Thoughts From and For Chemistry Majors
We recently had an opportunity to spend an hour or so with a group of upper-division chemistry majors at a neighboring university. They were a most engaging lotopen and friendly, determined and individualistic, positive and confident, an interesting blend of Western pragmatism and youthful idealism. They all seemed to know precisely where they were headed, what they needed to get where they wanted to go, and how they would go about getting there. One point was clear: chemistry was their "thing"-it was not always easy, it was not always satisfying, hut for better or worse, it was their scene. They talked excitedly about laboratory work-especially their participation in research. They correlated success with being able to use and to obtain results from the big instruments in the laboratory. They placed great faith in the instruments and seemed on the verge of believing that any chemical problem could be solved if the appropriate instruments were available. They were especially impatient with methods that do not orovide instant and unambiguous, i.e., precise numerical, answers, and they thought of "wet methods" as tools of the devil. Minicourses, centered on topics related to the big instruments, (various kinds of soectroscoov. for examole) and tauaht hv the faculty exper
