Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Green Chemistry as Social Movement

The question posed was whether there are circumstances under which scientists and engineers doing their ordinary jobs can be thought of as participants in a social movement, and the answer is of course yes. It is tricky stuff, sometimes, the "pure science" of just discover what you discover, and leave politics to politicians, and the thought of scientists as participants. I know, but ethics plays a role in all we discover, and more importantly, in the directions we look towards, in search of discovery. I think of the physicists that inadvertently played a role in ushering in the era of nuclear warfare, and I know they didn't mean to go there. yet so much scientific research is funded by the military, or by big pharma, and so little by the environmentalists. So, it seems to keep coming down to money, and maybe not making big bucks for morally reprehensible industries is the first step, and instead being happy with the low income of the environmental engineers and scientists, or even better, as we come to realize, convince thebigger industries that there is money to be made in saving the planet and truly healing, rather than in war and viagra.

copper: catalyst of the week

from encyclopedia britannica: copper is a component of a variety of catalysts, can be used for selective hydrogenation of carbony groups. Also for use in a processs called the Wacker process, no longer in use commercially. But even cooler, is the copper wall project, where copper was used in various paranormal processes!

Atom Economy

Well, taking a second look at this website definitely was worth it. While the details are somewhat over my head, the idea is firmly based in good science. I think for a long time this kind of microcosmic economy has been ignored, so what if we lose a few atoms here and there through a cheap but ineffectual and toxic reagent. But like karma, it comes back to haunt us all.