麻豆传媒

鈥淗E MIXES this and that, and he shakes it, and he fiddles around鈥�: Richard Feynman鈥檚 description of a chemist in his famous 1959 talk entitled must have put many noses out of joint. To add to the insult, it鈥檚 physicists who come to the rescue: 鈥淎 chemist comes to us and says, 鈥楲ook, I want a molecule that has the atoms arranged thus and so; make me that molecule.鈥� 鈥�

Chemists don鈥檛 get enough credit. When DuPont 鈥淏etter Things For Better Living鈥� Through Chemistry鈥� in the 1930s, they couldn鈥檛 have been more accurate. Chemists鈥� careful advances in materials, medicine and food production have helped massively boost lifespans even as our numbers have grown.

The next big (or rather, tiny) thing is the manipulation of individual atoms, just as Feynman foresaw, paving the way for new wonder materials (see 鈥�Atomic Legoland: How to build wonder stuff from the atom up鈥�).

Physicists developed atomic assembly lines to make these entities; those who use them call themselves nanotechnologists or materials scientists. But it鈥檚 chemists who know best how to get atoms to do what we want. With these new tools at their disposal, it鈥檚 time they shook off Feynman鈥檚 silly stereotype for good and claimed this exciting new field for chemistry.

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淎 small win for chemists鈥�