In classes and labs chemistry students are taught the practice and theory of chemistry—they are being trained in how to do chemistry. But where does that leave the majority of students who will never be chemists? They may get a class on consumer products or a class that aims to help students understand “the role and impact of modern chemistry in society.” But what if students could take a class on one of the oldest of human endeavors, one that has sought to manipulate the world as well as to understand it? Of all the sciences, chemistry has the best true stories, stories that tell us about people, societal concerns, politics, history and culture, and of how our understanding of the natural world has changed over time. This would be the long view of chemistry, one in which artisans would get as much respect as atomic theorists and where Isaac Newton’s work in the Royal Mint to reform the English currency would stand beside his alchemical work. And where the personal trials of Fritz Haber would stand alongside the rise of German chemistry. Such an approach would discuss how 19th century chemists encountered arsenic in consumer goods and how that encounter led to the creation of the first consumer protection laws. And why in the 20th century new analytical instruments were critical to the EPA’s work, and how the latter could not have existed without the former. Such students would not become chemists, but they would have a sense of the depth and breadth of chemistry as a human endeavor, perhaps a better sense than the chemists themselves.

Connecting chemistry to society and culture

254th National Meeting (2017)

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