Think all chemicals are bad? From our food to your phone, modern life relies on them

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the image problem that chemistry has, despite its central role in enabling many modern advancements and being crucial for the future. It explores the negative perceptions of chemistry, the many ways chemistry underpins the modern world, and how chemists are working on solutions for the future.

🙋 Q&A

[01] Chemistry's Image Problem

1. What are some common perceptions people have about chemistry?

• Many children have negative feelings about the word "chemical" by age 6
• The average person is likely to associate "chemical" with something bad
• Products advertise themselves as "chemical-free", which is scientifically inaccurate
• The media often reports on negative chemistry-related news stories, like chemical spills and toxic fumes

2. Why does chemistry have an image problem?

• Positive news stories about science are often about medical breakthroughs or space discoveries, rather than chemistry
• Negative news stories about chemistry, like chemical spills and toxic fumes, are more commonly reported

[02] The Modern World is Built on Chemistry

1. How has chemistry enabled advancements in the modern world?

• The Haber-Bosch process for creating fertilizer from nitrogen has allowed half the world's population to have enough to eat
• All modern medicines, from aspirin to RNA vaccines, were discovered through chemistry
• Lithium batteries that power portable electronics are a product of chemistry
• The materials, metals, plastics, polymers, and composites that enable manufacturing were developed by chemists
• The purification of silicon enabled the computer and internet revolution, as well as solar panels

2. How has chemistry interacted with other scientific disciplines?

• Advances in physics, like the discovery of quantum mechanics, have advanced the theoretical understanding of chemistry
• Chemists' study of molecules and atoms has provided crucial data to physicists

[03] Chemistry and the Future

1. What are some of the future challenges chemists are working on?

• Developing alternatives to lithium-based batteries, which rely on a scarce element
• Synthesizing new materials for the next generation of solar cells
• Discovering new catalysts to produce hydrogen as a clean fuel
• Continuing to work on solutions for treating diseases, developing new antibiotics, and creating antimicrobial coatings

2. How is chemistry crucial for addressing climate change?

• Climate change is rooted in chemical reactions releasing CO2 into the atmosphere
• Chemists are working on inventing new ways to capture, store, or convert CO2 to stabilize the climate

3. Why is fundamental chemical research important?

• It leads to solutions for problems we don't yet know we will have in the future
• Chemistry is sometimes seen as an "old" science, but it remains the central science that enables advancements in many other fields