Stories of the Invisible by Philip Ball, Oxford University Press,
$19.95, ISBN 0192802143
HOW sexy is your discipline? If you opted for a yawn-inducing field, here’s a
hint: change its name. Suddenly the boredom that once washed over your audience
at first mention of the fatal word will vanish. Chemists have been front runners
in this game. Their subject has a 19th-century air about it. As if to recapture
the glory days, chemistry departments are refashioning themselves as institutes
of molecular science.
This academic rebranding does reflect a change of emphasis, but it also
conceals a serious question. Should chemistry…
