyl chloride presents problems because of the high content of stabilizers in the plastic. Polystyrene would resist degradation by free radicals because of its high aromatic content. Plastics waste in household and industrial refuse would not be a candidate for the new system since it would be shielded from sunlight by other trash.
SCIENCE:
Change in Careers There is need for a change in emphasis in the approach to teaching science in general and chemistry in particular. That was the common theme of the two keynote lectures presented last week in Snowmass-at-Aspen, Colo., where some 90 experts from around the world gathered for a week-long conference sponsored by the ACS Division of Chemical Education to mark its 50th anniversary. Sir Ronald Nyholm, professor of chemistry at University College, London, and past president of England's Chemical Society, stresses the need for flexibility in curriculums and the imparting of a more generalized body of knowledge in place of the structured and specialized courses now being offered. Dr. Donald Hornig, president of Brown University in Providence, R.I., and a former White House science adviser, foresees in the years immediately ahead a greater need for training that leads to careers in applied research rather than in basic research. Today's student will likely change his career more than once during his lifetime, Sir Ronald notes. At the very least, the way a man does his job will almost certainly change in his professional lifetime. It's essential, therefore, the British chemist maintains, that a student's early education be as broad and as comprehensive as possible. Moreover, he adds, further education and re-education of the work force will probably account for 75% of the university teacher's activities in the 1980's. Sir Ronald labels as poppycock the idea that there is any single best way of teaching chemistry. "There is no god-given directive in this area," he remarks. "Rather, teaching success
Donald Hornig Quality of people
depends largely on the personality of the individual in addition to the need for him to have a first class knowledge of his subject." Referring to the enormous outpouring of funds that have gone into basic research during the past 25 years or so, Dr. Hornig notes that a whole generation of young people have grown up to accept this situation as the norm. Now, the boom threatens to burst with the leveling off of and downturn in research spending. In addition the number of people who will reach college age will plateau in the mid-1980's and then decline. If the current trend continues, fewer will elect to take degrees in the physical sciences. Dr. Hornig endorses the need for a change in attitude during doctoral training in the physical sciences away from pure research and toward the harnessing of science to solve social and environmental ills. Crucial, too, in his opinion, is the quality of instruction at the precollege level. Science must be made attractive to able, imaginative, and enterprising students. Those who have chosen science for a career, he points out, mostly have done so because their interest in the subject was aroused during their childhood years. "The most important matter of all may be how to increase the numbers of knowledgeable and inspirational teachers at all levels from elementary school on up," Dr. Hornig maintains. "It could even be that the declining market for university research people will make his job easier. But of one thing I am sure. It is the quality of the people who work at it that will determine the course of the next 50 years in chemical education." JULY 27, 1970 C&EN
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