NORRIS W. RAKESTRAW Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, La Jolla
BEFORE we can decide upon the proper training for chemical oceanographers we must agree upon the purpose and objectives of research in this field. If the chemical oceanographer is but a chemist who, for some reason, happens t o undertake research involving sea water or some property or phenomenon of the marine environment, we have no problem. He is a ' chemist and should be trained as other chemists are. We must raise the question whether oceanography has any place of its own in the category of sciences or whether it is merely a convenient meeting ground of many sciences. There are some of us who believe that although it involves an object of study rather than a subject, nevertheless oceanography has a methodology and subject-matter content distinctly its own. It has taken the better part of a hundred years to reach this stage and vie are reluctant to retreat from it. If this view prevails, the ocean itself, its behavior, its properties and all its various phenomena are the prime considerations, and oceanographers will use all the available techniques of the various sciences in the study of the primary object. We would hold that the relation of the oceanographer is the same as that of the physician to his primary object, in the latter case the human organism. Like the physician, he is concerned with the activity of that whole organism and not merely in the opportunities which it offers for study by a specialist such as the biochemist, the pathologist, and the anatomist. It is by no means certain that this view of oceanography will ultimately prevail, for there are some who believe that we will learn more about the ocean, and faster, by dividing its study up between respective minor subdivisions of the established sciences, physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. If we are to train oceanographers on the basis of the unity of the subject, however, they must all of them, whatever their subdivisions, have a broad general background in the fundamental sciences. If this has not been laid during the undergraduate stage then the deficiencies must be filled during the time of specialization. The chemical oceanographer should not only have the equivalent of an undergraduate major in chemistry but he should have also at least one solid graduate year in conventional chemistry. There are two reasons for this requirement: (1) because chemical oceanography is badly in need of all the contributions which modern chemistry can offer: and ( 2 ) because employment I Presented as part of the Symposium on Chemistry of the Sea. before the Division of Chemical Education at the l3lst Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Miami, April, 1957. Contribution from the Scripps Institution of Oeoanogrsphy, New Series, No. 979.
VOLUME 35, NO. 3, MARCH, 1958
opportunities in this special field are still limited, and for the protection of a student's own interests his training should be broad enough to serve in more than one applied field of chemistry. Until recently, chemistry's function in the field of oceanography has been largely to serve the interests of biology. Early interest in the study of the ocean was principally in the creatures which live there, and it is therefore not surprising that the few chemists who were attracted to the field gave their attention to the chemical conditions of life in the sea and the study of the reasons why some parts of it are fertile and others barren. This was the limited field of study of chemical oceanography until late in the 19301s,because there were too few chemists, with too little time, to do anything else. Now, however, we are expanding our interests into the field of general geochemistry and concerning ourselves with the many chemical processes taking place in the sea water itself, in the atmosphere immediately above it, and in the bottom immediately below it, for these are all parts of the ocean. He who is to contribute productively t o this area of study needs, in addition to his sound training in chemistry, a scarcely less intensive preparation in geology, as well as more than an elementary understanding of biological science. It can be assumed that his training in chemistry mill include enough physics and mathematics t o serve as a basis for some advanced study of physical oceanography which will frequently he found essential for the chemical oceanographer. Evidently the chemical oceanographer must be an expert in more fields than his own specialty, chemistry. This will be a difficult specification to fulfill, and will he a sharp limitation to the number of prospective candidates. That will be all right, for this will not be a vocation which will attract great numbers, especially since it is a purely scientific one which, although it offers,attractive and interesting opportunities for hard work, does not hold out great pecuniary inducements. Specifically, chemical oceanography involves all the branches of modern chemistry except possibly organic. The complexity of sea water as a chemical system will tax t o the utmost the ingenuity and the facilities of the physical and the analytical chemist. Its study involves the determination of many constituents in parts per billion, in the presence of relatively enormous quantities of disturbing and interfering constituents. Applications are many for all kinds of analytical methods, from conventional gravimetry, through numerous types of spectrographic and spectrophotometric, t o the highest refined and most recent radiochemical and nuclear techniques.
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As a chemical system sea water is more complex than any which the physical chemist ordinarily dares to study. Its "purity" cannot even be defined, much less measured. Nevertheless we need to study its physical-chemical behavior and must devise methods to do so. If and when the physical chemist learns something about concentrated solutions he will still find great difficultyin applying his knowledge to sea water. This will frustrate him, or challenge him, depending upon his courage. Laboratory solutions have seldom if ever been under observation for more than a short time--a couple of years perhaps. The ocean, on the other hand, has been there for millions of years. Who knows what slow processes, of hitherto unsuspected nature, may have come to equilibrium there? I believe that we shall some day learn, from the study of the ocean, about a field of chemical kinetics involving entirely new orders of magnitude. There is organic matter in the sea, of strange and unknown composition, which needs to be isolated and studied. But for the mast part, the problems of marine chemistry are inorganic. Most, if not all, of the chemical elements are t o he found there, although we know little about their ionic state in many cases. A solution which is a t the same time concentrated with respect t o many constituents and extremely dilute with respect to others is an ideal system for the existence of complex ions, and there is good reason to believe that many such combinations exist in sea water. There is plenty of work here for the trained inorganic chemist. The chemical oceanographer's undergraduate courses should he those generally considered essential for a well-trained chemist, and should include biochemistry. At this level or a t the early graduate stage he should have courses in advanced physical, analytical, and inorganic chemistry, radiochemistry, and instrumental methods, including or supplemented by a good introduction t o theoretical and practical electronics. The desirability of experience in the supporting fields of geology and biology has already been referred to and need not he elaborated upon. A reading knowledge of German should have been obtained by this time;
French, or preferably Russian, should be added hut can he postponed until later if necessary. Such a background will be adequate preparation for specialized graduate work in oceanography, such as is now offered by several institutions. The graduate student should first be orieuted in the principal branches of oceanography: physical oceanography, marine biology, and marine geology and geochemistry. It should not take the well-trained chemist long to master the present subject matter and methods of chemical oceanography and he prepared to undertake research of his own. He should make himself familiar with some of the related specialties, such as marine microbiology, petrography, and sedimentation, by special courses or otherwise. A course in general geophysics and one in geochemistry, if not available a t an earlier stage, would be valuable here. Independent research is of course the main substance of training at the doctoral level, and the requirements for this are so well known as to need 110 elaboration. Closely related to this, if not an actual part, is experience in the field methods of oceanography. Actual sea-going experience should be required of all students, in which they learn something of the logistics and techniques of oceanographic expeditions. Opportunities for such participation are unfortunately to be had only at institutions which are carrying on extensive research projects, since the operation of ships is very expensive, but occasionally there are openings for young men (and even young women) from other institutions. It should he noted that I have dealt for the most part only with such details as differentiate training in oceanography from that in other fields. We should not he unmindful of other desirable features of graduate work, such as participation in seminars, training in the preparation of oral and written reports, etc. Furthermore, the whole treatment of this subject is based upon the assumption that it is to lead to the doctor's degree. There is of conrse place in oceanography for those a t a lower level of training and what I have outlined may in many cases he unattainable. While we must aim at what we thimk is the very best. we realize that we may have to settle for less.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
